News Archives » Africa
World Bank Hosting Public Consultations on Operations in Africa June 20th, 2010
The World Bank Group is consulting and seeking input about World Bank operations in Africa. The series of public consultations is focusing on how to improve World Bank operations in Africa and is expected to be completed in January 2011. The aim of this consultative process is to raise awareness about opportunities and challenges facing Africa and to gather a diverse perspective about the Bank’s operations there. The global economic crisis coupled with changes in Africa’s political and socioeconomic landscape has made it necessary to revise World Bank operations in Africa.
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Medicines Patent Pool Formally Established June 9th, 2010
The Board of UNITAID, the European entity funded by an airline tax to support increased HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB treatment in developing countries, has formally established a Medicines Patent Pool. NGOs and faith-based shareholders concerned about access to medicines among the poor in developing countries have pressed for the formation of a patent pool as a way to lower costs and increase availability of essential medicines.
The Board approved the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between UNITAID and the Medicines Patent Pool Foundation (MPPF) on June 8. The MPPF will be established as an independent organization under Swiss Law. The 3 founders are Paulo Teixeira (Brazil), Charles Clift (UK) and Benard Pecoul (France).
Interested in learning more? Go to other posts on this website and the UNITAID website.
Cuts in International AIDS Funding Risk Lives in Africa June 4th, 2010
As international donors in HIV/AIDS funding, the U.S., World Bank, UNITAID, and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, retreat from funding HIV and AIDS programs, years of progress in HIV treatment in Africa are being threatened. The lives of HIV-positive people are increasingly on the line, according to a new report by the international Non Governmental Organization, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The report, No time to quit: HIV/AIDS Treatment Gap Widening in Africa looks at eight sub-Saharan countries. It shows how major international funding institutions such as the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), World Bank Treatment Acceleration Project , UNITAID, and donors to the Global Fund, decided to cap, reduce or withdraw their spending on HIV treatment over the past year and a half.
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Daniel LeBlanc, OMI Gives Briefing on Climate Change Conference at UN June 4th, 2010
Daniel LeBlanc, OMI gave a June 3rd briefing at the International Catholic Organizations Network (ICON) on the people’s climate change conference held last month in Bolivia . Titled the “World’s People Conference on Climate Change and The Rights of Mother Earth,” the gathering of some 35,000 civil society representatives was designed to send a strong message to governments that action is needed now to prevent a global climate disaster.
Later the same day he gave a report on the conference to the NGO Committee on Sustainable Development, of which he is an active member.
Daniel LeBlanc, OMI was representing VIVAT International at the conference. He is a newly elected Board Member of ICON.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Decries Killing of Top Congolese Human Rights Defender June 3rd, 2010
Floribert Chebeya Bahizire, a long-time and deeply committed human rights defender in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been killed.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed shock and great sadness at the news of the Mr. Chebeya’s death. His body was found on the outskirts of Kinshasa on Wednesday. Human rights organizations in Kinshasa reported his disappearance after he was summoned to police headquarters the previous day.
