The Drum Beat 121 - Communication News, Development News, Base Line (10/1 - 11/13)

This issue pulls together compelling stories from The CI Home Page from Oct 1 to Nov 13 2001. The Home Page includes 3 sections - Development News, Communication News & Base Line. We find relevant information, usually from sources that you won't see in the mainstream media. Links are provided for more information. Stories change every Tuesday & Friday. 

Please take a look, let us know what you think and send us your stories and information. Contact cmorry@comminit.com

***

COMMUNICATION NEWS

1. Congolese Using Web to Seek Common Ground - Sept 23 2001 Balancing Act. The office of the facilitator of the inter-Congolese peace and reconciliation dialogue has launched a bilingual (French/English) web site at http://www.drcpeace.org that enables information to be channelled to the actors involved in the process, journalists, experts, and the Congolese people. The site contains recent information about the DRC, a directory of updates, publications and reports. It is designed to 'fill the information gap on the progress of the DRC peace process'.

2. New Report Looks at NGOs & Capacity Building - Sept 2001 Indev. Is much of the talk about 'capacity building' woolly theorizing? Is enough known about what it really entails? Donors and international NGOs have often understood it to be simply training in accountancy and financial management. What do southern NGOs want and expect to develop capacity? An INTRAC report - http://www.id21.org/society/s8crj1g1.html - looks at differences in north-south priorities and suggests how actors should work together to determine capacity building needs, plan appropriate interventions and measure their impact.

3. MSNBC Launches Arabic Language Website - Oct 17 2001 Benton Communications Related Headlines WiredNews - MSNBC has introduced an Arabic-language version of its website called Good News 4 Me. MSNBC says the site is unlike many outlets in the Middle East in that it will be 'free of government censorship' and will fill a need for 'unbiased news in the region'. Some, however, wonder if Arabs will take to MSNBC's Western perspective. Asked to comment on the initiative, the director of the Middle East Media Research Institute said, 'call me back in 3 weeks'.

4. E-mail Newsletter Launched by Kosova Women's Network - Oct 29 2001 The Advocacy Project - 'The international community needs to do much more to eradicate the trafficking of women from Kosova and curb violence against women', says a new publication by and for the women of Kosova. Called 'KWN Voices,' it is the monthly newsletter of the Kosova Women's Network, linking 32 women's groups across the province. For subscription information visit the KNW website.

5. Children in Our Midst - Voices of Farmworkers' Children - Oct 24 2001 Kubatana. For many years farmworkers in Zimbabwe have been a marginalised and neglected community. This is even truer of their children. Children in our Midst brings together the voices of several hundred children collected through essays and interviews. To order a copy email weaver@africaonline.co.zw or visit the Weaver Press website.

***

DEVELOPMENT NEWS

6. China Admits AIDS Crisis - Sept 29 2001 BMJ. China's top health officials have acknowledged that China faces an HIV/AIDS crisis. 600,000 people had been infected by the end of 2000 and infection rates of about 30% have been predicted by the US embassy. China says it will hold the numbers of infected people to below 1.5 million through 2010 but UN AIDS has warned the figure could be as high as 20 million. 30,000 to 50,000 people were infected through poorly managed blood collection operations and the government has admitted it has 'not effectively controlled the epidemic'.

7. South Africa's Winning Tobacco Control Strategy - Sept 21 2001 IDRC Reports. Smoking has been rated South Africa's 2nd highest health concern, after HIV/AIDS. However, some of the strictest tobacco control measures by a developing country have led to 8 consecutive years of falling cigarette consumption and a drop in the percentage of adult smokers from 32 to 28%. The main tool has been an increase in tobacco taxes to a rate of 50% of the retail price which has contributed, in real terms, to a doubling of the price of cigarettes between 1993 and 2000.

8. No New Drugs for 'Unprofitable' Diseases of Developing World - Oct 26 2001 Health-E News Service. A report, by MSF called 'Fatal Imbalance' claims that of 11 companies surveyed (representing combined annual sales of U.S. $117 billion), only 1 new TB drug was brought to the market in the last 5 years. 8 companies reported no research activities in the last year for fatal diseases almost exclusively affecting the poor such as sleeping sickness, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis while many drugs are being developed for sleeping disorders, impotence and obesity.

9. Crop Yields in Tropics to Drop Dramatically Due to Climate Change - Nov 8 2001 UNEP. Harvests of some of the world's most important food crops could fall by 33% in some crucial parts of the planet as a result of climate change, scientists are warning. New studies indicate that for every 1 degree rise in areas such as the Tropics, yields could tumble by as much as 10%. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimate that average global temperatures in the Tropics could climb by as much as 3 degrees C by 2100.

***

DB Classifieds - Training, Books, Consultants will be issued Dec 5.

Contact Janice Innes jinnes@comminit.com for details on posting information.

***

BASE LINE

10. Women's Reproductive Health & Armed Conflict - Source: Saving Women's Lives Fact Sheet.

 

• More than 26 million refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced persons are registered worldwide and millions more are unregistered. 50% are girls and women.
   
• Gender-based violence tends to increase in refugee situations, where reproductive health services are often lacking.
   
• As a result of violence and stress during the siege of Sarajevo, perinatal mortality increased from 15 deaths per 1,000 live births before the war to 39 deaths per 1,000 afterward, and birth defects went from 1 to 3 %.
   
• A 1994 study of Rwandan refugees in Tanzanian camps found that 60% of the women had a reproductive tract infection. Refugees from the former Yugoslavia who were treated and documented in London showed a 34% rate of sexually transmitted infections.
   
• More than 20% of births at a Burundi refugee camp in Tanzania in 1998 were below average weight, and infant deaths rose sharply from prewar levels. Of Rwandan women who reported being raped, 17% were HIV-positive.

11. AIDS Success in Zambia - Source: Excerpt from a story submitted to AF-AIDS - 'Which Success Story at ICASA 2001?'
The national prevalence of HIV in Zambia is on the decline:

• Between 1994 & 1998, HIV prevalence among urban adults fell from 28.5 to 26.2% and in rural areas from 12.1 to 11.7%.
   
• More impressively however, HIV prevalence among urban teenage girls fell from 28.4% in 1993 to 14.8% in 1998.

Why is not known for sure but educated guesses point to:

• Widespread community response led by 1000's of volunteers and 100's of small community organisations.
   
• Peer youth action.
   
• Reaching men in their workplace.
   
• Innovative rural mission hospital programmes.

***

This issue compiled by Chris Morry cmorry@comminit.com

***

The Drum Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

Please send material for The Drum Beat to the Editor - Deborah Heimann dheimann@comminit.com

To reproduce any portion of The Drum Beat, see our policy.

To subscribe, click here.