WHO threatens tobacco recovery: TIMB
Making their mark ... Thousands of new farmers have joined thte sector
07/11/2012 00:00:00
by The Guardian
THERE is hustle and bustle on the tobacco trading floors of Zimbabwe these days. After a decade of agricultural turmoil that crashed the economy, this seen as one of the few bright spots.
[Actually, 'agricultural turmoil' didn't crash the economy, that were economic sanctions intended to make land reform fail, implemented from 2002 onwards. ZDERA, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001. - MrK]
The crop's value has bounced back from £105m in 2008 to more than £330m this year. Moreover, whereas tobacco production was once dominated by a white elite, now tens of thousands of farmers are black.
[An open admission that land reform was not merely a transfer of land from white estate holders to the political and military elite. In fact over 350,000 new families received land under the Willing Buyer, Willing Seller (159,000) and Fast Track (200,000) land reform programmes. - MrK]
Yet this precious gain is under threat, the industry claims, not from renewed political violence or economic turbulence, but from the global anti-smoking lobby.
[Which I don't disagree with. In fact, tobacco should be replaced by cannabis and hemp as an industry. Getting high in cannabis is good for you, destresses, and is good for your heart and veins. Hemp seed has the highest quality protein and is a health food; cannabis itself should be considered a food group (YOUTUBE), because of all the diseases it prevents. Hemp can drain swamps too. Entire industries can spring up turning hemp fiber into clothes and shoes. Replacing plastic bags with hemp paper bags can end the pollution of the oceans, as there are huge rafts of plastic waste blocking parts of the ocean (see the South Pacific Garbage Patch. See more here (YOUTUBE). - MrK]
"In Zimbabwe we are very dependent on tobacco," says Dr Andrew Matibiri, director of the country's Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board.
"It makes up 26% of our foreign currency exports. Any movement towards reduction of the exports will affect our economy, especially poverty alleviation."
Growers in Nigeria, Tanzania and other African countries accuse the World Health Organisation (WHO) of cracking down on struggling farmers and putting millions of jobs and livelihoods at risk.
The WHO insists this is a misrepresentation.
It says it is merely issuing guidelines for governments around the world on how to deal with a projected decline in consumer demand. From this point of view, the tobacco industry has set up a straw man so it can take an unaccustomed position of the moral high ground.
Matibiri, who claims to have the backing of both the president, Robert Mugabe, and prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai, argues that more than 70,000 Zimbabwean farmers would suffer immediately under the WHO proposals.
"We say farmers should be allowed to grow tobacco," he says. "It's not illegal. They grow it very quickly and easily; they have been doing it for over a hundred years so there's a lot of knowhow. So far there have been no alternative crops put on the table."
The WHO says tobacco kills almost 6 million people a year. Matibiri does not deny that smoking is harmful, but adds: "We understand all the issues and we agree with them. There are few beneficial consequences of smoking. But we are appealing to the WHO to understand our peculiar position as tobacco producers."
The issue has flared up because the WHO guidelines, known as articles 17 and 18 of the landmark framework convention on tobacco control, will be discussed next week at the Conference of the Parties in Seoul, South Korea. Potential measures include restricting growing periods and the amount of land used for tobacco while encouraging alternative crops.
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In a pre-emptive strike, the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa (Tisa) commissioned a study of 15 regional economies that shows 4.4 million Africans are employed – and 24 million dependent – on a tobacco value chain worth more than $10bn.
In Zimbabwe, according to the research, the industry employs 1.13 million people with 5.67 million dependents and generates $579m in exports. In Malawi, another country with economic woes, tobacco employs 1.4 million people, generates $428.2m in exports, and represents 15% of GDP.
Francois van der Merwe, chief executive of Tisa, said of the WHO: "Their motivation has been the ongoing failure to decrease the demand for tobacco products that has resulted in an ill-conceived attempt to tackle the most vulnerable people in the supply chain, namely farmers.
“Should this ill-advised and misguided proposal [article 17] come into effect, it will have a dire impact on the livelihoods of farmers and tobacco growing countries more broadly."
Tobacco representatives in various African countries have also expressed opposition. Julius Masongo, chairman of thee Tanzania Tobacco Cooperative Apex, said: "The WHO has consistently refused to listen to tobacco growers in drafting the proposal that directly impacts Tanzania's farmers.
“By doing so, they act like a blind man driving a steamroller without paying any attention to the consequences of their folly. Now is the time for governments to act and oppose these draconian measures."
