Economic burden of AIDS in Africa highlighted in ILO report
Here at the Biopact we often paint a rosy picture of sub-Saharan Africa and its potential to overcome rural poverty by investing in labor-intensive bioenergy production (our project, we hope, is just one contribution to this optimistic goal). But the relentless advance of HIV/AIDS is markedly reducing growth prospects in countries hit hardest by the epidemic, jeopardizing their efforts to reduce poverty, create new jobs, and fight child labour, says a new report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) released today (see the ILO's World AIDS day website). We don't want to reduce the HIV/AIDS tragedy to a mere economic problem, but in a world where money is the measure, a hard economic perspective might open people's eyes more easily.
"HIV/AIDS and work: global estimates, impact on children and youth, and response 2006" [*.pdf] indicates that an estimated 36.3 million persons of working age were now living with HIV/AIDS - the vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa.
What's more, the report says the epidemic was causing a reduction in employment growth resulting in 1 million fewer jobs per year in the worst-hit countries, compared to what might have been in the absence of the HIV epidemic. The report presents a model which captures the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on economic and employment growth in 43 countries with over 1 per cent HIV/AIDS prevalence for which sufficient data were available. This made it possible to arrive at an estimate of the annual cost to the global economy in terms of curtailed job growth.
The report concludes that:
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: poverty :: HIV/AIDS :: AIDS :: labour :: employment :: agriculture :: International Labor Organisation :: ILO :: Africa ::
Child labour puts children at risk, robs them of education and can lead to work that makes them more vulnerable to acquiring the virus themselves. Yet a range of rights-based legal instruments have seen widespread ratification that would eliminate the worst forms of child labour if vigorously enforced, and limit access to underage children for purposes of work in order to keep them in compulsory education.
A rapid assessment study by the ILO in Zambia in 2002 estimated that HIV/AIDS increased the child labour force between 23 and 30 per cent. A survey in Uganda in 2004 found that over 95 per cent of children living in AIDS-affected households were engaged in some type of work. Sixteen per cent of the children working - mostly girls - worked both day and night. In addition, girls are more likely overall than boys to stay at home and look after ill parents or younger siblings, thereby foregoing education.
The new ILO report also found that girls face greater risks than boys of being sexually abused and acquiring HIV at their workplace, particularly through prostitution and other sexual exploitation.
A lack of opportunities for decent work can compel young women and men to work under precarious and un-regulated conditions. They are at increased risk from HIV when these conditions expose them to the virus. Studies often show that the majority of men and women who resorted to the sex industry for their livelihood began sex work in their teens or early 20s.
These factors interact with the result that, according to the most recent data, young people account for half of all new HIV infections. Moreover, the majority of young persons who are living with HIV do not know that they carry the virus, especially in resource-poor settings.
"Mortality losses to the labour force, illness and lack of access to antiretroviral treatment (ARVs) are jeopardizing the ability of worst affected countries to lift themselves out of poverty", the report said, adding that the future of the labour force is imperilled by the epidemic's severe impact on children, as it may force them into child labour and later constrain them from finding productive jobs when they reach the legal working age.
Noting that there had been some recent progress in remedying "woefully delayed" access to ARV treatments, the report also said there was a need for "forceful" new measures to increase access to ARVs and urged that the workplace be designated as a "major entry point" for doing so.
Without increased access to ARVs, cumulative mortality losses to the global labour force are expected to continue to increase as a result of the impact of the HIV epidemic, from 28 million estimated for 2005 to 45 million projected by 2010, over 64 million projected for 2015, and nearly 86 million anticipated by 2020. However the report demonstrates that increased access to ARVs could have a significant impact on labour force losses. It shows that of the 17.3 million losses to the labour force expected to occur between 2005 and 2010 at the global level, at least 14 per cent would be averted by universal access to ARVs.
"Much can be gained from forceful expansion of access to ARVs, even when and where continuation rates tend to be at the low end of the expected range", the report said (continuation rates reflect the proportion of treated persons who stay with the treatment from one year to the next). "The prospect of averting between one fifth and one quarter of potential new losses to the labour force should serve as a powerful incentive to target the workplace as a major entry point to achieve universal access to ARVs."
The ILO is committed to long-term strategies for the elimination of child labour, the preparation for entry into the labour market of youth at the appropriate age, and the elaboration of national policies to reduce youth unemployment. In principle, the removal of children from child labour requires fostering alternative means to encourage the creation of jobs, increase labour productivity and raise wages for young people, as well as provision of alternative assistance to the current generation of children, enabling them to strengthen their work skills in the long run. Unemployed youth cannot replace child labour in many cases, but the potential to re-orient the demand for labour away from children and towards youth is a compelling priority that cries for attention and deserves thorough examination.
