march nl cleanews

CLEANEWS — CLEAN-AFRICA www.clean-africa.org

Dear Reader,Welcome to our newsletter that provides the information on our activities, concepts and strategies being conducted for marginalised communities in Africa. CLEAN AFRICA (Community Level Environmental Awareness Network Foundation, Africa) that was founded in 2004 has main concern to establish solid human resources in Germany and seek the financial support to implement several developing programs that solve the needs of the African marginalised communities. With the

support of professionals and students in our organization, we do believe that we can create a great synergy to make an impact and difference towards a sustainable Africa by optimizing our know-how and expertise. In this issue, there is coverage of a number of different articles focusing on activities and programs aimed at creating sustainable development in Africa. A possible function of agro-tourism in promoting food security is described by Dr. Beninweck. This form of tourism where travelers or visitors are attracted to a rural area or areas used for agricultural purposes is deeply discussed. The impact of microfinance to the poor in Uganda is highlighted by Ms. Kibuuka. The article emphasizes the positive impacts of Microfinance Industry (MFI) in Uganda. Nonetheless I cannot but wish to highlight for readers the significance of having specific approaches in particular country by applying micro-finance program. This will be presented by Ms. Chukwumah in her article towards the necessary strategies formaking microfinance work in developing countries. Community participation as an unsung hero of sustainable development is also a theme raised in this edition, written by Mr. Ssempangi. Some interesting sights and

scenes from several CLEAN-AFRICA events that were carried out from 2010 to mid 2012 have been reported. Several upcoming programs have also been outlined too. Please take your time to go through our newslet-ter and make a decision to support us to reach our objective: Creating a sustainable development in Africa. If you have an item to contribute for the next issue, please do not hesitate to contact us at [email protected]. This newsletter can be also found on CLEAN-AFRICA’s website at www.cleanafrica.org. Thank you!Dyah A Inayati, PhD Ag Editor LEANEWS

Kenya Homes in On Emergency Groundwater SuppliesA project that will map groundwater resources in part of the drought-prone Horn of Africa region was launched on 22 May 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya. The joint project between water ministries from Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and UNESCO will use remote sensing technology to explore underground water to establish its’ quantity and quality. The aim of this project is exploiting the water in an emergency to combat drought and famine as well as to develop long-term resilience.Source: Gilbert Nakweya, www.allafrica.com, 31 May 2012 Forest and Deforestation in Africa The Wasting of an Immense Resource Except for the Congo Basin, Africa’s frontier forests have largely been destroyed, primarily by loggers and farmers clearing land for agriculture. Almost 90% of the original moist forest in West Africa is gone, and what remains is heavily fragmented and degraded. Today, West African unspoiled forests are restricted to one patch in Côte d’Ivoire and another along the boarder between Nigeria and Cameroon.Source: RainerChr. Hennig http://afrol.com

ISSUE NUMBER: 2 0 1 3 0 2 DATE: MARCH 2013

AFRICA-NEWS tit-bits....!

EDITORIAL

01

In this Issue

INTRODUCTIONEditorial -1

AFRICA-News tit - bits - 1Greetings from Director - 3

ARTICLESUsing Agrotourism - 2

Impact of Microfinance - 3Making Microfinance Work - 4Community Participation - 3

REPORTSCLEAN -Brain Gain 2011 - 5

CLEAN- Env. Quizzical Comp - 6CLEAN- UniDays 2012 - 7

REQUEST FOR PARTNERSRequest for partners in future

programs - 7LETTER

How can I join the team - 7

COMING SOONRequest for partners! - 7

Upcoming Events - 8

USEFUL LINKSImportant Information & Data - 8

APPRECIATIONInstitutional Sponsors - 8Individual Sponsors - 8

Volunteers - 8

IMEAP Uganda with CLEAN Clubs

IMEAP CLEAN Clubs in Kampala, Uganda


people have realized the benefits of sustainable development brought by other forms of travel, agrotourism is gathering strong support from small communities. In cases where agro-tourism is used to generate income for the regional population, it can promote regional development as well as food security. Uganda Agrotourism has been a

