Vestergaard Frandsen Announces Launch of Continent Wide Malaria Prevention Program in Kisumu, Kenya

At Risk Families To Receive PERMANETS During Regular Vaccination Visits


(CSRwire) NAIROBI, Kenya--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 8, 2006--Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO, Vestergaard Frandsen, together with the Global Fund announced at a briefing today a massive malaria prevention program that will bring insecticide treated bed nets to thousands of at-risk families. The nets, which are financed through an $82 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, will be provided jointly with a range of other essential health interventions, including measles vaccinations, polio vaccinations (in select districts), vitamin A, and de-worming medicine.

Malaria accounts for roughly one-quarter of all deaths among children under the age of five in Kenya each year. The disease takes a considerable toll on the country's economy, causing the loss of an estimated 170 million productive working days each year. Currently, only six percent of pregnant women and young children sleep under a long-lasting insecticide-treated bed net -- a level the campaign aims to increase to more than 70 percent.

Nearly 34 organizations have partnered to implement this innovative program including the Measles Initiative, a partnership led by the American Red Cross, United Nations Foundation, World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Kenya Red Cross will be working with the government and other partners to educate and mobilize communities.

"My company is in the business of saving lives," said Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, CEO, Vestergaard Frandsen. "Working with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, Global Fund and our esteemed partners in the international NGO community we will be bringing nearly 3.5 million life saving PERMANETS to at-risk families in Kenya. The profound effect our products can have on so many lives is humbling. In combination with the other essential health interventions provided, we are substantively improving the lives of millions of people who need help the most."

Reference: http://www.csrwire.com/synd/business-ethics/article.cgi/5919.html

Labour Rights Project: A Case for Corporate Social Responsibility

“The Company needs to be an ethical creature – an organism capable of both reaping profits and making the world a better place to live” by Robert Hass, Chairperson and CEO of Levi Strauss

With markets opening up all around the world and trade and investment flows reaching unprecedented levels, the Kenya Human Rights Commission recognizes the large role business plays in the lives of millions of people in rich and poor countries alike. The Kenya Human Rights Commission believes that if business is to be a positive influence in people's lives, it must be fundamentally ethical in its treatment of people especially as employees, and in regard to host communities and the environment. Currently, human rights abuses once committed primarily by repressive governments are increasingly carried out in the corporate interest.

As the Kenya Human Rights Commission, we appreciate that the protection of human rights is not traditionally considered a responsibility of corporations. Domestic and international laws of many states including Kenya fail to impose adequate human rights duties on corporations. Yet corporations, especially multinational corporations (MNCs), are very powerful entities in the current world order. Their impact on the well being of communities and individuals, including in terms of human rights, is evident wherever they operate. While there is considerable scope for that impact to be positive, corporate activity is often perceived to have had, and has had, a detrimental impact on human rights protection. Domestic laws are not adequate to control the human rights excesses of multinational corporations (MNCs). In most instances, some MNCs are more powerful economically and de facto politically, than a state it is operating in, particularly when that state is a developing nation which perceives that it needs foreign direct investment in order to achieve satisfactory levels of economic development.

Therefore, as human rights advocates begin to address corporate crime, they often do so in the absence of any serious government support. As a result, they are tempted to fall back on voluntary codes of conduct adopted by the corporations themselves. At best, this self-monitoring represents “enlightened self-interest” by companies looking for a stable investment climate and providing corporations with cover from public scrutiny making corporate agents rather dubious guarantors of human rights.

Whether voluntary codes of conduct advance human rights or are an intermediate step toward deeper change or just window dressing is a topic still hotly debated by human rights activists, labour groups and grassroots movements. As always, it ends up as a David and Goliath battle. Many favor some sort of international body that will monitor and regulate corporate activities around the world while others propose that what needs to happen is a redefinition of human rights as the fight for self-governance.

Reference: http://www.khrc.or.ke/subsubsection.asp?ID=5

Kenya: Tobacco advertising under fire

A News item from Business Respect, Issue Number 85, dated 25 Jul 2005

Tobacco advertising that aims to promote social messages has come under fire as a loophole being exploited for the advertising and promotion of tobacco.

Two recent advertisements in Kenya, placed by British American Tobacco, have led to accusations that the company was rendering the tobacco advertising ban ineffective. Under the regulations, companies can promote their corporate social responsibility activities so long as they don't seek to persuade people to smoke.