Article continues
"HIV/AIDS and work: global estimates, impact on children and youth, and response 2006" [*.pdf] indicates that an estimated 36.3 million persons of working age were now living with HIV/AIDS - the vast majority in sub-Saharan Africa.
What's more, the report says the epidemic was causing a reduction in employment growth resulting in 1 million fewer jobs per year in the worst-hit countries, compared to what might have been in the absence of the HIV epidemic. The report presents a model which captures the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on economic and employment growth in 43 countries with over 1 per cent HIV/AIDS prevalence for which sufficient data were available. This made it possible to arrive at an estimate of the annual cost to the global economy in terms of curtailed job growth.
The report concludes that:
- Among those of working age, in addition to the 24.6 million labour force participants living with HIV/AIDS, 11.7 million more persons who are engaged in some form of productive activity, often women in the home, are now living with the virus.
- Forty-three countries heavily affected by HIV/AIDS lost on average 0.5 percentage points in their rate of economic growth every year between 1992 and 2004 due to the epidemic, and as a result forfeited 0.3 percentage points in employment growth. Among them, 31 countries in sub-Saharan Africa lost 0.7 percentage points of their average annual rate of economic growth and forfeited 0.5 percentage points in employment growth. This produced a global employment shortfall of 1.3 million new jobs every year, of which 1.1 million were lost annually to sub-Saharan Africa.
- The impact of the epidemic is particularly severe for children and youth whose lives, hopes and future are blighted directly or indirectly by HIV/AIDS. Globally, nearly 2.3 million children live with AIDS and there are an estimated 15 million AIDS orphans. When children in worst-affected countries do reach working age they face a severe shortage of legitimate job opportunities.
- Unemployment for young people considered to be of working age is 2 to 3 times as high as for their adult counterparts. This puts young people at risk in terms of poverty but the report also highlights the increased risk of exposure to HIV of large numbers of unemployed youth in resource-poor settings. Consequently young people account for half of all new HIV infections. An estimated 5,000 to 6,000 young persons aged 15 to 24 years acquire HIV each day.
- In 2005, more than 3 million labour force participants worldwide were partially or fully unable to work because of illness due to AIDS, and three-quarters of them lived in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Globally 41 per cent of the labour force participants living with HIV are women, and in sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion is even higher at 43 per cent.
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: poverty :: HIV/AIDS :: AIDS :: labour :: employment :: agriculture :: International Labor Organisation :: ILO :: Africa ::
Child labour puts children at risk, robs them of education and can lead to work that makes them more vulnerable to acquiring the virus themselves. Yet a range of rights-based legal instruments have seen widespread ratification that would eliminate the worst forms of child labour if vigorously enforced, and limit access to underage children for purposes of work in order to keep them in compulsory education.
A rapid assessment study by the ILO in Zambia in 2002 estimated that HIV/AIDS increased the child labour force between 23 and 30 per cent. A survey in Uganda in 2004 found that over 95 per cent of children living in AIDS-affected households were engaged in some type of work. Sixteen per cent of the children working - mostly girls - worked both day and night. In addition, girls are more likely overall than boys to stay at home and look after ill parents or younger siblings, thereby foregoing education.
The new ILO report also found that girls face greater risks than boys of being sexually abused and acquiring HIV at their workplace, particularly through prostitution and other sexual exploitation.
A lack of opportunities for decent work can compel young women and men to work under precarious and un-regulated conditions. They are at increased risk from HIV when these conditions expose them to the virus. Studies often show that the majority of men and women who resorted to the sex industry for their livelihood began sex work in their teens or early 20s.
These factors interact with the result that, according to the most recent data, young people account for half of all new HIV infections. Moreover, the majority of young persons who are living with HIV do not know that they carry the virus, especially in resource-poor settings.
"Mortality losses to the labour force, illness and lack of access to antiretroviral treatment (ARVs) are jeopardizing the ability of worst affected countries to lift themselves out of poverty", the report said, adding that the future of the labour force is imperilled by the epidemic's severe impact on children, as it may force them into child labour and later constrain them from finding productive jobs when they reach the legal working age.
Noting that there had been some recent progress in remedying "woefully delayed" access to ARV treatments, the report also said there was a need for "forceful" new measures to increase access to ARVs and urged that the workplace be designated as a "major entry point" for doing so.