success story in many areas. In Malaysia, small demonstration plots are reserved for cultivation of traditional plant species in an agricultural park. The agricultural park shows how agriculture is developed in Malaysia and has an arboretum with native fruit varieties and is also used for agroforestry. Lots of tourists are attracted and products from these production systems are sold to tourists. In the highlands of Peru and Bolivia, women offer their own varieties of potatoes and other crop plants for sale in seed markets so as to attract tourists. Also, in northern Germany, the heidschnuck sheep which graze on the lüneburg heathlands serve as a popular tourist attraction for tourists who come for the landscape and also the local heathland honey, buckwheat cake and the heidschnuck roasts. In this region, agrotourism is regarded as a valuable economic cornerstone. In India, a range of activities, services and amenities provided by farmers and rural people serve as attraction to urban tourists to their area. In Maharashtra horticulture farms like tea plantations, wineyards, coffee and rubber plantations and agricultural farms are attractions for tourists. With the success stories mentioned above, agrotourism could provide hope for some Ugandans. Uganda, popularly known as the ‘Pearl of Africa’ is a country found in East Africa and is where the East African

savannah meets the West African jungle. It is a developing country where most of the population engage in agriculture and where there is still heavy migration from the countryside to the city. Farmers in villages are engaged in farming for two

planting seasons per year. Income from these farms generally is just twice in a year. At the rural household level, most families do not get adequate supplies of foods to last from one harvest to the next. This is not enough to sustain farmers throughout the year. The UNDP report of 2002 indicated that as of 2002, 4.6 million people in Uganda were under-fed, most of them in the north of the country. The National House-hold Survey of 2002/2003, which indicated that 38% or 8.9 million people live under abject poverty and food insecurity, further emphasizes this.

Also, most farmers are tending towards growing high value crops rather than the traditional (local) varieties. To make farming sustainable and feasible there is a need of some addition to the traditional farming; therefore activities such as agrotourism could alleviate or rescue this situation if we consider the success cases of Malaysia and India. Agrotourism could promote food security for the poor by ensuring that they have income generating activities within their agroactivities which can earn them some revenue. Uganda has attractive farming systems like the banana/coffee system with robusta coffee and horticultural crops, the Banana/Finger millet /Cotton System with cotton, coffee and maize and many other systems which are distributed in the various districts. Visits to attrative sites like coffee farms (Uganda’s coffee is believed to be the only organic coffee in the world) could also help to keep the farmers on their small pieces of land rather than selling it off to

Africa Receives Least Health AidA recent report released by the Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) shows that the part of development aid directed towards health issues has decreased strongly during the last two decades, however, Africa receives far less health aid than less challenged developing countries, compared to needs. They found that most development assistance go to the countries with the biggest health challenges, but 11 of the 30 countries with the highest disease burden receive less funding than countries with less disease and stronger economies. Funding for malaria and tuberculosis also appear to go to countries that do not have large groups at risk for these diseases. The very good news is that the commitment to health in the developing world grew over the past two decades such as in Sub-Saharan Africa that doubled its’ public health spending from 1995 to 2006 and in West Africa that even quadrupled.Source: http://afrol.com

Agrotourism is the form of tourism where travelers or visitors are attracted to a rural area or areas used primarily for agricultural purposes. It involves visiting a working farm or any agricultural, horticultural, or agribusiness operations for the purpose of enjoyment, education, or active involvement in the activities of the farm or operation. One very special characteristic of agrotourism is that it encourages visitors to experience agricultural life at first hand. In this type of tourism, visitors have the opportunity to work in the fields alongside real farmers and wade knee-deep in the sea with fishermen hauling in their nets. As rural

USING AGROTOURISM TO PROMOTE FOOD SECURITY IN UGANDA by Dr. Ndambi Beninweck

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Welcome to the Pearl of Africa

