Category: Opinion

The subject of abortion has drawn mixed reactions among Rwandans
The new Rwanda penal code criminales abortion, but permitting it on specific grounds.

Some citizens support the code while others remain neutral over the issue.

Mukakamari Emerithe, is a mother of 4, she said that the new code will increase the number of prostitutes women since girls and women will be allowed to induce their own abortion.

Contrary to Aloys Rukundo, a health community worker, who supports the code saying that it, will help in reducing the number of women dying when unsafely terminating pregnancy so that it does not result in birth.

On the side of religious and church goers, abortion is viewed as a sin, Iryanyirinka Betty, 22 years old girl, is a member of Voice of Hope choir, in a church called Neo-Apostolic church in Rwanda.

She says that despite the positive impacts of legalizing abortion, allowing abortion is murder of an innocent baby and it doesn’t favour women’s health.

However, Onesphore Dushimirimana, a young graduate of the National University of Rwanda, viewed abortion as a logical solution to unwanted pregnancies resulting from ineffectual contraceptives when taken in terms of family planning for married women.

“The formulation of abortion as a form of family planning for married women would be “thinkable” when both medical and non-medical practitioners agree on the relative safety of the procedure.” Said Onesphore

According to human right activists the new law conflicts with the constitution and children’s rights.

Recently, Edouard Munyamariza, the Chairman, Civil Society Platform, told media that lowering sanctions on abortion is like giving a green light to the youth to do it, adding that the new law should have provided tougher punishments to avoid “such criminal acts”.

Under article 165 of crimes regarding abortion, there is no criminal liability for a woman who induces her own abortion and a medical doctor who aids abortion when a woman conceived as a result of rape; forced marriage; incest in the second degree; and when the continuation of pregnancy seriously jeopardizes the health of the unborn baby or that of the mother.

The article explains that the act can be allowed only if the woman who seeks abortion submits to the doctor an order issued by a competent court after deciding it as a matter of urgency.

It is estimated that 60, 000 abortions are carried out annually in Rwanda, the majority of which are unsafe, 40 per cent leading to complications that require treatment.

Article 162 on abortion says that any person who carries out self-induced abortion shall be liable to a jail term of one to three years and a fine of Rwf50, 000 to Rwf200, 000, while causing a woman to abort without her consent, under the new law, also attracts an imprisonment term of 10 to 15 years.

In case of mutual consent, however, a person who causes a woman to abort shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of two years to five years.

A person who administers delivers or orders a substance to a woman and causes abortion which results into death shall be liable to a term of imprisonment of 15 to 20 years if the woman had consented to the abortion; and to life imprisonment and a fine of between Rwf 200, 000 to Rwf2 million, if such a woman had not consented to the abortion.

The new penal code replaces the old one, which has been in place since 1977.

As we look back on the history of this epidemic, it is hard to say that there is any one moment when the tide began to turn. Because the truth is that we have been turning back the tide of AIDS, step by painful step, for 30 years.

And at nearly every turn, it is the activists, and their communities, that have led the way.

It was activists and communities who devised safer sex, promoted condom use, needle exchange and virtually all the behavioral prevention we use today.

It was activists who transformed drug development and regulatory processes, and involved patients in clinical research, cutting drug approval times in half in the global north.

It was activists in Durban in 2000 who began to push for access to antiretrovirals in the developing world and who kept pushing and are pushing still for them to be affordable and available to everyone who needs them, everywhere.

And it was activists whose deep understanding of the communities most affected by AIDS has spurred a movement to promote the health and dignity of gay men, sex workers and drug users that has now reached every corner of the world.

It was TASO in Uganda, ACT UP in the US, TAC in South Africa, Grupo Pela Vida in Brazil, the Lawyers Collective in India, the Thai Drug Users Network, and countless organizations like them that have woven together one of the most extraordinary movements the world has ever seen.

Remember what ACT UP stands for: the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power.

This has been a movement that came together in anger, that thirsts for justice, that is fundamentally about unleashing the power of human solidarity, and that for 30 years has forged alliances to expand that solidarity and be ever more inclusive.

