China will prohibit the use of six hazardous substances in passenger vehicles from 1 January 2016. A mandatory standard is being implemented as part of a 10-year national sustainability plan, which includes improving the environmental record of car manufacturers.
Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photo credit: cctv
The standard, GB/T 30512-2014: Requirements for prohibited substances in automobiles, will apply to car parts for passenger cars containing fewer than nine seats (category 1M vehicles).
A Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) bulletin (no 38) states that, from 1 January, manufacturers seeking type approval for new vehicles must include information on these restricted substances.
The standard applies only to Chinese manufacturers and international companies involved in joint ventures with Chinese manufacturers.
For existing models already on the road or in production, the standard will be phased in and will apply from 1 January 2018. From this date, manufacturers will have to comply with material restrictions.
Manufacturers must report the use of hazardous substances to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) by submitting documents and a hazardous material information Form. The MIIT will then approve applications.
Restrictions are imposed on lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBBs and PBDEs. These are the same substances that are restricted under EU and China RoHS regulations. Threshold limits are set at 0.1% for all substances except cadmium, at 0.01%.
Project follows a successful run of more than $2.5 billion worth of booked orders across Africa in the last year
Jay Ireland, president and CEO of GE Africa. Photo credit: ge.com
General Electric (GE) Africa has announced that it is partnering with Kipeto Energy Limited to build a new wind farm in Kenya’s Kajiado County. GE will be the sole equipment supplier for the 100MW project, some 50 kilometres from the capital Nairobi. The local power deal caps off a successful run of more than $2.5 billion in booked orders on the Africa continent across transport, aviation, healthcare and energy sectors.
The Kipeto project, announced during President Obama’s visit to Kenya, is expected to make a significant contribution to the installed energy capacity in Kenya, where up to 80% of the population currently lacks electricity access. The $155 million contract will include 60 GE 1.7-103 wind turbines, as well as a 15-year service agreement.
Kipeto Energy Limited shareholders include Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), Craftskills Wind Energy International Limited, International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Maasai community of Kipeto. The project will be financed by Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) as sole lender to the project. OPIC is the US government’s development finance institute and is part of the Power Africa Initiative.
Continued growth across Africa
The Kipeto wind farm project will add to an existing $2.5 billion in orders that GE Africa has received over the past year. These new orders have come from across Sub-Saharan Africa, in transportation, oil and gas, power generation, healthcare and aviation. They have included:
Oil and Gas equipment for Eni Ghana:The $850 million order incorporates both turbomachinery and subsea elements for the offshore project. The order includes three gas turbines for power generation and four centrifugal compressors. The first shipment is scheduled for the end of 2015 and the project is planned to deliver first oil by 2017.
Locomotive contract in Angola:GE is to supply 100 locomotives to the Angolan National Railways (INCFA). The contract demonstrates Angola’s commitment to diversify its economy into new sectors such as mining, agriculture and energy.
Kenya Healthcare Modernisation Programme:GE was selected in February 2015 by the Kenyan Ministry of Health as a key technology partner for its wide-scale infrastructure modernisation programme aimed at transforming 98 hospitals across Kenya’s 47 counties. The radiology modernisation contract awarded to GE Healthcare is the largest of seven tranches of Kenya’s $420 million health development plan, aimed at delivering sustainable healthcare development, in line Kenya’s Vision 2030 Plan.
Delivering on commitments
In August 2014 GE committed to invest $2 billion in facility development, skills training, and sustainability initiatives across Africa by 2018. The commitment was made during the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit in Washington DC. Substantial investment and progress has been made against those commitments, and this week GE announced its involvement in several new projects in Kenya.
“GE has made significant progress against the investment commitments made last August,” said Jay Ireland, president and CEO of GE Africa. “Skills training and capacity building are critical, not only for developing African economies, but also for growing GE’s footprint in the region. We consider this a major priority.”
