The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Malawi have taken a step closer to putting into place measures to formalize informal cross border trade (ICBT), the regional trade block says.
Both countries held stakeholders meetings in their respective countries to move forward the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Simplified Trade Regime (COMESASTR), that the 20-member block believes is a sign that there is progress on its plan to harmonise trade.
The Simplified Trade Regime entails putting in place simplified documentation, systems and procedures to enable small traders ply their wares across borders throughout COMESA without hindrance.
More importantly, the traders will not be required to pay customs duties for COMESA originating goods of both an agricultural and industrial nature which will be defined in the Common List under the simplified regime.
The idea, according to the block secretariat in its newsletter, is to facilitate rather than frustrate trade and to move towards formalization of Informal Cross Border Trade into the mainstream of formal COMESA trade.
The trade block has identified ten pilot countries to be involved in the pilot phase of the STR whose implementation is scheduled to commence in early 2008. The countries are Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Currently, preparatory work, such as putting in place the necessary institutional framework at the national level to facilitate expedited implementation of this regime is underway.
The institutional framework entails establishing National Working Groups (NWGs) to bring together key government agencies such as Ministries of Trade, Ministries of Agriculture (responsible for plant and animal health control), Departments of Customs and organizations representing the small traders.
The working group for DRC was launched in Kinshasa on December 4. Malawi for its part launched the working group December 11.
During 2006/2007 intra-COMESA trade is reported to have grown to 7.5 billion dollars from about US$2.3 billion when the Free Trade Area (FTA) commenced in 2000. It is estimated that these figures would be much higher perhaps as much as an additional one third of the current value of total intra-COMESA trade if ICBT taking place across the many international borders of the 19 countries of COMESA was properly recorded.
Additionally, studies such as those carried out by the COMESA programme on Gender and Women in Business show that the majority of players in crossborder trade are women, the youth and other marginalized populations groups.
This trade not only empowers them economically, but also contributes to the growth of the COMESA economy as such trade stimulates production.
Thursday, 20 December 2007
Rahman Gumbo on the verge of clinching second Malawi title
Former Highlanders and Warriors coach, Rahman Gumbo, is on the verge of retaining the league title in Malawi should his charges, MTL Wanderers win their last match of the season against third-placed Silver Strikers on Sunday.
Sacked from his earlier job as caretaker coach of the Warriors in 2005 after a lean spell in the qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations final in Egypt last year, Gumbo won the Malawian league championship in his first year in charge of MTL Wanderers, also known as The Nomads last season. At one time, he was tipped for an appointment as the Malawi senior national team coach owing to his success in the Malawi league.
His team is leading the log standings with 60 points after 27 matches with one match remaining. The Nomads lead second-placed Escom United by two points. In fact, he could have clinched the title on Sunday but his team lost 1-2 to its second-placed challengers, Escom United in a dramatic match, a top Malawian journalist told Zimbabwejournalists.com Wednesday.
Speaking from Lilongwe, Garry Chirwa, a top sports journalist for The Nation said despite the loss to Escom Wanderers, MTL Wanderers remain favourites. “Yes! Rahman is doing well,” said Chirwa.
“In fact they should have won the championship last week but they messed it up themselves. They lost 1-2 to Escom United.”
This means that The Nomads, need to win their final game at home to ensure they win the title, since Escom United are also still in with a chance if they win away to Big Bullets and Gumbo’s leaders draw or lose.
The Nomads’ match against Escom United was drama-filled after both teams accused the other of trying to use “juju” to win the outcome of the key tie. Both teams, said Chirwa, refused to use the official
entrance to Kalulu Stadium, fearing that if they did,
they would lose the match.
MTL Wanderers scrapped through a gap on the side of the pitch. Escom also opted to the same aperture on the perimetre fence. Later, The Nomads again refused to use the dressing room and dressed up on the pitch. While Escom United lined up for a group photograph before the match the Nomads refused. Only one player,
Gift Zakazaka posed for a photograph.