A movement that has grown to include pioneering governments from Brazil to Botswana, UN agencies, visionary donors and donor countries, and groundbreaking NGO treatment programs; a movement that has led to efforts such as 3 by 5 and the creation of the Global Fund and PEPFAR.

Thanks to this collective effort, we have seen remarkable gains in the fight. Prevalence has fallen steeply in many countries, new prevention strategies show great promise, and more than 8 million people are on treatment today.

As we gather here in Washington, we look towards the end of AIDS as something that is actually within our reach, a vision that to me and many others here seems less idealistic, less outrageous, than 3 by 5 did, just a decade ago.

Today marks the first time that a President of the World Bank Group has addressed the International AIDS Conference. I’m here because I know what this movement is capable of achieving. I’m here to bring you both a pledge and a challenge.

I pledge that the World Bank will work tirelessly with all of you here to drive the AIDS fight forward until we win.

And I challenge you to join me in harnessing the moral power and practical lessons that the AIDS movement has produced to speed progress against that other global scourge, poverty.

As the leading global development institution, the World Bank is concerned with all aspects of development, all the dimensions that are united in the eight Millennium Development Goals.

We know that development challenges are interdependent. And yet our approaches to these problems often remain fragmented, limiting our vision and our results.

That’s why the idea of bringing lessons from AIDS to poverty reduction is crucial. By breaking down siloes between these two efforts, we begin a process that will go much farther.

Ultimately we’ll multiply the flows of knowledge and experience across all development sectors, accelerating progress on education for all, maternal and child health, environmental sustainability, and so many of our other goals.

Let me describe how the World Bank is applying its distinctive strengths to AIDS.

The World Bank’s mission is to build prosperity and eradicate poverty in countries around the world. The Bank supports countries with financing, but also with knowledge and analytic capacities that are often just as important.

In 2000, under President Jim Wolfensohn, the World Bank worked with many of you here to put the first billion dollars on the table for AIDS. Today, in health, the World Bank’s comparative advantage is in systems building.

Our health sector strategy is focused on supporting countries to create health systems that deliver results for the poor and that are sustainable. We also help countries build social protection systems that can mitigate the impact of events like economic shocks and catastrophic illness, including AIDS, on families and communities.

As an example of our health systems work, the World Bank is helping governments implement performance-based financing, which gives local health facilities financial rewards when they increase delivery of essential services and improve quality.

In Burundi, after a performance-based financing model was introduced nationally to strengthen the AIDS response, the number of HIV-positive pregnant women receiving antiretrovirals for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission increased by 65 percent in just one year.

We know that HIV is more than a medical problem. AIDS has devastating economic and social impacts on individuals, families and communities. That’s why social protection is also a critical piece of a comprehensive AIDS response. Every year, worldwide, 150 million people are forced into poverty by increased health expenditures and lost income due to illness, including AIDS.

To date, the Bank has helped 40 countries scale up social safety-net programs, including health insurance schemes, old age pensions and cash transfer programs that supplement the incomes of poor families. Our goal is for all countries to be able to implement basic social protection programs tailored to their specific needs.

Success in the AIDS response depends on partnerships. On a very personal level, I am committed to strengthening the World Bank’s multilateral alliances with UNAIDS and the Global Fund; our partnerships with UN technical agencies, including WHO and UNICEF; and our collaboration with PEPFAR and other bilaterals.

Moreover, strong partnership with civil society that delivers results for the poor will be a signature of my presidency. We’ll build on the lessons of the Bank’s MAP initiative, which recognized that civil society voice is critical to make programs work for poor and vulnerable people.

In 2008, the overall proportion of people in the developing world living on less than $1.25 per day was 22 percent, less than half of the 1990 figure. The Millennium Development Goal of halving the incidence of extreme poverty has been reached. But today 1.3 billion of the world’s people still live in absolute poverty.

This is intolerable. We can and must end absolute poverty in our lifetime. To do so, we’ll need to share know-how across the boundaries of institutions and development fields. And we’ll need to use that know-how to build systems that can sustainably meet human needs.