Key progress over the past year includes:
GE Manufacturing and Assembly Facility in Nigeria:GE has awarded Nigerian construction company, Julius Berger the contract to build its manufacturing and assembly facility in Calabar, Cross River State. Another Nigerian company, Banyan Tree has been contracted to build a training facility at the Calabar site and for the refurbishment, teacher training and curriculum development of the Cross River State Technical College. GE has also commenced fabrication of subsea well heads and refurbishment of Christmas trees at its Onne facility. Upon completion, these projects make up GE’s $250 million capital expenditure investment commitment to Nigeria. This investment is expected to create 2,300 direct and indirect jobs. The Calabar facility is expected to be a regional manufacturing and assembly hub for GE Oil & Gas as well as other GE industrial businesses. The first of its kind site will include training facilities to enable knowledge transfer and career advancement opportunities for local talent.
Nigeria Biomedical Equipment Technician (BMET):GE Foundation has funded a biomedical training program in Nigeria to equip technicians with the skills to fix devices ranging from blood pressure cuffs to X-rays. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), between 50- 80% of medical equipment is out of service in low-income countries). In partnership with Engineering World Health, 19 students have been trained to date. The goal is to train 60 students by year end 2017.
Mozambique Graduate Engineering Training Programme: GE has enrolled 20 Mozambican graduate engineers in the company’s Graduate Engineering Training Programme (GETP), a “best in class” development programme designed to prepare engineers to join GE’s global field service engineering team after successful completion of an intense 24-month curriculum. The engineers concluded phase 1 of the programme at the Mozal Artisan Training Center in Maputo, and Phase 2 in South Africa. They have now started a 12-month, on-the-job training programme to gain hands-on experience with GE Oil & Gas subsea and rotating equipment products.
“We are exceptionally proud of the progress made against our commitment and the impact these initiatives will have on Africa’s workforce,” Ireland added.
Additional investments announced this week in Kenya include:
GE Garages skills building programme:GE is collaborating with Gearbox and Seven Seas Technologies to bring its successful GE Garages skills building programme to Kenya to help build a skilled workforce and drive entrepreneurial development in the country. The facility in Nairobi will help students, entrepreneurs, makers and other learn about advanced manufacturing processes, software programming and business development through the use of advanced manufacturing innovations like 3D printers, laser cutters and CNC mills.
Kenya Healthcare Training Centre:As a cornerstone of our healthcare modernisation programme, we have announced the GE Healthcare Skills and Training Institute in Kenya. The Institute represents a long-term investment of more than $13 million over the next 10 years. The centre is set to become GE’s first dedicated skills development facility in Africa when inaugurated in Q4 2015. Our goal is to train more than 1,000 healthcare professionals over the next three years.
Round 3 of the Power Africa Off-Grid Energy Challenge:GE Africa, in collaboration with the U.S. African Development Foundation (USADF) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), have announced the expansion of Round III of the Power Africa Off-Grid Energy Challenge. This third round of the challenge is open to entrepreneurs and energy companies in Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia with a sum total of up to $1.1 million in grants to be awarded. The three-year initiative has extended $5 million and 50 awards to energy entrepreneurs in 11 African countries across the continent.
“GE’s capability and global expertise in power generation, healthcare, rail transportation, water, oil and gas, and aviation industries allows us to play a significant role as a partner in the development of Africa,” Ireland said. “This expertise also allows us to share knowledge and build skills of local employees in this critical sectors. We have an opportunity and a responsibility.”
A high-level GE delegation, led by Jay Ireland, participated in and hosted events in Nairobi during President Obama’s visit to Kenya for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.
The heavy rain in recent time is resulting in flooded farmlands and smallholder vegetable farmers in Ojo area of Lagos have been counting their losses and expressing reservations over the impact of the peculiar weather condition on their source of livelihood, Kayode Aboyeji writes
Vegetables. Photo credit: agronigeria.com.ng
Night is approaching and Lagos housewife, Blessing Aina, prepares dinner for the family. Dinner is vegetable soup and semolina, but she toils with a heavy heart in the kitchen. As she shreds the ewedu leaves, she marvels at how increasingly expensive food items are becoming, and its implications for the family’s dwindling economic condition.
But Aina is not alone. Felicia Ayinde, a vegetable farmer in the Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State, is worried over emerging trends concerning her business, which she is not comfortable with because of declining farm yield. Too much rainfall is flooding the farmland and Ayinde fears she may no longer depend on making a living from farming.
Indeed, besides decrease in yield, the means of livelihood of some 225 smallholder farmers operating under the aegis of the Ojo Vegetable Farmers Association is also being threatened as many of them are now exploring alternative means to support their family.