More chaos was to follow later, as the match was delayed for about 10 minutes after the Escom technical team refused to sit on the bench, fearing it was also laced with “juju.”
But in the end the Nomads came out of the drama 1-2 losers, presumably because their charms were less effective than their rival’s. Going into the match, the Nomads were three points ahead of Escom United but they failed to pick up the point they needed to wrap up the title.
Football Association of Malawi secretary general, Williams Banda, who witnessed the show, promised to act after a report from referee Bester Banda. “We strongly abhor beliefs in juju,” The Daily Times
newspaper quoted Williams Banda as saying.
“Teams just have to prepare well for their fixtures and avoid being superstitious. This tendency must be stopped forthwith. It does not help in the development of football at all in the country.”
Despite the setback, Chirwa said Gumbo remained optimistic of retaining the title. “Now Rahman's team are leading with 60 points and they only have a single game to wind up the season,” said
Chirwa.
“They --- must win (against Silver Strikers) at all costs because Escom who are on second position with 58 points from the same number of games, will be playing their last game as well against Big Bullets on the same day. But Gumbo is optimistic that he will do
well. I spoke to him yesterday (Tuesday.”
Gumbo, twice a championship winner as coach of Highlanders, worked as assistant to Sunday Chidzambwa at the Warriors’ first appearance at the African Cup of Nations finals in Tunisia 2004 and took over after his former boss resigned under pressure from the then Rafik Khan ZIFA board.
In his first game in charge, Gumbo led the Warriors to a 1-1 away draw to Gabon in March 2005; and followed that up with another 1-1 draw against Algeria at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.
Sacked from his earlier job as caretaker coach of the Warriors in 2005 after a lean spell in the qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations final in Egypt last year, Gumbo won the Malawian league championship in his first year in charge of MTL Wanderers, also known as The Nomads last season. At one time, he was tipped for an appointment as the Malawi senior national team coach owing to his success in the Malawi league.
His team is leading the log standings with 60 points after 27 matches with one match remaining. The Nomads lead second-placed Escom United by two points. In fact, he could have clinched the title on Sunday but his team lost 1-2 to its second-placed challengers, Escom United in a dramatic match, a top Malawian journalist told Zimbabwejournalists.com Wednesday.
Speaking from Lilongwe, Garry Chirwa, a top sports journalist for The Nation said despite the loss to Escom Wanderers, MTL Wanderers remain favourites. “Yes! Rahman is doing well,” said Chirwa.
“In fact they should have won the championship last week but they messed it up themselves. They lost 1-2 to Escom United.”
This means that The Nomads, need to win their final game at home to ensure they win the title, since Escom United are also still in with a chance if they win away to Big Bullets and Gumbo’s leaders draw or lose.
The Nomads’ match against Escom United was drama-filled after both teams accused the other of trying to use “juju” to win the outcome of the key tie. Both teams, said Chirwa, refused to use the official
entrance to Kalulu Stadium, fearing that if they did,
they would lose the match.
MTL Wanderers scrapped through a gap on the side of the pitch. Escom also opted to the same aperture on the perimetre fence. Later, The Nomads again refused to use the dressing room and dressed up on the pitch. While Escom United lined up for a group photograph before the match the Nomads refused. Only one player,
Gift Zakazaka posed for a photograph.
More chaos was to follow later, as the match was delayed for about 10 minutes after the Escom technical team refused to sit on the bench, fearing it was also laced with “juju.”
But in the end the Nomads came out of the drama 1-2 losers, presumably because their charms were less effective than their rival’s. Going into the match, the Nomads were three points ahead of Escom United but they failed to pick up the point they needed to wrap up the title.
Football Association of Malawi secretary general, Williams Banda, who witnessed the show, promised to act after a report from referee Bester Banda. “We strongly abhor beliefs in juju,” The Daily Times
newspaper quoted Williams Banda as saying.
