Beating Malaria: We Must Win This Fight

http://blogs.state.gov/stories/2013/12/11/beating-malaria-we-must-win-fight

Beating Malaria: We Must Win This Fight

POSTED BY JOHN KERRY

DECEMBER 11, 2013

Children Smile From Beneath Mosquito Netting

It’s important to mark milestones of great progress both because they remind us that disciplined and determined efforts can be successful in meeting great challenges – but also because they underscore something Nelson Mandela once told us: ““It always seems impossible until it is done.”

Today, the World Health Organization released a report that confirms what many of us have long believed: we’re knocking on the door of doing what many fifteen years ago deemed impossible. The bottom line: we can beat malaria, one of the most intransigent diseases on the planet.  By bringing together governments, business leaders, philanthropists, donor agencies and citizens in malaria endemic countries to end deaths from this preventable and treatable disease, we’re making tremendous, unparalleled progress.

Just unpack the statistics in this new report, and the reality is compelling. Globally, malaria mortality has fallen 51 percent among children under the age of 5; in sub-Saharan Africa, by 54 percent. We crossed an important threshold in 2012 -- for the first time, fewer than 500,000 children died of malaria.  Our efforts saved approximately 3.3 million lives between 2000 and 2012.

It’s not just that we are beating back malaria in and of itself; the ripple effect is dramatic. Just connect the dots. President Obama has insisted we all focus on his big, bold vision of ending preventable child and maternal deaths by 2035, and helping relieve extreme poverty.  If you beat malaria, you’ve taken dramatic steps in that direction.

The gains we’re witnessing also depict a powerful model of global cooperation among all kinds of stakeholders – and that’s a reflection of President Obama’s larger vision as well. When you pull people together, you benefit from the multiplier effect. The result is a shared success. Collective efforts of national governments, international donors, including the United States, the U.K., the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, The World Bank, foundations, the private sector, non-governmental and faith-based organizations, local leaders, civil society, philanthropists, companies, and many others are making a difference.  Our own efforts accelerated in 2005 when President George W. Bush announced the launch of the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), an initiative Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer has led with incredible results since its inception.

What are the results?  Since 2006, 12 of the original 15 PMI focus countries have had reductions in childhood mortality rates, ranging from 16 to 50 percent. Since 2008, President Obama has expanded PMI to include 19 focus countries in Africa and one regional program in the Greater Mekong Subregion.  And we have a lot to show for our collective efforts.  In 2012, PMI protected over 50 million people with a prevention measure (insecticide-treated nets and/or indoor residual spraying) and distributed more than 43 million treatments of life-saving drugs to targeted populations.

For the United States, the fight has been a truly whole of government effort, led by USAID and implemented together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and including the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Defense.

 But we can't rest on our laurels.  The last mile is the toughest and we have to remain committed.  Despite the tremendous progress against a disease that has plagued humanity since the beginning of recorded history, challenges remain. Over 3 billion people remain at risk of malaria today.  Malaria is still a drain on families, keeping children out of school and people out of work. Eliminating this disease will have economic payoffs – and promote stability and peace. In order to eliminate not only child deaths but also the disease itself, we must continue to deliver the existing, proven tools to prevent, diagnose, and treat malaria.  But we must also work to develop a vaccine, improve national health systems, deploy innovative disease surveillance and response technologies, and keep ahead of threats like insecticide and drug resistance.

Last week, we hosted a replenishment conference in Washington, D.C. to finance the Global Fund to Fight HIV, TB, and Malaria from 2014 to 2016. There, President Obama announced that the United States will provide one dollar for every two dollars contributed by the rest of the world, up to $5 billion by 2016.  This bipartisan commitment in Congress, spanning two administrations, will remain critical to not just to making history on malaria, but of effectively retiring malaria to the history books, right where it belongs.  And we're looking for our partners to do the same.

