Friday, November 15, 2013

Webinar: November 20th, Best Practices to Improve Situational Awareness ^ Interoperability

The National Information Sharing Consortium (NISC)

Sharing Tools and Best Practices to Improve Situational Awareness and Interoperability

November 20, 2013 -- 12:00 Noon Eastern

EMForum.org is pleased to host a one hour presentation and interactive discussion Wednesday, November 20, 2013 beginning at 12:00 Noon Eastern time (please convert to your local time). Our topic will be the National Information Sharing Consortium (NISC). As an independent consortium, NISC strives to bring together data owners, custodians, and users involved in the fields of homeland security, public safety, and emergency management and response to leverage efforts related to governance, development, and sharing of technology, data processes, and best practices.

Our guest will be Sean McSpaden, Membership and Outreach Coordinator for the consortium and Principal Legislative IT Analyst for the State of Oregon Legislative Fiscal Office.

Please make plans to join us, and see the Background Page for links to related resources and participant Instructions. On the day of the program, use the Webinar Login link not more than 30 minutes before the scheduled time. As always, please feel free to extend this invitation to your colleagues

In partnership with Jacksonville State University, EIIP offers CEUs for attending EMForum.org Webinars.  See http://www.emforum.org/CEUs.htm for details.

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Typhoon Haiyan. PHILIPPINES. Little Preparation for a Great Disaster


http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/11/little-preparation-for-a-great-disaster/


Asia-PacificDevelopment & AidEditors' ChoiceEnvironmentFeaturedGlobal GovernanceHeadlinesHuman Rights,Humanitarian EmergenciesPopulationPoverty & MDGsRegional CategoriesTerraViva EuropeTerraViva United Nations,United Nations

Little Preparation for a Great Disaster

The coastal town of Ormoc city in western Leyte, Philippines after typhoon Haiyan struck. Credit: Arlynn Aquino EU/ECHO/CC by 2.0
The coastal town of Ormoc city in western Leyte, Philippines after typhoon Haiyan struck. Credit: Arlynn Aquino EU/ECHO/CC by 2.0
MANILA, Nov 12 2013 (IPS) - Despite the government’s early warnings and evacuation of up to 800,000 people from vulnerable areas, the category 5 – the highest level – Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda to Filipinos) has left some communities and coastal zones in the central Philippine islands of Visayas in complete ruins.
Widely characterised as history’s strongest-ever typhoon, Haiyan made landfall in the Philippines on Nov. 8, slightly weakening before claiming the lives of thousands of people and inflicting severe economic damage on the country.
By some estimates, as many as 10,000 people may have lost their lives, with Tacloban City, the capital of Leyte province, bearing the brunt of the super typhoon. Another 600,000 people have been displaced, according to the U.N.
In the initial hours of the typhoon’s landfall, intermittent reports provided a glimpse of the potential impact of the storm, but many communities remained inaccessible to authorities and aid agencies for days.
This meant thousands of people were left with no basic necessities in the hours following the damage, with a cloud of uncertainty hanging over many affected areas in need of immediate assistance.
Almost a day into the storm’s landfall, the U.N. office in Manila rang alarm bells by telling Bloomberg news that certain areas were “still cut off from relief operations”, with “unknown numbers of survivors [lacking] basic necessities” due to the massive destruction of basic infrastructure.
“In the coming days, be assured: help will reach you faster and faster,” Philippine President Benigno Aquino declared after visiting the devastated areas, trying to reassure thousands of desperate citizens in need of relief and basic security. “The delivery of food, water and medicines to the most heavily affected areas is at the head of our priorities.”
Hours after the storm, local media portrayed a general picture of desperation and panic as many citizens sought basic commodities wherever they could find them. It took some time before the government was able to send troops and personnel to organise the distribution of relief and establish a modicum of stability in badly affected areas.
The Philippines army dispatched four C-130 planes to the affected areas, which were only able to arrive during daylight hours. An army battalion, comprising up to 250 troops, was sent to Tacloban, the most badly affected area.
“We’re sending medicine, relief goods, emergency response teams and tents, generators, communications equipment and fuel,” army spokesman Colonel Miguel Okol told reporters, underscoring the importance of the armed forces to relief operations as well as establishing post-crisis order. “But our priority right now is sending out security – Philippines National Police – to deal with the [reports of] violence.”
So far, reports suggest the extent of the damage overwhelmed local authorities, with the national government, in the immediate aftermath of the storm’s impact, struggling to establish communication with affected areas.
The sheer force of Haiyan simply devastated airports, roads, electricity grids, and telephone lines, making it almost impossible for optimal coordination between authorities and leaving some affected areas in momentary isolation – just when they needed help the most.
Up to 9.5 million people were affected, 20,000 houses were ruined, four airports were shut down, with the total estimated costs of typhoon Haiyan possibly reaching up to 14 billion dollars. The U.N. World Food Programme announced that as many as 2.5 million people were in need of emergency assistance.
In response, the government announced that it was releasing an initial amount of 533 million dollars in discretionary funds to cover immediate relief operations as well as reconstruction efforts.
In Tacloban, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) requested around 100 hectares for establishing a resettlement site for some 45,000 families. So far, it has acquired about 300 hectares from the local government.
The National Food Authority, meanwhile, announced that it has up to three million sacks of rice ready for redistribution in affected areas, but officials have raised concern with repacking of food items and their delivery to affected areas.
Experts such as Zhang Qiang, a specialist on disaster mitigation at Beijing Normal University, have tried to underscore the inevitability of Haiyan’s devastating impact on affected areas by arguing, “Sometimes, no matter how much and how fully you prepare, the disaster is just too big.”
Despite impressive rates of economic growth in recent years, with the Philippine economy projected earlier this year to grow by as high as seven percent in 2013, there has been relatively small investment in basic infrastructure. Thousands of roads and bridges are in desperate need of maintenance and improvement, while many rural areas are still to enjoy reliable electricity connection and reliable access to urban centres.
The Aquino administration has tirelessly sought to push ahead with a dozen major Private-Public Partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects to boost the economy and improve the country’s resilience to natural disasters, yet most aren’t expected to be finished before 2015.
A combination of regulatory uncertainty, corruption, and mismanagement has left many areas, especially outside the industrialised centres in the northern island of Luzon, lacking in basic, quality infrastructure.
In recent years, experts and pundits have consistently pushed the Philippine government to improve its basic infrastructure, especially given the country’s vulnerability to natural calamities. Many have criticised the government for not implementing more decisive measures ahead of the storm.
Knowing very well that many shantytowns and coastal communities have always been vulnerable to natural disasters, there were a number of options that the government could have pursued, critics argue, from the mandatory evacuation of citizens in high-risk areas to the establishment of concrete bunkers that can withstand super- storms.
But for many, the greater issue is climate change, and how developing countries such as the Philippines have been paying the price of centuries of relentless industrial expansion by the developed world, exacerbated by the ongoing deadlock in climate negotiations, whereby major Western countries as well as big emerging economies have refused to subject their emission levels to mandatory reduction.
More regrettably, beyond the setbacks in mitigating global warming, many poorer countries have also lamented the rich world’s lack of investment in adaptation funds, which could help more vulnerable countries to cope with the impact of climactic fluctuations.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Webinar: 2014 Farm Bill Spending Plan