Blessing Aina, who is apparently at the receiving end, says: “I used to buy ewedu worth of N100 before which will be enough for my family for at least two to three meals, but know I spend close to N200 to prepare the same quantity.”
She explains that a bunch of vegetable that sold for N50 before is now sells for N100 or more depending on the area where you are buying from.
Felicia Ayinde laments: “Things have changed. Before now, we used to harvest vegetables every four weeks. But now, if we manage to harvest once in six to eight weeks, we will be happy.”
The 56-year-old widow and mother of five continues: “I have been practising vegetable farming here for more than 23 years now, this is where I raised money to sponsor my first two children in school.
“That time the yield from the farm was enough because every four weeks we harvest vegetables that we sell and make money, but now things has changed.
“Vegetables do not like too much rain; they will not grow well. But, in the past few years, the rainfall is too much. It does not allow our vegetables to grow well.
“The year 2012 was the worst year, the rainfall was so much that everywhere was flooded. We cannot plant vegetables inside water,” she says.
Another vegetable farmer, Idris Ayuba, also shares his experience: “We are just struggling to survive now. Flood is affecting this work. During the dry season we used to make more money because vegetables do not like too much rain.
“The long period of rainfall these days is affecting us, our yield has reduced greatly.”
Chairman, Ojo Vegetable Farmers Association, Samuel Bala, stresses that members are still in the business just to keep body and soul together as the fluctuation and extensive rainfall is affecting them seriously.
According to him, market women come to the area to buy vegetables in large quantity both for local consumption and export to the United Kingdom and other countries overseas.
“But now we can’t meet the demand because of the decrease in yield. Rainfall has increased in the recent time and the farmlands get flooded thereby affecting our vegetables,” he discloses.
Asked how they are coping with the situation, he explains that farmers have resorted to raise the seed bed higher than what was obtainable in order to prevent flood from washing away the plants.
He adds that at a time they had to introduce water resistant seeds in order to sustain their activities.
Gabriel Akpan, a father of four who has been engaged in the vegetable farming for over two decades, offers: “The farming work is not like what it used to be before. Within a month before, I used to make close to N40,000 whenever I sell my products.
“But now, it has reduced. If I manage to get N10,000 and N20,000 in a month I will be happy. To feed my family well and attend to other bills is now a problem,” he laments.
Akpan adds that, with the perceived changes in rainfall pattern, the quality and quantity of their product is being threatened.
The Ojo vegetable farming area comprises large concentration of smallholder farmers that engage in planting of vegetables such Corochorus spinach (Ewedu) and Amaranthus spinach (Tete), among others.
Although most of the farmers are smallholders, majority of them depend on the farming work as their main source of livelihood to sustain themselves and their family.
Vegetables, like fruits, are low in calories and fats but contain good amount of vitamins and minerals. They are a rich source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, beta-carotene, and vitamins B, C, A and K.
Just like fruits, vegetables are home for many antioxidants. These health benefiting phyto-chemical compounds help protect the human body from oxidant stress, disease and cancers, while also helping the body to develop the capacity to fight against these by boosting immunity.
But the provision of these essential body nourishment in Lagos seems to be threatened with the changing climatic system.
A climate change expert, Prof. Olukayode Oladipo of the University of Lagos, points out that the rainfall in the recent time is heavily concentrated.
According to him, because of the intensity of rainfall over a period of time, it leads to flooding that washes away vegetables farms.
The university don adds that the farmers may not get the kind of rainfall they expected particularly this year because the rain does not start early.
He urged the farmers to ensure that they raise their ridges to prevent them from being wash away by flood.
At a press conference on Friday, July 24 2015 in Lima, Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar Vidal and the secretary general of the National Service of National Protected Areas (SERNANP) Rodolfo Valcárcel launched the campaign “Unique Places Giving away Unique Experiences”.
This aims to promote the Protected Natural Areas of Peru (ANP), in order to boost tourism activity as a conservation strategy, so that it contributes to the socio-economic development of the native communities in the vicinity of national nature reserves.
At the media briefing
The minister Pulgar Vidal receiving the passport of ANP NO. 001, issued in his name
Photos by Carlos García Granthon (Freelance Photojournalist)
When Bill Gates, along with Paul Allen, began a little tech venture called “Microsoft” in a garage in 1975, he couldn’t possibly have imagined that the company would grow into the largest personal computer company and most widely used PC operating system on the planet.
