But lately that medicine has become harder to come by as pharmaceutical corporations have priced poor people out of the market. Five years after the World Trade Organization's members unanimously reaffirmed developing countries' rights to produce, export, and import affordable copies of patented drugs, rich country governments keep breaking their promises.
Countries like the US are forcing developing nations to accept free trade agreements that violate the spirit of the WTO's decision on medicine patents. The provisions contained in US-negotiated free trade agreements would restrict the availability of generic drugs; people who can't afford brand-name medicines for infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS or for chronic illnesses like diabetes or heart disease would have to go without.
This fall, Oxfam's partner, the Educational Network for Global and Grassroots Exchange, brought three Thai HIV/AIDS activists to New York, Washington DC, Pennsylvania, Texas, Illinois, Minnesota and California to speak out against the proposed US-Thailand Free Trade Agreement. The tour was part of Oxfam's campaign to change trade rules that favor rich countries over poor people and company profits over public health.
"Americans don't know much about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Thailand or the negative impact that a US free trade agreement would have on the cheap drugs that the government makes," said Matthew Coghlan, Oxfam's Regional Trade Policy Officer in East Asia. "This tour gave the Thai speakers the chance to educate Americans about what's really at stake."
Boripat Donmon, or Pii Muu as he's known, has been living with HIV for 13 years. During that time, he has become an instrumental leader in the fight for greater access to HIV and AIDS medicines in Thailand. His organization, the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, gathered 50,000 signatures from the Thai public to lobby the Thai government to revise its national health policies. With pressure from hundreds of other organizations mounting, the Thai government announced last year that it would include treatment for HIV and AIDS in the national health insurance plan, commonly known as the "30 Baht Scheme."
Since then, though, people like Pii Muu have been forced to stop treatment. As they become resistant to older drugs that are manufactured by the Thai government, they must take newer drugs still under patent to prolong their lives. But currently patent rules give brand-name companies exclusive rights to market their medicines for 20 years, which allows them to charge more than most sick Thais can afford.
"The situation will only worsen if the US-Thailand FTA is approved," Pii Muu said during a stop on the tour in New York City. US free trade agreements severely restrict the ability of developing countries to ensure availability of generic versions of patented medicines—the only proven way to lower prices. "Most Thais make $140 a month—way below what patented medicines cost," he continued. "I don't know how anyone will be able to afford them with an FTA."
Sang-Siri Teemanka, also known as Pii Tui, agreed. An organizer with Thailand's Aids Access Foundation, she has also spent much of her career campaigning to get the Thai national health system to offer affordable anti-retroviral medicines.
"The problem now in Thailand is that the basic treatment manufactured ... at the cheap price will become ineffective for some patients after just three to five years. They will need to change medicines, and the new drugs are patented by the giant foreign pharmaceutical companies," Pii Tui said. "These drugs are very expensive."
Negotiations for a free trade agreement with the US are a contentious issue in Thailand. In January 2006, thousands of people took to the streets in Chiang Mai, Thailand to protest their lack of involvement.
The Thai activists touring the US said they want their government to recognize the people's rights to shape the trade rules that would have real effects on their daily lives. Specifically, the Thai activists asked that the government educate the people about the US-Thailand FTA, consult with them when negotiating it, and invite them to participate in decision-making.
They also asked that Americans lobby the US government and the WTO to help poorer countries like Thailand assert their right to make available generic versions of the patented drugs.
"We want the US to understand that the FTA is not balanced," Pii Tui said. "Access to medicine is very important to Thailand. It is not like CDs or computer software. People's lives are at stake."
]]>The 25th anniversary of the AIDS epidemic has come and gone, and after all the UN meetings, the hand wringing, and the finger pointing, there remains one key element that has received little press: In the epicenter of the AIDS epidemic—in southern Africa, home to one of every three people in the world living with HIV—it is women like Leona, in Mozambique, who are shouldering a disproportionate burden of the disease.
The problem here is lack of respect for women's rights. In some places in southern Africa women are prohibited by law from owning or inheriting property, and so have few financial assets. This limits their independence, putting them at risk financially, emotionally, and sexually. It is not surprising that more than half of the world's HIV-infected women, more than nine million of them, live in southern Africa, according to the UNAIDS report released in November 2006. With little power to negotiate their sexual activity, females in some areas of southern Africa now represent three quarters of HIV and AIDS infected people aged 15 to 24. When people say AIDS has become a "feminized" epidemic, this is what they mean. In 2004, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan appointed a task force to study the problem. The experts urgently recommended the development of non-discriminatory laws and policies designed to help women protect their rights and reduce their vulnerability.