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 We have scheduled a series of Webinars to assist anyone who is planning on submitting a suggestion for consideration for the 2014 spending plan. Each of the hour long sessions will cover the same information, show attendees the submission process and provide time for asking questions.

Remember to check the Farm Bill Web site for the information you need to submit a suggestion for the FY14 Spending Plan.

Webinar Schedule

Tuesday
November 19
11:00 am eastern time
General Public
(Suggestion Help Session)
Wednesday
November 20
11:00 am eastern time
General Public
(Suggestion Help Session)
Wednesday
November 20
2:00 pm eastern time
General Public
(Suggestion Help Session)
Thursday
November 21
11:00 am eastern time
General Public
(Suggestion Help Session)
Thursday
November 21
2:00 pm eastern time
General Public
(Suggestion Help Session)
Friday
November 22
11:00 am eastern time
General Public
(Suggestion Help Session)
Thursday
December 5
2:00 pm eastern time
General Public
(Suggestion Help Session)
Wednesday
December18
11:00 am eastern time
General Public
(Suggestion Help Session)

Webinar Details

The connection information for all the Webinars is the same.


Join the AUDIO portion: Dial Toll-free: +1 (888) 844-9904    Participant code: 118 6703

FIRST-TIME USERS of Microsoft Live Meeting
Check your system before the meeting to make sure it is ready to use Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

TROUBLESHOOTING
Unable to join the meeting? Follow these steps:
1. Copy this address and paste it into your web browser:
2. Copy and paste the required information:
       Meeting ID: FarmBill_FY14
       Location: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/usda
If you still cannot enter the meeting, contact a technical support person for your system or


If you have any questions about the upcoming Webinars or information provided on the Farm Bill Web site, contact the Farm Bill Management Team at PPQ.Section.Farmbill-10201@aphis.usda.gov.

Sincerely,

The Farm Bill Management Team

Valerie DeFeo
Kristian Rondeau

Ken Bloem

Sunday, November 10, 2013

December 2, 2013. Unethical Medical Practice Congressional Hearings. Washington, D.C.

