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A UN report says that food security in Zimbabwe has improved signficiantly, but that food assistance will still be vital for around 1.68 million people next year.

A United Nations report has found that food security in Zimbabwe has improved signficiantly, but that agricultural and food assistance will still be vital for around 1.68 million people next year.

The report follows a joint mission to Zimbabwe in June by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to assess the national crop and food security situation.

The mission found that food security in the country has improved following government efforts and an international assistance programme which has been providing farmers with subsidised inputs.

They say that the area planted under maize, the main staple, increased by 20 per cent in 2010 to the highest level in 30 years and production rose 7 per cent over 2009.

Compared with the poor 2008 season when less than 500,000 metric tons of maize were harvested, production more than doubled in 2009 and 2010, to 1.27 and 1.35 million tons respectively.

“The generous international support for the 2009/10 input campaign significantly contributed to this year’s relatively good harvest results, even if in some areas of the country rainfall distribution was uneven,” said Cristina Amaral, Chief of FAO’s emergency and rehabilitation operations in Africa.

The findings are likely to be seen as evidence of what can be achieved with international aid.

But it is not all good news. “Despite the improved availability of food, up to 1.68 million people will need food assistance because prices remain comparatively high for families with low incomes and little or no access to US dollars or South African rand,” said the report's co-author, Jan Delbaere of WFP.

Liliana Balbi of FAO added, “Zimbabwe has only 1.66 million tons of cereals available as against a total needs forecast of 2.09 million tons in the marketing year 2010-2011. That leaves a 428,000-ton shortfall”.

Part of this will be covered by commercial imports, projected to total 317,000 tons of cereals, including 200,000 tons of maize.

The mission estimated that 133,000 tons of food assistance will be needed to feed 1.68 million Zimbabweans in 2010/11.

The report's authors say that general poverty and chronic food insecurity had led to reduced diversity of consumption and had also contributed to an increased prevalence of chronic malnutrition among young children. The report indicates that lack of liquidity remains a constraint to accessing inputs and increasing food production.

The 2009/10 input assistance programme proposed a quick impact programme that aimed to substantively boost smallholder staple food production in Zimbabwe. The report states that the international community responded well and FAO received contributions from a number of donors, including the European Union, the USA, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Finland. The EU made the largest financial contribution, €15.4 million.

In total 51,500 tons of fertilizer and 6,500 tons of maize seeds were distributed to 738,000 households. FAO say they also promoted conservation agriculture that helped farmers to improve soil fertility through the use of techniques such as maintaining soil organic cover, reducing tillage and better crop rotation.

The programme also promoted the use of vouchers which farmers could use to get the inputs they needed from local suppliers. The report insisted that, “The agricultural support programmes need to be continued during the next planting season to consolidate the gains achieved so far”.

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The coalition government's cuts to housing benefit could lead to increased debt and homelessness, according to Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP.

The coalition government's cuts to housing benefit could lead to increased debt and homelessness, according to the Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas MP.

The Green Party insisted that the housing benefit cut is equivalent to a “big increase in income tax for poorer people”.

Lucas was commenting on a recent report published by homelessness charity Crisis. The report highlights the social risks of housing benefit cuts, which will affect 936,960 households across the UK who are currently claiming local housing allowance (LHA). On average, these households will lose over £600 a year.

The report also warns that cuts to housing benefit could have hidden costs in the future due to the social problems resulting from homelessness, including health problems and providing accommodation.

The Green Party cited the example of someone earning £16,000, after tax-free allowance, and receiving housing benefit. If the individual loses £728, this would be the equivalent of paying an income tax rise of over 4.5 per cent.

“These particular Tory-Lib Dem cuts will leave more people struggling to pay the rent, more people falling into serious debt and ultimately more people becoming homeless,” argued Lucas, “This is very unfair, coming at a time when many of these people are facing economic uncertainty or even redundancy”.

She added, “Once again we see the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition’s cuts hitting the poorer people in society. The government could avoid these cuts by properly tackling tax avoidance and tax evasion perpetrated by some of the wealthiest, which could raise billions of pounds a year.”

Lucas, who became the Greens' first MP when she was elected to represent Brighton Pavilion in May, is seeking re-election as as the party's leader at its September conference in Birmingham. No other candidate has been nominated to oppose her.

