Research: Perfect antidote to Africa’s disease burden

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
CRACKING genetic responses to the changing environment in Africa would open a new frontier in the drive against rising non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on the continent.
Africa has a problem. Generally, the continent has the greatest burden of disease and lowest density of health-care professionals in the world. And African countries are aware.
For Zambia, Vice-President Inonge Wina recently acknowledged that Zambia is experiencing an increase in NCDs and that for many years communicable diseases such as HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis posed challenges to the health systems while the country was also at risk of emerging diseases.
“The abuse of alcohol and other substances by young people has the potential to ruin the future generation of the country. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that healthy lifestyles are adopted at all levels. I call upon Government institutions, private sector, NGOs, civil society and service clubs to embrace the obligation and responsibility of wellness by encouraging individual, family and collective action,” Mrs Wina said.
Although infectious diseases, maternal, child, and neonatal health are improving, the burden of non-communicable diseases has been steadily increasing in the past few decades.
Africa is home to about 16 percent of the world’s population. That’s 1.2 billion people.
But the continent is disproportionately burdened by a double health challenge: infectious diseases and a recent increase in non-communicable diseases.
Non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes are on the upward march due to an ageing population, a transition to increased urbanisation, dietary changes, a more sedentary lifestyle and an increase in the prevalence of obesity.
Non-communicable diseases result in deaths everywhere in the world. But in Africa they are also a major reason for premature deaths, which is people dying between the ages of 40 and 70.
In South Africa there is more than a 25 percent chance of dying prematurely from non-communicable diseases.
For the rest of the continent it ranges between 15 percent and 24 percent. This compares to the average of less than 15 percent for the United States and Europe.
The non-availability of research on the non-communicable diseases has translated into a great cost for Africa.
“Africa has little idea of the stage of life at which these diseases manifest. Not much research has been done and Africa is largely ignorant of the phenotypes of diabetes in Africa and how diabetes interacts with other conditions to contribute to morbidity and mortality. There is urgent need for research on infectious and non-communicable disease whose burden mostly affects women and children,” chairman of the Executive Board and Family Board of E. Merck KG Frank Stangenberg-Haverkamp said.
Professor Stangenberg says there is urgent need to research on how to prevent and treat non-communicable and infectious diseases in Africa adding that little knowledge exists about how best to strengthen health systems to cope with the double burden of infectious disease and non-communicable diseases.
Merck is a leading science and technology company based in Germany.
It is known that there is little research capacity within Africa. There is a shortage of faculty and research leaders, inadequate facilities and infrastructure, and few career opportunities for budding researchers.
Fortunately, there is now widespread acknowledgement that African researchers are best placed to ask questions that are relevant to African issues, and there is a slow move away from parachuting research questions in from high-income countries to address Africa’s problems.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) deputy director general Getachew Engida says, “The good news is that Africa has the potential to engage in scientific research and what is needed is the commitment from researchers and policy-makers in order to realise the dream. Statistics have shown that only 3 percent of professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa engage in research and that is why Africa’s research contribution globally is very low.
Africa’s research contribution to the global output is only 0.05 percent.”
Mr Engida says lack of scientific research in Africa hindered the continent’s success to attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“Now is the time to engage in scientific research in order for Africa to achieve meaningful success on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is need to strengthen research infrastructure, provide support and train young researchers, and offer them opportunities to present their research to peers and international experts in challenging but encouraging environments,” Mr Engida says.
The new world order of research seems to be to fund individuals to become leaders in their fields. This strategy might work for researchers in high-income countries, hot-housed in institutes with a culture of research, but it could be less beneficial for would-be researchers in Africa, who have had less exposure to good quality research.
It is known that the health-care successes in Africa have largely been driven by donor aid, providing vertical solutions to specific problems; however, health experts say that non-communicable diseases require complex care and strong health systems. Such are few and far between in Africa.
Kenya Ambassador and Permanent Representative to UNESCO Professor George Godia says Africa lacks resources to conduct primary research to inform precision public health approaches.
These resources include money, people, infrastructure and electronic public health records. All are critical.
“Implementing a precision public health approach is costly and it needs to be reviewed and updated continuously as understanding deepens and the environments that people live in change. Before Africa can boast its own examples it will first need to generate knowledge and data. This will take time which means that a precision public health approach to tackle disease won’t be yielding immediate results,” Prof Godia says.
Medical research cannot be done in a vacuum. For individuals to flourish they need support from mentors and colleagues, and they need help to formulate their ideas.
For Africa, the challenge is huge. There is sparse data on genomics and gene-environment interactions in African populations.
Scientists still do not know how populations with a particular genetic variant spectrum react to changes in the environment, such as an increase in poverty or lifestyle change during urbanisation, and what the likely impact of a particular genetic variants is.
In such a situation, scientists are prone to using interpretations based on research conducted elsewhere. In fact, people’s genetic background could have a profound effect on the way people react to their environment and to treatments. Only then will Africa begin to know how to treat the diseases more effectively. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON DECEMBER 11, 2016. LINK: https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=88752