GREETINGS FROM THE DIRECTORDear Reader,

On behalf of the entire CLEANAFRICA e.V. Board and the Team of Volunteers, I wish to congratulate you for taking time to read this edition of the Newsletter and I hope you would enjoy reading it. I would like also to thank all our friends and sponsors for their enthusiastic and generous support they rendered to CA to make the various projects in Germany and outside Europe to be a success. This year 2013, is a year full of opportunities for us to make a difference in the lives of the marginalized communities in Africa as well as help educate the German community on the various developmental strategies and opportunities that exist in the developing world.This newsletter gives highlights of some successful projects in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Germany that has been implemented by CLEAN-AFRICA. Internally in Germany, there were projects conducted, the podium discussion organized, the workshops and conferences we convened with the relentless contributions from our sponsors and volunteers. For 2013, some of the projects in the pipeline include; Uni-Days 2013 at Uni-Hohenheim, CoSDeP 2013 (Conflict Sensitive Development and Planning), Brain Gain 2013 (Focus on the security of the African Child), and LETS (Leadership Empowerment Training and Seminars) for potential leaders.In case you are interested in becoming a friend of CLEAN AFRICA, or a volunteer please do not hesitate to get in touch with us through via our website, www.cleanafrica.org. Every Little Contribution and Support Can Make a Difference!

Warm regards,Freda Marful (Mrs)Executive Director, CLEAN-AFRICA

Hoe Farming in Uganda


materials for free. Suffice to note is the improved road network which has fostered rural urban migration especially among the youth who are a strong force to reckon with in community participation. In a number of villages, there are homesteads managed by grand parents or child headed homes. This has rendered the unsung hero a scarce resource in the community.

The unsung hero is important because it provides local expertise which is essential for community development. For instance in the community there are people with skills in construction, plumbing, bilizing others, agriculturalist, health workers, among others who are a resource for any sustainable development. These experts are able to tell the historical trend and how it can contribute to development.

The community provides the needed raw materials in form of land, timber, sand, stones and time which enables project interventions at a relatively low cost as compared to when all materials are purchased.

Shared learning leads to empowerment both to the community and the facilitators of change. For instance community members are able to share their experiences of certain weather patterns and which crops do better; they are able to share how the chase monkeys from the maize plantations, if the community is purely moslem etc. This shared learning is important in influencing project decisions. Community participation enables an organization like CLEAN Uganda to implement the activities at a very low cost. This has also been the argument for working with local CBO’s. For instance, if community health volunteers are trained to support in identification, prevention and treatment of malaria in the community, it is less expensive than establishing hospitals or clinics. If it is hygiene promotion in the community, community volunteers enforce hygienic practices within the community. Community participation promotes sustainability and ownership of the project activities. This means that even when the project has ended, the benefits will continue to accrue to the beneficiaries. In conclusion, NGO’s should promote community participation as the only way of ensuring that the positive changes make lasting impressions on the people’s lives.

Microfinance is the granting of financial services and products in the form of small loans to assist the exceptionally poor in establishing or expanding their businesses. Studies show that in developing countries about 90% of the people lack access to financial services from institutions, either for credit or savings (Robinson, Marguerite S., 2002), and this has aggravated the vicious cycle of poverty especially in the rural areas. If the people have limited capacity to invest in capital, productivity is restricted, income is inhibited and domestic savings remain low. Also, lack of access to financial institutions can hinder the ability for households and entrepreneurs to engage in new business ventures to improve their living standard and thus, inhibiting general economic growth. At this point one will be tempted to ask, how is microfinance helping the poor? Yunus (1994) said “he will go for credit if we are looking for one single action which will enable the poor to overcome their poverty” and he maintains that “money is power.” Credit invested in an income-generating enterprise as working capital or for productive assets leads to establishment of a new enterprise or growth of an existing one. Another scholar believes that profit from the enterprise provides income and generally strengthens the income sources (Daley-Harris, Sam, 2002).

large enterprises. This also means that there will be less movement to the urban areas. Considering that every year more and more tourists visit Uganda, an additional excursion to the countryside could give an extra agrarian dimension to the trip. Tourists could be interested in milking farms where a tourist could experience the typical style of milking the long-horned cattle and how much milk is obtained and most especially what really

matters is to experience the Ugandan farming culture. Rural farm life and activities could take the form of drinking banana wine (tonto) in a banana plantation, or coffee with milk warmed up over a campfire and also having some sweet pineapples which have

been specially and locally processed. Nsenyi village in southwestern Uganda is a great demonstration of agrotourism in its splendour. This could provide an opportunity for visitors to enjoy nature, experience local cultures and participate in rural activities. Tourists could buy fresh agricultural produce and products directly from farmers without any middle agents. This could generate additional income for farmers and contribute to the conservation and development of the whole region. According to the National Food Strategy of 1996, the issue of food security “is not due to lack of resources, but rather absence of an integrated national food strategy and that the issue of food security should be seen in the wider context of poverty eradication.” Promoting agrotourism could make rural people achieve income, employment and economic stability in Uganda which could help boost the state of food security.