However, there are two candidates for the deputy leadership - Adrian Ramsey and Derek Wall.

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Activists have handed in thousands of postcards to Business Secretary Vince Cable, urging him to overhaul the controversial Export Credit Guarantee Department.

Activists yesterday (13 August) handed in thousands of postcards to Business Secretary Vince Cable, urging him to overhaul the controversial Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD).

The Jubilee Debt Campaign (JDC) pointed out that the ECGD has provided billions of dollars in insurance for the arms and fossil fuel industries, building up large amounts of developing world debt in the process. The ECGD is a unit within the Department for Business, which Cable oversees.

They accuse the ECGD of “providing a taxpayer subsidy to overseas projects which have been linked to corruption, human rights abuses and environmental destruction”.

The JDC say that they are particularly concerned that ECGD is the largest public holder of “Third World Debt” in the UK, with developing countries owing nearly £2 billion to the institution, another £2 billion having been repaid in the last 10 years.

Campaigners insist that this money is draining the coffers of developing countries on the basis of projects which have all too often proved detrimental to the population or environment of the country itself.

“Vince Cable has expressed his strong opposition to the way the ECGD works in the past,” said JDC's Director Nick Dearden, “Now is the time to put words into action”.

The controversial subsidies go back years. They include insurance for arms sales to the brutal Indonesian dictator Suharto, used in repression, which the current Indonesian government is still paying for. Until recently, the ECGD was also insuring the sale of arms by BAE Systems to the Saudi dictatorship.

Examples highlighted by JDC include a vastly overpriced hydro-electric power station in Kenya which produced only a small amount of the power promised to Kenyans. They also mention a dam in Lesotho which resulted in a corruption case involving hundreds of thousands of pounds in one of the poorest countries in the world.

Other striking examples include an Indian power plant involving bankrupt multinational Enron which cost the Indian authorities hundreds of millions of dollars despite being shut down because the local government couldn’t afford to buy electricity from it.

Dearden said, “It is absolutely unconscionable that this part of the British government can go on supporting projects involving human rights abuses, corruption and environmental destruction – and then expect some of the poorest countries in the world to pay for it.”

He added, “The ECGD could be used to help new, green industry, but instead it’s supporting massive corporations develop appalling projects. It’s time the ECGD dropped the debt and ditched the dodgy deals.”

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The Elders network has criticised the Sri Lankan government over its "clampdown on domestic critics and disdain for human rights".

The informal group of senior statespeople known as 'the Elders' has criticised the Sri Lankan government over its "clampdown on domestic critics and disdain for human rights".

The network, which includes figures such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, ex-UN chief Kofi Annan, the Dalai Lama, and former US President Jimmy Carter, was speaking about conditions since the end of the civil war between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009.

They have expressed concern over the "deafening global silence" in response to Sri Lanka’s poor human rights record and lack of accountability, warning that impunity may encourage other states to act in a similar way.

On behalf of the group, Dr Tutu declared: "The ongoing persecution and disappearances of human rights activists, journalists and government opponents is truly terrifying."

He added: "Unfortunately, previous internal commissions have done little to reveal the truth behind human rights abuses."

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate went on to urge the current Sri Lankan government to show "greater commitment to achieving meaningful reconciliation".

The Elders particularly highlighted lack of action by the government to address the political marginalisation of ethnic minorities at the root of Sri Lanka’s brutal 30-year war.

They called on the Rajapaksa government to withdraw wartime emergency legislation and make a public commitment to uphold the human rights of all citizens of Sri Lanka, including minorities.

In addition, they demanded that the government co-operate with the UN Secretary-General’s panel of experts on accountability and also permit domestic and international NGOs and media to carry out their work without harassment, intimidation or undue restrictions.

The civil war came to an end last May with the defeat of Tamil Tigers who were fighting for a separate homeland in the North.

The United Nations has estimated that 7,000 civilians were killed and about 250,000 people were displaced from their homes by the conflict.

The Elders were originally formed by former South African President Nelson Mandela to bring together respected independent peace activists and human rights advocates in order to make non-partisan interventions in current situations of conflict and abuse.

