IPS  - Africa needs urgent action on global warming. The consensus position adopted by African leaders ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen failed. African environmental activists are now debating their way forward.

Samantha Bailey, Africa coordinator for the 350 Campaign, said activist organising had been a success.

In the framework of the international “TckTckTck” campaign, 350 held an international day of action on Oct. 24, 2009, which it says was “the biggest single day of political action ever to happen”. It involved 5,200 actions in 181 countries demanding a fair, ambitious and binding deal.

The 350 Campaign, founded in the United States by author Bill McKibben, was established to pressure governments to agree that 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if catastrophic climate change is to be avoided.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=50291

Plus News – Hope of an effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccine has been boosted by findings from the Tanzanian trial of a new TB vaccine showing that TB infection in HIV-positive patients was reduced by 39 percent.

The TB vaccine “mycobacterium vaccae” was tested in a double-blind, randomised, controlled trial that ran for seven years and involved 2,013 HIV-positive Tanzanians, and was a collaborative effort between scientists from the Dartmouth Medical School in the US, and Tanzania’s Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences.

“This is the first TB vaccine to show effectiveness in any clinical trial,” Dartmouth’s Dr Richard Waddell told IRIN/PlusNews. “It will re-energize the search for an even more effective TB vaccine, which is especially urgent in Africa.”

Read more – http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88071

IRIN – Unconventional health workers and new technologies will be a vital part of the ongoing effort to “virtually eliminate” mother-to-child transmission of HIV, says Michél Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS.

“We cannot wait for the highest cadre of health professionals to be trained before expanding our capacity to prevent mother-to-child transmission,” he told a press conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. “We have to tap into non-conventional capacity to help expand access to health services.”

Read more – http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87694

AfDB – The African Development Bank Board of Directors has recently approved the institution’s administrative budget for 2010 while reaffirming the relevance of AfDB 2008-2012 Medium Term Strategy.

AfDB considers 2010 as a year of consolidation of its delivery capacity, further optimization of the use of available resources, and leveraging on demonstrated efficiency gains and trade offs. Consequently, resource requirements for 2010 have been prepared on the basis of a zero real growth scenario.

Read more – http://www.afdb.org/en/news-events/article/afdb-adminsitrative-budget-for-2010-usd-425-million-zero-growth-5515/

IPS – Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says Africa must compromise and be flexible towards other countries, if the U.N. Climate Conference ending on Dec. 18, is to reach an agreement.

Speaking to the press in the Danish capital, Zenawi – ostensibly leading the African front on climate change – said the continent would suffer the most should the world fail to seal a deal.

.Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49727

IPS – “It’s clear now – we’re not getting a binding deal at the end of tomorrow,” said the president of Friends of the Earth-United States, Erich Pica.

Industrialised nations are burying their heads in the sand and poor countries seem set to be forced to continue bearing the burden of global warming. The demonstrations, flyers, news media and all kinds of pressure to get the Western countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and compensate poor countries with financial resources and technology seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49735

IPS – The U.N. Climate Change Conference enters its final week under a cloud of uncertainty as the Africa Group led a protest of the developing world against a perceived attempt to abandon the Kyoto Protocol.

Monday found long lines of delegates and observers waiting to clear security at the Bella Center’s entrance. The now-familiar invitations to this or that side event in the background, you could hear people discussing the fate of precious clauses over the weekend, and murmurings of trouble brewing in the official process.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49678

IPS – One of the key components of global action on climate change will be measures to adapt to changes that are already unavoidable. The Global Gender and Climate Alliance argues that specific attention be paid to the needs of women.

“With climate change taking away their source of livelihood because of the erratic weather patterns preventing them from farming, women must find another means of making a living,” said Rachel Harris, the media coordinator for GGCA.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49647

AfDB – Representatives of Africa defense, diplomacy, regional organizations and development  institutions, as well members of the  civil society organizations and parliamentarians met,  on 23-24 November 2009, at the African Development Bank in Tunis to discuss ways of  strengthening  regional organizations in dealing with the prevention of violent conflicts on the continent.

Read More – http://www.afdb.org/en/news-events/article/prevention-of-violent-crisis-in-africa-5459/

IPS – As U.S. special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration defended the Barack Obama administration’s new policy toward the war-torn country on Capitol Hill Thursday, NGOs and a U.N. official reacted with disappointment and impatience.

Before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, Gration faced persistent questioning from some members of Congress over the policy’s inclusion of carrots alongside the sticks favoured by most international organisations.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49546