Kalibata: A woman of influence

AGRA’s president Dr. Agnes Kalibata has topped the list of 2016’s African Women of the year in Agriculture, Mining and Architecture.
The recognition, made by the readers of the New African Woman Magazine, is a great validation of Dr. Kalibata’s  efforts towards a food secure Africa. The magazine has described Dr. Kalibata as a “Rwandese Phenomenon” who has revolutionized African Agriculture over the last decade.
Dr. Kalibata leads AGRA’s efforts with the participation of public and private partners towards ensuring a food secure Africa through rapid, sustainable agricultural growth and improved productivity by empowering millions of smallholder farmers.
She is a former Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources in Rwanda and is widely considered to be one of the most successful Agriculture Ministers in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Kalibata has held several other leadership positions, including Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Agriculture and Deputy Vice Chancellor of University of Rwanda. She has also worked for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Uganda, and various other agricultural development organizations. She currently sits on various boards including the International Fertilizer Development Corporation (IFDC), the Sustainable Trade Initiative, the Africa Risk Capacity, and the Global Agenda Council of the WEF.
In 2012 Dr. Kalibata  received the Yara Prize, now the Africa Food Prize for transforming Rwanda’s Agriculture in a relatively short period of time. She is a distinguished agricultural scientist, policy maker and thought leader and holds a PhD in Entomology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Possible solutions to health professionals' migration challenge

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
MIGRATION of skilled health professionals from sub-Saharan African countries has significantly increased in this century, with most countries becoming sources of migrants.
Despite the growing problem of health worker migration, which has affected the functioning of health care systems, there is a remarkable lack and incompleteness of data to show how many professionals exit Africa annually.
Hence, it is difficult to determine the real extent of migration from, and within Africa, and thus develop effective forecasting or remedial policies.
The global overview and most data indicate that the key destinations remain the USA and UK, and that major sources are South Africa and Nigeria, but in both contexts there is now greater diversity.
Migrants move primarily for economic reasons, and increasingly choose health careers because they offer migration prospects.
Migration has been at considerable economic cost. It has depleted workforces, diminished the effectiveness of health care delivery and reduced the morale of the remaining workforce.
Countries have sought to implement national policies to manage migration, mitigate its harmful impacts and strengthen African health care systems but nothing seems to work out best.
Recipient countries have been reluctant to establish effective ethical codes of recruitment practice, or other forms of compensation or technology transfer. Hence migration is likely to increase further in the future, diminishing the possibility of achieving the now United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) and exacerbating existing inequalities in access to adequate health care.
But not all hope is lost, in August this year, Association of Medical Councils of Africa (AMCOA) member states signed a protocol with an aim of facilitating the maintenance of adequate, accessible, available and competent health workforce for a strengthened health system within member states.
And this protocol has been endorsed to spearhead the possible solutions to this challenge of migration of health professionals in Africa.
This was done at a two-day meeting from October 27 to 28, 2016 in Mombasa, Kenya at the Sarova White Sands. The meeting was attended by AMCOA members and other health professionals from Zambia, Uganda and Kenya.
AMCOA is comprised of Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia and Sierra Leone. Others include Zimbabwe, Swaziland, South Africa and Tanzania.
Members of AMCOA have agreed that health professionals in Africa who wish to migrate to foreign countries will be required to first register with their respective medical councils.
Beginning next year, all health professionals will be tasked to fill a standardised application form indicating why they are migrating, where they are moving to, and where applicable how much they will be paid.
“Good data and effective operational research and program evaluations are needed most in order to address the migration and retention challenges. These are essential to inform policy makers and senior managers and to guide much-needed efforts to develop an effective health workforce that can assure the health of populations in our countries,” says Health Professions Council of Zambia registrar Dr Mary Zulu.
During this meeting, it was discussed that issues of retention and migration have not been a feature of research in developing countries, Africa inclusive.
In Zambia, according to Zambia Nursing Council registrar Beatrice Zulu, 322 doctors and 2,376 nurses have migrated from Zambia to other countries in the last five years; a thing that has negatively affected health service delivery in the country.
The situation is not different in Uganda and Kenya, too. Migration and retention of health professionals have adversely affected the delivery of quality healthcare to the population.
Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council (UMDPC), Ssentongo Katumba said the challenges faced in optimising human resources for health are numerous, starting with the need to identify basic healthcare issues regionally and nationally. Hence the need to find ways to provide integrated care.
Dr Katumba noted that the introduction of the registration process for those that wish to migrate will be of help to all African countries.
This information will be compiled by each country to understand the factors that drive away health workforce within and from their mother countries to other countries so that governments can address the challenges to retain them.
He said the tool is aimed at managing medical tourism through benchmarking governments to provide incentives for workers to stay in their mother countries.
“Uganda loses over 100 medical doctors who choose to work in foreign countries every year. He says that most of these have migrated to Australia, Botswana, Canada and the United Kingdom, among others.
“The medical council has a challenge of knowing where its medical personnel have migrated to. Previously, the medical council would only offer a letter of good conduct for workers seeking employment outside the country,” Dr Katumba said.
And in Kenya, the Kenya Medical and Dentists Board representative, Dr Kelly Nyaim, said although the Kenyan government invests in training health workers, most of these migrate to other countries before serving their country, thus Kenya losing investment.
“Currently, Kenya has declared a shortage of nurses. It is gratifying to note that we have agreed to introduce a system to address the migration challenges. The new system will also look at controlling migration of health workers from the rural to urban areas,” Dr Nyaim said at the meeting.
Dr Nyaim said the system is aimed at reducing the shortage of health personnel and recognising that accessible health workforce is essential for the provision of quality health services.
Given the current crisis of human resources in the health sector in sub-Saharan Africa, the health-related SDGs are arguably difficult targets for most African countries to attain. However, the SDGs are useful in highlighting underlying problems or constraints hindering their attainment.
To make remarkable progress in addressing the human resource challenge, AMCOA recommended that African governments should focus on instituting a consultative process in which all stakeholders collectively develop strategies to address the crisis facing the health workforce.
Furthermore, African governments should recognise the importance of aligning health sector, civil service and macro-economic policies and their objectives to improve the health workforce and health sector performance.
Acknowledging that African countries must offer internally competitive wages and benefit packages to retain highly trained staff is also key to addressing the current human resource crisis in the health sector in Africa.
The limited availability of human resources in Africa is likely to singularly determine the pace of scaling up services and to limit the capacity to absorb additional financial resources. More importantly, it is likely to be the most significant impediment towards the attainment of the health-related SDGs. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON NOVEMBER 20, 2016. https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=86491