The countries of southern Africa lack adequate resources (not to mention a vaccine and access to drugs) to care for the millions with HIV and AIDS. Yet unlike the scientific barriers to ending the epidemic, it is well within our power to support women's rights—an essential means to cutting down the number of women infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.
Creating equal rights for women in Africa, like everywhere else, is a challenge. Last May, I saw it for myself. Within an hour of my arrival in South Africa, I heard on the radio that the African National Congress's Deputy President Jacob Zuma was acquitted of charges that he had raped an HIV-positive woman, the daughter of an ANC comrade.
Violence against women is endemic in South Africa, where a woman is raped every 26 seconds. But women's rights experts I met said that the Zuma trial itself said a lot about the country's attitude toward women. There was intense scrutiny of the victim's sexual past, while Zuma's was not considered. Zuma, a potential presidential candidate, arrived at the courthouse in a motorcade with body guards and enjoyed vocal supporters in the streets as he proudly invoked his Zulu culture to explain why he'd had unprotected sex with the woman. By contrast, attempting to ensure her safety and preserve her privacy, the accuser crept into the court through the back door. The discrepancy in power and access to justice was remarkable, especially since the country was just celebrating the 10th anniversary of its progressive constitution, which has very clear provisions guaranteeing equality for men and women before the law.
But for every Zuma trial, there is progress too. The day I encountered Leona in Mozambique, she met with a legal advisor at a women's rights organization in Maputo to learn how to defend her right to stay in her house. Accustomed to claiming a dead relative's assets, her in-laws did not realize that Mozambique had a new Family Law that protects the right of widows to inherit property. "He never had another wife," Leona said, "so no matter what his relatives say, I have the right to inherit the house and things."
In addition to changing laws, proponents of women's right also need to work with cultural leaders to help encourage long-term changes in customs and traditions that discriminate against women. Women themselves are taking this on, sometimes at great personal risk. Cecilia Reis, an elderly traditional healer and guardian of culture and tradition in her community, told me that she is committed to teaching women about their rights under Mozambique's new Family Law to counter the exploitative customs that put them in danger of poverty and abuse. "You have to stand up, face men eye to eye," she told me. "This is the only way for them to see the power of women."
In one of the most notable successes of legal reform in the region, a coalition of five women rights and development organizations in Mozambique, funded by Oxfam America, researched and advocated forthe new Family Law. They showed what strong organizations and committed women can do with the right kind of assistance.
Governments, the UN, international NGOs, and other donors need to expand their horizons in the fight against HIV and AIDS, and address the gender dimension of the crisis. We all have a responsibility to ensure that women like Cecilia have the support they need to create solutions to their own problems. For the most heavily infected and affected part of the world, it is an essential component in the fight against AIDS and the fight for our future.
]]>Many experts thought these tight-knit communities were relatively safe from the AIDS epidemic, but with the death and displacement of hundreds of thousands, the social landscape—like the coastline itself—was recreated in a moment.
The rumors reached Jose Michael, director of Oxfam's HIV program in India—that people living in crowded temporary houses and communities were experiencing new pressures that could increase their risk of HIV infection.
"There were many possible triggers, but we had no evidence," says Michael, so while he continued the Oxfam HIV/AIDS awareness program, he and Hari Krishna, an Oxfam disaster response specialist, engaged a well-known Indian health research organization to determine whether and how the tsunami disaster and its aftermath was increasing the vulnerability of the coastal communities to HIV infection.
"We did not set out to determine actual rates of HIV infection in the villages," says Hari Krishna. "That would have revealed very little about the changes precipitated by the disaster and even less about how and why they took place." Instead, the research focused on how people felt their own HIV-related behavior had changed since the tsunami, and what brought about those changes.
The central difficulty in carrying out the research is obvious: who wants to talk about your own behavior if it's something dangerous or strongly condemned in your community? But the inventive staff of the Swasti Health Resource Center, Oxfam's research partner, came up with a plan and a new research tool, which they call the polling booth.
Eight women sit in a circle, each with a cardboard box in front of her to conceal the choice of cards she places in a jar. In the center of the circle stands a facilitator who asks a set of questions aimed at determining how vulnerable these women are to contracting HIV.
This is a demonstration of the polling booth technique. The equipment involved is simple: a jar, a cardboard box, and a stack of numbered cards—green to indicate yes and red for no—are all it takes to build a "booth." But with willing participants—and researchers who have earned their trust—it can be used to carry out the very delicate task of eliciting honest answers to tough questions.