One of the adverts in question announced a competition and the second unveiled retail prices for the new Sportsman Light. The company defended the advertising, saying it was within the law of the land and did not seek to promote smoking.

Reference: http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/CSRfiles/page.php?Story_ID=1477

How can Corporate Social Responsibility Deliver in Africa? Insights from Kenya and Zambia

I
t is now recognised that poverty
reduction and sustainable development
will not be achieved through government
action alone. Policy makers are paying
increasing attention to the potential
contribution of the private sector to
such policy objectives.
1
The concept
of corporate social responsibility (CSR)
is sometimes used as shorthand for
businesses’ contribution to sustainable
development. A number of core
development issues are already central
to the international CSR agenda.
They include labour standards, human
rights, education, health, child labour,
poverty reduction, conflict and
environmental impacts.
But what does this mean at the
national level, particularly in those
countries in which sustainable
development challenges appear most
intractable? Does CSR have resonance
among local stakeholders? This paper
describes key aspects of the emerging
CSR agenda in two countries in sub-
Saharan Africa – Kenya and Zambia –
in order to explore what it would take
to help unlock the potential private
sector contribution to sustainable
development in each country.

Reference: http://www.iied.org/SM/CR/documents/CSRinAfrica.pdf

Who's afraid of Alcoblow? Not Kenyan drinkers!

IT IS NOW official: Kenyans love their beer so much they are willing to risk arrest for it. In the Kenyan parliament last week, Finance Assistant Minister Peter Kenneth, talking about the discontinued Alcoblow breathalyser, caused laughter in the House when he said

"Contrary to the belief that the use of Alcoblow by police reduced beer consumption, the opposite was the case. The available statistics show that there was no drop in beer consumption as a result of the breathalyser."

Reference: http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/09102006/Opinion/Opinion0910200611.htm

How racism kills Africa's plants

L. MUTHONI WANYEKI

The Germans know how to build cars. When the organisation I used to work for was getting a new office car, our choice - from the make to the colour - was primarily dictated by concerns about carjacking. A year later I was involved in a head-on collision, following which the car rolled. The car, a new Volkswagen Jetta, was written-off.

But I, amazingly, emerged unscathed thanks to its airbag and seatbelt. So I became a fervent advocate of German technology in a different sense than originally anticipated. A car bought for security from a carjacking perspective had provided safety in another way - and saved my life. Thus my emotional attachment to VW.

And my disappointment and irritation with the name it has chosen for its sports utility vehicle. How on earth did it decide that the name of a whole group of people is an appropriate name for a make of cars?

In the same tired old manner in which so many aspects of Africa are exoticised and romanticised - and then commercially exploited - the Touareg are now cars. The name, of course, is not-so-subliminally meant to evoke images of valiant crossings of the Sahara, with little or no water on hand.

I am sure the Masaai here, whose images are now used to sell almost anything to do with Kenya and East Africa, will empathise. If I were a Touareg, I would be lodging a claim to block to the use of the name. Or, at least, claiming a share of the profits from Touareg sales from VW.

It seems a frivolous point to make. But it is not. I had the privilege of hearing Awegechew Teshome, an Ethiopian scientist, speak to a gathering last week about the same issues - but in relation to Africa's plant genetic resources. He talked about the diversity of Africa's traditional food production systems, and the simplistic attempts to overlay large-scale, "modern" food production on them. Not all of Africa's ecosystems - on which the traditional systems were painstakingly built over time - take to synthetic inputs such as mass-produced fertilisers, chemicals and so on. Nor can they support mechanisation, particularly in the drylands.

Reference: http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/09102006/Opinion/Opinion091020063.htm

Uganda won't violate gays' human rights, but..

BRIG (RTD) MATAYO KYALIGONZA

The recent condemnation of the Uganda government by Amnesty International over alleged incitement against same-sex relationships is inappropriate and in bad taste.

The report appearing in The EastAfrican (September 18-24), might be construed to mean that the government of Uganda encourages violation of human rights, an insinuation that could be grossly misleading.

The government of Uganda upholds the law and accords capital adherence to its implementation as provided for in the laws of our country. It is, therefore, erroneous for Amnesty International to allege that the government does not adhere to international laws on homosexuality.