Today’s report is a timely reminder of the incredible progress that can be made when we harness public and private resources from around the world to tackle a global health challenge.  But it is also an invitation for us to do more.  We can and must win this fight. Onwards!

About the Author: John Kerry serves as the 68th Secretary of State.

- See more at: http://blogs.state.gov/stories/2013/12/11/beating-malaria-we-must-win-fight#sthash.AsvYHVyU.dpuf

Webinar: January 14, 2014. Estate Planning for People with ID & DD and their Families.

The Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities and Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council present the following webinar: Futures and Estate Planning for People with ID & DD and their Families When January 14, 2014 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Add to Calendar    Where    Webinar  The webinar link and webinar call in information will be provided after registration has been completed. This information will be located on the registration confirmation page that will be emailed once you have registered. Dear Charles, The Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities and the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council present the webinar titled "Futures and Estate Planning for People with Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities and their Families." This informative webinar will be presented by Victoria Sulerzyski, an attorney with the law firm Ober|Kaler, and a member of MCDD's Consumer Advisory Council. Victoria was also a contributor to the Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council's Futures and Estate Planning Guide "Planning Now", which can be downloaded at www.md-council.org. Please click on the "Get more information" link below for a more detailed outline of the webinar topics. Get more information Register Now! I can't make it    Sincerely,    The Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities and Maryland Developmental Disabilities Council Aisha Mason, MCDD 443-923-9555 masona@kennedykrieger.org

http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/12/need-climate-change-policy-malawis-poor/

Politicians’ Delay Means Climate Catastrophe for Malawi’s Poor

By Mabvuto Banda

Agnes Katete lights a fire in a make-shift camp. Behind her are the tents that she and those affected by the March flood in Malawi’s Kilipula Village now live in. Credit: Mabvuto Banda/IPS

LILONGWE, Dec 12 2013 (IPS) - Delays in finalising Malawi’s climate change policy, which has been in the making for the last three years, are affecting millions of families living in disaster-prone areas across this southern African nation, says the country’s minister of environment and climate change management Halima Daudi.

Daudi, who led the Malawian delegation to COP19 in Warsaw last month, tells IPS that the delay in drafting and making the policy operational comes at a cost to many of Malawi’s vulnerable.

“For example there is the GCF [Green Climate Finance] which needs us to come up with a governing instrument by establishing an authority designated to be the focal point to handle the funds and we cannot access that without a national policy on climate change,” she says.

For the last three years, the Malawian government, with the help of United Nations agencies, has been working on the National Climate Change Policy, a National Climate Change Investment Plan and a National Adaptation Plan to address medium- to long-term adaptation needs for Malawi.

William Chadza, executive director for the Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy, a local civil society grouping, explains that “as a country we cannot access financing for adaptation without a well-articulated national climate policy and a national adaptation plan which needs to establish a body to specifically handle climate funds.”

Daudi agrees. “It’s very difficult for us to access such funds for adaptation and mitigation, which in the end increases the vulnerability of so many families to [the impact of] climate change,” she says.

But she explained the delays were ”due to [a lack of] funding for holding consultative meetings, and mainly because we don’t want to rush this. It’s a very important policy that will define our resolve against climate change. We are taking time on it.

”But Dora Marema, coordinator for GenderCC, a network of women and gender activists working for gender and climate justice, says that the delays in implementing the national climate policies in several African countries, including Malawi, is affecting hundreds of thousands of people reeling from the effects of climate change.

“It’s true that most countries are failing to access funds for adaptation because their policies are not in place and the impact is on the most vulnerable, especially women trying to recover from disasters associated with climate change,” Marema tells IPS.

And the longer it takes to implement Malawi’s climate change policy, the longer it will be before Agnes Katete and her family get back on their feet.

In March, a mountain of water came gushing through the only door in Katete’s dingy shack in the wee hours of the morning. The water swept away her house and 10 others in Kilipula Village in the lakeshore district of Karonga, which lies 600 km from the capital Lilongwe.