After the polling booth survey, the facilitator and participants tabulate and discuss the results. In a real-life situation, the facilitator might begin by saying, "Two people answered that they use condoms and six said they don't. Why do you suppose people in this village might choose not to use condoms?" Such a question could launch a valuable discussion of community perceptions of condom use and the spread of HIV—with no one having to reveal his or her own personal decision.
"What we share in a polling booth is fact," says S. K. Shashikala, who participated in the Swasti research and later helped demonstrate the technique to observers. "In this process, there is no inhibition."
Researcher Manoj T.J. led groups of men in these polling booth sessions. "The participants had a chance to talk about issues that they might otherwise be silent about," he says. "The discussion often revealed realities on the ground. When you know those realities, you can plan accordingly."
A research participant named Vasanthamma added a gender dimension: "This is good for women where we come from a culture of silence."
Although the researchers were successful in their mission, they had bad news to report. After interviewing around 1,000 people in 30 tsunami-affected communities, they determined that in 10 out of 11 of the temporary shelter settlements studied, HIV vulnerability rose in the aftermath of the tsunami. (Read a summary of the report.)
The lingering trauma of the tsunami disaster combined with life in the crowded temporary shelter settlements and disruptions in employment triggered changes in sexual behavior which, in the absence of strong knowledge about safe sex practices, put men and women at risk. Strict community standards of behavior were unenforceable when villages were scattered into temporary camps, and many survivors were drawn to alcohol and extramarital relations—including commercial sex—as a means of coping with stress, boredom, and overwhelming grief.
Now that the tsunami recovery is well underway, many of the conditions that caused HIV vulnerability to spike have been resolved. The need for AIDS education and services remains acute, but most people can report that they've moved out of temporary shelters and are back to work, and that the trauma of the tsunami has subsided. But for emergency aid providers, the research has implications far beyond the coast of India.
"If aid providers don't supply enough water or food or shelter after an emergency, it's clear to everyone what's wrong, but a rise in HIV risk after a disaster can go undetected until it's too late," says Mike Delaney, Oxfam America's Director of Humanitarian Response. "Now we know much more about how responders in future emergencies can help communities reduce their vulnerability. This is research that could save lives."
]]>It is a stark example of the impact of HIV and AIDS on rural Zimbabwe. In addition to her own 10 children, Mrs. Nyuwani, 48, and her recently disable husband took in another dozen children. "The 12 came here because their parents passed away and they were living as street children. So my husband I brought them here," she said. "Six are of my late sister, others are my brother-and sister-in-law's kids, and the grandchildren of my sister."
This would be a tremendous challenge for anyone. But Nyuwani has a thoughtful, peaceful air about her as she takes a deep breath and describes how the family copes: "At first it was disturbing, because I thought about where to get food for all these children," she said. "But now I am used to looking after them? I treat them all the same, and share the food equally."
Survival comes down to just that: food. Nyuwani has seven hectares (about 17 acres) of farmland at her disposal, and is an experienced farmer. "I manage all this by farming, and the older kids help in the fields," she said. "During the rainy season there is a lot of work to be done, because I have to tend to the crops and the children as well."
Lack of cash and time to look for farming supplies like seeds and fertilizer make it extremely difficult for Nyuwani to plant and harvest enough to sustain the family. These constraints and the number of AIDS orphans on the Nyuwani homestead made her a candidate for the seed distribution project implemented by the Single Parents and Widows Support Network, in partnership with Oxfam America. Single Parents gave Nyuwani some seeds in November 2005, and by the end of May 2006 she had a decent harvest: she estimated growing about 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) of groundnuts, 100 kilograms (440 pounds) of corn, and 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of sorghum.
This was an improvement over previous years when lack of seeds as well as rain diminished the agricultural yield for the Nyumanis. But the food won't last forever. "I got a better harvest this year, but it won't last until the next season since I have such a big family," Nyuwani said. "For us to survive, to the next [growing] season, two of my daughters will pan for gold in river beds near here. We will also cut back on our meals to one or two a day. We will eat sadza [corn meal] and okra—that's what we have here—no tea, no sugar, no bread. During this [rainy] season we also have some pumpkins and cow peas, but we don't usually eat them apart from the rainy season."
Oxfam America and the Single Parents and Widow Support Network are exploring possibilities for a winter garden project that would help families grow vegetables over the winter. This would help bridge the food deficit many families will be experiencing before the end of the next growing season, and improve nutrition for families taking care of chronically ill people.
For now, the food is sustaining the homestead. "I appreciate the seeds I got from Single Parents," Nyuwani said. "I was very happy with the sorghum and maize seeds I received. I am also happy with the groundnuts."