The AIDS fight has shown the world how to turn the tide of a massive assault on human life and dignity. We have a responsibility to ensure that lessons from AIDS inform and improve our efforts to tackle other social goals, above all poverty eradication.

In some places, this is already happening. Governments and their partners are applying AIDS knowledge and resources strategically to beat the epidemic and simultaneously drive a broader anti-poverty agenda.

Rwanda has used AIDS money and technical expertise from the World Bank, the Global Fund and others to build up its widely admired health insurance system, the mutuelles, and to expand secondary and vocational education.

In Rwanda, AIDS resources are contributing to the strategic investment in human capital that has helped drive the country’s remarkable economic progress. From being an exception, this approach can become the rule. This will be a leap forward in our capacity to build systems and deliver results.

As Rwanda shows, successful countries have tackled AIDS as a systems problem. They’ve responded to the epidemic by strengthening delivery systems for key social goods, and they’ve integrated those systems to address people’s needs comprehensively.

Building systems is what the World Bank does best. We have decades of experience making systems work for all, but especially the poor. I want the Bank to lead the world in joining systems knowledge with clear moral values to help countries solve their toughest problems.

Two features of the AIDS fight with clear lessons for poverty work are openness and innovation. The countries that have achieved the greatest successes against AIDS have been open about their epidemics.

They have shared information widely, challenged stigma, and encouraged public debate. They have refused secrecy and dispelled irrational fear.

There are many lessons here for the way we fight poverty. As we at the World Bank continue to tackle corruption, increase transparency and freely share our data, we’re taking these lessons from the AIDS fight ever more fully on board.

Looking back over the last 30 years, we see that the AIDS response has generated continuous innovation. From the acceleration of drug approval protocols to task shifting within medical teams. From fixed-dose drug combinations to the hiring of accompagnateurs to deliver community-based services.

We’ll need more innovation in the years ahead to finish the fight against AIDS. As President of the World Bank, I want to infuse that same appetite for innovation into the struggle for inclusive economic development. I’m convinced that if the practical know-how and the spirit of the AIDS movement can be brought to the poverty fight, there is no limit to what we can achieve.

On the front lines of the 3 by 5 initiative, I saw daily how HIV implementers were generating innovative solutions to practical problems: from supply chain management to human resources to creating space for community voice in program evaluation.

But have we done enough to organize, analyze and apply this knowledge? Have we brought it to bear in every setting where it could be transformative?

All of us here know that a difficult fight against HIV lies ahead. We have come to Washington because we are determined to win that fight. We see our task through the lens of solidarity that has inspired the most ambitious AIDS activism and that we all feel today in this room.

From the start, as they fought this epidemic, the activist pioneers knew they had to tackle the structural forces of prejudice, social exclusion and economic injustice. Their ambition to end unjust human suffering was as vast as the suffering itself. All of us here today must be just as ambitious.

The AIDS movement has rekindled values that show the kind of global development we’re striving for: development grounded in solidarity, courage, respect for the dignity of all people, and an unrelenting demand for justice.

If we unleash the power of these values, we can overcome any obstacle in the fight for economic and social justice. If we unleash the power of these values, we can leave to our children a world free of poverty and AIDS.

We can end AIDS. We must end AIDS. The challenge we face is great. But as I look out at all of you today, I can actually see the end of AIDS.

Thank you, let’s make it happen.

The Author is World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim

New figures show at least 8 million Italians are now living in poverty and the outlook remains bleak in the short term.

More than 11% of families of the country’s total population of 60.6 million are living in poverty, according to the national statistics agency Istat in its annual poverty report.

Nearly one in four families in southern Italy were defined as poor in 2011, with even higher rates recorded in Sicily and Calabria, the report said.

The shocking figures provoked a strong reaction from political leaders, employers and union leaders.

“The new data which adds to an already alarming picture of Italy shows that poverty is now affecting workers as well as pensioners,” said Pietro Cerrito, secretary of Cisl, one of the country’s largest unions.