Community participation in the African society was part and parcel of every community and it fostered the development of people’s cultural values, hard work and community bonds. In Uganda, communities provided the social safety needs for the elderly, the widow and the disadvantaged. Bulungibwansi (community work), was the cornerstone for every adult male and female in the village, the community supported in opening the roads, ensuring community food granaries, disciplining the children, school and church construction, among others. As education and developments continued, with increased monetization, community participation is dying out in the communities of Uganda. Different scholars have explained the cause of this scenario which is hampering sustainable development in the country. There has been increased community awareness in terms of expectation, roles and obligations. Greater emphasis is being put on shared knowledge but at a cost. The heart of community service is gradually wearing out. With the increased electronic media and education, the community members feel that the change agents are “eating” on their behalf. It should be noted that there has been increased monetizatisell on of the economy. For instance there is increasing emphasis on selling what you have to get what you don’t have. This has worsened the community participation which formed the basis of the community care for each other. The youths who are remaining in the communities are engaged in informal trade like brick making, charcoal burning etc and hence cannot live heir trade to offer labour for free or other local

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION: THE UNSUNG HERO OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT by George Katumba Ssempangi

HOW “MICRO” IS THE IMPACT OF MICROFINANCE TO THE IGNORANT POOR IN UGANDA (PART 1) by Florence Kibuuka

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Lake Bunyonyi in south western Uganda


.....the level of mortality in children under 5 in the WHO African region remained alarmingly with 127 per 1000 live births, ..... the WHO African Region and the WHO South-East Asia experience the highest burden of child mortality due to pneumonia and diarrhoea worldwide, .....the stagnation of prevalence coupled with population growth led to an increase in the number of underweight children, from 24 million in 1990 to 30 million in 2010 in Africa,

.....the 2006 UNICEF study showed that disparities in child nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa between rich and poor urban communities were greater than those between urban and rural areas.Sources:http://www.unicef.org/sowc2012/http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat/2011/en/index.html

The growing global number of households living below the poverty line has been and is still a cause for concern, especially in developing countries. Previously, lending to the poor was considered high risk, as most poor households had no collateral. Microfinance - poverty alleviation through access to credit and financial services, especially targeted towards poor households and low income earners – has been proffered as a sustainable solution to this global issue. Government banks introduced programs with heavily subsidized credit to the poor, but these recorded high default rates on payments and led to the failure of these programs. New philosophies are generated towards microfinance and diverse approaches are used, based on the common mechanism of group lending. The various mechanisms utilized in microfinance are not exactly new to developing countries, as they were loaned and modified from the informal finance sector to be applied in the formal. They include group lending, which utilizes joint liability to ensure that contractual terms of repayment are not breached; dynamic incentives in the form of gradual increment in loan sizes; regular repayment schedules and substitutes for collateral. Despite these mechanisms in place, most developing countries still have growing populations below the poverty line, as they face several challenges in their search for solutions for poverty alleviation and development through microfinance. Copying the same strategies used by other countries – e.g. Bangladesh, Uganda, Indonesia, Ghana and Bolivia – may not always work for every country. Each country has its’ peculiarities – social, economic, cultural and biophysical too - and as such, should find solutions within a customized framework of their challenges. Unless with a holistic approach , using microfinance as a tool for poverty alleviation and development would always be riddled with challenges. Other strategies that could be considered in the development of sustainable microfinance policies include:

• Provision of basic amenities for sustainable livelihood – water, housing, health and education – to reduce the risk of the credit

