Afghanistan

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September 27, 2012 | 11:55 AM | By  | 

We must end polio – if only so Bill Gates can talk about something else | 

That sounds flip. But it’s not meant to undermine the global campaign to eradicate polio or (continue to) irritate the media folks at the Gates Foundation. It’s meant to underline the frustration I assume Bill Gates and many other advocates of this important global health goal must feel, even if they don’t say so.

News analysis (of sorts)

Today, at the United Nations, Bill Gates, heads of state from the polio-plagued countries Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan, the head of the UN, the fiesty chief of the World Health Organization and other ‘global luminaries’ today repeated the call to push on with the ongoing effort to rid the world of polio.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the world is at a decisive moment and that he has made polio a “top priority” for his second term.

“Failure to eradicate polio would be unforgivable…. Failure is not an option,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization. India was recently declared polio free, a major achievement for the campaign.

Gates Foundation

Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes in Nigeria for polio vaccination

“The evidence is clear: if we all do our part, we can and will end this disease. But we must act quickly and give ourselves the very best chance to succeed,” said Gates, who had earlier explained on his personal blog why he flew 3,000 miles to speak for three minutes at this somewhat predictable event. “When we defeat polio, it will motivate us to aim for other great health and development milestones.”

Yeah, yeah. Same old stuff. But that last statement by Gates is key.

Chances are, this particular dog-and-pony show among all the other UN dog-and-pony shows — despite the alleged luminaries — may get only passing notice because, well, most people don’t really care about polio. That’s why they bring out luminaries – to get you to pay attention.

(NOTE: The first news report I saw on this gathering of luminosity was an AP story in which the reporter at the polio event asked Gates what he thinks of the new Windows 8 operating system. Gates said, “Very exciting.” No word if the journalist asked about polio….) Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Afghanistan, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, eradication, Nigeria, Pakistan, polio, United Nations, World Health Organization
August 9, 2011 | 11:00 AM | By  | 

How the rush to help can thwart best intentions of foreign aid | 

Despite the best intentions, foreign aid often goes awry in countries overwhelmed by war.

Jack Healy, writing in Monday’s New York Times, offered a vivid, and depressing, example of governments rushing in to help people without carefully weighing all of the issues, in his story of the small village of Alice-Ghan in Afghanistan.

“ALICE-GHAN, Afghanistan — This tiny village rose from the rocky soil with great hopes and $10 million in foreign aid, a Levittown of identical mud-walled houses built to shelter some of the hundreds of thousands of Afghans set adrift by war and flight.

“Five years later, the village of Alice-Ghan and those good intentions are tilting toward ruin. Most of its 1,100 houses have been abandoned to vandals and the lashing winds. With few services or jobs within reach, hundreds of residents have moved away — sometimes even to the slums and temporary shelters they had sought to escape…

“The settlement, a little more than an hour’s drive north of the capital, Kabul, on the border with Parwan Province, is one of 60 scattered across the country. It has become a demonstration of the miscalculations and obstacles that have thwarted so many similar efforts to tackle huge problems like poverty, hunger, illness and dislocation in Afghanistan. “

Wikimedia Commons photo

The tents of displaced Afghans still dot the countryside.

The problems facing the U.S., Australian and Afghan government attempts in Alice-Ghan include a lack of basic services like electricity and running water, cultural misunderstandings and corruption.

These problems are similar to those elsewhere, like in Iraq, which resulted in the loss of millions, if not billions, of dollars and contributed to the enormous suffering of people there and also helped drive at least 2 million Iraqis out of the country.

Michael Shank, writing in The Guardian last month, summed up the problem with corruption and other misguided efforts regarding foreign aid rather well: Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Politics, Afghanistan, foreign aid, Iraq, Pakistan
October 26, 2010 | 4:49 PM | By  | 

Boost to polio campaign | 

UNICEF

Child receiving oral polio vaccine

A new vaccine against polio is being touted as the boost needed to finally achieve eradication.

The vaccine known as bOPV (for bivalent oral polio vaccine), was tested against the current vaccine in India — where polio stubbornly persists — and found by researchers to be about 30-40 percent more effective in preventing infection by two main strains of the polio virus. The study was reported Tuesday in The Lancet.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization announced it will launch a major new vaccination campaign across Africa. Since the global campaign to eradicate polio was launched in 1988, with major assistance from Rotary International and more recently from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, polio cases worldwide have been reduced by 99 percent.

Polio remains endemic in four countries — India, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria — but if not eradicated could easily spread again into other countries and perhaps worldwide. Funding for the polio campaign remains another hurdle as donors have so far only funded about half of what’s been estimated as needed to complete the campaign as part of the global vaccination initiative.

Also in polio news today, though it shouldn’t have been, were various stories that reported Ted Turner announced in Nigeria plans to donate anywhere from $80 million to $1 billion to the polio campaign.

Turned out it wasn’t true.

FILED UNDER: Health, Afghanistan, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, polio, Rotary International, World Health Organization
October 21, 2010 | 9:00 AM | By  | 

USAID Branding: Pressure still on to end the dangerous desire for self-promotion | 

It may be off the headlines now, but the pressure remains on USAID from many prominent NGOs like World Vision, Oxfam and Save the Children to end its requirement of putting the American flag on donated materials.

I wrote about this dispute last week and a USAID official told me talks aimed at resolving this disagreement are “intense.”

Humanitarian groups say they need to remain — and appear — politically neutral. They also don’t like getting killed just for PR purposes. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Politics, Afghanistan, Oxfam, Pakistan, Save the Children, USAID, World Vision