In addition to improving their diet, groundnuts are also an economic opportunity for a family low on cash with a lot of kids who need to go to school. "If you can grow more of these to sell some, you can get some money," Nyuwani said. "Some of the children were chased away from school due to lack of school fees, but I sold some groundnuts and paid for six who are now at school."
]]>Women who are beaten by a husband or partner, or are emotionally or financially dominated, are much more likely to be infected than those living in a non-violent household. Abused women have limited abilities to negotiate their sexual activity or safe sex practices, and are vulnerable to even more abuse if they are the first to learn of their infection status and have to tell their partners.
Any effort to bring down HIV infection rates also needs to reduce violence against women—and women need to take the lead in pushing governments to deal with the problem. However there is little pressure to provide better protection for women. Social norms in southern Africa (and many other parts of the world), discourage women from speaking out about such "private matters."
In southern Africa, this silence is proving deadly. "Organizations of people affected by AIDS are weak," said Mark Heywood, head of the AIDS Law Project at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. "Women are centrally affected, but the response is limited to services to orphans and other areas," he said.
The gender violence situation is particularly serious in South Africa, a country of 47 million people where more than 5 million are living with HIV and AIDS. A woman is raped every 26 minutes, and a woman is killed every six hours. More than three quarters of young South Africans living with HIV are females, and more than one quarter say their first sexual experience was unwanted, says a report by the Medical Research Council in South Africa.
Since the end of apartheid, some new and progressive laws have been passed to reduce violence against women, such as the 1998 Domestic Violence Act. But that law is not being enforced, and there is no strong effort to force society to address the problem and to empower women to speak out about gender violence. This would help move the problem out from the shadows of their private lives and into the public realm, where the government must acknowledge violence against women for what it is: a serious human rights issue with significant social and economic implications for fighting poverty.
As a first step in helping organize the critical mass needed to oppose gender violence in South Africa and across the region, Oxfam America is funding the Johannesburg-based People Opposed to Women's Abuse (POWA) organization's work to document all the groups providing services to abused women, as well as those engaged in advocacy and public information campaigns on women's rights.
All across South Africa, small, community-based organizations help women victims of domestic violence. They provide safe housing, counseling, legal and medical assistance, and other services. But there is no strong, political effort to deal with violence against women. Women's organizations are not linked to speak with one voice about the problems of domestic violence and push for legal reforms and changes in policies and traditions that will protect women. This means they are treating the symptoms, but not the root causes of the problem.
"We need to maintain the service delivery, but we feel we need to stop reacting and help these community-based organizations speak out as well," explained Delphine Serumaga, Director of POWA. "We need to push from underneath."
Oxfam partners in southern Africa are also participating in the global "16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence." The Center for Global Women's Leadership at Rutgers University in New Jersey is organizing the campaign, which starts on November 25th, the International Day Against Violence Against Women, and ends on December 10th, International Human Rights Day. The campaign also coincides with International AIDS Day in December 1st. This year's theme for the 16 Days campaign is "For the Health of Women, for the Health of the World." It is designed to highlight the connections between violence against women and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, as well as the unmet commitments made by governments to deal with the HIV/AIDS crisis.
South Africa: POWA is working with Amnesty International South Africa to host an international "cyber-dialogue" on the subject of trafficking of women and violence against refugee women in southern Africa. This public information campaign is building on a Listserv set up by the 16 Days campaign to promote dialogue and organizing around violence against women. POWA hopes the electronic discussion will help activists in all the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries build joint efforts to combat violence against women, another goal of Oxfam America's HIV/AIDS program in the region.
Interested participants in the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence cyber-dialogue in southern Africa can visit www.genderlinks.org.za
Zimbabwe: The Women's Action Group (WAG), an Oxfam America partner since 2000 and a member of a coalition promoting new domestic violence legislation in Zimbabwe, is leading a campaign to educate women about their rights and HIV/AIDS. WAG is participating in a number of events marking the 16 Days campaign around the country. First will be the national launch of the campaign by the Zimbabwe Ministry of Women's Affairs, followed by events to raise awareness of child abuse, HIV and AIDS, and domestic violence in Macheke, where there have been recent reports of abuse at a primary school. WAG will also be working with the National AIDS Council to commemorate International AIDS Day on December 1st in Chiramanzu, and will then host a series of discussions on cultural practices that increase women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS from December 2nd through the 9th in Marondera.
]]>His words were spoken at a gathering to mark the beginning of a new collaboration to expand efforts to improve the situation of women's rights as a precondition to overcome the deadly HIV/AIDS epidemic ravaging the sub-region. Oxfam America's Southern Africa program kicked off the new program area with a convening of key organizations in the region culminating in the press event on Constitution Hill.