Uganda is generally seen as the country with the most vibrant and successful Microfinance Industry (MFI) in Africa. Some MFIs have experienced strong growth and are now reaching a considerable number of clients, with three serving between 25.000 and 45.000 clients. In the past years however, a number of attempts have been made to assess the impact microfinance providers are having on the livelihoods of the poor in Uganda (AIMS 2000; Barnes, Morris and Gaile 1998; Gaile, Duursma and Eturu 1999; Mutesasira et al 1999; Wright et al 1999a; Wright et al 1999b). Some of the MFIs that participated in this study include FINCA, PRIDE, FOCCAS, Uganda Women Finance Trust (UWFT) and Centenary Rural Development Bank (CERUDEB). Although the study places emphasis on different aspects, they all reveal positive impacts from participation in MFI programs. These positive effects are summarized below. Participation in microfinance programs results in strengthening linkages of clients and their households to the agricultural sector. MFI clients are actively involved in the agricultural and natural resource based market-ing chain. Loans to micro entrepreneurs strengthen their position in the agricultural sector. Participation in Microfinance results in clients expanding the amount of land they cultivate, thus diversifying the crops they grow for sale and domestic consumption. Participation in microfinance programs enables clients to acquire valued skills. In self-assessments, clients tend to mention acquisition of business related knowledge and saving skills among the most important positive results of their involvement in microfinance programs.

Research and studies of microfinance in Uganda has proved that the impact of microfinance to the poor is indeed big and more rewarding to clients for participating than not. The ignorant poor in Uganda are now aware of the usefulness of membership to microfinance programs due to the improving livelihood and living standards which was evident in the lives of the participating clients of microfinance who happen to be their neighbors. The impact on the client’s life and household welfare has been observed in a number of ways including, improved food security, affordability of good medical health care, improved quantity and quality of agricultural produce, affordability of good education to household members, and improved household income. However there are some negative effects of microfinance which will be looked into in the next edition.

DID YOU KNOW THAT..........??

Some of CLEAN AFRICA volunteers

STRATEGIES FOR MAKING MICRO-FINANCE WORK IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES by Chukwumah, Irene. U.

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Donate Now!

Help us for a Sustainable AfricaCLEAN-AFRICA Post Bank StuttgartKonto-Nr.: 179 296 707BLZ: 600 100 70


automatically channeled to the provision of these amenities. It is necessary to understand that access to credit alone without the provision of basic infrastructure would greatly undermine the effort to alleviate poverty.

• Involving the private sector through Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to create employment and skilled labour, accessible markets and evelopment of the rural and/or urban area. A win-win scenario is created, where transaction costs (cost of funds and production) are minimized as well as the risk and headache of rural-urban migration. • Adoption of policies which encourage and emphasize on the role of savings in microfinance (Morduch, 1999). Advantages include an inexpensive source of capital and a reliable client pool and database.Problems of interest rate spreads and operation costs may be addressed by schemes in which deposit rates are higher than lending rates, while regulatory constraints could be overcome by partnership between MFIs and commercial banks. Last but not least, as with all policies, strategic impact assessments and reviews should be performed regularly. These would aid in determining a relevant approach to subsidization, if any is being considered, such that it is received by the institution rather than the client, or it goes to public goods relevant to microfinance. Such assessments and reviews must also focus on answering the following questions at the household, local community and regional levels:

• to what extent has microfinance contributed to job creation and quality and income stability for the community?

• has microfinance aided the growth of the microenterprise sector which is the backbone of economy in many developing countries?

• do the entrepreneurial activities improve the economic base of the community? (RespnsAbility 2004).

BRAIN GAIN 2011: Panacea for the Loss of Expertise in African Cuntries Data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) showed that one out of 16 students in Sub-Saharan Africa studies abroad. Most of them go to Western Europe countries such as Germany. Partly of African graduates who studies abroad end up holding very important positions in their home country. In contrary, a remarkable number of African graduates stay behind after their study in Europe for several reasons; amongst them is (cont. Page 8)

Participants in the Uni-Days 2012

at University of Hohenheim,

Germany

CLEAN-Ghana in an environmental

awareness campaign at Kampala





Participants in the Uni-Days 2012

at University of Stuttgart, Germany

BRAIN GAIN 2011: PANACEA FOR THE LOSS OF EXPERTISE IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES By Dyah A Inayati

Group Discussion on BRAIN GAIN 2011 in Stuttgart, Germany

05


towards the environment in eight districts namely; Kalungu, Luwero, Nakasongola, Katakwi, Soroti, Kamwenge, Masindi and Kabalore. Aware that majority of young people are so caught up with their lives that they don’t seem to care about anything else but themselves, the young generation is basically targeted through the inter-school quizzical competitions on environment which are being conducted amongst 16 schools (a primary and a secondary)from each district on the selected environment topics. It is worth noting that Quiz competitions play a very important role in education and it is such an interactive method of learning where children are able to learn by fun the ethical way, and by sharing the joy of winning and reducing the sorrow of losing.