“For the moment, there is no reason to see a reversal of this trend and it is clear that Italy has its ‘poor Africa’ in the south – a result of the recession, with no programs or concrete initiatives for renewal and growth. It is intolerable,” Cerrito said.

Confcommercio, one of the country’s main employer groups, said the figures showed that there were a growing number of people living “in unsustainable living conditions.”

“Only a return to growth can resolve this serious problem that is undermining social cohesion and possibilities for Italy’s development,” said Mariano Bella, director of the research office of Confcommercio.

The poverty figures were released after the global ratings agency Moody’s downgraded two of Italy’s largest banks – Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit – from A3 to Baa2, after the country’s overall sovereign rating was slashed to two notches above junk status last week.

Moody’s also cut the long-term issuer and debt ratings of 23 Italian public entities, including ENI and Enel, and 14 regional governments and four local governments.

The Bank of Italy has forecast minus-2% growth of the country’s gross domestic product in 2012 and rising unemployment in the year ahead.

“Despite a significant increase in participation in the job market, already seen in the first part of 2012, the rate of unemployment could go above 11% in 2013,” the bank said in its economic bulletin.

However, one positive aspect of the bank’s latest forecast was a prediction that Italy would emerge from recession early next year while the spread between the 10-year Treasury bond and the German benchmark would remain around 450 basis points.

“The recession will extend into the second part of this year but will be more limited compared to the first two quarters,” the bank said. “It should finish at the beginning of 2013.”

But Italy will be looking to its European neighbours to kickstart its recovery.

“The rapidity of the recovery will depend on the cohesion of the European Union and the standardization of financial markets,” the bank said.

The Milan stock exchange bounced back from Moody’s decision to downgrade banks and local authorities and its benchmark FTSE index rose 1.6% in early afternoon trading Tuesday.

Adding to Italy’s economic woes was the release of disappointing economic data showing a fall in Fiat car sales in the European market.

The European vehicle producers’ association ACEA noted a fall of 16.7% in June.

The company said in a statement that it had been “penalised by the dreadful overall results of the Italian market.”

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said earlier this month that Italy’s largest car maker may have to close one of its domestic plants if weak demand on the European auto market continued.

Elsewhere, the International Monetary Fund predicted “further weakness” in what it called “an already sluggish global recovery.”

It said risks to financial stability increased in the second quarter of 2012 because of the continued slow global recovery and fears about the quality of bank assets in Europe.

“More worrisome than these revisions to the baseline forecast is the increase in downside risks,” said Olivier Blanchard, the IMF chief economist and director of the fund’s research department.

Economists from the Dutch bank ING recently warned that progress on tackling eurozone debt would remain “very slow” and they forecast a 0.4% contraction in the economy in their June report.

ING senior economist Teunis Brosens said a “big plan” was needed for Europe and required bold steps “towards more integration and political union.”

“European Central Bank President Mario Draghi hinted that such steps may be rewarded with more supportive European Central Bank action,” said Brosens. “But we reckon that progress will remain very slow.”

Source:: Xinhua

Nelson Rolihlahla Dalibhunga Mandela a.k.a Madiba the first president of a democratic south Africa turns 94 years to day, .Nelson Mandera’s life is an inspiration, and he has set a benchmark for compassionate leadership.

Born on 18th July 1918 in little village of mvezo in quni in southern transkei south Africa into the royal family of the Tembu axhosa-speaking tribe He is one of the 13children and the youngest of four boys of his father’s four wives.

His father died when he was nine years old and his uncle the ruler of his tribe became his guardian.

He was the first of his family to go to school and begun his primary education when he was seven years at a Methodist missionary school where he was given the name Nelson.

His education continued at the Clarkebury School and later at all-British Healdton high school, a strict Methodist college and it is at this high school that Mandera heard of the African national congress (ANC) for the first time.

Nelson later joined African native college of fort Hare to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree only to be expelled for participating in a student strike.