Small microchip tracking device antenna. Photo credit: naturalnews.com
Or make him the richest man in the known galaxy.
But all of that happened, of course, and for the last two decades Gates, through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have been involved in socially engineering the world to be a place they want to mould in an image they have devised.
In recent months Gates has taken his vision a step further, with the development of computer chip technology that will essentially serve as one element of his quest for population control and reduction.
As reported by the Activist Post‘s Heather Callaghan, soon medical microchip implants will be introduced to the general population, which will serve as “the new face of medicine that polygamously marries Big Pharma, biotech, nanotech and wireless remote technology.”
“Maybe hooking oneself into the Internet of Things will be an additional app, although this sounds like a passive form of medicine where someone else gets to call the shots, so to speak,” she added.
From ‘pro-choice’ to ‘no-choice’
Perhaps not surprisingly – given its propensity to favour technology that reduces planetary human presence – the same developers who are bringing wireless, remote-controlled implants are currently focused on a product that is the cornerstone of future efforts: Gates Foundation-funded birth control microchip implants.
Callaghan notes that wireless technology allows the remotely controlled chips to essentially activate a woman’s ability to conceive, or prevent it, at will, which amounts to temporary sterilisation (if a decision is made, say by an all-powerful government agency, to prevent a woman from bearing a child). Government in the U.S. would instantly transform itself from “pro-choice” (through the permission of abortion) to no choice.
The writer also observed: Of course with remote technology funded by eugenics depopulation fanatics, the first questions should always be, “the ability to conceive by whose will?” This would be the complete antithesis of female empowerment or a “woman’s right to choose” – would it not?
What’s more, the chips are encrypted, so no hacking – not by cyber criminals or by technologically clever souls who are simply trying to bypass a government’s oppression.
The microchip is implantable into arms, hips or somewhere on a woman’s back. The development of the chip was kept under wraps while researchers and scientists worked to complete work the past couple of years. But the existence of the chip was finally confirmed publicly as beta testing of the technology is scheduled to begin towards the end of 2015, when volunteers will be sought.
If poor women are the target, why encrypt the chips?
As reported by TWCN: The birth control chip is the brain child of a professor, Robert Langer, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Bill Gates and Melinda Foundation has funded the research and the prototype is ready for human testing. The chips will be ready for sale by the year 2018 according to Robert Langer. The institute’s Chip Foundation and Bill Gates’ Foundation have been working on the birth control chip for past three years.
The safety tests would begin by the end of year 2015 and Robert Langer is confident that the chips will hit market sometime in 2018. The main target of these chips are women in third world who are often subject to pain and risks of death during early pregnancies.
That report noted that the chip is expected to remain viable for at least 16 years once implanted.
While the “target” population is poor, third-world women, such technology is, of course, ripe for abuse. After all, think about it: If that demographic is the primary target, why would the chips need to be encrypted? How many third-world populations have within their midst the technological capability or the power to resist?
When he began Microsoft, Bill Gates likely never thought he’d become rich enough to hold the power of life in his hands. Talk about your “evil corporations.”
The Co-Chairs of the group charged with reaching a universal climate change agreement in Paris under the UN have issued a consolidated version of the formal “Geneva” negotiating text as a tool to help governments in their negotiations.
Co-Chairs Ahmed Djoghlaf (right) and Daniel Reifsnyder. Photo credit: www.npr.org
The document from Co-Chairs Ahmed Djoghlaf and Daniel Reifsnyder covers the substantive content of the new agreement including mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology, capacity building, and transparency of action and support.
The Co-Chairs’ new document presents a clearer picture of the possible final outcome, while not omitting any of the options put forward by the Parties to the UNFCCC in the formal Geneva text.
The Co-Chairs intention, at the request of Parties, is to offer the document as a tool that can allow them more effectively to negotiate when they reconvene in Bonn from 31 August to 4 September under the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP).
Document Offers Tool to Provide Emerging Clarity
The document provides for the first time clarity on what could be contained within the emerging legal agreement in Paris. It also clarifies what decisions with immediate effect could be taken at the moment the agreement is adopted. Finally it starts to identify what further decisions will need to be taken to make the Paris Agreement fully operational before it enters into effect in 2020.