Katete, a mother of four, was lucky. She managed to escape unhurt with her children.

But like many others in her village, she lost her rice fields. And now, nine months after they lost everything; they are still unable to pull through.

Katete and many others from her village are still living in make shift homes set up by government and U.N. agencies, surviving on food handouts.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to me and my children because another rainy season has started and I still don’t have a house. I lost all my income and I have no food,” she tells IPS.

Over the last five years, persistent droughts, flash floods and erratic rainfall show how vulnerable the country has become. This year alone, according to the department for disaster affairs, floods have affected close to 12,877 households and wiped out entire crop fields mainly in the northern and southern parts of the country.

In March 2012, flooding caused by two weeks of torrential rains destroyed thousands of homes in eight districts, leaving an estimated 300,000 people destitute, eight people dead and several missing.

The largest impact of climate change could be on Malawi’s agriculture sector, which is heavily dependent on rain-fed cultivation. The country has three million hectares of arable land.

Evans Njewa, an environmental policy and planning officer, tells IPS that one of the adaptation methods that Malawi plans to promote and create awareness on is traditional soil conservation. He explains that conservation agriculture, which involves reduced tillage, permanent soil cover and crop rotation, can help adapt to climate change effects because it potentially increases productivity through better soils and helps farmers adapt to climate change through better water retention.

“Like many other African countries, we are looking at adaptation as a priority in the National Climate Policy,” Njewa says, because as “a less industrialised country” it is easier “to [be able to] concentrate on mitigation.”

IPS is an international communication institution with a global news agency at its core, raising the voices of the South 
and civil society on issues of development, globalisation, human rights and the environment 

Solicitation Opportunity: State of Delaware. Cyber Security

The State of Delaware will be posting a solicitation the beginning of January for Cyber Security and Disaster Recovery Staffing Services. 

The State of Delaware offers a free Vendor Subscription service which allows vendors to receive email notification when solicitations in specific areas of interest are available. 

Please take a moment to register for any area of business you may wish to receive notification on at: https://de.blackboardconnect.com/. 

This service complements our central solicitation website http://bids.delaware.gov that is a one stop shop for RFP’s, ITB’s and RFI’s for the State of Delaware. 

Registration will enable you to receive an alert for each solicitation posted of interest to your business at the time of posting.

December 11th...."Let's Rock". Think-Tank Panel Discussion with Beverly Bond.

Beverly Bond, founder of Black Girls Rock! will be hosting a think-tank panel discussion and town hall on race, gender and media messaging in the 21st century. 

The Black Girls Rock! panel will be held at the 
        Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, located in Harlem, N.Y., at 
        135th & Lenox on 
         Dec. 11, 2013, 
         5 to 9 p.m.  

For more information, please visit:www.eventbrite.com/e/the-black-girls-rock-think-tank-presents-checkin-our-fresh-registration-4449971986.

Washington, D.C. Celebration December 19, 2013......138th birthday of Dr. Carter G. Woodson,

FYI

Greetings,

The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University is pleased to be joining the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and the National Parks Service in celebrating the 138^th birthday of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Association, the Journal of Negro History (now the Journal of African American History), and the annual Black History Month commemoration.  Dr. Woodson founded the graduate program in History at Howard and served as Dean of its College of Arts and Sciences.  He has likely had a greater impact on the study of black history than any other single individual in the world.  This is to invite you to join us on December 19, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. for this annual celebration.

The event will be held at the historic Shiloh Baptist Church, 1500 9^th St. NW.  Dr. Gregory Carr, esteemed Director of the African American Studies Department at Howard, is the featured speaker.  I hope you will join me and the staff at Moorland as we celebrate the life and legacy of one of our most distinguished pioneers in the preservation, interpretation, and celebration  of black history and culture.

Sincerely,

Howard Dodson, Director

Moorland-Spingarn Research Center

Howard Dodson, Jr.

