UN wants more women police into its peacekeeping operations

By John Chola - 12/08/09

The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations is launching a global effort to recruit more women police into its peacekeeping operations.

The move is part of the campaign launched in May 2009 entitled “Power to Empower” that aims to move the ranks of the world body towards gender equity.

According to Marie-Evelyne Petrus-Barry, United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Director the recruitment push was centered on increasing the representation of female police officers in peacekeeping operations, while at the same time encouraging national training programmes to support women to join national police services.

Ms. Petrus-Barry said the goal was to have UN Member States raise the number of female police officers serving in peacekeeping missions to 20 per cent by 2014, up from its current number of eight per cent.

The UNIC Director said currently, there were 11,000 UN police officers working in 17 peacekeeping missions around the world instead of 15,000 the Organization was mandated to have.

“We need more female police as soon as we can get them,” said Andrew Hughes, the UN Police Adviser.
“There has been some progress when I commenced in this role in 2007, 6 per cent of the 8,000 police deployed were women, but this progress is not enough, we must accelerate this upward trend,” added Hughes.

UN police perform a vital role in creating trust and upholding law and order.
The UN police help civil societies in countries of operation rebuild following conflicts and they also play an essential role of training and coaching national police services in these situations.

In addition to regular policing duties, female officers bring a much-needed, extra dimension to the role.

“By having more women officers deployed in peacekeeping missions, they inspire more women to join their local police services, and this in turn will in the future give contributing countries a larger base from which to recruit officers,” said Ann-Marie Orler, the UN Deputy Police Adviser.

She added that frequently women and children were more comfortable reporting their experiences to female officers, and the fact that a woman is the authority could be empowering to women and girls.

Mr. Hughes. Said: “When the shooting stops, law and order is what brings security back to civilians, and often the most traumatized in a post-conflict society are women and children. Greater representation of women creates trust and boosts confidence for communities recovering from conflict, and helps the UN police to take into account all the needs of those societies.”

Women serving in UN peace operations were represented at every level, and deployed in whole units for example, in Liberia there is an all-female Formed Police Unit or individually.

Mr. Hughes stresses that the UN was committed to increasing the number of women and would actively seek to recruit female police officers, particularly at a senior level, in order to address the gender disparity.

He said the UN strongly encourages countries which contributes police to the UN also known as police-contributing countries, or PCCs to establish a policy that sets the percentage of their contribution of female police officers at par with their national police gender ratio.

The countries were also encouraged to review their recruitment requirements and procedures for international deployment to ensure that female candidates are not restricted from applying.

Contributing countries are also asked to consider providing incentives for officers who serve in peacekeeping missions.

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Summit on insecurity in DRC coming.

By John Chola – 11/08/09

Leaders from the Great Lakes region will soon hold a special summit on fostering peace in DRC.

The special summit will also provide an opportunity to United Nations envoys former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanja and former president of Tanzania Benjemin Mkapa can brief the leaders on the security situation in the war-torn country.

This is according to a communiqué issued at the end of a one-day summit in Lusaka last evening.

The leaders have also supported the efforts made by General Obasanja and Mr. Mkapa.

The special summit, which will be held in the DRC will also discuss joint military operations against the LRA, by the Central African Republic, DRC, Sudan and Uganda.

The just ended Summit in Lusaka was attended by presidents Rupiah Banda, Kenya’s Mwai Kibaki, Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania and Yoweri Museveni of Tanzania among others.

The Heads of state have supported calls made by General Obasanjo and Mr Mkapa for donors to hold a pledging conference on security sector reform in the DRC.

Some of the leaders who attended the Lusaka summit were Burundi’s vice-president, Yves Sahinguvu, Central African Republic Prime Minister, Faustin Toundera and ministers from Angola, Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Sudan.

The regional leaders have bemoaned that the FDLR, Interahamwe and LRA remain the root cause of insecurity in eastern DRC, Central African Republic, Rwanda Sudan, Uganda and the region.

Meanwhile, donors have pledged support for well-designed programmes and focused proposals aimed at fighting the illegal mineral trade, gender-based violence and the region.

Netherlands Ambassador to Zambia, Harry Molenaar said during the opening of the summit that his country and other friends of the Great Lakes region are ready to help the region get back on the path to development.

At the same occasion, European Commission (EC) head of delegation, Derek Fee said the bloc will support efforts aimed at eliminating the illegal exploitation of resources in central Africa.