Tobacco growing countries charge that, in its zeal to curtail an industry it regards as evil, the WHO is failing to appreciate the paradox that tobacco throws a lifeline to those who grow it. Unsurprisingly, the WHO has a different view.
It it not issuing orders to anyone, it says, but seeking to help governments that have signed up to the convention to manage what it sees as tobacco's inevitable decline.
Dr Haik Nikogosian, head of the convention secretariat for the framework convention, says: "The document is called 'policy options and recommendations' for governments, not farmers. It's developed to help governments to help farmers transition to alternative crops. The demand for tobacco will gradually diminish: it is clearly known. People will not be smoking tobacco in 200 years.
"It's not asking farmers to do anything. It doesn't have any deadlines or requirements. It's advice and guidelines, and should be seen in a positive light. The WHO wouldn't involve itself in agricultural business in that negative way. This is about supporting farmers, not restricting them."
Asked about the vitriol being poured on the WHO, Nikogosian says: "I'd be surprised if it only comes from the tobacco growing organisations. There are other organisations and forces that are not to be trusted in giving information. If you look at the value chain and the profits, they are not sitting with the farmers. You can see where the interests are."
Labels: 2007 BUDGET, ANDREW MATIBIRI, TIMB, TOBACCO, WHO
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WHO issues asbestos-related deaths warning
By Sututu Katundu
Wed 05 Oct. 2011, 06:40 CAT
A STUDY published in this month's bulletin of the World Health Organisation has warned that many l
ow and middle-income countries that continue to use asbestos in building and transport industries face many deaths in the coming decades. The WHO has called on countries to stop using all types of asbestos and improve reporting.
"We know the risks," says Dr Ivan Ivanov, scientist at WHO. "All forms of asbestos are carcinogenic and may cause mesothelioma and cancer of the lung, larynx and ovary, as well as other diseases. Even if these countries stop using asbestos today, they are going to see an increase in asbestos-related deaths for many decades to come."
The study, for the first time, counts total deaths reported to WHO from malignant mesothelioma, a rare but fatal cancer that is almost always traced to exposure to asbestos. It usually takes longer than 30 years to develop but once diagnosed, average survival time is less than one year.
The bulletin of the WHO however said cancer deaths caused by asbestos exposure were starting to fall in high-income countries that have since banned the use of asbestos.
"We found that mesothelioma deaths are starting to decrease in the USA but are still increasing in Europe and Japan, reflecting the time lag following historical use of asbestos," says researcher Ken Takahashi from the University of Occupational and Environmental Health in Kitakyushu City, Japan.
"The real concern is that many developing countries continue to use this deadly material but don't report data to WHO on the deaths it causes."
Malignant mesothelioma affects the protective lining that covers many of the body's internal organs, most commonly the outer lining of the lungs and the chest wall, but also the lining of the abdominal cavity, and sacs around the heart and testes.
Labels: HEALTHCARE, PUBLIC HEALTH, WHO
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Tobacco threat unites Mugabe, farmers
by Farai Mutsaka
13/11/2010 00:00:00
FOR YEARS, President Robert Mugabe and his allies have sought to drive white farmers from their land, and the farmers have fought back through the courts. However, in recent weeks, the World Health Organization has managed to bring the two warring camps together by attacking one of their few shared interests: tobacco.
The
WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control seeks to cut global production and demand for a crop that is the lifeblood of Zimbabwe's economy - accounting for 26 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, according to the Ministry of Finance. The 171 countries that are party to the convention will meet in Uruguay next week.
Zimbabwe officials and farmers—white and black—are banding together to explore how to respond to a treaty that could derail the country's fragile recovery after a decade of economic and political tumult.
"We have to set aside our differences to save the country's economy," said Kevin Cooke, president of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association, the main tobacco farmers' body. "There are no alternative crops that come near tobacco."
Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made, a close ally of President Mugabe, says the government is scrambling to save a dominant cash crop grown by the country's largest and smallest of farmers, of all colors.
"There are no differences between us on this one," he says. "Everyone is working together and certainly we hope this togetherness can last."
Made admits that Zimbabwe alone doesn't have much leverage, and says it is relying on support from other countries that also oppose elements of the treaty.
The show of unity is remarkable in the current political climate.
The shared government of President Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change is nearing an end.