Aflatoxins threaten Africa’s food secure dream

H.E Roda Tumusiime with Ugandan President Museveni in Entebbe

DOREEN NAWA, Entebbe
FOOD security exists when all people have access to sufficient amounts of safe, nutritious and affordable food to provide the needed nutrients for their bodies.
But the convergence of many factors contributes to the challenge of achieving food security in Africa and one of these is the aflatoxins contamination in maize and other cereals in sub-Saharan Africa.
Like other continents too, Africa faces many challenges on the food front. The continent is grappling with efforts to feed its increasing population, projected to reach 2 billion by 2050, by the African Union.
The presence of aflatoxins in foods has adversely affected not only the grain milling sector of the economy but also the health of the population and the ability of the continent to trade with the rest of the world.
Aflatoxins are toxic and cancer- causing poisons produced by a certain green mould fungus that naturally occurs in the soil. The poisons have become a serious contaminant of staple foods in sub-Saharan Africa, like maize, cassava, sorghum, yam, rice, groundnuts and cashews.
Perhaps no issue straddles the cereals sector in Africa like the issue of aflatoxins. The problem of aflatoxins in many African diets has had a huge effect but many a time goes unnoticed on the population of Africa until death occurs.
But to mitigate and control the aflatoxins contamination, Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) Program manager Dr Amare Ayalew, based at the African Union Commission since its inception, says PACA has made tremendous achievements in mitigating the impact of aflatoxin contamination on the African continent.
Dr Ayalew says aflatoxin contamination has been a challenge because it can take place at any of the three stages in food production.
“Food contamination of aflatoxins can happen at production, storage and processing. One impressive thing is that Africa is making tremendous progress in addressing this challenge. Laboratories in some pilot countries have been established to detect and control aflatoxin contamination,” Dr Ayalew said.
Among the many other achievements made by PACA since its inception in 2012 is the generation and use of locally relevant evidence or indeed country-led situation analysis and action planning, and policy scoping studies across regional economic communities.
Dr Ayalew says capacity has been built for surveillance of aflatoxin contamination and evidence generation in seven pilot countries. These are Malawi, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, The Gambia, Nigeria and Kenya.
The presence of aflatoxins in maize, peanuts and other cereals is extremely critical in a continent where there are many challenges; including low productivity of cereals due to poor agronomic practices, high levels of post-harvest losses, low levels of sophistication in processing and handling of grains, frequent shortages that often lead to famines, and high consumer prices of grain.
The issue of aflatoxins in cereals is a huge impediment to the nutritional and economic well-being of Africa’s population.
For the cereal handling and milling sector of the food industry, the economic and nutritional effects of aflatoxin in grains are huge.
Despite the numerous achievements made, African Union Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture Rhoda Peace Tumusiime still feels the need for a coordinated approach in addressing health and nutritional hazard.
“We need more awareness innovations and we need national governments on the continent to create awareness to farmers, traders, processors and consumers on this issue; establish and invest in data collection and enforce the regulations, especially on standards of various products,” she said.
Speaking at the 2nd PACA meeting here in Entebbe, Uganda, Ms Tumusiime said aflatoxins tend to affect Africa quite drastically as the entire continent falls within the 40 N and 40 S of the equator, where aflatoxin prevalence is most common.
She noted that in Africa, the problem is caused by various factors such as drought, poor agricultural practices, as well as improper storage and post-harvest handling systems adding that it is further exacerbated due to heavy dietary reliance on staple foods such as maize and groundnuts, which are highly susceptible to aflatoxin.
Recent research indicates that the occurrence of aflatoxins is common in peanuts, tree nuts, maize, and animal feeds while they are occasionally found in milk, cheese, cottonseed, nuts, almonds, figs, spices, and a variety of other foods and feeds. Milk, eggs, and meat products are sometimes contaminated because of the animal consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated feed.
And an agribusiness, trade, commodity marketing and policy expert, Cris Muyunda, says it is critical to note that aflatoxin contamination starts at the farm, and that measures to control the menace should start from planting, harvesting, post-harvest handling, storage and distribution.
Dr Muyunda, who is also Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) NonState Actors Coalition (CNC) deputy chairperson, said while on the farm contamination is the least appreciated by many, further contamination can occur during drying, especially on the soil, and at storage or transport.
“On the farm, aflatoxins contaminate the crop if harvesting is delayed and if the moisture content of the crop exceeds the required for crops stored at the farm after harvest. Bird and rodent attack of the crop at the farm is a great contributor to aflatoxin contamination,” Dr Muyunda said.
And in their recent studies, the Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that 25 percent of the world’s crop is affected by mycotoxins, the majority of which is aflatoxins, or about 4.5 billion of the current 7 billion population of the world.
In sub-Saharan Africa alone, an estimated 26,000 people die annually of liver cancer associated with food stuffs with aflatoxin exposure.
Between June and September 2016, Tanzania recorded 17 deaths resulting from consumption of aflatoxin.
Aflatoxins and other mycotoxins affect trade, consumer safety and the economic health of the population and countries. Aflatoxins exhibit potent carcinogenic effect in susceptible laboratory animals and have acute toxicological effects in humans.
The effect on trade is also enormous. It is estimated that Africa loses US$450 million a year from lost export trade due to aflatoxins.
With all these negative effects of aflatoxin on Africa’s dream of becoming food-secure by 2063, the need to mitigate and control aflatoxins is huge and urgent.
The devastating effects of maize grain contaminated with aflatoxins on the Sub-Saharan households cannot be understated.
Maize and other cereals are the continent’s daily bread. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON OCTOBER 16, 2016. Link: https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=82778

