Monthly Archives: September 2010
Malaria vaccine closer than ever, scientists say
29 September 2010
Advanced trials of the RTS,S vaccine against falciparum malaria, the deadliest strain of the disease, are under way in seven African countries and going “very well,” said GlaxoSmithKline researcher Joe Cohen, who has been working on developing the vaccine for over 20 years.
The first malaria vaccine could be available in Africa by 2015.
RTS,S is only a stepping stone to wiping out the disease that threatens more than a third of the world’s population and kills some 900,000 people a year, most of them in Africa.
Malaria is one of the main obstacles to socio-economic development in Africa, and developing effective vaccines against the disease would have an enormous effect on reducing its negative impact.
Read the full article at the Sydney Morning Herald and share your views in our Comments section below.
Social services for over-50s in dire need of overhaul
28 September 2010
South Africa was in dire need of an overhaul of health and social services to provide effective care for people older than 50, researchers said in a study released yesterday.
Older women are under increasing pressure to take over bread- winning responsibilities as communities are affected by Aids. According to the study, changes in the social structure and roles and responsibilities of older people, particularly women, have already occurred.
These women face additional responsibilities such as nursing their sick adult children and taking care of their grandchildren. In many households, older people have also become the main bread-winners through their social pension, which is sometimes the family’s only source of income.
In South Africa, the proportion of the population aged 50- plus has slightly increased from 14.8 percent in 2006 to 15 percent in 2009, and was expected to be 19 percent in 2030.
Read the full article at the Daily Dispatch and share your views in our Comments section below.
" alt="Aids orphan tourism: a threat to young children in residential care" />Aids orphan tourism: a threat to young children in residential care
Welfare authorities must act against voluntourism companies and residential homes that exploit misguided international sympathies to make profits from the conditions in which vulnerable young children are placed.
This article is based on the paper entitled “Aids orphan tourism: a threat to young children in residential care” co-drafted by Professor Linda Richter, executive director of the research programme on Child, Youth, Family and Social Development at the Human Sciences Research Council.
Globally circulated, the poignant spectre of “˜Aids orphans’ and “˜children left behind’ portrays children as abandoned, innately vulnerable, and in need of care. Such images, presented by the international media, NGOs, and now tourism operators, conjure up a desire among those primarily in the Western world to take direct action in the care of such children.
Understanding youth culture and values for best social investing – Breakfast briefing and discussion
27 September 2010
14 October 2010 7:15 am to 10:00 am Local urban African youth are not only the beneficiaries of much social investment attention, through education, health, lifeskills, and other interventions, but they also face challenges often greater than their elders in finding formal employment and secure societal surroundings. How, then, are young South Africans to cope with an ossified job market with very limited employment absorption capacity?
Indeed, how do the 20 million South Africans aged between 10 and 29 years old (fully 40% of the population) see their world? What are their core values, their culture, their outlook on today and tomorrow?
Facilitated by renowned brand strategist Andy Rice, this fifth briefing of the Development Intelligence Series exposes you to unique research by Andrea Kraushaar of Youth Dynamix done in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya comparing their different outlooks of youth; along with a presentation on current youth culture trends, habits and outlooks by the MD of the remarkably successful urban youth radio station, Yfm, Kanthan Pillay.
This is an important opportunity for social investors and community development champions to get a grip on the fast flowing change of young South Africa.
The Development Intelligence Series is hosted by Tshikululu Social Investments and the Gordon Institute of Business Science, supported by FinWeek.
Date: 14 October 2010
Venue: The Restaurant, Gordon Institute of Business Science, 26 Melville Road, Illovo, Johannesburg
Time: Breakfast is served at 07:15 and the briefing begins at 08:00
Cost: R250 per delegate, regrettably only accepted in cash
To RSVP, contact Lungelo Mgcina on 011 771 4230 or mgcinal@gibs.co.za.
Recognised as one of South Africa’s best known brand consultants, this event’s compere, Andy Rice, has worked extensively on the evolution of branding strategy as a recognised business discipline in South Africa. He was strategic planning director of Ogilvy and Mather in Johannesburg prior to co-founding his own brand architecture company in 1997. His company has grown to become a renowned independent strategic consultancy in South Africa, with a client list that includes many blue chip multinational and South African organisations.
Hailing from Johannesburg, Andrea Kraushaar is the Youth Strategy and Research Director at Youth Dynamix. Having completed her Masters degree in Marketing (cum laude), she has nearly 10 years of youth marketing and consulting experience. Andrea’s analytical mind, extensive youth knowledge and vision allow her to effectively lead the research and strategic division to ensure quality and relevant youth research, the creation of new youth insights, innovative strategic models and methods.
Kanthan Pillay is MD and CEO of the Yired group of companies (including 99.2 Yfm). He completed high school in Bangalore, India; and majored in Political Science, Princeton University. He has certificates in journalism from Boston University and from the Senior Journalist Development Programme, Niemann Foundation, Harvard University.
Public sector strike sends students beyond the classroom to learn
The three-week strike by teachers and other civil servants over pay ended three weeks ago. However, students have protested across the country, complaining they did not have enough time to prepare for exams.
An estimated 12,000 students are downloading study materials from the popular mobile phone platform and messaging service MXit to bolster their chances of graduating in a month’s time.
New two-hour TB test developed
A new, accurate, easy-to-use test that can diagnose tuberculosis (TB) – including drug-resistant strains of the disease – in less than two hours, has been developed. It has the potential to save thousands of lives in developing countries, where current tests are often unreliable, take weeks to process, or are simply unavailable.