Officials in both parties, including President Mugabe, say they want elections next year to replace the troubled coalition government, but another vote risks a repeat of the 2008 elections, in which hundreds are believed to have died in political violence.
Zimbabwe's white farmers have tended to support Tsvangirai's MDC-T party.
The prime minister has spoken out about the need to resolve land disputes in a legal and transparent manner — a stance that appears to side with international court decisions, including the Southern African Development Community tribunal that in 2008 ruled in favor of the land rights of white farmers.
President Mugabe's government has said it won't abide by that ruling. Still, it isn't clear how long the unlikely alliance can last.
The killing last month of Kobus Joubert, a leading white tobacco farmer and former president of the ZTA, highlights the insecurity faced by the few remaining white farmers.
Joubert's death has been described by police as occurring during a robbery, but farmer representatives say such violence has often been part of the farm evictions supported by President Mugabe.
Today, fewer than 300 whites remain on farms, down from 4,500 when evictions started about a decade ago, according to Deon Theron, president of the Commercial Farmers Union.
"Our members are still being violently evicted even when they have court orders on their side," he said.
But when it comes to tobacco, the fighting has stopped, for now.
Tobacco is Zimbabwe's biggest agricultural employer, providing jobs for 350,000 people; an additional 500,000 work in related industries, such as cigarette manufacturing, according to the government and farmer unions.
In September, Zimbabwe's finance minister raised projections for full-year economic growth to slightly over 8 percent from its July forecast of 4.5 percent, largely because of resurgent tobacco sales.
The industry earns much-needed foreign currency from its overseas sales of Burley tobacco, a product blended into such famous cigarette brands as Altria Group's Marlboro.
But the WHO treaty would hit countries that grow Burley tobacco hard.
The crop requires blending with other ingredients that global health authorities deem harmful.
In the draft guidelines, the WHO urges member governments to examine how to restrict or ban ingredients — such as those blended with Burley — that increase the attractiveness of tobacco products, "as a tool to help limit youth initiation," said a WHO spokesman, in an email response to questions.
The treaty is expected to spearhead a global anti-tobacco campaign to reduce consumption of tobacco products, which the WHO says kills five million people a year, or one person every six seconds. Most of the deaths occur in middle- and low-income countries, according to the WHO.
The International Tobacco Growers' Association has accused the WHO of rushing ahead with regulation without fully understanding the impact on tobacco farmers or directly consulting them.
"If they are pushed to produce something else what are they going to do? You lose millions of jobs," says Antonio Abrunhosa, chief executive of the ITGA, which says it has 30 million members world-wide. "Can you regulate chocolate without talking to chocolate producers?”
Labels: ROBERT MUGABE, TOBACCO, WHO
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WHO urges Zambia to allocate adequate resurces to health
By Agness Changala
Wed 27 Oct. 2010, 04:01 CAT
WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) African regional director Dr Luis Sambo has said Zambia’s dependency on external resources to the health sector is not sustainable.
In an interview over Zambia’s health sector, Dr Sambo has urged the government to allocate adequate resources to the health sector and acknowledged that while there were still a lot of challenges in the country’s health sector some progress had been made. He, however, noted that some slow improvements being made.
“This is what I should share with the government and all Zambians that a lot still needs to be done but we recognise the progress made so far,” Dr Sambo said.
He also urged cooperating partners to resume funding to the health sector.
Dr Sambo said withholding funds had impacted negatively on the health programmes in Zambia.
Donors to the health sector withheld funding after revelations of rampant abuse and theft of resources at the Ministry of Health.
And later during the launch of 2010 National Protocol Guidelines in Chongwe on Monday, Dr Sambo said although Zambia had made great strides towards the attainment of some Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a lot still needed to be done in the next five years.
He said the key to attaining MDG four, which focuses on reducing infant mortality, was by reaching every newly-born baby and children with a set of priority interventions.
“These include appropriate breastfeeding practices, prevention of vaccine preventable diseases through immunisation and prevention and management of common childhood illness such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition and HIV infection,” he said.
Dr Sambo said the vast majority of maternal deaths could be averted if every woman had access to proven and cost effective interventions that existed to reduce maternal mortality.
He said the launch of the guidelines marked a great milestone in the joint efforts at achieving the MDGs 4, 5 and 6 which aimed to reduce child and maternal mortalities and reverse the incidence of HIV and AIDS.
Dr Sambo said WHO would continue to work with the government and all partners including the research and academic communities to promote the implementation of evidence based interventions not only to improve maternal health but eliminate paediatric HIV transmission in Zambia, Africa and the world at large.