It is true that Uganda has ratified the laws forbidding violation of human rights, but it is not true that the government has violated those laws when it comes to same-sex relationships. The government protects all citizens against any form of incitement and is not responsible for the alleged publication of names of alleged lesbians in one of the publications in our country – Red Pepper.

The freedom of the press is top on the agenda of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government, although it is the government's responsibility to ensure that the freedom is not abused. Red Pepper is responsible for whatever it publishes, and the government cannot monitor and filter what is sold in the streets as that would be gagging the media, which the government is careful not to engage in.

Reference: http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/09102006/Opinion/Opinion091020067.htm

Policy makers can save our natural resources

SCHOLARS, environmentalists and scientists have written about the quandary facing Uganda's natural resources.

Our lakes, especially Victoria and forests, like Mabira, which is currently facing a degazetting threat, serve as an immediate example of the how futile the conservation war is.

The government has degazetted a number of other forest reserves before like Towa, Banga and Namanve land that is now the home of Coca-Cola and the Butamira companies.

The threat facing natural resources is not only depressing but also a symptom of much bigger problems and questions that need to be answered by government decision makers.

The value and importance of our natural resources cannot be over emphasised; they are well known to the people of Uganda, rural and urban alike.

For example, the Buganda clan system, which has been in place since time immemorial, forest dwellers like the Ik in northern Uganda and the Batwa in the southwest have always exploited natural resources sustainably.

These natural resources were used by our forefathers for different purposes such as fishing, medicine or cultural rites and much of the heritage survived due to such traditional and historical attachments to nature.

Most of these users were not anywhere near being rocket scientists or legislators, but they were well aware of the dynamics and the importance of Mother Nature.

However, the value of natural resources continues to decrease as politicians and policy makers replace our richly varied ecosystems with development packages like manufacturing industries.

It is not reasonable to cherish development to such a level that it supersedes the value of a healthy environment.

Reference: http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/09102006/Opinion/Opinion0910200612.htm

Emminent Kenyans to attend meet on environmental law

A delegation of emminent Kenyans is among world scholars attending a five-day International Conference on Environmental Law and use of natural resources that opens this week at a New York University.

The conference, organised by the International Union for the Conservation for Nature, brings together law scholars, environmentalists and businesses such as banks to discuss how best environmental laws can be applied in the use of natural resources.

Co-sponsored by Unep, the Commission for Environmental Co-operation and the World Bank, the meeting will also discuss how to promote the enforcement of environmental laws in different nations.

It opens at the Pace University School of Law on Monday, October 16.

Invited speakers include the Nobel Laureate, Prof Wangari Maathai, who will give the closing address.

The chairman of Barclays Bank Kenya, Francis Okello, will present a paper entitled The role of banks in promoting compliance with environmental laws in emerging economies: The Kenyan experience, while the chairman of the National Environmental Tribunal, Donald Kaniaru, will chair a discussion on Judicial Enforcement System.

Reference: http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/Regional11.htm

East Africa faces severe drought

A new scientific report due to be presented at a climate change conference in Nairobi next month, warns that global warming is set to make severe drought across Africa even worse than had been predicted.

According to extracts from the report produced by the UK’s Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, whole swathes of East Africa could be affected by chronic water shortages in the future, making the drought that afflicted the Rift Valley and other parts of East Africa last year a regular occurrence.

Extracts from the report were revealed in the Independent newspaper of October 5.

It said that drought is set to affect the lives of billions of people across half the land surface of the Earth in the coming century because of global warming.

Extreme levels of drought are set to make it impossible to farm in huge swathes of Africa and water shortages will make life even harder for poor pastoralist communities like the Turkana.

The findings are formulated by a supercomputer model based on climate change predictions.

Reference: http://www.nationmedia.com/eastafrican/current/News/Regional4.htm

940 projects in rural power plan

The Ministry of Energy has identified 940 projects to benefit from the rural electrification programme.

Each of the 210 constituencies would have at least one in line with the Government policy of boosting development in the rural areas, acting minister Henry Obwocha said.

But he neither said what criteria would be used, nor gave a breakdown of the distribution.

At the moment, most MPs have given priority to the programme in their constituency development fund allocations.

Reference: http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=83636