Nineteen University of Botswana undergraduate students completed their work for HOORC's Winter Course this week, wrapping up their fieldwork assignments with presentations of the results of their research. This year's work included economics studies from Mbakile P. Seabe - Household attitudes and willingness to pay for the conservation of Lake Ngami, Botswana -- Kaelo Galeage - The impact of...
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Economics,
Education,
public health,
Livelihoods,
fisheries,
Research,
Water Resources,
Vegetation,
Cultural Resources,
Community Based Natural Resource Management,
Pollution
Guidance on Profiling Internally Displaced Persons (IDMC & OCHA, Nov. 2007) [text]
The Guide to the HAP Standard: Humanitarian Accountability and Quality Management (Humanitarian Accountability Partnership, May 2008) [text]
Manual for Conducting HIV Behavioral Surveillance Surveys among Displaced Populations and their Surrounding Communities (UNHCR, Great Lakes Initiative against HIV/AIDS, &...
The Khwe of the Okavango Panhandle : the use of veld plants for food and medicine, is the third in a series of booklets of San peoples' oral testimonies produced by the Kuru Family of Organizations. The booklet, compiled by the Letloa Trust, provides full page descriptions and colour photographs of plants found around the Okavango River, and their uses by the Khwe people. You can order the book...
Climate Change, Environmental Degradation and Migration: Addressing Vulnerabilities and Harnessing Opportunities - Background Paper (IOM & Greek Chairmanship of the Human Security Network, Feb. 2008) [text]
Getting it Done and Doing it Right: A Global Study on the United Nations-led Monitoring & Reporting Mechanism on Children and Armed Conflict (Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, Jan....
The IRIN news web site of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has a current story about HIV AIDS programmes offered by tourism operators in the Okavango Delta, as well as one about the Maun Homeopathy Project, a group of volunteer homeopathic practitioners working with Botswana's health services to treat HIV positive people in Ngamiland. In HOORC's Library, you can find...
Photo courtesy of Lani Asato, Aquarap 2000
A recently published study, Genomic organization, sequence divergence, and recombination of feline immunodeficiency virus from lions in the wild in the online open access journal BMC Genomics shows that parts of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) isolated from wild lions have undergone substantial genetic recombination, says research published. The...
The end of the first month of 2008 leads us to look at the Botswana Government's Press Agency (BOPA) review of news highlights of 2007. A selection of items relevant to Okavango region planning:
February - The African Union adopts Botswana's position on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.
March - Some 111 former residents of the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve...
A bit of a graduate school application essay that was too snarky to keep (and also works better with accompanying illustrations):Ssempa is wildly popular in Uganda, revered for his admittedly successful work to stem the country's tide of HIV/AIDS. Liberal thinkers, however, see him as prone to radical conservatism, which extends to vitriolic attacks on the homosexual community and the public burning of condoms in order to encourage abstinence. I see him as the kind of man who has divided each page of his web site evenly in half: text on the left and a variety of large, softly-lit portraits of himself on the right....
From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLV, no. 78, 30 November 2007
Statutory Instrument no. 83 of 2007: Diseases of Animals Act, Declaration of Foot and Mouth Disease (Infected Area) Order, 2007 (published on 30th November 2007)
C.1402
Tender announcements and documents may also be found on the Government of Botswana web site. The entire issue of the Government Gazette may be read in...
11th European Country of Origin Information Seminar, Vienna, 21-22 June 2007, Country Reports (Nov. 2007) [access]
- Country reports published on Afghanistan and Iraq.
African Migration Workshop, Accra, Ghana, September 2007, Papers (Nov. 2007) [access]
- Abstracts/full-text papers in English and French.
Asylum Deaths: What to do Next (Institute of Race Relations, Nov. 2007) [access]
Asylum...
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Africa,
Afghanistan,
Iraq,
Policy,
women,
European Union,
conflict,
country of origin conditions,
asylum seekers,
refugee status determination procedures,
suicide,
Migration,
Aids,
public health
Michael Ramaano and Leigh Price, team members from the Kalahari Conservation Society's project, Status Assessement of the Relationship between HIV and AIDS and the Environment, visited HOORC's Library today at the end of a two week field trip that covered Chobe, Moremi Game Reserve and the Okavango Sub-District. The project, being carried out by Zimbabwean organizations SafAIDS and Shanduko, is...