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Evicted Climate Camp Cymru now on new site

Climate Camp Cymru, which was due to continue until Tuesday 17 August at Glyn-Neath in South Wales, was evicted by the police on its second day (Saturday 14th) over alleged complaints about possible damage to the site chosen by the campers, a Roman Hill Fort. The camp was re-established by Sunday 15th on a new site on the Gower Peninsula near Swansea. On Tuesday, the last day of the camp, activists invaded Nant Helen opencast coal mine.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said yesterday that Liam Fox had undermined his own argument for excluding nuclear weapons from the Defence Review.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) said yesterday (13 August) that the Defence Secretary Liam Fox had undermined his own argument for excluding Trident from the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Fox has pledged to push ahead with the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system, regardless of the review's conclusions about Britain's security and about other areas of expenditure.

But CND said that Fox's speech today had in effect provided a case for nuclear disarmament. Fox said that defence strategy should be led by foreign policy and that the review should “put the cold war to bed”.

CND insisted that the logical conclusion would be to scrap Trident, which they described as “Britain's costly cold war legacy”. They added that this would meet the UK's foreign policy commitment of nuclear disarmament, under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“Liam Fox has today made a compelling case for nuclear disarmament - all his arguments point in that direction,” said CND Chair, Kate Hudson, “A review now, before a new generation of submarines is ordered, and which seeks to move on from the cold war, can only do one thing - scrap Trident”.

Trident renewal has been opposed by a number of churches and Christian groups, including the Methodist, Baptist and United Reformed Churches, the Church of Scotland and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Individual Anglican and Catholic bishops have also spoken out against it, along with a range of faith groups, NGOs and trades unions.

Recent weeks have seen heated disputes between the Treasury and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) over who should fund Trident renewal. Nuclear arms have traditionally been funded directly by the Treasury, but the Chancellor, George Osborne, has made clear that he wants the money to come out of the MoD's own budget.

The official estimate of the cost is £20 billion, although CND place it at £76 billion and recent research commissioned by Greenpeace put the price at £94 billion.

In his speech today, Fox said that a decision on the matter has still not been reached. CND asked how the Defence Review could go ahead in advance of an agreement on Trident funding, given that the decision could have a major impact on the MoD's spending ability.

Trident is opposed by the Green Party, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party. It is understood that Liberal Democrat MPs may abstain on Trident renewal as part of their coalition agreement with the Conservative Party. While Labour supports Trident, a number of Labour backbenchers are strong opponents of it.

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The two Dongria Kondh activists abducted earlier this week have been released. They have been campaigning against the development of a mine by Vedanta Resources.

The two Dongria Kondh activists abducted earlier this week have been released. They were kidnapped on Monday (9 August) in the Indian state of Odisha, where they have been campaigning against the development of a mine by Vedanta Resources.

Sena Sikaka was dumped at the side of the road on Tuesday evening, while Lodu Sikaka was released on Thursday.

Lodu and Sena both claim their armed abductors were plain-clothed policemen. Lodu says he was interrogated and beaten during his detention, and only released after he was made to sign a written statement. It is not clear what the statement says.

The two men have both been campaigning against the creation of a bauxite mine on their land in the Niyamgiri Hills. The proposed mine, a joint project between Vedanta Resources and the Odisha state government, has become one of the most controversial projects in India.

Investors including the Church of England and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust have recently sold their shares in Vedanta over human rights concerns. Both cited the Odisha mine. The British government declared that the Dongria’s rights have been violated.

An interview with Lodu Sikaka was broadcast on the UK’s Channel 4 News following Vedanta's recent AGM, where the company’s human rights record came under fire from high-profile investors including Aviva.

A team of experts commissioned by the Indian government earlier this year concluded that Vedanta’s mine was likely to “lead to the destruction of the Dongria Kondh” as a people. The results of a second official investigation into the mine will be published later this month. The head of the investigative team has told journalists to expect his report to be “another bomb”.

The Dongria Kondh’s plight has been dubbed “the Real Avatar” because of similarities to the storyline of James Cameron’s blockbuster. The tribe’s struggle has been supported by a number of celebrities including Joanna Lumley, Bianca Jagger, and Michael Palin.

Survival International’s director Stephen Corry said today (13 August), “While I welcome the news that Sena and Lodu have now been released, it does not undo the injustice they have suffered and the ongoing injustices being committed against the Dongria Kondh people”.

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