The Quiz/Debate Clubs under the auspice of CLEAN Environment club in very participating school are encouraging pupils/students to develop their debating and public speaking skills and have the ability to test their nature skills and wildlife knowledge. CLEAN Uganda has been enthused by the response gotten from students/pupils to participate in the environmental quiz. A teacher from a participating school noted that “these competitions have helped to increase the interest of the youth in environment protection and more and more pupils/students are now getting actively involved in cleaning activities, tree planting exercises, proper waste management and are ensuring that their school compounds as well as homes in the community are clean”.The Clubs are expected to remain active even when the project period expires with 16 schools participating in Inter-Class as well as inter school environment competitions to keep up the spirit of protecting our beautiful environment.Indeed the Quizmaster and the entire quiz competitions committee are delighted to be conducting such a unique quiz competition in a time when awareness on the environment is becoming increasingly more important. The committee unanimously comments that the spirit of competition is timely, strong and healthy. CLEAN Uganda has received 40,000 tree seedlings from the National Forestry Authority and each participating school in the environment quiz competition is going to receive 2500 tree seedling for planting at the school compound and in the community. CLEAN Uganda is determined to take a little action to sustaining Uganda in order to add up to a brighter future versus no future at all. * Vincent Kafeero Lyazi is a Project Officer IMEAP/Member of Quiz committee

“Bad Governance” in home countries, thus leading to “Brain Drain”.Based on these facts, it is very crucial to raise people awareness, particularly African students, graduates, and Diaspora in Germany of these topics through a debate on “Brain Drain” and “Brain Gain” in light of “Bad Governance” and “Good Governance” as a relevant chapter of politics develop-ment and a determinant for destination after the study. To achieve this aim, CLEAN AFRICA in collaboration with CIM (Centrum für internationale Migration und Ent-wicklung), STUBEBW(Studienbegleit-programm - Baden Württemberg) and AGGN (African Good Governance Network) conducted the BRAIN GAIN Conference 2011 that was held on the 27 to 28 October 2011 at the Landesakademie für Jugendbildung, Weil der Stadt, Stuttgart.

The BRAIN GAIN 2011 event that was attended by 50 participants focused on the current social, economic, and political situation as well as tips for successful integration into the labour market in some African countries. Several positive contributions of the African Diaspora in Germany for the development of their home countries were also presented. The participants also benefited from the speeches presented by Dr. Charity Musamba (Senior Programme Manager: Women Participation Program of the National Democratic Institute, Zambia), Dr. William Muhairwe (CEO National Water and Sewerage Corporation, Uganda) through Mr. Mahmood Lutaaya and Dr. Paulyn Jansen (CEO of Janero Consultancy GmbH Expert in Youth Development), Ms. Sylvia Amiani (AGGN) regarding the “Brain Gain” and “Good Governance” issues.

In his opening speech, Dr. Niklas Sieber mphasized the fact that Africa’s future towards sustainable development depends so much on its future leaders and that is why BRAIN-GAIN is very crucial. “Despite the bleak picture from media, I hope that Africa’s next generation of leaders can transform the continent and lead it to a sustainable development through Good Governance and capacity building” added Sieber in his speech.

The majority of participants gave positive feedback of this confernce. We, CLEAN AFRICA, hope that by attending the BRAIN GAIN 2011 event, participants will develop several useful cooperation programs for their home countries.