It was not until 1944 that Mandela joined ANC together with comrades Walter Sisulu and Tambo this group formed ANC youth league and by 1947 he was its secretary General who was later elected its national president in 1951, hence marking the beginning of his struggle and fight against Apartheid, independence and white domination in his country.

He became instrumental in the fight against racial segregation, independence of his country, rule of law, human rights, freedom of speech and expression among others in his country this costed most of his early years in prison and in July 1962 he was arrested and imprisoned for five years on his way back from a freedom conference in Algeria whereby on 20th April 1964 at the opening of his defense case he remarked:

“ The ANC has spent half a century fighting against racialism, when it triumphs it will not change that policy-This then is what the ANC is fighting-their struggle is truly a national one. it is a struggle of the African people inspired by their own suffering and their own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live”

All this suffering and torture inflicted on him never changed his zeal and charisma to fight for the African cause and he was once quoted as saying;

“During my life time, I have dedicated my self to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against black domination I have cherished the I deal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an Ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve.
But if needs be, it is an ideal for which Iam prepared to die”.

But this didn’t stop his enemies and enemies of black race to continue executing their duties and on 11th June 1964 he was convicted and sentenced to a life imprisonment and incarcerated at Robbin Island prison, a former leper colony 7km off the coast from capetown, but never gave up and accelerated his struggle to end apartheid.

By 1982 tougher with Sisulu he was transfered to Robbin island Prison to the maximum-security polls moor prison on the main land, and on 2nd Feb 1990, F.W.de Klerk a moderate National party president who replaced P.W.Botha announced that Mandela will be released and finally good news broke the world on Sunday 11th feb when he was finally released at the age of 71 years after spending almost three decades in custody ( 27 years).

While rembering 94 years of his existence, am privileged to say that;
Mandela’s life is a story of hardship, resilience and ultimate triumph told with a rare clarity and matching eloquence, a true man by conviction, a military man by necessity and a leader by commitment with a posture of a family man.

Nelson after all these struggles, he ended the Apartheid era on April 27th 1994 and was unanimously elected the president of South Africa by the national assembly on 9th may1994 and a day after inaugurated at a ceremony in Pretoria, and remarked;

“We dedicate this day to all the heroes and heroines in this country and the rest of the world who sacrificed in many ways and surrendered their lives so that we should be free’’ he continued “Their dream have become reality”

Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country.

Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world.

As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa’s antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

Am therefore appealing to all pan-Africanists, nationalists and other peace lovers that while celebrating this extra-ordinary day of Mandela, we should let reverence for our independence, freedom, laws, rights, togetherness, reconciliation, sovereignty and self reliance among others be breathed by every African mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap—let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs;–let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

And, in short, let it become the political religion of our continent; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay, of all sexes and toungues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars, then we shall have a better Africa to live in.

In 1997, Mandera resigned as the president and bowed out of politics, stepping down as president of south Africa and returning to live at his birth place in transkei where he now enjoys his last days.

To me, Nelson Mandela stands, as no other living figure does, for the triumph of dignity and hope over despair and hatred, of self-discipline and love over persecution and evil.

We should therefore not forget that he lived a life full of sympathy, love and compassion for others.

He has been a selfish less man that his achievements can only be achieved by those probably sent far away not in terms of planets but in terms of human thinking. My grandfather Madiba happy birth day and May Almighty God grant you more years!

Lately there has been a raging debate in the media regarding the relationship between religion and business with some advocates bluntly saying that the two cannot co-exist while others opted for a compromise.

The emergence of what is commonly referred to as “prosperity gospel” in some congregations has torched some unnecessary competition as followers battle to outdo each other to show how well “God is working for them”.

Some critics have pointed out that religion has been transformed into an enterprise they have coined as “gospreneurship” to milk money from the followers and effectively transformed the livelihoods of the leaders.

At the expense of exposing my standing on the subject, I would like to say that organised religion is big business and this is not only unique to Zimbabwe but it is a global phenomenon and it has to be viewed from this perspective. According to the Christian doctrine, the concept of business can be traced back to the Old and New Testaments.