Ending child marriage everyone’s responsibility

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
WHEN Mary Katunga (not real name) from Kalinde area about 65 kilometres from Katete town was a 12, she went to start a new life with her uncle.
However, while her cousin attended to school, Mary was made to work as an unpaid maid in her uncle’s home. Mary, now 17, could not refuse the offer from her uncle after losing both her parents to a road traffic accident in Kalinde’s Chiwoko area.
She did not know what she was going into.
Her uncle later forced her to marry an older man, who frequently abused her. She had no say to whatever decision the husband made.
Even though she had wanted to continue with her education, her uncle did not give her that opportunity and not even the husband.
It was not long before she became pregnant with their first child.
When girls give birth at a young age, the risks of suffering painful complications and long-term discomforts are very high.
Having to care for a baby also meant that Mary was unable to continue her education, something which depressed her.
“I saw my cousin leaving for school every day with her books and bag. I was so envious and could not say anything, I was so jealous, too. I wanted to study and get clever, too, and get financially independent one day,” she said.
Mary’s husband was keen to have a large family to help him with the family business. By the age of 15, Mary had two children. Her husband was killed in an incident of violence that happened in Kafumbwe’s area near the Mozambique border.
But widowed at a tender age, Mary feels she missed an opportunity that would have changed her life forever.
Mary is among the many adolescents who dropped out of school for various reasons among them early pregnancy.
In Zambia, especially in rural areas, there are concerns about the high rate of pregnancy-related school dropouts.
This plague undermines poverty-reduction programmes, the route towards gender equality and the very idea of equality of opportunity and education for all in the country.
The practice is so widespread that it does not come as a great surprise to most families in rural areas where teenagers become pregnant and their right to education is undermined.
The case of Mary is one of a thousand girls that have stopped school due to forced marriages and yet charters have been signed, policies have been made but very little progress seems to be taking place.
And headman Kalinde said most parents in rural areas are peasant farmers with very little knowledge on the rights of children, especially education.
The headman said violence against children is still rife in Katete district and other areas.
“Among the common forms of violence here in my area and surrounding villages are child marriage, rape, child labour and neglect particularly of orphaned children,” he said.
The traditional leader noted that traditional practices have caused the violation of children’s rights adding that the practice is worryingly more prevalent among girls.
Headman Kalinde said although laws against child marriage exist, the practice is upheld in part by tradition, poverty and gender inequality.
“Access to education for girls can help prevent child marriage. Girls with higher levels of schooling are less likely to marry as children. Child marriage robs girls of opportunities to thrive. It also puts them at risk of early pregnancy, and effectively ends their education.
As traditional leaders, we have done our best and change is gradual, hoping one day these traditional practices which undermine children’s rights will be curbed,” he said.
Headman Kalinde said there is need for the Government to put up youth recreation centres in the rural areas where young people can be engaged in career building activities, while they are away from school.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), child marriage is defined as the marriage of a boy or girl below 18.
Marriage before the age of 18 is a violation of human rights. Yet, early marriage prevails across Zambia and the worldwide.
Cases of teenage pregnancies are no longer bizarre in both urban and rural communities.
Several girls fall pregnant before 18. Many others get married before they are 16. Zambia, like many other African countries and the world at large, has not been spared from early, forced and child marriages.
The Zambian government, traditional and community leaders, the church and other stakeholders have risen against child marriages, a discrimination that undermines women’s rights, the right to education and equal opportunities.
Zambia’s teenage pregnancy statistics put Zambia as the 3rd highest in Sub-Sahara Africa, with 143 per 1000 between 15 and 19.
School dropouts due to pregnancy increased to 17,600 between 2013 and 2014, according to the latest Demographic Health Survey.
Zambia has the 5th highest adolescent birth rate in Sub-Saharan Africa. About 28 percent of adolescent girls become pregnant before the age of 18.
Moreover, according to the 2010 census of population and housing, the adolescent birth rate in Zambia stands at 146 births per 1000 women aged between 15 and 19 years.
Now, pregnancy-related school dropouts have become a matter of public concern in Zambia.
In 2014, according to statistics at Zambia’s ministry of General Education, at the secondary school level, about 13,200 cases have been recorded; while 4,800 cases have been recorded at the primary school level.
As though this was not enough, usually, girls, who leave school due to pregnancy, do not return to school after childbirth.
In Zambia, the government has enacted a re-entry policy, but it has not been successful because of stigmatization and other students’ prejudice.
A solution to the problem is imperative for the future of Zambian women and the country at large.
Ministry of General Education director open and distance education Bridget Moya said schoolgirls who become pregnant have fewer opportunities to complete their education after childbirth and have fewer opportunities for socioeconomic advancement.
She has since called on adolescent girls especially those in schools not to engage in activities that will affect their progress in school.
“As government we are doing our best to ensure that children remain in school and get a quality education but this is not the task of government alone, pupils and parents and guardians too have a role to play in ensuring that children get the education they need,” she said.
In many Zambian communities, marrying off girls in exchange for livestock and other goods is still not viewed as violence against them, or indeed child abuse.
It’s not easy to change such practices that have been viewed as normal for so many years within a short span of time.
Protecting children from harmful practices is of critical relevance for the realization of children’s rights.
Across communities countrywide, children have been subjected to various forms of harmful practices, some better known and others that may remain undocumented.
Common for most of these practices is the devastating consequences on the child’s life, development, health, education and protection. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON OCTOBER 2, 2016. https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=81316