The HIV/AIDS crisis is the most significant obstacle to development in southern Africa. Recent studies by UNAIDS and a special task force appointed by the UN Secretary General studying women, girls, and HIV/AIDS in southern Africa show some staggering statistics: 30 percent of the world's people living with HIV/AIDS (about 11.4 million) are in nine countries that contain only two percent of the entire earth's population. Women and girls are sharing a disproportionate burden of infection and death from the insidious disease. The task force study estimates that three quarters of the young people 15 to 24 years old in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Zambia that are currently living with HIV/AIDS are young girls and women.
These reports acknowledge one key reason women and girls are so vulnerable: their legal rights are not respected. Unequal laws on divorce and inheritance, as well as weak domestic violence legislation are leaving women vulnerable to abuse and poverty in an insecure environment. In some cases, women are considered legal minors, and are not allowed to make important decisions about their own lives, even if their husbands die.
Infected women, and those simply affected by the crisis, are missing out on employment and education opportunities as they fall ill or have to care for sick family members. Societal tolerance of sexual violence and harmful traditions frequently prevent women from controlling their sexual activity and discourage legal recourse in abuse cases.
Beyond wasting the potential of women in southern Africa, the resulting social dislocation, heavy health care and burial costs, and shortened life spans from the HIV/AIDS epidemic threaten the future for an entire generation. "We have crossed the threshold between the potential impact on women's development," said Mark Heywood, Director of the Aids Law Project of South Africa, speaking at a two-day conference sponsored by Oxfam America. "We are clearly experiencing the epidemic's impact on women's rights, which is a crucial aspect of what HIV/AIDS is doing to society."
Oxfam America has concentrated resources in the area of legal reform in Zimbabwe and Mozambique over the last eight years. Grant funds have supported research, advocacy, and popular campaigns designed to improve the legal framework to support women's rights in family laws, land ownership, domestic violence, and other key areas that directly affect women's welfare and livelihoods.
The new program area titled "HIV/AIDS Policy, Law and Women's Rights Partnership Program" builds off of the legal reform work in ways designed to help reduce the vulnerability of women to the disease, and eventually eradicate it. "Oxfam America must have a strong HIV/AIDS program in southern Africa,"" explained Regional Director Julio de Sousa. "In concentrating on these essential human rights issues, we will further women's rights and contribute to the fight against the epidemic."
Staff in Oxfam America's office in southern Africa consulted with a wide range of organizations with expertise in the areas of women's rights and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Together they developed a program that will include grants to organizations working on strengthening laws and policies designed to promote respect for women's rights, and challenging the social norms and values that condone violence against women and girls and contribute to their lower social status. Of equal importance will be looking at ways to improve the social support services essential for assisting women, including law enforcement, access to health care, and counseling.
The expanded program focus is building on fruitful collaborations with women's rights coalitions in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and constructing similar partnerships in South Africa and Namibia.
At the press event in Johannesburg, Justice Van Westhuizen challenged Oxfam America and its partners in this new program area to think big, to even dream. "We must be able to dream—because without dreams we will not exist." As one of the framers of South Africa's constitution, considered one of the world's most progressive, he was well aware of the power of a dream, as South Africa enters its 10th year under majority rule.
Equality for women and a stronger southern African society free of HIV/AIDS is still in the future, but the ideas are coming into place to make it a reality. As South Africa has shown, a dream is just the start of big things.
]]>AWC's greatest strength is its connection to local communities. Beneficiaries for food relief are selected based on vulnerability with priority given to the elderly, the chronically ill, widows, orphans, and child-headed households. Food is distributed in the presence of the community, and people are encouraged to speak up if they feel that there is a discrepancy or injustice in the allocation system.
Local women run the impartial, apolitical food distribution system. The organization is well established and has a good reputation, and the communities themselves are directly involved in the distribution process through their AWC members and representatives.
As of early March, the breakdown among the 13,200 beneficiary families was as follows:
Individual families receive 20 kg of maize per month or 50 kg when supplies are adequate. Household size is taken into account with larger households given greater amounts. Efforts are made to deliver in each area once a month.
The system is extraordinarily successful because it places a priority on transparency, ongoing community involvement, women's control of the distribution process, the "prohibition on politics" within AWC business, non-local AWC staff monitoring, and local leadership awareness and support of the distribution process.
Zimbabwe is facing a food shortage that will most likely continue until the next harvest season in April, 2004. AWC is expanding its relief program, adding additional rehabilitation measures such as bean distributions, water pumps, and micro finance programs.
