[Development issues] HIV-AIDS funding crowding out other health programs?

This brief piece from the Center for Global Development warns that HIV/AIDS programs may be crowding out other health initiatives in a competition for scarce resources.

The piece pointed out:

For instance, over the years 1998 to 2003, as funding for HIV/AIDS grew from 9 percent to 43 percent of overall U.S. foreign assistance for health and population, funding in the health sector strengthening category nearly vanished, declining from 20 percent to just 1 percent. Aggregate funding for all other major causes stagnated, save for infectious disease control. We see similar trends among other donors and within developing countries.

The editorial notes that as serious as the AIDS pandemic is, HIV/AIDS related deaths comprised around 5 percent of total mortality in low and middle-income countries.

In addition to rapping what it calls the HIV-AIDS lobby's insularity, the editorial argues that funding to strengthen the public health sector should be given more priority since it would help efforts to combat not only HIV-AIDS but other health crises.

[Guinean news] Protesters shot in Fria

Guinéenews has two articles (here and here) on rioting in the western mining city of Fria. The city's residents took to the streets to protest against the 'castastrophic state' of the roads and broken promises to improve them. Protesters dislodged big stones and used them to erect barricades on the city's main arteries. The mayor intervened and the situation appeared to calm.

However, Guinéenews reports that the following day, the 'forces of order' invaded two schools (the lycée Cabral and collège Tito) and proceded with what observers described as "excessive force and arbitrary arrests" against students (and teachers) who were in the middle of class. After these incidents, students marched to the center of town were engaged in violent battles by soldiers who'd been sent from Conakry. Shots were fired into the crowd and several were seriously wounded, according to Guinéenews.

[Guinean news] Declining socioeconomic conditions in Guinea

The UN's IRIN news service has run several disturbing articles on the declining socioeconomic climate in Guinea.

-Primary and secondary school enrollment is falling dramatically as cost of living skyrockets.

-Conditions at universities aren't much better.

-The dramatic rise of violent crime in Conakry. Perhaps this is because...

-Crime is the capital's only growth industry.

-Malnutrition is also on the rise. The country's main pediatric hospital reports having admitted more than double the number of children for malnutrition already this year than in 2003.

The Wall Street Journal reported (article available only to the paper's subscribers) that rising global energy prices are making things worse in Guinea.

Maybe the Guinean government is counting on its recently launched $36 billion lawsuit against the Democratic Republic of the Congo to solve these problems.

[Guinean news] Conté to stay until 2010

There have long been rumors of tension between those generally seen as the two most powerful men in Guinea: the country's richest businessman Mamadou Sylla and Fodé Bangoura, who is a top aide to the head of state Gen. Lansana Conté and widely seen to be the de facto head of the government. A few weeks ago, Sylla was indicted for 'complicity to steal public funds' for the amount equivalent to US $2.5 million. Sylla had been nicknamed the 'PUP's money man,' referring to the ruling Party for Unity and Progress but he seems to have come out on the short end of the power struggle provoked by Conté's long illness.

Speaking of the ailing head of state, he recently gave an extremely rare interview with Agence France Press and Radio France Internationale journalist Mouctar Bah and Le Monde's Serge Michel. He reiterated his desire to finish his current term, which ends in 2010 (he took power in a 1984 military coup).

[Guinean news] Cholera strikes again

The UN's IRIN news service has a piece on the resurgence of cholera in the country since the beginning of the rainy season. The health ministry has reported over 600 cases this year.

"The latest wave is occurring because of poor sanitation during the main rainy season and a lack of potable water," said Emmanuel Roland Malano, who head's the government's division of epidemiological diseases.

[FOG/PC Guinea news] Gender conferences threatened by administrative change

For several years, FOG has sponsored girls' and boys' conferences. By all accounts, these gender conferences have been invaluable in promoting gender equality and female empowerment.

FOG has helped fund the conferences via the intermediary of the Peace Corps Partnership Program (PCPP), which is the "official" Peace Corps funding mechanism. However, the PCPP has changed its rules such that transportation and lodging costs can no longer be funded. This change threatens the future of the gender conferences since transport and lodging for participants is the primary expense.

(For more details on the issue, click here)

FOG officials are pursuing this issue and is waiting to hear about alternative funding routes from Peace Corps Guinea.

FOG's board urges members to contact Peace Corps officials and express their concerns.

-Peace Corps Director Ronald Tschetter: rtschetter@peacecorps.gov

-Peace Corps Deputy Director Jody Olsen: jolsen@peacecorps.gov
-
Peace Corps Chief of Operations, Africa Region Lynn Foden: lfoden@peacecorps.gov

Postal letters can be mailed to each of these officials at:

1111 20th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20526
USA

[Guinean news] Bridge to N'Zerekore collapses

The UN's IRIN news service reports on the August collapse of a bridge on the road that linked the key southeastern Guinean city of N'Zérékoré with most of the rest of the country. The bridge was less than a decade old.

[Guinean news] Guinean economic migrants in Senegal

The Voice of America ran a piece on the influx of Guineans living and working in the Senegalese capital Dakar.

[FOG news] Guinea RPCV published in Worldview

FOG's own Jamaica Corker has an interesting article in the National Peace Corps Association's Worldview magazine on polygamy. The article explores the dynamics within polygamous families and tries to answer the question, "Can polygamy create child-bearing competition?"

The article can be found here.

[Guinean news] More speculation about Conté's state of health

The uncertain health of Guinean leader Gen. Lansana Conté has made news again. The head of state failed to make his usual speech to state radio and television on the 48th anniversary of the country's independence.

The BBC notes: Guinea's opposition says [Presidential Affairs Minister Fodé] Bangoura has in effect taken over the running of the country with President Conte too sick to take much of an active role.

A public spat recently erupted between Bangoura and the country's most powerful businessman El Hadj Mamadou Sylla, who is seen as the main financial backer of the ruling PUP party.

Though Conté did not mkae a speech to the broadcast media, he did send a transcript of comments to the state newspaper Horoya. The country's only daily printed his remarks but failed to published the general's photograph. This transgression got the paper's general manager and editor suspended by the information minister.