In Luke 6:34, Jesus asked his disciples, “If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you?”

Although this may be a general injunction to disinterested benevolence, it has also been read as a condemnation of interest or usury. Jesus referenced this especially when one lends to another believer, the idea being that, as a Christian with an eternal mindset, ultimately God is our rewarder and lending to a fellow believer should be left to God to reward over collecting nominal interest.

I quoted this in the context of the proposal by TN Holdings’ (Lifestyle Holdings) chief executive Tawanda Nyambirai’s suggestion that we should now look to the church as a source of raising funds for distressed companies.

His suggestion has come under attack from many quarters with some saying that Nyambirai wanted to reap where he did not sow. They wanted a line drawn between banking and Christianity and feared that this creative way of raising capital would end up in a scandal of some sort.

In America, the Organised Religion Organisation stands out as a shining example of taping the rich pickings in the word of God.

Using the anti-materialist words of a poor carpenter as its mission statement, the ORI has made a significant mark in the American economy.

In real estate alone, the ORI has control of trillions dollars in property. And it’s not just property ownership that has economically entrenched the organisation, it’s all the jobs attached to that property.

In addition, all the auxiliary economic activities generated by what goes on in ORI-owned buildings, all the training facilities for the people who run these activities, all the people employed by the hierarchical institutions who decide what these activities should be.

A report carried in The Washington Post spells out the commanding financial presence of the ORI in the state of Virginia. In 2009, Thomas Road Baptist Church (church, private school, and private universities) was the second largest employer behind Central Health.

In the Jewish community, there are also some guidelines on how to conduct business. In the Torah (Holy Book), there are more commandments concerning the kashrut (fitness) of one’s money than the kashrut of food.

These laws are developed and expanded upon in the Mishnah and the Talmud (particularly in Order Nezikin). Laws concerning business ethics are delineated in the major codes of Jewish law (e.g. Mishneh Torah, 12th c.; Shulhan Arukh, particularly Choshen Mishpat, 16th c.). (Wikipedia)

Leviticus 25:14 teaches: “When you sell anything to your neighbour or buy anything from your neighbour, you shall not deceive one another.” The Talmud (Bava Metzia 49b and 50b) and later codes (Rambam, Mekhira, Chapter 12) expand on this verse to create a series of specific laws prohibiting monetary deception.

The prohibition is on the sale of an article at so much more, or to the purchase of an article at so much less, than its market value that fraud or the taking of an undue advantage is presumed.

A discrepancy of one-sixth enables the wronged party to secure the cancellation of the sale or purchase; that is, an article worth six money-units in the market may not be sold for seven or bought for five (B. M. 49b).

It seems that overcharge by the merchant selling to the consumer was the most frequent instance in which the application of the rule was called for.

The claim had to be made as soon as the buyer had had an opportunity to show his purchase to a merchant or to one of his friends.

It is said that R. Tarfon taught at Lydda that the discrepancy must amount to one-third to justify an action, whereupon the merchants rejoiced; but when he extended the time for rescission to the whole day they demanded the restoration of the old rule.

Either seller or purchaser, whether merchant or one in private life, may make the complaint, notwithstanding the opinion to the contrary of R. Judah ben Ilai. The purchaser imposed upon may ask either for rescission of the transaction or for the return of the excess paid by him.

For Islam, the basis of these laws is the Qur’an, and they are amplified in the Hadith. Moslem wealth ethics include avoidance of the exploitation of people in need through lending them money at interest (riba) and prohibitions against false advertising; under Islamic law, if a vendor sells an item by making false claims about it, the customer has the right to have the transaction cancelled. (The International Institute of Islamic Thought).

There is no doubt that the debate of religious ethics in business differs from each setting, but the bottom line is fair business conduct that is ethical.
As always, let’s make money.

Mr. Kangondo Lives in Zimbabwe

Rwanda leads in the East African Community (EAC) in one important aspect – government expenditure on healthcare per capita, that is, the average amount of money in US dollars that a government spends per person per year based on official exchange rate.