Donors hold the key to HIV-free generation
23 September 2010
Top UN health officials are confident that an HIV-free generation is possible by 2015, but have warned of the need to fully fund HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes to ensure that steady progress in recent years does not fall by the wayside.
World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan noted the importance of preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) to achieve three of the Millennium Development Goals – reducing child and maternal deaths, as well as halting and beginning to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Efforts to achieve the three goals could benefit from various women’s health funding and policy commitments rolled out this week during the summit to mark 10 years since countries committed to the MDGs. But HIV, the leading cause of death among reproductive-age women worldwide, could also serve as a weak link causing women’s health targets to veer off track.
Avoiding this remains partially dependent on donor countries’ contributions to the Global Fund, a major contributor to PMTCT programmes. The international aid agency is seeking replenishment of US$13-20 billion for a three-year period in a “œhugely challenging economic environment”, according to Global Fund Executive Director Michel Kazatchkine.
High-burden countries, specifically in sub-Saharan Africa, have continued to do their part in tackling mother-to-child transmission of HIV, according to Kazatchkine, switching from sub-optimal single-dose nevirapine to “œthe most appropriate antiretroviral regimens”.
Yet it will take more than confidence, agreement on a common strategy to eliminate PMTCT, and adequate funding, to help HIV-positive pregnant women receive testing and treatment on a universal scale, said UNICEF’s chief of HIV/AIDS, Jimmy Kolker.
Read the full article at Irin PlusNews and share your views in our Comments section below.
UN promotes health campaign for women and children
The world’s nations pledged more than $40 billion to battle needless deaths among poor mothers and their children, and President Barack Obama spoke about what America can do to help the U.N.’s ambitious development goals.
But the struggling world economy, particularly in the United States, raises deep concerns that the cash won’t be forthcoming. Leaders exhorted financial donors to fulfill their aid commitments.
“The crisis is no excuse for letting up our efforts, but underscores the need for actions,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said as he wrapped up the three-day Millennium Development Goals summit.
The issues of maternal and child mortality have been a particular focus of the summit, which reviewed efforts to implement anti-poverty goals adopted in 2000 “” and found them lacking. Worldwide every year, an estimated 8 million children still die before reaching their 5th birthday, and about 350,000 women die during pregnancy or childbirth.
“In many parts of the world, women have yet to benefit from advances that made childbirth much safer nearly 100 years ago,” Ban said at the afternoon launch of his pet project, the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health.
“Millions of children die from malnutrition and disease which we have known how to treat for decades. These realities are simply unacceptable,” he said. “The 21st century must be and will be different.”
More than $40 billion in financial commitments by governments and nonprofit agencies were announced for the global strategy, which aims to save the lives of 16 million mothers and children over the next five years.
Aid agencies overall welcomed the prospect of more money for programs that will save the lives of mothers and children.
WHO will chair the global strategy, with a progress report delivered annually to the U.N. General Assembly.
Read the full article at Associated Press and share your views in our Comments section below.
Orange maize – an eye-opening solution?
22 September 2010
Orange maize, a variety of the staple food that has been biofortified with vitamin A to curb the incidence of child blindness and other diseases, is to be released in Zambia in 2012.
Other Southern African countries might follow its example soon.
Public health figures show that severe vitamin A deficiency affects more than 53% of Zambian children. It has been associated with partial and complete blindness, higher levels of malnutrition and child mortality.
Orange maize has been developed and adapted for Zambian conditions by US scientists with funding mainly from USAid, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s department for international development.
Wendy White of Iowa State University, who headed a study done on orange maize, notes that many people in the region cannot afford vitamin A-rich foods such as orange fruits, dark leafy vegetables or meat. “œBut they eat large amounts of white maize “” up to a pound “” daily, and it is often the first solid food given to infants. Orange maize could provide a substantial portion of their vitamin A needs.”
It is not the first time that a staple food has been fortified to provide consumers with more vitamin A. But the marketers of orange maize will be hoping for far less controversy than that which has hounded the creators of golden rice for more than a decade.
Golden rice was announced with the stated intention of combating the high incidence of child blindness in Asia.
Read the full article at Financial Mail and share your views in our Comments section below.
Is insurance “damage control” for climate change?
Nero fiddled while Rome burnt, goes the legend. In the case of climate change driven by global warming, a similar scenario is frighteningly true of most of the world’s governments.
This was the message of a joint statement by over 100 insurance companies released in London on September 6.
There is a lot of talk, but little action on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, says Vanessa Otto-Mentz, head of the strategy unit at Santam, a signatory to the statement.
She explains that signatories to the statement are urging governments to recognise the huge benefits of using the insurance industry’s expertise to manage risks posed by climate change, particularly in developing countries.
It is in these countries, where insurance is out of most people’s reach, that natural disasters cause most suffering.
The recent floods in Pakistan provide evidence, with reinsurance broker Aon Benfield estimating damage at US$20bn, the “œvast majority” of which is uninsured.
The key role insurance can play is seen in initiatives such as that launched by the World Bank and the World Food Programme in Malawi, where 1000 small farmers have been granted loans to buy drought insurance. In India, state-owned insurers provide insurance to 20m farmers, an impressive number but still only 5% of the total of the country’s farmers.
It is now up to governments to grasp the hand of assistance being extended by insurers, says Otto-Mentz.
Read the full article at Financial Mail and and share your views in our Comments section below.