]]>The people of Seke Communal Lands, like most residents of Zimbabwe and neighboring countries, are growing desperate. People scavenge for leftover food at the local boarding schools. Among the most vulnerable are the approximately 1,500 orphans and families living in Seke whose members have HIV/AIDS. (According to UNAIDS, one in four adults in Zimbabwe is said to be infected with the virus.)
In urban centers, lines for ground corn at supermarkets wind their way around whole blocks and people often wait several days before getting any corn. Although there are no reports of mass starvation yet, there have been several cases of individual deaths from starvation. It only may be a matter of time before the numbers swell. The cases of malnutrition among children under 5-years-old have risen sharply in recent months.
Children in rural schools have fainted in class after going for days without food. No one has the strength to participate in sporting activities, so many have been canceled.
April is normally harvest time in Zimbabwe, but it means little to most peasant farmers this year. Their crops barely appeared before wilting and shriveling in a land without rain for many months.
This year's drought comes hard on the heels of last year's poor harvest, when drought was followed by torrential rains that carried away topsoil. The harvest was thin then, and no additional crops are expected until April 2003.
In normal times, Zimbabwe consumes 2 million tons of corn a year. The drought this year, described as the worst in 50 years by local farmers, has reduced that amount to only 750,000 tons. The country used to export grain and their harvests were very successful. Now, inflation is at 113 percent and the government will have to depend on foreign aid to buy food imports.
To compound the problems, Zimbabwe is bereft of friends in the international community who might come to its aid. The current food crisis is largely considered self-inflicted because the government's land reform program has severely disrupted production on commercial farms. Some districts report that the government is refusing aid to members of the political opposition who challenged President Mugabe in recent elections.
Aid agencies have begun to bring in food under the World Food Program (WFP), but so far they cannot cope with the crisis. To date, the U.S. Government (USG) has provided more than $49.5 million in emergency humanitarian assistance. In past droughts in Zimbabwe, only the most vulnerable needed assistance because there were enough grain reserves for the rest. Today, there is little or no maize meal available, even for those with the money to pay for it.
A large and highly effective Oxfam partner, the Association of Women's Clubs (AWC), recently began an assessment of people's food needs, particularly of vulnerable women and children. The AWC has more than 60,000 members around the country. They have put in an initial request for 6,000 tons of maize to supplement the diets of their members' communities until October 2002. Additional funding is essential to provide food after October for what is expected to be a far larger portion of the population in need.
To arrest the crisis this year, seeds and fertilizers must also be distributed before the next planting season in October. Without these seeds, there will be no crop next April either, and the people will continue to be dependent on external aid.
Zimbabwe's food crisis could well turn into a major humanitarian disaster without international support and a willingness to separate the needs of the people from the political problems dogging the nation. Despite the government's "anti-imperialism" rhetoric, it faces a crisis of a magnitude that can only be solved through international solidarity. The current stand-off between the government of Zimbabwe and international donors should not be allowed to prevent the provision of food assistance, as it is the ordinary people who are bearing the brunt of the crisis.
]]>As part of its campaign calling for better essential services like health care, Oxfam calls on rich countries to lead the fight against the pandemic by fully funding the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and supporting poor countries to build their health systems, including the recruitment, training and retention of more health workers.
“In the global response to AIDS, the lack of trained doctors, nurses and community health workers is without doubt slowing us down. To effectively treat HIV and AIDS, there needs to be more and better training, decent working conditions and adequate salaries for tens of thousands of new doctors and nurses. This will only happen if donors provide more of their aid for health through sector and general budget support, and if developing countries prioritise health services in their national budgets,” said Enida Friel, Oxfam Internatinal Lead on HIV/AIDS.
In four provinces in Angola, Oxfam has been working closely with HIV support groups. Dolmingas dos Saleios Correia is the Advocacy Officer for Accao Humana, an Oxfam partner which operates in Luanda. She is HIV positive and has lost her husband and two children to AIDS.
“Things are improving in Angola. Anti-retrovirals are now freely available in syrup forms for children. However there are still many problems,” Dolmingas says. “In public hospitals for example, there are 10,000 adults on ARV treatment and only ten doctors. Additionally there are 15,000 children receiving ARVs with only two doctors available. The need for more health workers is urgent.”
In Malawi, one of the worst-affected countries in the world, around two out of every three of the 187,000 HIV-positive people are now receiving treatment.
Just five years ago virtually no-one in Malawi was getting treatment. Survival rates are now at around 70%, which is a massive success story says Oxfam.
However, the lack of treatment and care for tens of thousands of patients remains a huge problem. Lingalireni Mihowa, an HIV and AIDS Advisor for Oxfam: "It’s a sad situation when poor Malawians waited this long to have access to free ARV drugs, and now the main barrier to accessing those drugs is the lack of doctors and nurses to administer those life-saving medicines.