“Teams just have to prepare well for their fixtures and avoid being superstitious. This tendency must be stopped forthwith. It does not help in the development of football at all in the country.”
Despite the setback, Chirwa said Gumbo remained optimistic of retaining the title. “Now Rahman's team are leading with 60 points and they only have a single game to wind up the season,” said
Chirwa.
“They --- must win (against Silver Strikers) at all costs because Escom who are on second position with 58 points from the same number of games, will be playing their last game as well against Big Bullets on the same day. But Gumbo is optimistic that he will do
well. I spoke to him yesterday (Tuesday.”
Gumbo, twice a championship winner as coach of Highlanders, worked as assistant to Sunday Chidzambwa at the Warriors’ first appearance at the African Cup of Nations finals in Tunisia 2004 and took over after his former boss resigned under pressure from the then Rafik Khan ZIFA board.
In his first game in charge, Gumbo led the Warriors to a 1-1 away draw to Gabon in March 2005; and followed that up with another 1-1 draw against Algeria at the National Sports Stadium in Harare.
Malnutrition still a threat
Despite two years of bumper harvests, malnutrition, partly a consequence of Malawi's famine in 2005, still lingers. "The scale of the malnutrition problem in Malawi is clearly very large and, given its consequences for economic development and child survival, calls for immediate and large-scale action," said Aida Girma, UNICEF Resident Representative.
"Micronutrient deficiencies, which are often referred to as hidden hunger, are also very high." Malnutrition is characterised by key indictors, such as the number of underweight children and levels of stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies: stunting levels were at 46 percent, 19 percent of children up to 59 months were underweight, and wasting was 4 percent, the UN Children's Fund representative added.
After the drought
Malawi has turned the page on the 2005 drought that left about five million people in need of food aid. According to government estimates the 2007 maize harvest, the staple food, increased by 22 percent over the 2006 crop, and was 73 percent higher than the average for the past five years.
Mary Shawa, principal secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet responsible for nutrition and HIV and AIDS, described malnutrition as a silent crisis. She called for a comprehensive study to establish whether the bumper harvests in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 growing seasons had had any impact on reducing malnutrition levels.
"We have started to see improvements in the food security situation in Malawi in the past two years [but] malnutrition is still a challenge," UNICEF's Nutrition Officer, Stanley Chitekwe, told IRIN.
He said malnutrition was caused by three underlying causes: the first, household food security, had shown improvement; the other two - care for children and women, and the availability of health services - were still inadequate.
"Malawi is heading in the right direction by meeting one of the three requisites for nutrition," he commented, but addressing the other issues would "require more investment in building capacity to improve care practices and health seeking behaviours", because "there is still more work required in promoting diversified crops rich in vitamins and nutrients, and in food processing and preservation."
HIV/AIDS also "undermines nutrition improvements by directly causing ill-health and eroding capacity at various levels - family and institutions - to care, produce food and provide services," Chitekwe added.
The hunger gap, a pre-harvest period when food from the previous crop was often depleted, meant that seasonal variations in household food availability still resulted in higher levels of malnutrition from September to March/April each year, he said.
Filling the hunger gap
A 2005 National Nutrition Survey found that 90 percent of children in Malawi were malnourished. Tapiwa Ngulube, principal nutritionist in the ministry of health, said since then the government had established 95 Nutrition Rehabilitation Units, where free food was given to malnourished children and mothers were trained to feed them correctly.
"Our aim is to ensure that the children are healthy and have gained weight by the time they leave rehabilitation units; children who are malnourished lose up to 11 centimetres in height if they are not treated for malnutrition and stunting," Ngulube noted.
Around 39,000 children are still being treated at rehabilitation centres throughout the country, but "our efforts are hampered by a shortage of medical personnel," Ngulube said.
UNICEF's Girma attributed micronutrient deficiency to the low nutrient content in local diets, which are based mainly on cereals, roots and tubers and said diets needed to be supplemented with micronutrient-rich foods like fish, meat, eggs, milk and dairy products.