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Kenya’s Mwai Kibaki appeals to the world to help stop fighting in Somali and piracy.

By John Chola – 11/08/09

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has made a passionate appeal to the international community to get more involved in stopping the fighting in Somalia.

Mr. Kibaki has also urged the international community to help fight the problem of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

Mr. Kibaki said in Lusaka yesterday that a serious security situation still prevail in Somalia and related to it is the piracy problem.

Mr. Kibaki says the fighting in Somali and the problem of piracy are a matter of international concern and have continued to impact negatively on the regional and international trade.

He says the insecurity problem in the horn of Africa possess a great danger to the environment.

Piracy attacks around the world more than doubled to 240 from 114 during the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2008.

This is according to a report of the ICC International Maritime Bureau’s Piracy Reporting Centre (IMB) released in July.

Mr. Kibaki says a look at the human development shows a region faced with the most serious challenges of poverty, hunger, disease and environmental degradation.

He says almost all the problems faced by the horn of Africa are as a result of conflicts.

Mr. Kibaki was in Zambia to attend the third summit of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).

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Summit on insecurity in the Great Lakes Region has opened in Lusaka today ,,,. as leaders hope for long lasting solutions

By John Chola – 10/08/09
Leaders of countries making up the Great Lakes Region are optimistic that the Third Summit of heads of state and government which has opened in Zambia today will find a solution to the political instability in their area.

About 20 leaders including those from Congo DR, Central African Republic, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya are in Zambia for the Third Summit.

Former Nigerian President and now UN Secretary General special Envoy Olusegun Obasanjo and his counterpart former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa are also attending the summit.

Mr Obasanjo and Mr Mkapa will present their report on the situation between DRC and Rwanda and the entire Eastern DRC.

The leaders say they hope to use the third Summit in Lusaka to resolve security and other development issues in the area.

The leaders say the summit is an important forum for leaders to discuss security and development related matters affecting the region.

Central African Republic Prime Minister Faustin-Archange Touader has told this Journalist – Zambia Blog in Zambia that as leaders of the Great Lakes Region they are worried at the insecurity in the area.

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20 African Leaders meet in Zambia over the political instability in the great lakes region.

By John Chola – 05/08/09
About 20 African heads of State will meet in Zambia over the political instability in the great lakes region.

The third summit of the international conference on the Great Lakes Region takes place on August 10, 2009.

The heads of State will also review the status of the implementation of the pact on peace, security, stability and development in the region.

The pact was signed in Nairobi in December 2006 by the heads of State and government of the core members and special fund for reconstruction and development (SFRD).

The great Lakes Region comprises 11 core countries being Angola, Burundi, Central Africa Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.

Others are Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Sudan, Uganda and Zambia.

The countries share lakes Kivu, Albert, Edward, Victoria, Mweru and Tanganyika.

Botswana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Somalia and Zimbabwe the other countries that have been co-opted into the region due to conflicts and political instabilities experienced in most of core countries.

The summit will also domesticate what the heads of State and government agreed upon at two previous summits.

The leaders will launch Zambia as a regional centre for the promotion of good governance, human rights and civic education.

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Over 100 million people at risk of infection with river blindness in Zambia and other African countries

……as new drug that could dramatically speed up the elimination the disease begins clinical trial.

By John Chola -1 July, 2009:
Over 100 million people are at risk of infection with river blindness or onchocerciasis in Africa and a few small areas in the Americas and Yemen.

And a clinical trial is being launched in three African countries of a drug that could eliminate river blindness.

Onchocerciasis or river blindness is currently one of the leading infectious causes of blindness in Zambia and across Africa.

The drug, moxidectin, is being investigated for its potential to kill or sterilize the adult worms of Onchocerca volvulus, which cause onchocerciasis.

Director of the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) Dr Uche Amazigo says river blindness is a devastating illness that has plagued Zambia and other 29 African countries for centuries.

Dr Uche Amazigo says populations in the most remote areas are the most affected.

Dr Amazigo explains that Onchocerciasis is also called river blindness because the blackfly which transmits the disease breeds in fast flowing rivers, and blindness is the most incapacitating symptom of the disease which also causes debilitating skin disease.

Dr Amazigo says the development of moxidectin for onchocerciasis is being conducted through a collaboration of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, which is executed by the World Health Organization (WHO/TDR), and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

The work ranges from the development of a formulation for human use and initial studies in healthy volunteers, to clinical studies and community studies in Africa.
WHO/TDR, working in partnership with African investigators and institutions, is building the capacity and managing the conduct of the clinical trials conducted in Africa.