Credo Nanjuwa: In politics for service

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
IT has taken Credo Nanjuwa almost three decades to actively participate in politics. It has finally paid off because Mr Nanjuwa is now Mumbwa Central Member of Parliament.
Although he never discussed his political ambitions with anyone, he secretly admired the adrenaline that comes with being a politician. He also felt politics was about serving, and serving was his passion.
During his secondary school days at Bwacha in Kabwe, Mr Nanjuwa was being kept by his brother and fondly followed the political journey of the late Christon Tembo, who was the then leader of the opposition Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD).
“I never used to talk about politics or share my political views with anybody. Whilst in secondary school, I lived in Kabwe’s Chindwin barracks. I had a belief that military personnel make good leaders so I believed in General Tembo’s ideologies,” he said.
By 2001, Mr Nanjuwa started believing in the ideologies of the Late Anderson Kambela Mazoka, the then United Party for National Development (UNPD) president, and he became a sympathiser.
His passion for UPND continued even after Mazoka’s death as he has been supporting Hakainde Hichilema.
He then secretly started supporting party programmes in his home village in Nanjuwa Village under Chief Muwezwa in Itezhi Tezhi district.
It was in 2006 when he actively took part in campaigns that saw Godfrey Beene win the Itezhi Tezhi seat.
“I publicly showed my political ambitions in 2006 in Itezhi Tezhi in Nyambo ward in our chiefdom when I campaigned for Godfrey Beene until he won the seat under UNPD,” he said.
Looking at the proximity of Mumbwa and Itezhi Tezhi constituencies, Mr Nanjuwa hoped that Mumbwa, too, could be under UNPD but his wishes could not come true.
“In the same year (2006) UPND lost in Mumbwa to the MMD and it was so painful for me because the distance between these two constituencies is nothing. So since then, I decided to shift my attention to Mumbwa and I revived the party structures until UPND became a formidable force in Mumbwa,” he said.
As one of the champions of the birth of UPND in Mumbwa, Mr Nanjuwa continued to play a leading role in events and party issues across the constituency in Mumbwa, as a sponsor for various women empowerment projects, soccer clubs and sometimes traditional events.
All this helped him build UPND in Mumbwa constituency and because of his sense of urgency when attending to people’s needs in Mumbwa, Mr Nanjuwa started getting a push to stand for MP in Mumbwa in 2011.
But because he was not ready, he could not take up the challenge until 2016 when he stood and scooped the seat.
This already challenging task has been made all the more difficult by the various needs that the electorate in the area need solutions to.
But Mr Nanjuwa hopes that his unique experience in handling people’s needs in the party in the past will help him again as he represents the people of Mumbwa in the National Assembly.
“I have seen Mumbwa and checked what is required and that is what prompted me to join politics because I want to serve the people of Mumbwa. The area is a farming area but with lots of challenges. The town, too, needs serious attention,” he said.
“What I will do differently for the people in Mumbwa is to ensure that the town receives a facelift. I have known Mumbwa from childhood but the town still looks the same, Mumbwa has no roads, it only has one road and the road is concentrated. We have no better market in this area and feeder roads, too,” he said.
Another task on his diary is scaling up agribusiness in Mumbwa and making the area the next growth frontier for the country as a whole.
He said if agribusiness is given priority, it could change the face of Mumbwa and offer employment and reduce poverty in the area.
The challenge ahead of Mr Nanjuwa is huge and all eyes of the people of Mumbwa are on him.
Born on September 11, 1970, Mr Nanjuwa went to Munga Primary School in Itezhi Tezhi and did his secondary school in Kabwe at Bwacha Secondary school.
Upon completion, Mr Nanjuwa went to National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA), where he did accountancy and business management high level diploma level six.
He then worked for an accounting firm from 1993-1999 when he resigned and started his own business and also ventured into ranching.
Mr Nanjuwa is married to Maureen Himbondo and they have five children.
For him, politics is about service and from the time he showed interest in politics, he says he has learnt a lot.
“Politics can be enormously fun and satisfying. Politics can be thrilling and exciting as well as uplifting. I am into politics to serve the people of Mumbwa and leave a legacy.”  PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON OCTOBER 2, 2016. https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=81323

