The global food crisis and how to stop hunger from escalating in the midst of the current economic crisis will be the subject of a recent G8 meeting of Agricultural ministers in Treviso, Italy. For now, the G8 and the United States continue to advocate the same disastrous policies that got us into the current mess where 1 billion people lack access to adequate food.

The HIV & AIDS Thematic Manager is responsible for coordinating the development and implementation of ACORD’s HIV & AIDS thematic work. S/he will provide technical support to ACORD country and Area Programmes across Africa in relation to HIV & AIDS work. S/he shall actively contribute to define strategies advancing HIV & AIDS work at Pan-African level through research, partnership, alliance building and advocacy initiatives. Closing date for completed applications is: June 19th 2009.

An estimated 900 babies in the developing world are infected with HIV every day because governments fail to reach pregnant women with prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services. "We are doing a bad job of testing women for HIV and then following them up, and an even worse job of ensuring that infants receive appropriate prevention and treatment services," Janet Kayita, regional PMTCT advisor to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), told a press conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on 25 May.

Foreign aid for government health projects in Zambia, where most of the national health budget is donor-funded, was frozen last week after allegations of corruption. The governments of the Netherlands and Sweden announced they had suspended aid after a whistleblower alerted Zambia's Anti-Corruption Commission [ACC] to the embezzlement of over US$2 million from the health ministry by top government officials.

Reporters Without Borders has written to communication minister Laure Olga Gondjout and National Communication Council chairman Emmanuel Ondo Methogo voicing concern about the suspension of two Gabonese newspapers, Ezombolo and Le Nganga, and the warnings issued to Radio France Internationale (RFI) and the Canal Overseas Africa satellite TV service over their coverage of President Omar Bongo’s health.

An ANC task team headed by the former Director-General of Health Dr Olive Shisana and heavily laden with trade unionists, is trying to convince the ANC and government to hastily implement a National Health Insurance (NHI) plan that many believe spells disaster for the buckling public health system. Inequities in the health system, which has resulted in the private sector monopolising resources disproportionately, need to be addressed. However, this must be done in a manner that does not destroy the functioning private sector and cause more skilled health professionals to leave the country.

In the autumn of 2008 Panos London worked with participants from the African HIV Policy Network (AHPN) to produce digital stories about their lives and concerns. All the participants are living with HIV and were at risk of being removed to their country of origin where treatment is not necessarily accessible, affordable or available. These stories are being used as part of AHPN's Destination Unknown campaign.

Ugandan HIV activists have expressed concern over a recommendation by parliament's budget committee that the allocation for antiretroviral (ARV) drugs be cut. The national budget for 2008/09 allocated 76 billion shillings (US$38 million) to purchasing ARVs, the first such allocation in the country's history, but this week the house standing committee recommended that the amount be cut to 40 billion shillings in the 2009/2010 budget.

A health centre in one of Lesotho’s poorest districts has scored significant success in implementing a prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programme, but health experts warn that a number of factors, including cultural beliefs and stigma, threaten to derail it. "It was the most difficult decision to make in my life, but I knew that I had to do it for the sake of my unborn child. The pre-testing counselling we received also helped a great deal," recalled 24-year-old Nthabiseng Rannyali who decided to undergo HIV testing to protect her unborn child.

Life has not been the same since she lost her parents four years ago and the little property they owned grabbed by her immediate relatives. For her, every day has meant living for herself and her two younger sisters. With no property and or education, Fatima Hassan took her best friend’s advice, Amina Ahmed, and together they begun a journey that has forever transformed her life. Their names have been changed though because if known to the community, their lifestyle could lead to dire consequences, even death.

cc Considering Tanzania's position in relation to food crises around the world, Ng’wanza Kamata laments the inability of Jakaya Kikwete's government to develop the 'agricultural revolution' it once promised. Highlighting that food production difficulties have over the years invariably been attributed to drought and peasant farmers' supposed laziness and poor agricultural methods, Kamata argues that the government should now begin to look in the mirror and acknowledge its own shortcomings. With the budget for agriculture consistently low despite the sector's support for around 80 per cent of Tanzania's total population, the author contends that the country's producers essentially remain subject to the same exploitative relations first imposed during the colonial period. In the face of contemporary political elites' willingness to embrace biofuel production methods, Kamata stresses that the touted agricultural revolution should prioritise the needs and role of the country's poor agricultural majority and not simply bend to the will of foreign corporations.

For the past year, Olive Mutabeni's home in Chitungwiza, a low-income suburb 20km outside Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, has been the makeshift centre of operations for the Life Empowerment Support Organisation (LESO). After 23 years as a nurse in the public health sector, most recently as the coordinator of prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) services at Chitungwiza Central Hospital, Mutabeni quit her job and started LESO to provide the sick and elderly in her community with emotional, medical and practical support. Four other nurses soon joined her.

Bars and nightclubs in several Tanzanian cities will soon have condom vending machines in the bathrooms as part of national efforts to combat HIV. "Our goal is to make condoms widely available to the people. The programme will start in Dar es Salaam [Tanzania's commercial capital] before it is scaled up to various upcountry regions," Stan Mwamaja, a ministry of health official, told IRIN/PlusNews.

Many people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are dying of treatable diseases because they attribute their symptoms to a poison they believe only traditional healers can cure, according to health officials. "Many people are dying in this region because of this phobia whose current spread has to do with the environment we are living in and the wars we have experienced," said North Kivu provincial medical inspector Dominique Bahago.

President Obama's global health budget plan, pegged at $63 billion over six years and announced on May 5, one day in advance of the full budget statement, met with predictably mixed responses. The administration spin was that it was a major new commitment to a comprehensive approach; health activist groups charged that it actually marked a cut from prior commitments made in campaign promises and by Congressional pledges.

A third of girls in Swaziland have experienced sexual violence by the age of 18, according to a study published in the May 9th edition of The Lancet. Such violence was strongly associated with sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy complications or miscarriages, unwanted pregnancy and mental health problems.

The 8th International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH) will take place between October 18-23, 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya. It is being organized by the International Society for Urban Health (ISUH) in partnership with the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) and the Government of the Republic of Kenya, through the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development. This will be the first time the Conference is held out of North America and Europe. Previous conferences took place in Toronto (2002), New York (2003), Boston (2004), Toronto (2005), Amsterdam (2006), Baltimore (2007), and Vancouver (2008).

Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua has sent a bill to the national assembly (parliament) which, if passed into law, will make it an offence to discriminate against any person on the grounds of actual or perceived HIV status. The bill makes it an offence for employers of labour, religious houses and operators of other public places to discriminate against those living with or affecte d by HIV and AIDS.

A plan by the Africa Commission to side-step African governments and target the private sector to invigorate the continent’s business and agricultural capacity, thereby stimulating job creation, was launched in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, on 6 May. According to the Commission’s committee members – heads of state, members of civil society, academia and international and regional organisations, mainly from Africa – the proposals break from the ever-growing catalogue of help schemes for the world’s poorest continent.

Social and environmental organizations reacted positively to proposals by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, during the 17th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development of the United Nations in New York. Schutter's proposals strongly echo the new production model that La Vía Campesina and Friends of the Earth International have been promoting for years.