“There are just not enough doctors and nurses to respond to the demands of patients. Luckily enough, the Government of Malawi is working with donors and the Global Fund to sort out the situation, but we have still reached a crisis point,” she said.
In India, which has between 2 million to more than 3 million people living with HIV, the largest number outside of Africa, Oxfam runs various programs.
Like in many other countries Oxfam believes that while prevention programs are important, these alone are not enough to halt the increase in infections.
“Sub-Saharan Africa and especially Southern Africa are the regions worst affected by HIV and AIDS. Even though the HIV prevalence is slowing down in some African countries such as Zimbabwe or Kenya, the need to invest in training and support of health professionals is now more imperative then ever.
Building health systems that also deliver reproductive health care is a long term investment in halting and reversing the epidemic worldwide,” said Dr. Friel.
]]>Tense negotiations over the last few weeks have exposed disagreement amongst governments, with some countries, including Italy and Canada, reluctant even to reiterate promises made two years ago in Gleneagles to increase aid to poor countries, and others, led by the US, blocking progress on climate change.
Negotiations on the Africa communiqué were not concluded last week as planned, and emergency discussions between G8 officials are being hastily scheduled for early next week.
Max Lawson, Senior Policy Advisor at Oxfam said: "Talks are going down to the wire and it is astounding that the G8 may not even be willing to reiterate the pledges they made in 2005 to increase aid for Africa. They are failing to live up to what they promised, and now they are trying to hide from their responsibility."
In 2005 the G8 promised to increase overall annual aid levels by $50 billion by 2010, and said that half of this increase - $25 billion - would go to Africa. Oxfam has shown that on current trends, the G8 are likely to miss the target by $30 billion, with the main culprits being Italy, where aid is falling, France, where aid is stagnant, and Germany, whose aid increases are far from enough to meet the promises made in Gleneagles.
Specific financial commitments on HIV/AIDS and education are also being resisted in favor of noncommittal platitudes. Proposals for annual monitoring of aid increases linked to the regular meeting of G8 finance ministers have been quietly ditched. Reports suggest that the G8 chair, Germany, is not pushing this issue as much as it could, in contrast to the strong leadership being shown on the climate issue.
Lawson: "Climate change is a massive challenge, to which all rich-country governments must respond with more money for adaptation and measures to reduce emissions and limit warming to as far below 2 degrees as possible. However, the drive to get agreement on climate must not detract from vital debates on aid. G8 summits must not be simply about making promises, but also about keeping them."
Oxfam said the failure of some G8 countries to increase aid stands in contrast to the welcome announcement yesterday from the US of an extra $30 billion over 5 years to fight HIV-AIDS.
Lawson: "There is still time for the G8 to get this right. Out of this meeting we need to see clear annual timetables for the promised aid increases, which will be publicly monitored by finance ministers. The money is desperately needed to help save lives and boost development in Africa and around the world. The G8's credibility rests on their ability to follow through."
]]>Max Lawson, Senior Policy Advisor at Oxfam said: "What we need to see from the G8 is money, not just another bland communiqué telling us HIV/AIDS is important. By 2010, 10 million people will need treatment, and 7 million need treatment right now. The G8 must stump up the cash now for universal access to prevention, treatment and care, as promised in 2005.
"Germany putting this on the agenda was a real opportunity, but squabbling and backtracking may squander that. In last minute talks, some countries, including Canada and Italy, are trying to avoid any mention of money. Negotiations are set to go on all night. The Germans should hold their ground until the checks are signed."
Oxfam also said that the G8 must agree to provide more money to address the shortage of 4.25 million health workers and inadequate health services in the developing world. Funding must be holistic and coordinated, as it is not enough to build clinics or fund new drug programs if there is nobody to administer them.
Lawson: "Today alone, while the G8 enjoys the sunshine and champagne, 4000 children will be killed by diarrhea and 1400 women will die in pregnancy and childbirth. It is within the G8's power to prevent these unnecessary and shameful deaths.
"Visiting hospitals in Malawi I have met nurses and doctors on 30 hour shifts, without proper breaks. They were exhausted but they didn't feel they could stop. In some places, life-saving drugs were available but are not being administered because there was no one to do so. This is what happens when the G8 renege on their commitments."