Dear Doctors, Civil Rights and Human Rights Legal Advocates:

As leaders seeking solutions to health disparities and reproductive justice for women in the U.S. and globally, it is my deep pleasure to inform you that on December 3rd, 2013, Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ) will hold a two-hour Congressional Hearing on Unethical Medical Practices (see attached summary).

For example, in the U.S., whereas less than 2% of white women are injected with the dangerous drug Depo Provera (DMPA), Blacks, Latinas, low-income and vulnerable women & girls of all races are predominantly targeted and injected without knowledge of FDA warnings of lethal harm, and without informed consent. In sharp contrast, use of injectable contraceptives in Europe is virtually nonexistent but they still maintain the lowest rates of pregnancies in the world.

Witnesses will discuss the unethical use of Depo Provera in targeted Black communities with high HIV rates with inadequate clinics and hospitals.  Depo Provera significantly increases HIV/AIDS infections and breast cancer. The discussion will also include Norplant, which was pulled from U.S. markets in 2002 after multimillion dollar settlements by Pfizer. However, Norplant is still implanted in economically deprived women globally as part of US Family planning policy. Pfizer evades US litigation by licensing Norplant to European corporation Bayer, and Norplant is promoted by global health Foundations and the Population Council to Africans and other emerging markets (discussed on pages 4 and 13 in DMPA policy report).

Congressman Smith’s hearing on December 3rd, follows a Congressional Briefing held by Congressman William Lacy Clay (D-MO): “Black Box Warnings to Protect Black Women.” At that briefing on September 20th 2013, Hon. Clay emphatically stated the need to end the unethical practice of misleading women about Depo Provera’s serious harm. Cong. Lacy Clay is on the Oversight and Government Reform committee, Vice Chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
                                                            
We thank you for supporting our crucial transformative work to end harmful, racist and classist, US Depo Provera family planning policy.  We give special thanks to Reproductive Health funders, Shira Saperstein & Mary Ann Stein of the Moriah Fund for supporting the critical resistance needed by Jewish civil rights organizations (ACRI & others) to end racist Depo Provera policies in Israel to protect and restore the dignity of Africans and Black Jews.

For more questions about the Hearing please contact Gregory Simpkins, Staff Director for Congressman Chris Smith at 202-225-6217 / Gregory.Simpkins@mail.house.gov .  Witnesses and room number will be announced two weeks before Hearing. A second hearing is being planned with the Judiciary Committee. Thank you.

=====================================================
Hon. Congressman Christopher Smith is the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations. Some highlights of his human rights record are: Chris Smith voted against his party to support sanctions against South Africa to help end Apartheid; Smith authored the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) to combat global human trafficking, and is an ardent advocate for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA); and Rep. Smith has advocated for billions in HIV/AIDS health funding and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief PEPFAR.


-------------------------------------------------------
Kwame Fosu
Policy Director
Rebecca Project for Human Rights
2029 P Street, NW, Suite 301
Washington, DC 20036
202-406-0911

Saturday, November 9, 2013

International: Food Security. Tanzania farm land. Foreign Investments.

"In 2012 activists welcomed a government announcement that it would cap the size of investment deals at 10,000 hectares, but although this was supposed to come into effect in January, it has yet to do so. "  Why?
Binta
=======================

Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2013 23:01:14 +0000

CONTENTS:

1 - Analysis: The poisoned chalice of Tanzania's land deals

IRINGA, 7 November (IRIN) - For more than a decade Tanzania has been wooing foreign investors to help modernize and reinvigorate its agricultural sector - which engages about 80 percent of the population - as a way of boosting national development.

But many supposed beneficiaries, such as smallholder Ahmed Kipanga, a 37-year-old father of five from the coastal Kisarawe District, feel short-changed.

"I used to till my land and grow enough food to feed my family," he told IRIN in Mbeya, 600km south of a home he no longer has access to, adding that he was also able to earn around US$250 selling his surplus crop for each of the year's two seasons.

"I just gave my land because we were convinced by a politician that it would make us rich. I knew I would get money for the land, and also get a well-paying job when the [investment] company began operations. Now they didn't do anything and they sold our land to another company we didn't even know," he added. 

 "We have been chasing our money for the land but they [district officials] keep telling different things every time we go for the money. I am not sure we will be paid [compensation]," he said.

 Kipanga now has no farm to grow food on and struggles to make ends meet by crushing rocks manually. A 7-tonne truckload brings in around $90, a sum he splits with two friends. Demand for the rocks is irregular.


In 2009, Kipanga was among 1,500 residents of 11 villages whose combined 8,211 hectares were leased to a British company that planned to grow jatropha [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/92267/climate-change-jatropha-not-really-green ] as a biofuel. The villages were given verbal promises of jobs, paved roads, new schools and a hospital.