Post-harvest losses: Threat to food security

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
MAIZE is Zambia’s main staple food and yet every year, the post-harvest losses from the commodity are heart-breaking.
For Kutemba Liswaniso, 56, of Chief Musokotwane’s area in Kazungula district, a post-harvest loss on any of the food she produces is unacceptable but it happens as she watches helplessly.
She stands to admire the bags of maize she has harvested from the 2015/2016 farming season but one thing still concerns her; post-harvest losses.
“Each year, I watch my maize being wasted at the FRA depot awaiting transportation to big cities like Lusaka. The maize will be exposed to heat and wind and once these polythene bags that we use get exposed to such weather, the bags will tear off,” she says.
And for fear of losing her grain, she has opted to sell her maize to middle men, though at a loss.
“For now, the only option for rural farmers in this area is to sell our produce like maize and beans to middle men. We know it is a loss but we have no choice. The need for better and advanced storage silos is urgently here. Most of the maize and other farm produce go to waste because we do not have storage facilities and good roads,” she said.
Mrs Liswaniso is not the only one. In many rural areas in Zambia, much of the food grown never makes it past the farm gate, a situation that contributes to food insecurity.
The need to increase food production has become a policy mantra. Populations are growing, and the need for more food is becoming vital.
But much of what is produced never makes it past the farm gate, especially among the smallholder farmers in Zambia.
Another resident of the same area, Edwin Siandele, attributes the post-harvest losses to lack of technology advancement in addressing the many challenges that rural farmers face.
“Eliminating these losses will be one sure way to increase food security without requiring additional resources or placing additional burdens on the environment. But if such a trend continues, we are left with no choice but to continue selling to the middlemen at our loss, of course,” he said.
Mr Siandele says the farmers’ loss of their produce leads to a reduction in potential income, poor access to nutritious food and increased food insecurity in the region.
He says while it is a good idea for Food Reserve Agency (FRA) to purchase maize from farmers, a lot needs to be done to ensure that the maize is collected on time before the next rainy season.
“We have no problem selling maize to FRA but the problem is collection of the said maize to its final destination. The fear of post-harvest losses often compels farmers to sell their produce directly at harvest, rather than waiting for a time when prices are more favourable,” he said.
Losses typically result from poor infrastructure, particularly local access roads to farms or market; lack or poor storage facilities; poor market information; market failures and inefficiencies; lack of processing equipment; and theft and destruction caused by pests and rodents.
In Zambia, smallholder farmers contribute about 80 percent of food production, but over 30 percent of the food produced by these farmers is lost because of post-harvest loss.
According to recent Food and Agriculture (FAO) statistics, reducing food wastage and losses is one of many steps necessary to ensure food security for a rapidly growing, and urbanising global population.
FAO says post-harvest losses in Zambia and Africa can be reduced if storage technologies are introduced in the farming community to help small-scale farmers.
Every year, Zambia loses thousands of bags of maize through crop wastage resulting from poor storage and lack of good facilities and delayed collection of maize from the depots.
This costs the country billions of dollars in losses and it is a drain on the country’s resources, which it badly needs to boost food security and enhance export earnings from maize.
But three years ago, Government embarked on the construction of grain storage shades in some parts of the country aimed at mitigating grain losses.
To also address the challenge, Government has embarked on a project to construct grain silos system in the country in order to create a food reserve that can provide enough storage for grain and other farm produce.
Once this is done, it will enhance food security and wealth creation, which will lead to lower levels of poverty among farmers and eventually at national level.
The agriculture sector faces a number of challenges that imped growth and inadequate storage facilities.
Although Zambia has continued to record surplus harvests over the last few years, storage challenges in the agriculture sector must be addressed urgently if the country is to keep up the status and possibly be the food basket in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
There is need to avoid crop wastage because crop production takes a toll on the environment and resources for crop production.
It is therefore imperative that farmers prepare for storage of their maize in a safer manner to avoid losses and there is no better time to start preparing than now when the next farming season is about to begin. ALSO PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON SEPTEMBER 25, 2016. https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=80507