Howard Dodson Jr., Director, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center/Howard University Library System (HULS)

500 Howard Place NW, Room 203 Founders

Washington, DC 20059

(202) 806-7234; (202) 806-5903 fax

howard.dodson@howard.edu

December 6, 2013. Briefing on Shale Gas Debase (Fracking Process)

BRIEFING NOTICE

The Shale Gas Debate:
How Industry and Environmental Messages Stack Up

December 6, 2013
2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
188 Russell Senate Office Building

Resources for the Future (RFF) invites you to a briefing on how messaging from the shale gas industry and environmental organizations affects the public’s attitudes toward shale gas development.

Recently, US Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell called upon industry to provide better information to the public about the fracking process. She said the public debate is “confused” and “not well-informed,” stating that industry is responsible for making sure “that the public understand what [fracking] is, how it’s done, and why it’s safe.” Industry has also recognized the need to raise the public’s comfort level, especially in states such as Colorado, where three cities recently approved bans or moratoriums on hydraulic fracturing. New research at RFF shows that industry will need to provide not just more information, but better information if it is to improve public confidence.

This briefing will examine survey results about the public’s level of concern regarding the potential environmental and health risks associated with shale gas development, and how much people value reducing such risks—how much they are willing to pay in increased taxes, utility bills, and so on to reduce those risks. The briefing will also show how different sources of information (industry and environmental) affect people’s attitudes and beliefs about shale gas development in their states.

This briefing is based on a new survey conducted by RFF researchers of a random sample of individuals in Pennsylvania, where residents are still adjusting to the boom in shale gas development and drilling in their state, and in Texas, where residents are more accustomed to these types of energy development activities.

Speakers for this briefing:

• Dr. Alan J. Krupnick, RFF Senior Fellow and Director of RFF’s Center for Energy Economics and Policy
• Dr. Juha V. Siikamäki, RFF Associate Research Director and Fellow

Watch Dr. Krupnick preview the results of this survey on E&E TV.

RSVP to Christine Tolentino at tolentino@rff.org. For questions, contact Shannon Wulf at wulf@rff.org.

CDC. Public Health Law Program

http://www.cdc.gov/phlp/publications/topic/emergency.html

Emergency Preparedness

The Public Health Emergency Preparedness Clearinghouse is a central repository for emergency preparedness-related statutes, regulations, orders, reports, and legal tools. The Clearinghouse is intended to aid jurisdictions considering updates and clarifications to their public health emergency legal preparedness activities.

Model Memorandums of Understanding

• Selected Model Memorandums of Understanding
  Selected examples are provided to enhance coordination of preparedness across sectors.

Public Health Law Bench Books

• Bench booksCommonly used by judges as functional practice guides to accelerate their understanding of an area of law. States have public health law bench books for the judiciary; public health officials; state and local public health attorneys; and the public.

Toolkits, Handbooks, and Menus

• Legal Barriers Toolkits
  Toolkits to help public health officials understand and use legal authorities to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. They cover emergency authorities and immunities, emergency use authorizations, public health and schools, and scope of practice issues. Developed by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the Public Health Law Program.
• Selected Federal Legal Authorities Pertinent to Public Health Emergencies  [PDF - 150KB]
  Lists federal laws that address preparing for and responding to a range of natural and man-made disasters and emergencies. The list includes a brief description of the law and a citation.
• Social Distancing Law Assessment Template
  A standardized template for assessing legal authorities, hypothetical scenario and instructions for conducting a Legal Consultation Meeting, and examples of completed documents.
• Court House Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies (Univ. of Pittsburgh)  [PDF-852KB]
  A case study demonstrating how Pennsylvania counties have conducted emergency planning that includes a planning template and planning resources.
• Criminal and Epidemiological Investigations Handbook  [PDF-12.4MB]
  Provides an overview of criminal and epidemiological investigation procedures involving interactions between law enforcement and public health. Law enforcement and public health officials should read the entire handbook to understand the different goals and needs of the other organization before an event occurs. This handbook will teach public health and law enforcement how to work together to identify the biological agent, prevent the spread of the disease, avoid public panic, and apprehend those responsible.