Rwandan government spent $48 on each individual’s healthcare in 2009 according to the most recent report.

The Rwandan amount is almost twice as much as Tanzania’s $25 in fourth place, but what is so surprising is that Rwanda has increased spending fivefold since 2000 while Tanzania has increased only two and half times from $10.07.

This news may not be a surprise but is still important considering the fact that Kenya and Tanzania have recently been hit by medical personnel strikes.

In December 2011 Kenyan doctors went on strike and within a month their counterparts in Tanzania did the same, in both cases the issues being pay and working conditions.

In March 2012 Kenyan nurses went on strike before Tanzanian doctors resumed their strike in June which is still troubling the nation.

According to the report published by the Society for International Development (SID), Uganda had the second highest per capita healthcare expenditure with $43 followed by Kenya with $33 and as usual Burundi was the last with $20.

There is a lot of financial data on healthcare expenditure, but this one piece regarding per capita expenditure paints a very lucid picture on how strategic each country is.

Since Tanzania is going through a crisis, let me zero in on it based on World Health Organisation (WHO) data covering the period between 1995 and 2009.

Starting with total healthcare expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Tanzania spent 3.77% in 1995 and this figure never went up significantly until 2006 when it spent 6.53%.

By 2009 the figure had dropped to 5.12%. Notably, the United Nations wants Tanzania to reach 15%.

From another observation, in 1995 the government spent 40.10% of the country’s total healthcare expenditure with the remainder coming from non-government sources, but come 2005 the government raised it to 48.51%. As a result of massive donor support by 2009 the government was spending 73.59%.

In absolute amount of money presented in US dollars, based on official exchange rate, in 1995 the country spent a total of $114 million with the government spending $46 million of that, about 40% as mentioned above.

As of 2009 the country spent $1,462 million of which the government share was $1,076 million, with the Ministry of Health spending $596 million.

Looking at donor support one may be surprised at the figures. Back in 1995 external resources on health as a percentage of total health expenditure was only 9.29 per cent, but that figure reached 36.48 in 2005, then jumped to 59.21% and 56.47% in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Imagine if donors say enough is enough, you have adequate natural resources, please take care of yourself!

Another dimension is general government expenditure on healthcare as a percentage of general government expenditure which gauges the attention of government on healthcare.

In 1995 the figure was 9.13 %, increasing to 14.40% in 2006 before reaching 18.08% in 2009, twice as much as it was in 1995. Not bad, but still more is needed.

When he addressed the nation on June 30 in his monthly speech, President Jakaya Kikwete hinted that his government has increased the healthcare budget from Sh300 billion in 2005/06 to Sh1.2 trillion in 2011/12, making it the third largest area after infrastructure and education.

Note that, average annual inflation rate was below 5% in 2005/06 but has mostly been above 10% since October 2008, and is currently close to 19%.

While in local currency this appears to be a fourfold increase, in foreign currency that isn’t the case.

WHO data shows that in 2005 it was $301 million, and based on the current average exchange rate, the 2011/12 amount is about $750 million approximately two and half-times. Again, impressive but not enough!

Frankly, based on our pathetic situation, population explosion, and other known challenges, we need to do far better than this.

So, where is the magic wand? We need to increase our GDP and the nation’s total expenditure on healthcare as well as the government’s spending; assuming embezzlement and corruption will not interfere.

Finally, it is time we escaped from donor-dependency syndrome if we truly want to be in charge of our own destiny.

This is not to mention a host of measures such as effectiveness and efficiency, training, equipment, facilities, various public health programmes and taking care of our medical personnel.

I don’t think being overtaken by almost all EAC members is a good sign at all.

Matinyi is a consultant based in Washington, DC.

Augustin Mwanke Katumba was without a shadow of a doubt the most brilliant political strategist in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the beginning of this century.

He inherited a dismembered and devastated country full of armed opposition groups challenging the authority of the central government of Kinshasa and managed to pave the way out towards peaceful development and the harmonization of regional relations and beyond.