But in a country where over half the people live on less than US$1 a day, most households struggle to come up with two meals a day.
"Micronutrient deficiencies, which are often referred to as hidden hunger, are also very high." Malnutrition is characterised by key indictors, such as the number of underweight children and levels of stunting, wasting and micronutrient deficiencies: stunting levels were at 46 percent, 19 percent of children up to 59 months were underweight, and wasting was 4 percent, the UN Children's Fund representative added.
After the drought
Malawi has turned the page on the 2005 drought that left about five million people in need of food aid. According to government estimates the 2007 maize harvest, the staple food, increased by 22 percent over the 2006 crop, and was 73 percent higher than the average for the past five years.
Mary Shawa, principal secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet responsible for nutrition and HIV and AIDS, described malnutrition as a silent crisis. She called for a comprehensive study to establish whether the bumper harvests in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 growing seasons had had any impact on reducing malnutrition levels.
"We have started to see improvements in the food security situation in Malawi in the past two years [but] malnutrition is still a challenge," UNICEF's Nutrition Officer, Stanley Chitekwe, told IRIN.
He said malnutrition was caused by three underlying causes: the first, household food security, had shown improvement; the other two - care for children and women, and the availability of health services - were still inadequate.
"Malawi is heading in the right direction by meeting one of the three requisites for nutrition," he commented, but addressing the other issues would "require more investment in building capacity to improve care practices and health seeking behaviours", because "there is still more work required in promoting diversified crops rich in vitamins and nutrients, and in food processing and preservation."
HIV/AIDS also "undermines nutrition improvements by directly causing ill-health and eroding capacity at various levels - family and institutions - to care, produce food and provide services," Chitekwe added.
The hunger gap, a pre-harvest period when food from the previous crop was often depleted, meant that seasonal variations in household food availability still resulted in higher levels of malnutrition from September to March/April each year, he said.
Filling the hunger gap
A 2005 National Nutrition Survey found that 90 percent of children in Malawi were malnourished. Tapiwa Ngulube, principal nutritionist in the ministry of health, said since then the government had established 95 Nutrition Rehabilitation Units, where free food was given to malnourished children and mothers were trained to feed them correctly.
"Our aim is to ensure that the children are healthy and have gained weight by the time they leave rehabilitation units; children who are malnourished lose up to 11 centimetres in height if they are not treated for malnutrition and stunting," Ngulube noted.
Around 39,000 children are still being treated at rehabilitation centres throughout the country, but "our efforts are hampered by a shortage of medical personnel," Ngulube said.
UNICEF's Girma attributed micronutrient deficiency to the low nutrient content in local diets, which are based mainly on cereals, roots and tubers and said diets needed to be supplemented with micronutrient-rich foods like fish, meat, eggs, milk and dairy products.
But in a country where over half the people live on less than US$1 a day, most households struggle to come up with two meals a day.
Kafevend Announces Launch of Malawi Garden Tea for the Flavia Office Coffee and Tea Machine
Following the success of the Kenyan Dawn sustainable coffee introduced earlier this year, the Malawi Garden tea directly supports the growers, families and local community of the Kawalazi tea plantation in Malawi, one of the world’s poorest nations.
John Collins, managing director of vending machine supplier Kafévend has worked closely with Flavia to add the sustainable tea to the dozens of beverage options offered to its clients the length and breadth of the mainland UK. “With thousands of vending machines in workplaces around the country, Kafévend is uniquely placed to make a real contribution to the brighter tomorrow scheme for sustainable and fair-trade tea and coffee production in originating countries.”
Sales of sustainable coffee drinks in vending machines have increased by as much as 44% in recent years, indicating a growing appetite for great tasting hot drinks with a social conscience. Adding the first sustainable tea to the Kafévend vending machine menus will allow UK workers to continue to enjoy the great taste they have come to expect from Flavia and Kafévend while knowing that they have made a difference to communities in developing nations with something as simple as the morning cuppa.