Training and Educational Resources

• Legal Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies: A Model for Minimum Competencies for Mid-Tier Public Health Professionals  [PDF - 363KB]
  Model set of Minimum Competencies in Public Health Emergency Law for mid-tier public health professionals to advance the inclusion of law-based content in all public health emergency training, resources, and tools. Developed at the request of CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Response and the Association of Schools of Public Health as a companion document to the Public Health Preparedness and Response (PHPR) Core Competency Model (Dec 2010) for mid-level public health workers and the supportingKnowledge, Skills and Attitudes for the PHPR Core Competencies  [PDF - 1MB] (Sept 2012).
• Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Centers (PERLC)
  The PERLC develop and deliver competency-based preparedness and response learning products for the US public health workforce, including training on legal aspects of emergency response. The program is funded through CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Emergency Response.
• Public Health and the Law: An Emergency Preparedness Training Kit
  Training kit to prepare public health practitioners, their legal counsel, and other partners to understand and effectively address changes in the legal environment as a result of an emergency. Published by the National Association of County and City Health Officials and the Public Health Law Program.
• Forensic Epidemiology 3.0
  Training package designed to help public health and law enforcement agencies strengthen their coordinated response to pandemic influenza and similar disease outbreaks.
• Public Health Emergency Law 3.0
  Training to help public health practitioners and emergency management professionals improve their understanding of the role of law in public health emergency response.
• Suggested Communicable Disease Vignettes (California Department of Health Services)  [PDF-44KB]
  Intended to train users to describe communicable disease scenarios that are disruptive to safe court operations, identify health benefits of various precaution methods, and define factors that result in infectious disease transmission.

Vulnerable Populations

• Older Adult Emergency Preparedness Web Portal
  A web portal that serves as a one-stop source for further resources, tools, and information related to all-hazards preparedness for older adults. Focus areas include developing plans, collecting and using data, registries, training and competency, law-based solutions, caregiver preparedness, and sheltering older adults.

Disclaimer: Information available on this website that was not developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not necessarily represent any CDC policy, position, or endorsement of that information or of its sources. The information contained on this website is not legal advice; if you have questions about a specific law or its application you should consult your legal counsel.

Food Security, Trade Facilitation Clash in Bali

http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/12/food-security-trade-facilitation-clash-bali/

Food Security, Trade Facilitation Clash in Bali

By Ravi Kanth Devarakonda

Second day of the WTO's ministerial conference in Bali, Indonesia. Credit: © WTO/ANTARA

BALI, Dec 4 2013 (IPS) - The World Trade Organisation’s ninth ministerial meeting at Bali, Indonesia has morphed into a fierce battle between the countries seeking social safety nets for hundreds of millions of poor people and those insisting on having advanced import-facilitation programmes in the developing countries on par with the industrialised nations.

These two narratives openly clashed at the plenary meeting Tuesday. “Millions of people depend on food security and millions of people are going to see what will be done on this vital issue,” Kenya’s foreign minister Amina Mohamed told IPS.

“In Africa there are millions of people who need food security and they are all waiting to see if the ministers in Bali are going to be sensitive as an international community to the livelihood and survival concerns of the most vulnerable people,” she said.

She urged the trade ministers “to come up with a solution to send a message that we heard what you are saying and that we want to support your issue and we acknowledge food security is a vital issue.”

India’s trade minister Anand Sharma said at the plenary meeting that “Food security is essential for four billion people and is an important goal of the millennium development goals.

“Food security is non-negotiable,” said Sharma, maintaining that India cannot accept the current interim mechanism because it fails to provide legal certainty. Public stockholding of food grains to ensure food security must be respected, he said.