Labels: HEALTHCARE, LUIS SAMBO, MDGs, WHO
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ITGA bemoans WHO’s new tobacco rules
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Fri 28 May 2010, 08:00 CAT
THE International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA) has claimed that Zambia and poorest nations face the prospect of millions of job losses and huge decline in tobacco export revenues following World Health Organisation’s (WHO) new tobacco rules.
ITGA expressed outrage at the devastating impact that the latest set of recommendations from the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) would have on the jobs and livelihoods of millions of tobacco growers around the world.
The new WHO draft guidelines of articles nine and 10 of the FCTC recommend a ban of ingredients used in the manufacturing of tobacco products.
Opposing the new guidelines, ITGA stated that if implemented this rule would virtually eliminate traditional blended cigarettes, which account for approximately half of the global market and at the same time impact on growers who supply the tobacco varieties used in these products would be dramatic.
ITGA stated that latest guidelines drafted by WTO threatened the economic being of most least developed countries whose majority poor depended on tobacco growing.
“These recommendations have been made by bureaucrats, mostly from wealthy countries who know nothing about tobacco growing,” ITGA stated through its chief executive officer António Abrunhosa. “Their recommendations could wipe out the livelihoods of millions of tobacco growers all over the world. For some inexplicable reason, tobacco growers, the very people most affected by the guidelines, are officially excluded from any discussions.”
Abrunhosa claimed that even ministries of agriculture or economy seemed unaware of the discussions taking place within the FCTC.
“There doesn’t seem to be any balanced form of representation whatsoever,” stated Abrunhosa. “Numerous countries, including some of the poorest nations, such as Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania now face the prospect of seeing millions of jobs lost and a huge decline in the export of tobacco. Tobacco cultivation is critical for the economy in these countries and one of the few agricultural activities to have remained buoyant during the recent worldwide economic crisis.”
Zambia last year produced 33.5 million kilogrammes of tobacco with export revenues estimated valued at US $129 million.
About 430,000 Zambians rely on tobacco growing, including 23,000 rural families while 34,500 workers are directly employed in tobacco growing.
Labels: INTERNATIONAL TOBACCO GROWERS ASSOCIATION, TOBACCO, WHO
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Cholera cases drop sharply, says WHO
Herald Reporter
CHOLERA cases in Zimbabwe have been declining since February from
more than 8 000 cases a week to 2 076 cases per week this month, according to the World Health Organisation. WHO says there has also been a slump in the weekly case fatality rate from 6 percent recorded in January to 2,3 percent by mid-March.
In a statement published on the WHO website on Monday, the body said the cholera situation was improving but observed that more efforts were required to contain the disease.
"In the week ending 14 March 2009, 2 076 cases were reported. While this number is still high, it compares to 3 812 cases in the immediately preceding week and over 8 000 cases per week at the beginning of February," it said.
"The weekly case fatality rate has also decreased from its peak of nearly 6 percent in January and, while still too high, stood at 2,3 percent for the week ending 14 March."
The fall in cholera cases in the country follows concerted efforts by Government, with the assistance of friendly nations, UN agencies and other donors to arrest the outbreak.
In December last year the Government declared the cholera outbreak a national emergency with appeals to the donor community for assistance to fight the epidemic.
The Sadc region reacted quickly to the appeals with its chairman and South African President Kgalema Motlanthe launching an urgent international campaign to assist Zimbabwe deal with the outbreak the same month.
WHO also observed a decrease in the death rate at various cholera treatment centres.
"Moreover, the case fatality rate in cholera treatment facilities has decreased to 0,8 percent in the week of 1-7 March, the last week for which accurate statistics of this measure exist. This is below the acceptable level of 1 percent. The percentage of deaths occurring in the community, outside of cholera treatment facilities, remains high but has declined to 33 percent from 62 percent," WHO said.
It said data collection and verification remained a challenge throughout the country but reiterated that the overall trend over the last two months was a decrease in the number of cases and deaths.
As of March 17, WHO said, 91 164 cases with 4 037 deaths had been reported since the beginning of the recent outbreak in August 2008.
"Cases have decreased in all provinces. On the other hand, cases reported are increasing again in and around the capital, Harare. The risk of the outbreak restarting in those areas of the country is real," it said.
WHO stressed the need to remain vigilant and reinforcing the control measures already in place adding that it had a sizeable team working at the national cholera command and control centre in Harare.