But, as jatropha turned out to be less of a miracle [ http://www.irinnews.org/report/92267/climate-change-jatropha-not-really-green ] crop than envisaged, the project collapsed after a couple of years and was bought out by another firm which has left it dormant, employing only a handful of security guards to keep other villagers off the land.

According to the Oakland Institute, a US think tank which documented this particular [ http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/press-release-cautionary-tale-tanzanian-villagers-pay-biofuel-investment-disaster ] case as well land deals at the national [ http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/OI_country_report_tanzania.pdf ] and continental level, not only are the villagers worse off now, landless, jobless and with no compensation, but they also suffered a drop in income and living standards even when the project was functioning.

Some 27 agricultural investment deals have been signed in Tanzania since 2008, covering 274,228 hectare, according to data compiled by the Land Matrix [ http://landmatrix.org/get-the-detail/by-target-country/united-republic-of-tanzania/?order_by=&more=70 ]. Of these, 11 projects have either been abandoned (including a 34,000 hectare jatropha plantation in Kilwa District), or have yet to start production more than a year after contracts were signed. Just eight are operational.

In all, the Oakland Institute says, some 4.5 million hectares in Tanzania is being sought by foreign investors planning biofuel or food production and encouraged by the 2009 adoption of the Kilimo Kwanza (Agriculture First) initiative.

This includes the so-called AgriSol deal [ http://reliefweb.int/report/united-republic-tanzania/understanding-land-investment-deals-africa-lives-hold-impact-agrisol ], which, if it eventually goes through in the face of fierce local opposition, could see some 160,000 people displaced from their land in Mpanda District, Katabi Region, in the far west of the country.

Best laid plans

Since 2005, the share of Tanzania's budget spent on agriculture has risen more than fourfold [ http://www.africaforum.info/2012/Presentations%20from%20working%20groups%20-%20sub-themes/Policy%20%20CAADP/Policy%20Day%204%20Agricultural%20Council%20of%20Tanzania.pptx ], from 2.2 to 9 percent.

But, for the authors of a 2012 paper [ http://www.theigc.org/sites/default/files/Leyaro%20and%20Morrissey%202013.pdf ] by the International Growth Centre the effects have yet to trickle down: "[P]erformance in agricultural output and productivity has been disappointing. Policies and plans, such as `agriculture is the mainstay of the economy' and Kilimo Kwanza have remained [mere] slogans to the public as there is so little experience of reforms that have improved livelihoods, and millions in the agriculture sector remain in poverty."

Inadequate land-management legislation, the opaqueness of the deals and the widespread lack of title deeds have conspired to make large-scale land investment deals particularly problematic.

"There is mounting evidence that most deals have failed to deliver on their promises," Lorenzo Cotula, land rights and natural resources specialist at the Institute for Environment and International Development (IIED) [ http://www.iied.org/ ], told IRIN.

"Villagers have lost land, many investments have been discontinued, and jobs have been few and short-lived. Success stories are difficult to come by," he added.

"The law regulating the deals makes villagers vulnerable to dispossession. National laws only recognize weak land rights to rural people, and legal safeguards are ineffective," he said.

Other problems cited by Cotula include inadequate local consultation, non-compliance with legal requirements and conflict.

For Oakland Institute Executive Director Anuradha Mittal, across the world, "these largely unregulated land acquisitions are resulting in virtually none of the promised benefits for local populations, but instead are forcing millions of small farmers off ancestral lands and small, local food farms in order to make room for export commodities."

A senior official in the Prime Minister's Office, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, defended the government's move to lease out land to foreign investors.

"Those cases that have failed are like any business that faces risks. These foreign investors have the money to set up large farms which would ensure people have employment and we can feed ourselves as a nation," he told IRIN. 

 "But I believe there are certain things we can do better like ensuring that people receive compensations for the land they live on. We must ensure people have some form of proof of ownership which we haven't done adequately," he added.

"This programme began in 2009 and I believe because acquisitions for related investments can drag on for years at times, I believe it is too early to judge its success."

The way ahead 

 For land deals to benefit farmers, says Cotula, "villagers must have greater control over their resources, through stronger rights but also through collective action that can give real leverage to legal rights."

Yefred Myenzi, the director of Haki Ardhi, a local land rights advocacy organization, said joint ventures between the local communities owning the land and investors could help ensure local communities do not lose out.

"Out-grower schemes [where the farmers continue to own their land but produce on behalf of the investor] have also been proposed in which case, the investor provides technical support and market whereas the farmers retain their land and produce with assurance of selling their produce," Myenzi, told IRIN.
In 2012 activists welcomed a government announcement that it would cap the size of investment deals at 10,000 hectares, but although this was supposed to come into effect in January, it has yet to do so.

--
Binta
301-802-2233

Founder, Executive Director of PLAD

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