This could mean, for example, that new commitments that boost the response to climate change would be enshrined in the agreement, but the details of how these commitments would be implemented as well as the details of any new arrangements to support implementation are captured in an accompanying decision.
Governments under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are set to reach a new climate change agreement in Paris, in December, that puts all nations on track towards a sustainable future by keeping the average global temperature from rising beyond 2 degrees Celsius.
As part of the agreement, every country is expected to contribute now and into the future, based on their national circumstances and with adequate financial and technology support, to bring down global greenhouse gas emissions in line with the ultimate goal and to adapt societies and economies to existing and future climate change.
The Republic of Kenya has submitted its new climate action plan to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), making it the 49th party to the UNFCCC to do so.
President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya. Photo credit: en.wikipedia
Tagged: Intended Nationally Determined Contribution(INDC), the document comes well in advance of a new universal climate change agreement which will be reached at the UN climate conference in Paris, in December this year.
The East African nation estimates in the paper that over $40 billion is required for mitigation and adaptation actions across sectors up to 2030, stating that she will require international support in form of finance, investment, technology development and transfer, and capacity-building to fully realise her intended contribution.
The country’s contribution will likewise be implemented with domestic support, but she intends to do further analysis to refine the required investment cost and determine form of support.
Kenya has also pledged to undertake a 30% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction by 2030 relative to the Business as Usual (BAU) scenario, and subject to international support.
The country adds that it will ensure enhanced resilience to climate change towards the attainment of Vision 2030 by mainstreaming climate change adaptation into the Medium Term Plans (MTPs) and implementing adaptation actions.
She hopes that, when it eventually becomes law, a Climate Change Bill that proposes a National Climate Change Council, Climate Change Directorate, and Kenya Climate Fund will further drive the process.
The Paris agreement will come into effect in 2020, empowering all countries to act to prevent average global temperatures rising above 2 degrees Celsius and to reap the many opportunities that arise from a necessary global transformation to clean and sustainable development.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres is encouraging countries to come forward with their INDCs as soon as they are able, underlining their commitment and support towards this successful outcome in Paris. Governments agreed to submit their INDCs in advance of Paris.
Countries have agreed that there will be no back-tracking in these national climate plans, meaning that the level of ambition to reduce emissions will increase over time.
Sub-Saharan Africa will need to create an average of 15-20 million new jobs per year over the next three decades to meet the current growth
General Electric (GE) on Thursday in Nairobi, Kenya announced a series of new commitments aimed at addressing some of the most critical health challenges in East Africa through a sustained focus on skills development and capacity building. The disclosure comes ahead of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Nairobi.
Farid Fezoua, President & CEO of GE Healthcare Africa. Photo credit: capitalfm.co.ke
Among the investments, GE announced: 1. The establishment of the GE Healthcare Skills and Training Institute in Kenya, GE’s first-ever dedicated healthcare skills advancement centre in Africa; and 2. A $1.7 million GE Foundation grant for Biomedical Equipment Training and Safe Surgery programmes in Ethiopia.
As outlined in the GE Africa Future of Work White Paper, launched on Thursday, entitled,Building Strong Workforces to Power Africa’s Growth, sub-Saharan Africa will need to create an average of 15-20 million new jobs per year over the next three decades to meet the current growth, presenting a considerable challenge to the labour market given the low rates of formal employment.
Moreover, the global health sector, especially in developing markets, is facing critical workforce shortages, with Africa ranking the lowest in the availability of health personnel. With 12% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s burden of diseases, sub-Saharan Africa has only 3% of the world’s health workforce. According to the White Paper, the African urbanisation story underscores the need for governments and their partners to invest aggressively in enhancing skills.
Farid Fezoua, President & CEO of GE Healthcare Africa, said, “Investing in the training and education of healthcare professionals to strengthen capability building is one of the greatest enablers for sustainable healthcare development. GE Healthcare’s education strategy integrates technology and localisation in the design and deployment of tailored education solutions including the establishment of new healthcare training centers, locally configured curricula and a range of education partnerships with leading regional academic institutions and global partners. As a major force for change, we aim to increase access to localised education, training and skills development programmes for more healthcare workers across Africa.”