Unlocking Zambia’s agriculture potential through rural enterprise growth

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
ACCORDING to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), four out of five people in Africa depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.
However, it remains the only region in the developing world to have low and declining agricultural development, with a per capita output totalling 56 percent of the world average.
In addition, Africa’s per capita agricultural output has declined by five percent over the last twenty years while other developing nations have seen a 40 percent increase.
However, given that the region is home to about 60 percent of the world’s arable land, the expansion of new markets and sustainable technologies proposed by the ECA can help alleviate poverty in Africa and reduce income inequality.
Many of those who depend on agriculture to survive live in rural areas with little access to research and technology. This means that outside investment is often necessary for a country like Zambia to maintain sustainable farming rituals.
With more than 80 percent of Zambia’s population depending on agriculture for their livelihoods, agriculture is central to Zambia’s economic development.
For this, President Lungu announced his decision to diversify the nation’s economy by focusing on unlocking the agriculture potential of the nation, while reducing its dependence on copper mining.
President Lungu expressed this after being sworn in for a new five-year term on Tuesday last week.
“We must promote agriculture to become one of the main drivers of our diversification programme,” he said.
Although Zambia’s economy has been hard hit by depressed copper prices, diversifying into agriculture still presents a number of difficulties.
Reports say the agriculture sector is one that still needs a lot of development.
This is owing to the fact that it is focused on staple maize and is mostly produced by subsistence farmers who lack the capital and technology to improve their yields.
The subsistence farmers can also be classified as small and medium enterprises who make up about 50 percent of Zambia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
There are currently a good number of entrepreneurs in Zambia, running small, medium or micro enterprises responsible for generating up to 30 percent of total employment.
Therefore, investing in SMEs is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty and increase incomes.
But why has the investment in SMEs taken a while besides them (SMEs) being paramount in agriculture transformation?
Despite the huge potential for growth in this sector, most of the businesses have remained largely informal thereby limiting the sector’s contribution to the growth of the economy.
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) NonState Actors Coalition (CNC) deputy chairperson Cris Muyunda says SMEs face many and varied challenges to their growth and operations.
Dr Muyunda says most enterprises are struggling to survive due to lack of financing.
“SMEs represent a ‘missing middle part in agriculture transformation’ not only in Zambian but in African private sectors as these are dominated on the one hand, by (mostly informal) micro enterprises, and by large companies on the other.
Dr Muyunda says other barriers that hold SMEs from growing are the lack of appropriate skills, knowledge, technology and the limited access to markets.
Addressing these constraints is crucial to moving towards sustainable employment, innovation and increase incomes and exports in Zambia and Africa as a whole.
Improved value chain is another prerequisite to the growth of SMEs and this will also create jobs and thereby grow the economy too.
To create economic growth, Zambia’s agricultural productivity needs to improve from start to finish.
Recently, Zambia CAADP Focal Point at the Ministry of Agriculture Justin Chuunka said, “We need to look at the whole value chain and create market linkages. From inputs into the production through harvest, storage, marketing, processing and retailing. It involves all steps from farmer to consumer. A more inclusive value chain benefits all players.”
Mr Chuunka said elevating SMEs to the centre of industrial development and economic growth requires financial and human resources (training) to achieve their goals.
“It is important that we encourage SMEs to expand and to evolve, innovate, to hire employees and inspire others to do the same. The benefits for Zambian economy would be enormous,” Mr Chuunka said.
To grow and support SMEs in Zambia and Africa as a whole is the pathway if hunger and poverty are to be reduced.
The future of the African continent is about growing rural enterprises that will support smallholder farmers and employment creation.
Despite their high contribution to economic growth and job creation, SME’s face significant constraints with respect to access to agricultural technology, information, financing and markets.
The smallholder farming sub-sector is constrained by inadequate private sector development, by general market failure and a farming community whose knowledge, skills, and assets base are limited which are a result of lack of adequate training and education.
To close this gap, the need for transferring knowledge, building technical skills and providing management support solutions via mentoring, coaching and training to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) cannot be overemphasized.
The problem of poverty and how to reduce it remains the most pressing dilemma in the international development debate.
But the good news is that the agriculture sector has the capacity to lead the poverty transformation if only SMEs can be empowered. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON SEPTEMBER 18, 2016. https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=79762

Rural area’s self energy generation viable option

DOREEN NAWA, Chipata
IF POWER cannot come to the village, the village must make its own. This is the step most rural people have taken to mitigate the challenge of not being connected to the national grid.
In Paramount Chief Mpezeni’s area in Chipata, Eastern Province, the sale of solar panels is booming, as evidenced from their numbers on roofs of houses and shops.
The boom is not just turning on the lights, but opening up new economic opportunities as well.
“We never used to watch television or indeed use fridges, but now, the story is different. I sale ice blocks to people that freeze fish or meat. I don’t need too much income to do this kind of business, all I do is put water in plastics and freeze. I also sale solar panels and people are buying,” Enrick Jere said.
In a village in Luangeni in Paramount Chief Mpezeni’s area, Mr Jere is like a trade name because he supplies solar panels to the nearby villages.
He says business is booming. Mr Jere’s shop offers an array of products from tiny solar flashlights to mid-sized rooftop panel systems, amidst bicycle parts, textiles, fertilisers, and the other more traditional products.
Most of his customers come from villages on the outskirts of Luangeni.
“There is very good business. Just within the last year, people seem to have understood the benefits of solar, and now they come to buy solar panels. Unlike before, I struggled to sell these items but I was patient enough and now I am reaping the benefits,” he said.
A school teacher at Nsingo Primary School, Peggy Mwale understood those benefits early. Ms Mwale lives within the school compound, a few kilometers from Mr Jere’s shop.
Ms Mwale bought her first solar system in 2010. She uses it mainly for lighting, but she has recently started a side business charging K2 for locals to power up their mobile phones and for those with rechargeable ones, she demands a fee of K5.
“Unlike in the western countries, people here often get solar just for lighting purposes not knowing that its benefits go beyond lighting. With years of reading and researching on why solar is an important source of energy, I have also learnt that solar has environmental benefits,” Ms Mwale said.
Asked if the environmental benefits had anything to do with her decision of buying a solar panel, Ms Mwale laughed and said, “I just wanted electricity. I could not sleep under a candle forever for fear of accidents”.
Energy experts say, whether a homeowner or commercial business owner, solar energy is a clean, affordable, and sustainable way for anyone to generate electricity.
While many people make the switch to solar for its substantial financial benefits such as lower utility bills and increased home value, the significant environmental benefits are equally important.
For Ms Mwale, access to solar energy increases people’s productivity. Children can study, read books and watch television, allowing them to be connected to the world.
Access to electricity has the benefit of transforming lives, especially in rural communities of Zambia where more than 95 percent of homes have no access to energy sources.
“For those with access to electricity like us here, it has changed our lives. We can now keep in touch with friends and family, and those in cities can use their mobile phones to send money to relatives in rural areas.
“Electricity is a vital product, without which no true development is possible. Access to energy for the poorest rural populations often reduces poverty by developing income-generating activities, and also education, health and access to water,” Ms Mwale said.
And Paramount Chief Mpezeni says with increased awareness on solar’s potential, the use of the energy will likely increase amid the loadshedding, rising electricity prices and unstable supply experienced in the country.
“I am happy that my subjects here are slowly getting used to using solar energy. When it started, only a few people and mostly teachers, used solar. In Zambia, the cost of connecting the rural population to the national grid is high,” he said.
For rural areas, self-generation is the only viable option, with renewable off-grid solutions in most cases to provide cheaper options with no fuel cost and low maintenance.
Zambia has a range of primary energy sources, including hydropower, coal, forest biomass and renewable sources.
Among renewable sources, hydro and solar resources are the most significant, followed by biomass and wind energy potential.
Energy experts say Zambia’s total demand currently exceeds internal generation, primarily as a result of a growing mining and farming sector.
There is also high demand for electricity due to the increased population, although only about 22 percent of households currently have access to modern energy services.
In a situation like Zambia’s, renewable energy solutions can provide additional clean energy capacity to the national grid and also be particularly useful in the remote rural areas.
Nevertheless, despite the high potential for electricity generation from renewable energy sources, their use in Zambia remains low.
The major barriers for renewable energy usage have been the relatively high cost of electricity generated from renewable resources, lack of clear renewable energy policies and tariffs, and low capacity to develop and implement economically feasible projects. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON AUGUST 29, 2016. https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=77665

