Clippings

Tanzania

Delegates at an international conference on tourism on December 12 recognised and vowed to develop the potential that the industry has in the promotion of peace and reduction of poverty.

Travel and tourism, the world's largest industry, has become the significant driver in many developing economies and is a useful tool for "promoting understanding, trust and goodwill among peoples of the world", they said in an action plan issued in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The week-long meeting was organised by the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) and looked at various issues facing the industry in Africa, where, on average, it accounts for 11 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"This was a very powerful and productive event that exceeded everyone's

expectations," Louis d'Amore, founder and president of the IIPT, said after the meeting.

"We have had over 350 people from 25 countries and they are returning home committed to the action plan and dedicated to spread the message that we are building. This is the second conference we have had on Africa and the momentum is building," he said.

On a global scale, the delegates called for the UN to establish an International Year of Peace through Tourism, further meetings on the concept and increased dissemination of "success stories" in community tourism.

Tanzania, where tourism accounts for about 16 percent of GDP and nearly 25 percent of total export earnings, was cited by many at the conference as a symbol of the importance of tourism for the continent's economies.

The industry directly supported 157,200 jobs in 2002 and foreign exchange earnings grew from US $259.4 million in 1995 to $730 million in 2002.

Joseph Butiku, Executive Director of Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation, an organisation dedicated to preserving ideals of the founding president of Tanzania, highlighted the potential power of tourism and travel as a means of reconciling past enemies. (Source: IRIN)

Central African Republic

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Central African Republic (CAR) government have signed a US $120,000 agreement to enable experts to prepare farming projects to be submitted to donors for funding, an FAO official said on December 11. Etienne Ngounio-Gabia, FAO programme officer, said the funds were granted

within the framework of the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), and followed a request from the government.

He said that in 2000, the government and FAO had laid down an Agricultural Plan of Action, which had not been implemented due to civil strife in the country. He said the government experts would have until the end of August 2004, when a number of projects in farming, breeding, fishing and fish farming would be submitted to donors. All the projects would aim to enable the population of the CAR to attain food security.

As in many other African nations, the people of CAR mostly depend on farming, but the country lacks strategies to modernise this vital sector. A September-October national forum urged the government to rectify this and to diversify crop cultivation.

Meanwhile, Ngounio-Gabia said another feasibility study in the farming sector was underway in the Mbali Valley, some 80 km north of the capital, Bangui. He said the UN Development Programme had disbursed $10,000 for national experts to prepare projects to utilise water reserves that resulted from the construction of the Mbali hydro-electric dam in the 1980s.

"That water reserve can generate many economic activities if properly exploited," Ngounio-Gabia said, noting that the valley was favourable for fishing, cattle-rearing and irrigated rice cultivation. He said FAO would oversee the study and that the experts would complete their work in April. (Source: IRIN)

Congo

Impunity is a major obstacle to human rights in the Republic of Congo (ROC), the NGO l'Association panafricaine Thomas Sankara (APTS) said on December 10 in a report published in the capital, Brazzaville.

According to the report, the Congolese people, having decided in favour of multipartyism, wished to live in a political system founded on the primacy of the law and respect for human rights. However, the establishment of such a state was being prevented by the ever growing culture of impunity.

"Many citizens behave as if they were above the law of the republic, day by day multiplying and worsening all forms of social ills," it said.

President of APTS Cephas Germain Ewangui noted that the judiciary, which should act as a lever in the fight against impunity, was ranked fourth in a government survey of the most corrupt public bodies. The report called on the government to work for an independent judiciary.

Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso highlighted the problem during a

speech on 14 August, when he said that unless checked, impunity would swell the ranks of "gravediggers" acting against the interests of the state. (Source: IRIN)

Ethiopia

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao flies into one of the poorest nations on earth on December 14 - marking the end of a four-nation tour that started with the world's richest.

He will pay a two-day visit to Ethiopia which is reeling from a crippling drought and where four out of every five people live below the poverty line.

Analysts see the event, a follow-up to the 2000 Beijing China-Africa forum, as an opportunity for China to further woo the developing world and in particular Africa.

The China-Africa forum - to be attended by at least 10 African leaders and dozens of foreign and trade ministers - aims to strengthen political, economic, trade and social ties.

Currently trade between Africa and China is hardly booming and is tiny compared to African trade with the West. Chinese investment in the continent is almost non-existent.

In the first half of this year, trade totalled US $12 billion, and although it has increased six fold since 1990, it still remains a mere fraction of China's trade with the US. (Source: IRIN)

Zimbabwe

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned that Zimbabwe's humanitarian and economic crises could dramatically reverse its impressive post-independence education gains.

To mark the launch this week of the global report, "State of the World's Children", UNICEF Zimbabwe on December 13 called for urgent attention to be paid to keeping children, especially girl children, in school.

"In Zimbabwe we have a situation where gender parity was almost reached, with an 83 percent enrolment rate for primary school, and a percentage point difference between girls and boys going to school. The problem, though, is that it's under stress now - school is not as much a priority as food, for obvious reasons," said UNICEF's Shantha Bloemen.

The UN reported on Decenber 11 that recent research suggested more than six
million Zimbabweans, over half the population, would require food aid from
January to March 2004.

The period, known as the pre-harvest lean season, is also a critical one for the parents of school-going children, as this is when school fees are normally increased.

As a result UNICEF is increasingly worried that the number of school drop-outs, estimated to be up to 10 percent, will further increase in January when schools open and parents and orphans cannot afford what, in some cases, will be a 400 percent hike in fees.

"If the situation continues, we will see a dramatic increase in drop-outs in the first semester of next year," said Bloemen. (Source: IRIN)