GE Healthcare Skills and Training Institute, Kenya
Selected in February 2015 as a key technology and solutions partner by the Kenyan Ministry of Health (MoH) as part of its $420 million healthcare transformation plan, GE is committed to supporting knowledge-sharing and capacity building in Kenya and across East Africa. As a cornerstone of the mega-modernisation programme, GE will launch the new GE Healthcare Skills and Training Institute in Kenya, representing a long-term investment of at least $13 million over the next 10 years.
With specialised GE Healthcare training facilities across the globe, the centre is set to become GE’s first dedicated skills development facility in Africa when inaugurated in Nairobi later in Q4 2015 that will serve Kenya and the wider East Africa.
The GE Healthcare Skills and Training Institute will initially offer biomedical and clinical applications training courses and over the longer-term will be expanded to offer leadership, technical and clinical education courses, working with the MoH, private healthcare providers and other educational partners, with the goal to train over 1,000 healthcare professionals over the next three years.
In East Africa, where there is a significant shortage of qualified healthcare professionals, the localisation of vocational and leadership training courses aims to support the development of a pipeline of future biomedical engineers, radiologists and technicians, helping to reduce the skills gap, improve job prospects and build a solid national healthcare system and private healthcare sector.
The Kenya training centre is part of GE Healthcare’s global commitment to invest over $1 billion in the development and delivery of localised offerings for the healthcare sector, including a new class of technology-enabled training solutions by 2020. Moreover, as part of this commitment, GE Healthcare aims to deliver enhanced training for over two million health professionals globally that is expected to help healthcare systems drive better patient outcomes and benefit more than 350 million patients worldwide by 2020.
Ethiopia Biomedical Equipment Training (BMET) Centre of Excellence
GE Foundation’s first Biomedical Equipment Training (BMET) programme in Ethiopia responds to the shortage of skilled healthcare workers and functional medical equipment. The BMET Centre of Excellence (COE) builds on the success of prior BMET programming in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Honduras and Cambodia and expands the commitment by creating a COE within a hospital setting to translate learning to actual work processes.
The COE “workshop” will set a benchmark for hands-on training and process replication, further strengthening healthcare systems. Training participants will benefit from a well-rounded curriculum including professional management and customer service skills, in-hospital clinical application, asset management and financial reporting skills and professional development.
This three-year programme grant will help fund the development of the training to educate biomedical technicians in Ethiopia to respond to the shortage of functional medical equipment, by focusing on repairing – not replacing – equipment using available resources. Programmes such as these can help local hospitals increase availability of medical equipment – such as incubators for infants – by up to 43% in some cases.
Safe Surgery Programme in Ethiopia
With a significant training component, the GE Foundation commitment to improving safe surgery in Ethiopia will be delivered through a new partnership with Lifebox, a non-governmental organisation focused on implementation of the WHO Safe Surgical Checklist. This programme aims to standardise safe surgery by increasing access to and quality of surgery, reducing surgical complications, and preventing patient deaths in the region.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the programme will help develop a surgical operating standards programme to serve as a pilot for a country-wide intervention, with local champions from surgical, anesthesia, and nursing backgrounds serving as programme leaders. The programme will also provide guidance, and help coordinate the implementation of safe surgical standards with a focus on localisation. The ultimate goal of the partnership is to expand country-wide through collaboration with local partners including ministries, NGOs, professional societies, teaching institutions, and peer-to-peer networks.
“Safe Surgery has long been a neglected area of global health, and universal access to an essential set of surgical procedures would prevent 1.5 million deaths around the world every year,” said Dr. David Barash, Executive Director, Global Health Portfolio, and Chief Medical Officer, GE Foundation. “It’s tragic that millions of people are dying from common, easily treated conditions like appendicitis, fractures or obstructed labor because they do not have access to proper surgical care. We are especially pleased to launch this partnership focused on access to safe surgery with Lifebox, given their success implementing the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, leading to a nearly 60% reduction in the total number of perioperative complications in low-resource settings.”
This programme grant will be delivered over 18 months, focusing on a Centre of Excellence for health worker training, leadership development, improvement in Safe Surgery Standards compliance, and create guidelines for measuring surgical site infections, postoperative mortality, and other complications.