An amber tea with a distinctive yet mild and subtle character, the Malawi Garden tea from Flavia can be enjoyed at any time of the day. Flavia’s brighter tomorrow programme of
sustainable teas and coffees channels investment directly to farmers at origin. The scheme helps growers to improve production efficiency and bean quality to directly support surrounding communities.
Editor’s Note: Kafévend is represented by online advertising consultancy, Top Position. Please direct all media questions including high resolution image requests to Rebecca Appleton. Email: Rebecca@topposition.co.uk or Tel: 0800 094 9001
John Collins, managing director of vending machine supplier Kafévend has worked closely with Flavia to add the sustainable tea to the dozens of beverage options offered to its clients the length and breadth of the mainland UK. “With thousands of vending machines in workplaces around the country, Kafévend is uniquely placed to make a real contribution to the brighter tomorrow scheme for sustainable and fair-trade tea and coffee production in originating countries.”
Sales of sustainable coffee drinks in vending machines have increased by as much as 44% in recent years, indicating a growing appetite for great tasting hot drinks with a social conscience. Adding the first sustainable tea to the Kafévend vending machine menus will allow UK workers to continue to enjoy the great taste they have come to expect from Flavia and Kafévend while knowing that they have made a difference to communities in developing nations with something as simple as the morning cuppa.
An amber tea with a distinctive yet mild and subtle character, the Malawi Garden tea from Flavia can be enjoyed at any time of the day. Flavia’s brighter tomorrow programme of
sustainable teas and coffees channels investment directly to farmers at origin. The scheme helps growers to improve production efficiency and bean quality to directly support surrounding communities.
Editor’s Note: Kafévend is represented by online advertising consultancy, Top Position. Please direct all media questions including high resolution image requests to Rebecca Appleton. Email: Rebecca@topposition.co.uk or Tel: 0800 094 9001
Taking Allentown to Africa
Heinzel-Nelson family embarks on mission to help impoverished
How does a family decide to leave the life that it has come to know and love behind for an entire year?
Besides getting a house sitter and someone to pay the bills, taking a leave of absence from work and school, and mustering up the nerve to say goodbye to everyone and everything it cares for and has become accustomed to, all of the family members must also agree on one thing: a good reason to let go.
The Heinzel-Nelson family, of Allentown, has found their reason.
In response to a deep sense that they have been called upon by God to serve the poorest of the poor, Stephen Heinzel-Nelson, his wife, Liz, and their two youngest daughters, Terra, 11, and Jordan, 9, will leave their Allentown lives behind for a while to embark on an African mission for the majority of 2008. The family is scheduled to leave for Malawi, Africa, Dec. 31. The couple's other children, Jem, 21, and Clay, 19, will join them in the summer.
Malawi, which is considered to be the fourth-poorest country in the world, is located in central eastern Africa and has a population of 13 million. Life expectancy in the country is 40 years, due to escalating HIV/AIDS and malaria crises. The area is also burdened by a lack of economic development and employment. Over 80 percent of the households there survive on less than a dollar a day.
St. Columba Presbyterian Church has invited the Heinzel-Nelson family to live in a home in Malawi's city of Blantyre, where Stephen, the senior pastor of the Allentown Presbyterian Church, will serve as an associate pastor and will teach at the Zomba Theological College.
While Stephen helps students obtain degrees in theology and train to become ministers, Liz will host individuals and teams from the Allentown area and other places to help address some of the crushing conditions and symptoms of the extreme poverty in the area. Throughout the year, she will also aim to identify a long-term mission that would effectively meet the needs of the poor in the area so that the family can return home and continue to have an impact on Malawi.
Stephen said, "We want to have a lasting effect and still be supportive and in a relationship with Malawi when we come home. What that relationship will entail, I don't know. It could mean helping to build an orphanage, hospital, school or any number of things."
Beyond feeling that the church and their family can make a difference in the lives of people by becoming involved in an ongoing mission opportunity in Malawi, the Heinzel- Nelsons believe that living in a community with the poor will help them make new discoveries about themselves and the things in life that are truly important.