Water for sustainable growth tops agenda as leaders, experts meet in Stockholm

As world leaders, development professionals and water experts gather in Stockholm from 28 August to 2 September, water’s role for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals will be discussed, as will water and the ongoing migration crisis, and several other water challenges.

The 2016 theme for World Water Week is water for sustainable growth. As a global collective, we will not be able to end hunger, ensure good health, build sustainable cities and fight climate change, if we do not have reliable access to the most fundamental resource of all. Water, and wise water management, is central to development, to sustainable growth, and to the overarching goal of lifting people from poverty.

A key objective of World Water Week is tracking water in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Each year at the Week, decision-makers will have the opportunity to take stock of water’s role in the implementation of the water-related SDGs and the Paris climate agreement, with the aim of ensuring water is part of the solutions moving forward.

At World Water Week, today’s complex water challenges will be addressed by some 3,000 participants from more than 120 countries, representing governments, the private sector, multilateral organizations, civil society and academia. Speakers at the opening session on 29 August include Margot Wallström, Minister for Foreign Affairs Sweden, Angel Gurría, Secretary-General OECD, Charafat Afailal, Minister of Energy, Mining, Water and Environment, Morocco, Stockholm Water Prize Laureate 2016 Professor Joan B. Rose, Michigan State University, USA, and Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Vatican.

During World Water Week, two prizes are awarded, to recognize excellence in the water world.

On Tuesday 30 August, the Stockholm Junior Water Prize will be awarded to one national team out of the 29 competing nations by H.R.H. Prince Carl Philip of Sweden.

On Wednesday 31 August, the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize will be awarded to Professor Rose, for her tireless contributions to global public health; by assessing risks to human health in water and creating guidelines and tools for decision-makers and communities to improve global wellbeing. The prize will be awarded to Professor Rose by H.M. Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden, during a ceremony in Stockholm City Hall.

Water is key to a range of issues that will shape the world in the decades to come. They will be discussed in-depth during World Water Week:

Sustainable Development Goals – connection to water. Nearly all the sustainable development goals will require water to be achieved, and implementation will need to be integrated and coordinated. Water can help to facilitate this. For example, energy and food security, as well as economic growth, climate and urbanization (SDGs 2, 7, 8, 11and 13) are directly dependent on the availability of freshwater resources.

High Level Panel on Water. SIWI is actively engaged in the High Level Panel on Water (HLPW). The HLPW aims is to mobilize global support in implementing the water-related SDGs. SIWI is one of the expert organizations supporting the HLPW and World Water Week will be a meeting place for this panel to share and discuss its findings.

Water and migration. The world is witnessing some of the largest refugee flows since the Second World War. Meanwhile, water crises are highlighted as one of the most pressing global challenges in coming years. In this context, migration and refugee flows are increasingly explained in terms of water scarcity – perpetuated by climate change. But such easy answers to these complicated questions should be avoided, and that deeper analysis is needed.

Water and faith. Water has profound symbolic meaning in many religious and local traditions and water stress is particularly acute in many parts of the world in which faith is a central aspect of individual and community identity. However, development is not only about policies and investments, it is also about behaviour change and cultural values. In that respect, the role of Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) becomes crucial given their presence and influence in local communities.

Water and pharmaceuticals. Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are micro pollutants and are a growing concern around the globe. Manufactured to be stable enough to reach and interact with the relevant organ, many pharmaceuticals are not easily biodegradable and can remain in the environment for considerable periods of time. Patient health and safety overrule environmental considerations, and hence there is a challenge for the relevant stakeholders to balance this dilemma.

Water quality. It is estimated that around 1000 children under five die every day - from diarrhoeal diseases - one of the leading causes of child mortality and only one of the illnesses caused by poor water quality. There are still more than two billion people in the world who lack adequate sanitation, and over one billion lack access to safe drinking water. WHO says that overall, 842 000 deaths from diarrhoeal diseases each year could be prevented by improved water, sanitation and hygiene.

Rainwater harvesting and green water. Better management of rainwater can dramatically improve rural and urban water security across the world as the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events increase. Managing rain will be a key to eradicating poverty and hunger in sub-Saharan Africa and to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) especially on poverty and hunger. Half of the global landmass consists of drylands where the majority of the water movement is vertical, such as rains and evaporation, with very little runoff generation.