Earlier this year, the GE Foundation participated in the launch of a major new Commission on safe surgery published in The Lancet. The Commission notes that five billion people worldwide do not have access to safe and affordable surgery and anesthesia when they need it, and access is worst in low- and lower-middle income countries, where as many as nine out of ten people cannot access basic surgical care. The GE Foundation Biomedical Equipment Technician (BMET) training programme was highlighted in the Commission as a “best in class” model for sustainable training.
Preliminary results from experimental plots carried out by researchers working under the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) led Cassava Weed Management Project show that by switching to improved weed management practices, Nigerian cassava farmers can double current national average yield of 12-13 tons per hectare.
The current national average yield of cassava puts the yield per stand of cassava plant at 1.2-1.3 kg.
However, recent harvest from trial plots recorded a breakthrough as a single cassava stand at Igbariam in Anambra State produced 34 kilograms roots.
“Elsewhere our preliminary results show that average national yield of 20-39 tons per hectare is achievable if farmers can simply adopt and use improved weed management practices,” said Dr Alfred Dixon, Project Leader for the Cassava Weed Management Project.
“The results we are seeing in the field reinforce the fact that weeds are a major factor limiting yield and eliminating them (weeds) from cassava can help African farmers benefit more from the investments in research,” he added.
Researchers estimate that in uncontrolled fields, weeds wreak havoc on cassava pulling down about 80 per cent of cassava yield. Women farmers who bear the brunt of keeping cassava farms weed free in most cases end up with backaches.
Dr Adeyemi Olojede, who is the Coordinator from the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) Umudike, described the results as “great.”
“Nothing special was done to the cassava fields. All we did was to ensure the fields were without weeds,” he said.
Though weed control is a major bottleneck to cassava production, it has never gained desired attention as compared to pest and diseases of livestock.
Prof Friday Ekeleme, Principal Investigator, Cassava Weed Management Project observed that weed control in cassava is a major constraint to productivity because the crop is left for a long time in the field usually 9-12 months before harvest. Farmers therefore have no other choice than to control weeds over this long period of time to keep the farms free of weeds.
“Also the spacing of cassava usually 1 meter by 1 meter leaves enough space for weeds to grow and compete with cassava for nutrients, water and light,” he said.
The results of the harvest from the first year experiment have revved up excitement among the Project team members with strong indications that some of the technologies would be transferred to farmers next year.
“These results are promising. Similar experiments are being conducted this year for validity. Definitely we will be in the field next year working with our partners (the Agricultural Development Programs) to extend the knowledge on improved weed management,” said Godwin Atser, Communication & Knowledge Exchange Expert for the Cassava Weed Management Project.
A World Health Organisation (WHO) report released in Geneva, Switzerland has revealed that 10 per cent of global population suffer from mental disorder amid insufficient workforce.
Mental illness. Photo credit: troymedia.com
The WHO Mental Health Atlas 2014 report says it is an indication that there is less than one mental health worker per 10,000 people worldwide.
The orgainsation’s statistics also shows that one in four people is affected by mental health disorder at some point in their lives.
It added that this was amid predictions which indicated that depression would be the leading cause of global disease burden by 2030.
The WHO said suicide, which was the second most common cause of death among young people, affects some 900,000 people every year worldwide.
It said the figures showed that 75 per cent of those suffering from severe mental disorder received no treatment.
Underlining the prevailing inequalities in access to mental health services, the WHO Mental Health Atlas 2014 highlighted that global spending remained insufficient and lower-middle income countries spend less than two dollars per capita per year on this sector.
It said this was in comparison to over $50 spent per person annually in high-income countries.
The report noted that the disparity was also evident in the unequal access to services, showing that in low and lower-middle income countries, an average of five mental health beds per 100,000 people were provided, compared to 50 beds in high-income countries.
According to the report, not one low-income country reported having a national suicide prevention strategy, compared to one third of high-income countries.
The organisation said 80 per cent of countries would have developed or updated their policies or plans for mental health according to human rights instruments, in line with its 2020 targets.
It said as a result of this, a 20 per cent increase in service coverage for severe mental disorders would be observed.
It said the mental health action plan would also seek to reduce suicide rates by 10 per cent, ensure that 80 per cent of countries routinely collect and report mental health indicators every two years.
It noted that the action plan would also guarantee that half of the countries developed and updated their mental health legislation.