The United Nations has launched a new web site, the MDG Monitor, to help track progress of countries' efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The site uses interactive maps, country-specific and organizations profiles, and provides news feeds to describe challenges and achievements. A countdown ticker lets you know exactly how many days, months, hours and seconds remain until the...
Freshwater snails from Aquarap 2000 survey
HOORC's Library had a visit today from Professor C.C. Appleton of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who is working with Professor Fred Ellery on a retrospective analysis of the bilharzia epidemic in the Maun area during the 1970s and 1980s. The study relates hydrological data to the available disease prevalence data and suggests that there is a six year...
From the Botswana Government Gazette, Vol. XLV, no. 70 19 October 2007
Republic of Botswana: Government Notice No. 566 of 2007: Standards Act : Standard Specifications for Botswana (including storm water drainage, aggregates for natural resources, water quality sampling, environmental management systems, customer satisfaction)
5671-5673
Republic of Botswana: Ministry of Environment, Wildlife...
The National Academy of Sciences and the Global Health and Education Foundation have released an interactive educational web resource about drinking water, Safe Drinking Water is Essential. The site uses sliding panels, pictures and maps to allow the user to explore information about drinking water sources, distribution and treatment. For example, the Technologies Decision Tool shows recommended...
The African Union's Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC) has set up a technical task force to plan for a multi-national project to eradicate trypanosomiasis in the common tsetse belt in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. HOORC researcher and tsetse fly spraying monitoring specialist, Dr Casper Bonyongo will join William Shereni and David Zinyengere of...
Recent publications issued by HOORC academic staff and associates make a multidisciplinary contribution to natural resources issues relevant to Okavango Delta planning and management. Dr Lapologang Magole's paper in the conservation and human rights special issue of the IUCN's Policy Matters, The history of conservation evictions in Botswana : the struggle continues, with new hope provides an...
HIV/AIDS nutrition specialist Alastair Duncan reports his travels in northern Botswana, noting the value of fish in the diet of people living on the banks of the Chobe River. You can read about his observations in his weblog, HIV Nutrition Information Exchange. In HOORC's Library, you can find Artisanal fishing and food security in the Okavango Delta, Botswana by HOORC researchers K. Mosepele...
IUCN CBNRM Support Programme Occasional Paper number 16, The impact of HIV/AIDS in CBNRM in Botswana : the case of Ngamiland, written by HOORC researchers B.N. Ngwenya and O.T. Thakadu, with associate F.C. Potts, describes how Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) programmes in Ngamiland have attempted to reduce the problems associated with HIV/AIDS and offers policy advice and...
On Tuesday morning I took my students to the Mulago National Referral Hospital, a free, government-run hospital in Kampala. You can read about the visit on the GYPA blog, but I think Jasmine gives a more accurate picture:"have you seen the nurse?"that's a question you will hear alot in mulago hospital. especially after 1am. i had to ask too. on a whole other floor, in a different year.you walk/run to the nurse's room/station only to find no one, then you go round the whole floor. knocking on the doors of each room asking 'have you seen the nurse?'if you are lucky, you will find her in one of the rooms. if you are not, like i was, you'll run back to your room, check on your patient, then try the nurse's room again.maybe she'd have come...
Tomorrow afternoon, the American delegates for the Global Youth Partnership for Africa's conference on Youth, Development & Health arrive, meaning that blogging time will be limited as I guide American and Ugandan youth leaders around the country.I probably shouldn't be saying this, but my public health experience is limited to a basic familiarity with the ABC policy and the knowledge that, generally speaking, clean = good and dirty = things like cholera and tuberculosis. That's okay, though — it looks like I'm about to get a crash course in health disaster management:Uganda: Ebola-Like Virus Hits KamwengeUganda: Marburg Feared in KampalaOh, goody.My little brother's greatest worry when I told him I was moving to Uganda was that I would contract Ebola, a disease he studied...
The New Scientist of 14 July 2007 published a story about the impact of HIV and AIDS on the African environment, based on interviews of researchers at the Society of Conservation Biology conference in South Africa. HOORC governance specialist Dr Rachel Demotts was among those who made presentations about the issue at the conference: her experience with AIDS and conservation groups in the...