CLEAN Uganda in partnership wit CLEAN Germany and with supportfrom GTZ Germany is implementing an environment awarenes campaign known as ”Integrated Mobile Environment Awareness Program Uganda (IMEAP)”. The aim of this program is to change the attitude of the youth

IMEAP Project in Uganda

INTER-SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTAL QUIZZICAL COMPETITION IN UGANDA By Vincent Kafeero Lyazi*

[email protected]

BRAIN GAIN 2011 participants in Stuttgart, German

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Hello Daniella,CLEAN-Africa is an international non-profit organization who is being operated to serve African Countries, without political, religious, ethnic, social and gender discrimination Since you live outside Germany, you can be a part of this team as an Expert Volunteer where you would be expected to utilise your time and technical know-how in assisting create strategies that would lead Africa to become sustainable. You can also support any of the CLEAN Kids to enable them to complete their basic education. We currently have some Germans, Indonesians, and Brazilians who are supporting our programsfor making Africa develop sustainably.Please contact [email protected] for further information.ThanksYour CLEANEWS

Poverty is not an easy concept to define. A wide range of definitions exists which mostly influenced by different disciplinary ideologies and approaches. Therefore, describing global poverty as one particular term is already complicated, not to mention finding its solutions.To raise the interest of many people in particular students and development workers on the global poverty theme, the Uni-Days Program 2012 Film Viewing and Panel Discussion: “The End of Poverty: Think Again!” was held on the 08 May 2012 at the University of Hohenheim and the 23 May 2012 at the University of Stuttgart.

This CLEAN AFRICA program was supported by the Centre for Agriculture in the Tropics and Subtropics at the University of Hohenheim, the Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst, and the Ökumenisiches Zentrum and was attended by more than 80 participants. The audience benefited from the rich experience and analytical views from Prof. Dr. Harald Grethe (Vorsitzenden des Wissenschaftlichen Beirats Agrarpolitik beim Bundesministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Verbraucherschutz), Dr. Detlef Virchow (Executive Management of the Food Security Center, University of Hohenheim), Dr. Saurabh Gupta (Research Fellow in the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Hohenheim), and Dr. Stefanie Lemke (Research Fellow in the Department of Gender and Nutrition, University of Hohenheim) regarding the global poverty issues. According to Prof. Grethe, there were several positive aspects of the movie such as imposing poverty to a high agenda and relating poverty with different living conditions. In his review, he also explained that there were some pitfalls of the movie included victimizing the developing countries, imbalance information by not including the countries that were not colonialized as well as not showing the success story of developing countries such as Brazil in combating food insecurity. “The implementation of land reforms must be changed to favour those who own the land and poor countries have to change their tax system” added Prof. Grethe before ending his short comments of the film. Results of feedback questionnaire which was collected at the end of this event showed that the majority of participants had positive impressions of the film –viewing and panel discussion program. Most of the audience also admitted that they had been exposed to some of real poverty issues as well as their available strategies after attending this Clean Africa project. We hope the Uni-Days 2012 via film-viewing and panel discussion focusing on the poverty theme will help the participants in their future research/studies or activities towards the goal of combating poverty in their communities.

Panel Discussion in Uni-Days 2012 at University of Stuttgart

REQUEST FOR PARTNERS..........!!

CLEAN-AFRICA is an international non-profit organization whose overall aim is to actively facilitate and promote adaption of policies, methods, and tools to accelerate the movement towards a global sustainable built environment.In the near future we plan to implement several projects in Ghana and therefore we are looking for potential partners who are also eager to promote sustainable community development in Ghana. Below are short summary of our future programs in Ghana. Landscapes for Neighbourhood and Community Revival (LaNCoR) for urban sub-Saharan Africa -The Case of Ghana LaNCoR is a research to explore how landscape planning and development could be used as a tool to revive seemingly collapsing communities in urban tropical sub-Saharan Africa and in this case Ghana. It uses exploratory method to identify and demonstrate how landscape development for kids on dilapidated open spaces within these communities could be used to revive and promote the spirit of self-help and foster parenting skills to reduce child delinquency. Health and Nutrition Program in Ghana (HeNuP-Ghana) HeNuP-Ghana is a project to improve health and nutritional status of children below five years old through community involvement and establishment of growth monitoring and supplementary feeding programs of CLEANGhana located in 5 villages, Greater Accra Region. Training Workshops for community workers and fields officers will be organized prior to the program. Growth monitoring and supplementary feeding programs will be conducted during the project.

YOUR LETTERS..........!! How can I be part of this wonderfulteam?Daniella Kyei- Mensah, London, United Kingdom

UNI-DAYS 2012: THE END OF POVERTY,THINK AGAIN! By Dyah A Inayati

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NOTICE! Send all your comments, inputs, letters or questions that you wish to be

published in the next edition of CLEANEWS to [email protected]


COMING SOON.........!!