If the development is successful and results in a positive scientific opinion from the European Medicines Evaluation Agency, Wyeth, with the assistance of WHO, will request approval by national regulatory authorities in the countries such as Zambia where onchocerciasis is endemic.

Dr Henrietta Ukwu, Vice President, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, said his company is committed to improving access to innovative drugs and biologics around the globe including in the developing world.

Dr Ukwu said the moxidectin data have been promising so far, and as the programme moves into larger phase III (3) studies, they are hopeful that moxidectin will constitute a significant advance against this devastating disease.

In conducting this trial, TDR will be working with African investigators and institutions.

Fifteen hundred people at 4 sites in Ghana, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo will be enrolled in the study.

Preparation has been ongoing since 2007, and included building a clinical research centre in Lofa County, Liberia, and in North-Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Buildings not used since the war in Ituri, DRC, have been renovated while all centers have been provided with necessary equipment and the research teams trained on how to conduct the trial according to international standards.

The trial will take place over the next two and a half years.

Currently, the disease is controlled by ivermectin, which has been donated for more than 20 years by the pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc., for use in onchocerciasis endemic countries.

Treatment with ivermectin has enabled significant progress in the control of onchocerciasis, and currently reaches more than 60 million people in Africa annually.

However, ivermectin kills the O. volvulus larvae but not the adult worms.

This makes annual treatments for an extended period of time of between 11 to 14 years are required to ensure disease control.

If moxidectin kills not only the larvae but also sterilizes or kills the adult worms, it has the potential to interrupt the disease transmission cycle within around 6 annual rounds of treatment.

The drug could be distributed through the community-directed mechanisms set up in collaboration among APOC, African control programmes, and NGOs for the distribution of ivermectin.

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The 2009 Zambia Tourism Awards up for grabs ... as time ticks for recognition of excellence in tourism.

By John Chola -30/06/09

An initiative designed to promote and reward excellence in tourism operations has been launched in Zambia.

The initiative is also aimed at being recognised as a prestigious event hence attracting both public and industry-wide support and extensive media coverage.

Launching the initiative on Tuesday at Lusaka’s Southern Sun Ridgeway, the hotel’s general manager Adrian Penny said the initiative presented a high profile opportunity to showcase the best tourism operators in Zambia

Mr Penny said the Zambia Tourism Awards would motivate stakeholders to continue upgrading services in order to become globally competitive, inspire stakeholders to contribute to the development of the tourism industry in Zambia and help promote Zambian tourism to domestic and international markets.

He said that the initiative would recognise and ward categories such as best safari accommodation, best hotel, best guesthouse, best lodge and best back packer facilities.

Operators offering camping site and Caravan Park, heritage and culture tourism sports, clean and green as well as community tourism would be awarded accordingly.

“Other award categories included the best travel and tour operator, the best restaurant or catering service, the best tourism transport award, the best in tourism promotion and the guide of the year Award,” said Penny adding: “we also have awards for the best in adventure tourism, best entrepreneur award, tourism facilitation and the Zambia tourism special”.

The awards would be open to all Zambia-based tourism operators and application had been restricted to online participants.

Mr Penny encouraged businesses and the public to take part through a website www.thebestofzambia.com.
“Just visit www.thebestofzambia.com and click the Tourism Awards button on the top of the page between 1st July 2009 and 15th August 2009 to participate,” Mr Penny said.

There would be site visits commence in September and October 2009 while winners would be announced at the high profile awards night slated for November 2009 in Livingstone.

Mr Penny said that the 2009 Zambia Tourism Awards were a public-private sector partnership initiated by the public sector through the SEED Project under the Ministry of Tourism, Environment & Natural Resources and co-organised with the
Tourism Council of Zambia.

He said that the initiative was also supported by private sector agencies such as The Best of Zambia, Capacity Building for Private Sector Development, Southern Sun Ridgeway and Radio Phoenix

The initiators of the Zambia Tourism Awards encouraged more support from the private sector towards sponsorship of different awards, marketing and promotion of the event.

Meanwhile, one of the initiators Joseph Brown said that in order to encourage Zambians to sample the country’s tourism most operators had introduced special rates.

Mr Brown said Zambians visiting tourist resorts around the country would be charged a special rate different from those paid by foreign tourists.

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