Okavango Delta fishermen, Aquarap 2000 HOORC researchers Professor Donald Kgathi and Dr Barbara Ngwenya, with associate Dr Julie Wilk of Linkoping University, have published their research about how Okavango communities have coped with disruption of their economies by illness and environmental events. Shocks and rural livelihoods in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, recently published in...
I gushed a little bit earlier about the Global Kimeeza II, a program of the Global Youth Partnership for Africa, an organization I've been involved with for a little over a year and a half. GYPA leads regular conferences for American and Ugandan youth leaders that focus on how young people can actively participate in finding solutions to the variety of challenges Africa faces.I credit GYPA with cementing my interest in development issues as a whole and in Uganda in particular. For this reason, I am crazy excited to announce the first of our two summer immersion programs: Youth, Development & Peace-building.These immersions are open to Ugandans ages 18-30 who are already involved in community development projects and/or youth leadership initiatives. The programs will take place in...
This week's BBC Have Your Say focuses on the recent UN position that health clinics in countries with HIV epidemics should test all patients for HIV unless they specifically request not to be tested.Supporters of the policy say that the vast majority of those infected with HIV/AIDS are unaware of their status and that testing could go far in preventing the spread of the disease.Opponents say compulsory testing violates the human rights of patients, condemning them to a life of discrimination, and is especially problematic in areas where few can avoid life-extending anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs):Why should it be compulsory when Africans can not afford the cost of the cure? Let me die in peace instead of being stigmatized to death.Jonathan Enders, MonroviaOstracization of the HIV-positive...
I have to admit that I'm a little surprised you a) found and b) commented on my blog. I'm flattered, to be absolutely honest. I would say that I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, but, with all due respect, I abhor the way you've gone about "educating" Makerere University students about HIV/AIDS, and I'd be remiss if I didn't say why.I agree with you on one thing: abstinence is the only guaranteed way to prevent the transmission of HIV. Here's the problem, Martin. People are having sex. Lots of people. Lots of people who have been taught that abstinence is the only way to protect themselves. But guess what? They're still having sex, and I think it's horrifically irresponsible of us to tell them that, since they denied themselves the first level of protection, we're giving up on...
Kelly, UBHH newbie Tim and I had a run-in with the ever-opinionated 27th Comrade over the Virginia Tech tragedy at this week's UBHH. Our passionate young communist argued that Americans deserve what they get and shouldn't make a big deal out of things like this because far more than 33 people die from violence, preventable illness or sheer neglect each day in Africa because of things America has done or failed to do. Kelly and Tim were ruffled, and I think the appropriate response to insensitivity and callousness isn't more of the same. Still, I get his point...sort of.The VA Tech shootings earned far more American media coverage than any event in Africa last week, despite the fact that Nigeria had hotly contested elections, Somalia is exploding, the Ugandan peace talks resumed and...
The Time Global Health blog is going on hiatus. It's been a privilege bringing you the latest international health news and analysis for the past year. I'm going to be working on some new projects in global health. See you on the Web!
--Christine...
Perhaps it's books and movies like the Hot Zone, which showed hemorrhagic fever spreading from central Africa to the West, but there's long been a perception that bio threats begin in the developing world and mostly threaten the rich parts of the world.
Like everything else about globalization, though, viruses and disease can move both ways. I was reminded of this by a story in last Saturday's Times of India about the discovery of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in India.
There's no link to the story, unfortunately, but in brief, two children of U.S.-based ethnic Indians who were back in India attending a conference for the India diaspora were diagnosed last week with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which is quite common in the U.S. but, according to the Times of India,...
Florence Nightingale could have predicted this. A growing number of antibiotic-resistant germs are turning up in the war wounds of U.S. combat troops in Iraq. Along with the usual drug-resistant staph and strep varieties, there is now a major hospital-bred version of Actinobacter that has become resistant to all traditional antibiotics.
At first doctors, doctors assumed the germ was being forced into soldiers' wounds along with all the dirt from the explosion of improvised explosive devices, according to Steve Silberman’s comprehensive look at Actinobacter in February’s Wired Magazine. But then, Silberman says, an investigation by military doctors and others showed that the source of the drug-resistant bug—informally known as Iraqibacter—was probably the Pentagon’s own...