Oxfam added that trade rules were impeding access to affordable medicines by granting pharmaceutical companies monopoly rights that threatened generic competition and kept prices high. One out of every three people in the world today cannot afford the medicine they need to treat deadly diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Oxfam is calling on the G8 to:
At the venue of the alternative summit, where campaigners have been gathering since Saturday, Oxfam staged a stunt, with 'Big Head' puppets of G8 leaders dressed as doctors and nurses testing the health of Africa, by holding stethoscopes to a map of the continent.
]]>The decision will protect India's special role as the world's leading provider of affordable medicines to the poor. The agencies welcome Novartis's response today that it is unlikely to appeal the ruling.
Novartis had challenged a law that allows India to refuse a patent for an existing medicine when it had been modified only slightly. The agencies said the case was a direct attack against India's right to protect public health.
Novartis and the pharmaceutical industry have been given a clear message to respect developing countries' legal right to use the World Trade Organization TRIPS (trade-related intellectual property) safeguards to strike the right balance between protecting public health and intellectual property, the agencies said.
India—known as the 'pharmacy of the developing world' due to its massive generic drug production industry—supplies most of the world's affordable generics to developing countries where patented medicines are priced out of most people's reach. More than two-thirds of generic medicines exported from India are sold in developing countries at a fraction of the cost of patented brand medicines.
Novartis's legal challenge posed an enormous threat in developing countries to millions of people suffering from cancer, HIV and AIDS, diabetes and other diseases who are too poor to pay for expensive patented medicines.
Sandhya Venkateswaran, Head of Advocacy for CARE International in India said: "This ruling is a lifeline for the millions of people who cannot afford brand-name drugs, and ensures that essential medicines from India will reach those who rely on them. CARE and other agencies can breathe easily now and continue to deliver treatment programs.
"More than 5 million people with HIV around the world still cannot afford anti-retroviral medicine, but this ruling reduces the number of people for whom HIV is a virtual death sentence. CARE has been able to buy more than twice the amount of anti-retrovirals to treat the HIV and AIDS patients we work with in Peru, thanks to the generic industry in India."
A global campaign by civil society has seen nearly half a million people around the world campaigning against Novartis to drop its case.
Celine Charveriat, head of Oxfam's Make Trade Fair campaign said: "This ruling is a vindication for India and a victory for campaigners. Developing countries should not be bullied by pharmaceutical companies and forced into having to defend themselves in court for correctly using the safeguards available to them to protect public health."
Linda Hartke, coordinator of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, which mobilized church leaders to campaign against Novartis’ case in India, said, “This is a victory for all those who believe people, not profits, must come first in public health.”
CARE, Oxfam, and the EAA call on Novartis to continue to take positive steps to promote access to medicines in developing countries, to promote research and development for neglected diseases and to strike an appropriate balance between protecting public health safeguards in developing countries and intellectual property rights.
]]>G8 countries are "running to stand still" said Max Lawson, Senior Policy Advisor at Oxfam, as last minute talks between officials ended inconclusively, with some countries reluctant even to reiterate past aid promises on the eve of the summit.
Lawson: "G8 officials have today been involved in feverish negotiation over the final texts but have failed to agree. Italy, Canada and Japan are leading the scramble for reverse gear, refusing even to reiterate promises to increase aid that they made in 2005 - mainly because they have been busy breaking those promises ever since."
"The extra aid that was promised at the G8 summit in Gleneagles two years ago could put millions of kids into school, employ nurses, doctors and teachers, buy medicines for people with AIDS—literally save lives. But collectively, the G8 looks set to fall short of their pledge by a massive $30bn. If they do not get back on track, 5 million extra people will die by 2010. This is about a lot more than numbers on a piece of paper."
Climate change is the other issue that remains controversial ahead of the official summit start on Wednesday, with Germany pushing for consensus on a global stabilization target and proposals for multilateral negotiations on a post-2012 framework. The first phase of the Kyoto protocol runs from 2008-2012.
Lawson: "Over the last few days we have seen a plethora of new initiatives on climate change, led by former leading naysayers, but we don't need a new process or approach. There is already a process in place at the UN that countries should follow, and the G8 should support, so that they can come up with a global solution to global problem.
"We are already seeing poor people in developing countries suffering the effects of climate change. They can't wait for the results of a beauty parade of different country initiatives. They need the G8 to provide money now to help them adapt to climate change, while at the same time agreeing on measures to cut emissions and limit global warming to as far below 2 degrees as possible."
Also over the weekend, violent protests attracted the attention of G8 watchers and the media. Peaceful campaigning was overshadowed by violence and injury.
Lawson: "This summit must not be remembered for broken promises and burning cars. There is huge potential here and a huge chance for the world richest and most powerful countries to live up to their responsibility to support development and poverty reduction in the developing world. Failure to act on this would be unforgivable."
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