"We believe that we will learn about the power of faith from those whose love for God continues to grow despite the harsh conditions of life," Stephen said. "We believe that this will be an amazing experience for our children that will leave a deep impression on their lives."
Terra and Jordan will attend private school in Blantyre, where they will take classes with other students from around the world but where they will likely be the only Americans in attendance. The school's curriculum is also said to be much tougher than what the girls have experienced in America, according to Stephen.
Liz said she and the girls also expect to help out at the orphanage, Open Arms, in Blantyre.
"The local orphanage has a lot of opportunities to do volunteer work," Liz said. "I am also going to keep myself open and help my children process what they are seeing and experiencing."
She continued, "We heard that when you go there, you are struck by the amount of children everywhere. Fifty percent of the population there is under 15 years old. We perceive that there is a lot of need there."
Stephen said, "We've been reading about the need there and particularly about the AIDS crisis. This is the greatest human crisis in the history of the world. The number of people who have died and are dying and are infected is in the millions and millions. It's staggering. If this was happening in Europe or the United States, it would be on the front page of the papers every single day. We feel that people just aren't aware. It's very overwhelming, our feeling of calling to do this. That is where God wants us to go."
The Presbyterian Church has a strong presence in Blantyre. The family feels that the church will provide it with a lot of volunteer opportunities during its stay. As an associate pastor, Stephen will preach, teach, visit with families and perform baptisms at the 10,000-member church.
Liz said, "They only have one pastor and it is a huge church. Plus, the pastor is sick with tuberculosis and just had a leg amputated."
Stephen has been granted a yearlong absence from the Allentown Presbyterian Church for the trip. Jenna Goggins, an associate pastor at the church, will take over Stephen's responsibilities while he is away. The church will also welcome Joseph Khalil to assist Goggins.
"We went to the session [a meeting of church elders] and they voted in April unanimously to give us the year," he said. "That really was the hardest - if you want to call it that - part of making the decision. We couldn't have done it without the blessing of the elders, and when they were unanimous about it at the special meeting, it was very exciting."
The Allentown Presbyterian Church granted Stephen a leave without pay and Liz stepped down from her position as the director of the church's youth ministry.
In order to afford the excursion and the loss of income for a year, the family also decided to place its cabin on the Delaware River up for sale.
"While we imagined this to be our retirement investment, we believe we are being called by God to trust in his providence for the future," he said.
Other preparations included transferring their children's school transcripts to Africa, getting numerous inoculations, preparing various personal and travel documents, and packing a whole year's worth of clothing and other necessities into two 50- pound suitcases each.
"We've been here in Allentown for 10 years, and this feels like the perfect time to try to do something that's going to have a powerful impact on our lives and perspective," Stephen said.
When the family returns in December 2008, Stephen will resume his duties at the Allentown Presbyterian Church, but beyond that, the family expects their lives to be changed.
"We believe that those who partner with us will also be changed," Stephen said. "Whether people want to travel there or get involved on some other level, their lives will change along with ours."
There are several ways to partner with the family. They hope some community members will feel inspired to visit Malawi while they are there. The family is encouraging those who cannot visit to pray for them and to follow their adventures by reading their blog at http://apcmalawi.blogspot.com.
The family has also estimated the cost of travel and living expenses for the entire year at approximately $60,000 and said that monetary gifts to the church would be appreciated.
"Your gifts will be the seed money to save lives, change communities and bridge the gap between those of us who have much and those who struggle just to live," Stephen said.
The family believes that they can help the Allentown community come together to have a lasting effect on Malawi.
"We want to bring this opportunity home with us," Liz said. "We want to engage our church and our community. The idea is for people to share what they have with others."
Anyone interested in finding out more information, arranging a trip to Malawi, or making a contribution to the cause can contact the Allentown Presbyterian Church at (609) 259-7289.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
