IRIN – Zimbabwe’s still-limping economy can provide few essential services, so children living along the border cross into South Africa to attend school during the day or even to see a doctor, often at great risk to their personal safety.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) regional child protection advisor for East and Southern Africa, Cornelius Williams, said the movement of unaccompanied child migrants from Zimbabwe was one of the biggest problems confronting humanitarian agencies in the region. Between 3,000 and 15,000 Zimbabwean children are known to move into and out of their country every month.

“Unfortunately, governments continue to devote most of their resources to child trafficking, where much smaller numbers of children are involved,” Williams told IRIN at a meeting of officials from 15 countries in Pretoria from 23 to 25 February to discuss ways of strengthening cross-border co-operation to protect children at risk.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88249

IRIN – Four years after an innovative slum-upgrading project was launched in Huruma, to the northeast of the Kenyan capital, at least 200 households are now living in improved homes, complete with infrastructure such as running water, sewage connection, electricity, drainage, paving and renovated toilet blocks.

“We have at least 50 houses still under construction. We hope to complete these in the near future as the project comes to an end,” said Chiara Camozzi, project manager for the Italian NGO, COOPI, which spearheaded the project.

Initially planned to take three years (2005-2007), the 1.5 million euro (US$2.1 million) project has stretched into 2010 due to complications, such as the post-election violence of early 2008, which affected parts of Huruma. COOPI is the project’s implementing agency, with the Italian ministry of foreign affairs one of the main donors.

To begin with, the beneficiaries pay 20 percent of the cost of the house through local saving schemes, Camozzi said.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88211

(NEWZIMBABWE) SOUTH African President Jacob Zuma will tell Britain to lift sanctions on Zimbabwe when he arrives in London for a state visit next week, he said in an interview published Thursday.

Zuma suggested European Union sanctions, largely instigated by former colonial power Britain, were now being used by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party to “maintain tension” in the lead up to a new election.

The United States has also imposed its own set of sanctions on Zimbabwe, and the South African leader told the Financial Times these measures have made it more difficult to establish a viable coalition government in Zimbabwe.

“What have sanctions done to help the situation?” Zuma said. “Zanu PF says [it is] in a cabinet of this unity government. But part of the cabinet can go anywhere in the world for their work and part [the Zanu PF members] can’t go out of the country. This unity government is being suffocated. It is not being allowed to do its job by the big countries.”

Read more – http://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-1902-Lift+Zim+sanctions,+Zuma+to+tell+UK/news.aspx

Hesham Gohary says he has been coming to the Health Ministry in central Cairo for weeks in the hope of getting free kidney dialysis treatment, but always leaves empty-handed.

IRIN – The 54-year-old farmer is one of 35,000 low-income kidney failure patients whose collective US$118 million health bill used to be footed by the government, until it recently declared its coffers empty.

“I badly need the dialysis,” Gohary told IRIN. “But it seems so difficult to get free treatment in this country these days.”

Around 35 million of the country’s 80 million people are in the state health insurance system, according to the Health Ministry, and most of the rest are supposed to get free health care.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88097

IRIN – In 2009 Zimbabwe withdrew the local dollar and allowed the use of foreign currency to bring down hyperinflation, but outside of urban centres this money is often scarce and also makes food expensive, so Godknows Chuma started growing his own and discovered that his green fingers could provide for his family.

“As is the case in many rural areas, the foreign currency was hard to come by and we were struggling to get money to buy basic commodities,” Chuma, 34, told IRIN.

Read more – http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=87722

IPS – The Zimbabwean government has been working hard to attract international investors to revive the country’s failing economy. Success on this front in 2010 may hinge on the coalition government convincing investors their capital will be secure.

Investor interest in recent years has been in portfolio investment (the passive holdings of securities such as foreign stocks, bonds and other financial assets) on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange and in mining.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49905

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group Chief Economist, Louis Kasekende, has said that the continent’s economic outlook is improving just as the countries of the western Hemisphere and Asia are showing signs of economic recovery. Mr. Kasekende expressed optimism as to the continent’s economic prospects while speaking in an interview with the AfDB Web team ahead of the institution’s African Economic Conference (AEC) which is an annual event that brings together researchers and policy-makers for them to share perspectives on economic and development challenges facing the continent.

“Just as the countries in the western Hemisphere and Asia are showing signs of economic recovery, there are signs that the outlook for Africa is also improving. However, the recovery remains weak for it to be a basis for optimism that Africa is back on a higher growth trajectory.  In 2009, we are forecasting a growth rate of 2% for the continent, improving to 3.9% in 2010. Strong recovery will depend on a revival of demand in developed and emerging economies, plus recovery in financial flows to the continent. To maintain growth on a higher trajectory, the challenge facing the continent is to increase the level of investment to at least over 30% of GDP, while also increasing the efficiency of that investment,” Mr. Kasekende said, adding that the AEC had brought the AfDB closer to many research institutes on the continent, pointing out that the AfDB had begun to collaborate with some of the research institutes with regard to AfDB knowledge generation and dissemination activities.

Speaking about the usefulness of the AEC, Mr. Kasekende said “the AEC has been useful in helping us improve the quality of our existing major publications such as the African Economic Outlook (AEO) and the African Development Report, which we now regularly disseminate during the conference as a way of influencing policy,” adding that “We are also using AEC proceedings to improve the quality of our journal, the African Development Review. Every year, we produce a special issue of the Journal containing papers presented at the plenary sessions.”

Read more – http://www.afdb.org/en/news-events/article/afdb-chief-economist-speaks-ahead-of-the-african-economic-conference-5176/