In the run-up to the Dec. 3-6 Bali meeting, India along with a group of countries including Bolivia, Cuba, Kenya, South Africa, Venezuela and Zimbabwe pressed hard for improved rules to ensure that their public stockholding programmes for food security are not undermined by flawed trade rules.

The rules in the WTO agreement on agriculture were largely crafted by the European Union and the United States during the 1986-1994 Uruguay Round of negotiations. While the rules insulate mega subsidisers from clear discipline, they are somewhat indifferent to the concerns of countries with large populations. “Dated WTO rules need to be corrected,” Sharma said

More importantly, “any trade agreement must be in harmony with our shared commitment to eliminate hunger and ensure the right to food, which we accepted as part of the MDG agenda,” the Indian minister said.

At issue is whether developing countries like India and Kenya, which have massive public stockholding programmes, particularly procuring food grains from small and poor farmers at minimum support prices, should face legal challenges due to rules that are inconsistent with current global economic realities.

Over the last 15 years, prices of essential food items have gone up by over 250 percent.

India, along with the members of the G33 coalition of 46 developing countries led by Indonesia, made a strong case for changing some parameters in the current WTO agreement on agriculture.

The G33 called for updating the external reference price in the WTO agreement to reflect current global prices. The coalition also demanded that excessive inflation be taken into consideration when assessing the commitments.

The industrialised countries, led by the U.S. and EU, vehemently opposed the G33 demand last year, saying they would never allow any change in the rules. But after sustained sabre rattling and intimidating threats, the developed countries backed down from their initial position, promising a more flexible response.

They offered what is called a “Peace Clause” as part of the Bali package, which would provide temporary respite – for no more than four years – from any trade disputes. But although they agreed to continue the discussion, they did not commit to finding a permanent solution.

In sharp contrast to their opposition to food security proposals from the developing countries led by India and Kenya, the industrialised countries pressed for a brand-new agreement on trade facilitation, which involves comprehensive changes in the customs and import procedures. The new TF agreement calls for a number of changes in the previous WTO rules.

If concluded at Bali, the trade facilitation agreement would save around 441 billion dollars for developing countries, said the EU trade commissioner Karel de Gucht. In fact, the International Chamber of Commerce claimed that a WTO trade facilitation agreement would provide gains to the tune of one trillion dollars for the developing and least developed countries.

WTO director general Roberto Azevêdo has also made similar claims over the last three days to drum up support for the Bali package.

The trade facilitation agreement, said de Gucht, is “essentially a way to help many countries cut red tape at their borders, to become more efficient and effective traders.”

Although the industrialised countries have constantly repeated the mantra that trade facilitation would deliver enormous gains, they have so far offered no conclusive evidence to that end.

“Unfortunately, these figures depend on too many unjustifiable assumptions to be relied on,” wrote Jeronim Capaldo, an academic at the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University near Boston in the U.S.

Inaccurate estimates and unclear gains have become the order of the day. “It is hard to see how uncertain gains and unequal distribution of costs [underlying trade facilitation estimates] can justify diverting resources to trade facilitation from badly needed policies such as the strengthening of social safety nets,” Capaldo argued.

The Bali meeting has brought the simmering conflict into the open. Participants described it as a clash of these two narratives – a food security-plus approach as proposed by India and other developing countries versus a TF-plus approach pushed by industrialised nations and some developing countries.

South Africa’s trade minister Rob Davies cautioned against the imbalances in the Bali package, particularly the tilt towards trade facilitation.

Kenya’s foreign minister Mohamed, meanwhile, said “I agree with India, and we all want a clear solution…I’m hopeful that language will be found to move forward on this issue… I don’t think it is in anybody’s interest to allow this ministerial to send the wrong signal that we cannot come together and that we cannot find language to satisfy millions of poor people. It is important we achieve a concrete result on this at the Bali meeting.”

The fate of the Bali package now hangs in the balance. In the next 72 hours, the world will know whether a solution could be found for addressing the food security issue – or whether the Bali package will be torpedoed due to unbridgeable differences.