It said the objective of the cholera control measures in the coming days was to extend operations at provincial and district levels.
Labels: CHOLERA, NEOCOLONIALISM, WHO
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WHO unveils cholera emergency plan
Ranganai Chidemo
Wed, 03 Dec 2008 02:59:00 +0000
THE World Health Organization has started an emergency health plan to control the current outbreak of cholera, which it says has claimed 484 lives since August.
The organisation has dispatched an emergency team of 20 international experts to Zimbabwe to work with WHO staff in ZImbabwe, government health sector and private organisations in he country in an effort to try and contain the cholera epidemic.
The organisation reported that it will work with about 10 partners in the country aiming to reduce deaths by providing safe water and sanitation, particularly in health facilities.
The team will also aim to isolate infected people, ensure early case detection, improve access to health care and ensure adequate care.
According to a report issued Tuesday by the U.N. agency, the number of cholera cases in Zimbabwe has increased to 11,735, including the 484 deaths.
The death rate at this point is 4 percent of all cases, which is high, said Fadela Chaib, WHO spokeswoman.
Chaib said the high death rate probably meant that sick people did not arrive to the medical centers quickly enough, or that even once they arrived there was a shortage of medicines.
The WHO has been at the forefront of efforts to control the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe.
U.N. agencies including the WHO, UNICEF and partners including the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have been distributing emergency health kits, water purification tablets, oral rehydration salts and other essential supplies and training volunteers in hygiene promotion in Zimbabwe's worst-hit areas for a number of months.
Labels: CHOLERA, HARARE, WHO
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COMMENT - Perhaps the WHO should have a talk with the IMF and World Bank, which have been shutting down medical services all over the globe in the name of smaller government.
WHO implores govts to improve health systems
Written by Masuzyo Chakwe
Saturday, November 15, 2008 4:41:09 AM
WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) director general Dr Margaret Chan has called on all governments and political leaders to maintain their efforts to strengthen and improve the performance of their health systems in view of the present financial and economic crisis.
Commenting on the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on health, Dr Chan said the current financial crisis was rapidly becoming an economic crisis and threatens to become a social crisis in many countries.
She said the crisis comes at a time when commitment to global health had never been higher.
“It comes in the midst of the most ambitious drive in history to reduce poverty and distribute the benefits of our modern society, including those related to health, more evenly and fairly in this world - the Millennium Development Goals,” she said.
Dr Chan said a previous effort to use health as the route to socioeconomic development, launched in 1978, was followed almost immediately by a fuel crisis, soaring oil prices, and the debt crisis of the early 1980s.
“In the international response to these crises, mistakes were made when budgets were shifted away from investments in the social sectors, most notably health and education. Many countries are still suffering the legacy of these errors,” she said.
Dr Chan said it was not yet clear what the current financial crisis would mean for low-income and emerging economies, but many predictions are highly pessimistic.
She said in the face of a global recession, fiscal pressures in affluent countries may prompt cuts to official development assistance.
“Worse still, is the prospect of cuts in social spending - health, education and social protection - that many countries, especially low-income countries, may be forced to undertake. Both of these responses have occurred in the past. And both could be as equally devastating for health, development, security and prosperity as they were in the past,” she said.
Dr Chan said it was essential therefore to learn from past mistakes and counter this period of economic downturn by increasing investment in health and the social sector.
She said this was important to protect the poor as rising food and fuel prices, along with employment insecurity, were among the factors leading to increasing inequities during an economic downturn.
“In this context, impoverishing health care expenditures - that in “good” times push more than 100 million persons annually into poverty - are likely to increase dramatically. Inevitably, it is the most vulnerable who suffer the most; the poor, the marginalised, children, women, disabled, the elderly, and those with chronic illness. Stronger social safety nets are urgently needed to protect the most vulnerable in rich and poor countries,” she said.
Dr Chan said this was also important to promote economic recovery and to promote social stability as equitable distribution of health care is a critical contributor to social cohesion.
she said it was important to also generate efficiency and build security.
“A world that is greatly out of balance in health is neither stable nor secure. Robust health systems are essential to maintain surveillance and response capacity in the face of pandemic threats. The lack of investment in sub-Saharan African health systems in the 1980s meant they were tragically unprepared for the HIV and AIDS pandemic in the decade that followed,” said Dr Chan.
Labels: MARGARET CHAN, WHO
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