Mwanke Katumba managed the balancing act of engaging with the Chinese while maintaining relations afloat with Western donors despite the growing number of his detractors.

Most of all, his clear vision of the national and regional politics made him a proactive actor in the relations with the movements in Eastern Congo and Kigali.

The political arrangements supporting a constructive relationship with Rwanda were completely under his guidance handled with the utmost care and diplomatic prowess.

The 2009 integration process of most armed opposition groups gave Congo the opportunity to engage in a peaceful development of the nation. It paved the way to the 2011 elections and a healthy regional collaboration.

That second election was indeed one of the biggest tributes to this man’s greatness; the way he got it off the ground and landed softly after highly criticized polls is all in his honor.

Both the presidential and legislative elections were fully supported by the African sister countries such as Rwanda, Angola, South Africa and the people of Eastern DRC, to the contrary of Western donor countries who viewed them with a pessimistic mindset.

Halas the February plane crash in which Mwanke Katumba lost his life also marked the beginning of a new crisis era for the DRC.

His seat now empty, a tug of war ensued between Katumba’s potential successors. Is this how we should read the reality beyond the new conflict in Eastern DRC? Is it because his potential successors wanted to show President Kabila that they were ready to take on the job?

It is hard to believe that Mwanke would have started a new war knowing he wouldn’t win it, a conflict that would drag the country back into nightmares rather than the development of the nation.

This second mandate for President Kabila needed to be about delivering and progress, paving the way for the imminent rise of the Congolese society.

The entourage of Kabila drew the bad card by plunging again into a conflict that in any case scenario will have a disastrous impact on his presidency.

The role of the Western lesson givers who have been supporting DRC in reorganizing and training the Congolese army cannot be minimized as they seem today part of the stakeholders in this disaster for DRC.

It took the Congolese leadership ten years to build a framework of hate and fear for the populations in the East. A framework wherein some Congolese nationals were treated as second class citizens, and vilified as agents of Rwanda, the usual suspect in the DRC’s problems.

A framework built through hate lingua and media supported by the Kinshasa leadership.

When in 2009 Rwanda and DRC decided to have a radical move towards a peaceful and constructive relationship between the two nations it somehow put a stop to the past escalation.

To show how much Rwanda was ready to contribute to the effort, Kigali swallowed the CNDP problem and opened up a way for Kabila to integrate its opponents, Kinshasa on the other hand allowed the fight against FDLR as if the harm caused by the genocidairs was only affecting Rwanda.

Again it seems that Kinshasa lacked a real assessment on the root causes for its problems in the East. Probably Kabila and his entourage never accepted the fact that they had been pushed, defeat after defeat, to accept the military setback, as they never understood the misery of the Kivu populations being hostages of genocidairs forces as an actual national disaster.

During the following years Kinshasa focused in reorganizing its national army without the integrated elements. The Congolese leadership never dismantled the hate frame built against the Congolese Rwandophones and associates.

Making it even worse by developing tribal aversion against Congolese Tutsi.
Three years later we’re back at square one. Kinshasa wants to give the Rwandans a “bloody nose” and prove to all that Congo is back like in the old Mobutu days.

Same scenario as previous picture: defeat of the glorious Congolese army, over equipped with ten times more troops than the “rebels”. Who is to blame? With the traditional support of UN “experts” and “leaked” reports, follow my eyes: Rwanda.

The mutiny doesn’t need Rwanda to defeat the Congolese armed forces, that’s only the excuse and everyone knows. The mutineers of M23 have a legitimate cause to serve, despite what the US envoy in DRC and others have to plead.

And as long, as the root causes aren’t being taken in consideration and dealt with by the Congolese leadership, they will hasten the collapse of Kabila.

A military solution is suicidal, a political resolution is the only way out. If Kabila doesn’t understand that the security of every community including the Rwandophones needs to be guaranteed as a priority and the FDLR seen as a threat for the populations of Eastern Congo, Kinshasa will loose the Kivus on a longer run and probably more.

President Kabila is fighting his own shadow, shooting his own feet, creating his own downfall. And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men won’t put Congo together again.