International Conferences/Workshops/Seminars on Development Politics in Stuttgart for Students and Fresh Graduates on the theme:CoSDeP 2013: Conflict and Sensitive Development and Planning BRAIN-GAIN 2013: The Security of the African ChildLETS-2013: Leadership Empowerment and Traning Seminars UNI DAYS 2013: Forums and Discussions among others: Food Sovereignty and Security in Developing Countries, Linkages between Eco-System Services &Management and Quality of Life in Emerging Economies

Name: Dr. Niklas Sieber Country of Origin: GermanyProfession: Transport Economist, Regional PlannerCurrent Occupation: University LecturerInterest: Transport Policy Membership: Since 2011 Name: Sabrina GoilloudCountry of Origin: Swizerland Profession: Media Specialist Current Occupation: Master StudentInterest: Nutrition, EducationMembership: Since 2012 Name: Joyce A. ElediCountry of Origin: GhanaProfession: ArchitectCurrent Occupation: Master StudentInterest: Infrasctructure Planning Membership: Since 2012 Name: Cephas TeteyCountry of Origin: GhanaProfession: PlannerCurrent Occupation: Master StudentInterest: Rapid Urbanisation and Mobility Membership: Since 2012

Name: Abigail A. GyebiCountry of Origin: GhanaProfession: Agricultural EconomistCurrent Occupation: Master GraduateInterest: Sustainable AgricultureMembership: Since 2012

Name: Lina M VelascoCountry of Origin: ColombiaProfession: Industrial MicrobiologistCurrent Occupation: Free ConsultantInterest: Food Security Membership: Since 2012

In each edition of CLEANEWS, CLEAN-Africa would introduce seven(7) of it‘s members. Thus in this edition the underlisted Volunteers or members were selected to be profiled.

CLEAN VOLUNTEERS

THANK YOU

Interactive Environmental Awareness Learning Tool for Children in Ugandahttp://www.cleanafrica.org/clean/togetherforuganda.html

Using ICT to enable equity of access to quality care for all in Africa http://www.koegni-ehealth.org/

Nutrition News for Africahttp://nutrition.ucdavis.edu/nna/index.cfm Children in Urban Worldhttp://www.unicef.org/sowc/files/SOWC_2 012-Main_Report_EN_21Dec2011.pdf

The State of Breastfeeding 2010http://www.worldbreastfeedingtrends.org/r eport/The-state-of-breastfeeding-in-33-countries-2010.pdf

WHO Data and Statisticshttp://www.who.int/research/en/

FAO statisticshttp://www.fao.org/corp/statistics/en/ Africa Quick Factshttp://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/AFRICAEXT/0,,menuP K:258665~pagePK:146732~piPK:146813~theSitePK:258644,00.html

Globales Learning http://www.dachverbandentwicklungspolitikbw.de/web/cms/upload/pdf/publikationen/d eab_2013_globales_lernen.pdf

eSchooltoday: Interactive Learning for young people (Learn something new today) : www.eschooltoday.com

IMPORTANT & USEFUL LINKS

CLEAN-Africa wishes to express its greatest appreciation to the underlisted organisations and institutions for their support. In the next edition individuals who have also made contributions towards a sustainable Africa would be published

08

Wilcomsult GmbH Steuerbüro Kraus Dr. Braselmann Mr. Puck Mr. Albrecht Mr. Dautermann

www.llstiftung.de

www.dimoe.de/cms/startseite/ueber-uns/zeb-in-stuttgart/

www.niinoi.com

www.cimonline.de/de/

IMPRINT:The Editor-In-Chief, CLEANEWSCommunity Level Environmental Awareness Network Foundation, Africa(CLEAN-Africa e.V.)Erntedankweg 26, 70619 Stuttgart, GermanyTel:+49-711-63343294, Email: [email protected], Website: www.cleanafrica.org

www.forum-der-kulturen.de

www.eed.de

www.co-architekten.de

march nl cleanews

Documents

sustainable africa

west africa

cleanafrica events

cleanews cleanafrica

impact of microfinance

developing programs

cleanafricas website

groundwater resources