Without increased access to ARVs, cumulative mortality losses to the global labour force are expected to continue to increase as a result of the impact of the HIV epidemic, from 28 million estimated for 2005 to 45 million projected by 2010, over 64 million projected for 2015, and nearly 86 million anticipated by 2020. However the report demonstrates that increased access to ARVs could have a significant impact on labour force losses. It shows that of the 17.3 million losses to the labour force expected to occur between 2005 and 2010 at the global level, at least 14 per cent would be averted by universal access to ARVs.
"Much can be gained from forceful expansion of access to ARVs, even when and where continuation rates tend to be at the low end of the expected range", the report said (continuation rates reflect the proportion of treated persons who stay with the treatment from one year to the next). "The prospect of averting between one fifth and one quarter of potential new losses to the labour force should serve as a powerful incentive to target the workplace as a major entry point to achieve universal access to ARVs."
The ILO is committed to long-term strategies for the elimination of child labour, the preparation for entry into the labour market of youth at the appropriate age, and the elaboration of national policies to reduce youth unemployment. In principle, the removal of children from child labour requires fostering alternative means to encourage the creation of jobs, increase labour productivity and raise wages for young people, as well as provision of alternative assistance to the current generation of children, enabling them to strengthen their work skills in the long run. Unemployed youth cannot replace child labour in many cases, but the potential to re-orient the demand for labour away from children and towards youth is a compelling priority that cries for attention and deserves thorough examination.
Article continues
Friday, December 01, 2006
Europe to cooperate with Brazil to produce ethanol in Africa
Interestingly, the European governments in question are not taking the easiest route because they want to support the development of biofuels in some of the continent's poorest and most troubled countries. Rodrigues says that with aid of these governments, war-torn Sudan will be one of the first countries to be invited to Brazil on a mission to learn about ethanol technologies and production strategies.
The Centro de Agronegócio wants to become a leading consulting organisation and will be networking in the Global South to spread Brazilian knowledge and experience with biofuel production. The Fundação Getúlio Vargas had already established a large body of expertise in the sector, but is now concentrating it in a 'biofuels intelligence centre'.
Brazil's experts and interests
The center - which cooperates both with academia and with leading enterprises - will offer an integrated approach to South-South exchanges and bioenergy technology transfers. It is being supported by the Interamerican Development Bank. Rodrigues: "We have 310 ethanol plants in Brazil and 160 under construction. We are going to need many qualified professionals. After their experience in Brazil, these professionals will carry the technology forward in the developing world. The Centro de Agronegócio will also become a leading meeting place for international negotiations and debates on bioenergy, Rodrigues adds.
The ex-minister explains that it is in Brazil's very own interest that ethanol becomes a globally traded commodity. "Currently there is no real global trade in ethanol, because there is only one real exporter of the product. It is crucial that other countries start producing the fuel as well, so that producing countries can trade their excess and sell to non-producers". Other countries that can't implement large biomass programs or that don't have enough land, like India and China, will gladly become importers of ethanol that can be produced economically and efficiently elsewhere, Rodrigues says.
Currently, Brazil and the United States are the world's major ethanol producers. The US uses maize as its main feedstock. Because of the low energy yield of this crop, the US will never become a biofuel exporter. This is why the US is already beginning to implement ethanol projects abroad, in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Colombia, Rodrigues says. According to the ex-minister, the US has set its eyes on Africa and Asia as well. But the EU might become the biggest biofuel investor in the South:
ethanol :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: development assistance :: technology transfers :: South-North-South :: Europe :: Brazil :: Africa ::
Rodrigues is in the know about the fact that the governments of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have already spoken with Luís Carlos Guedes Pinto, Brazil's current Minister of Agriculture, about creating joint projects for the production of ethanol in Africa.
On another note, Rodrigues and Guedes agree that Brazil can double its ethanol output in ten years by dedicating another 3 million hectares of land to sugarcane. Yet another 3 million hectares will be devoted to the production of raw sugar. According to Guedes, it will even be possible to triple the country's ethanol output "without cutting down a single tree".
The current minister replies to the bad press Brazil is receiving over its agricultural policies. According to Guedes, a study of Embrapa [a leading agronomy research organisation], Brazil currently has 69,5% of its original ecosystems intact, whereas Europe holds only 0.3%. "The territory that has conserved its ecosystems better than any other on this planet, is Brazil", Guedes stresses.
More information:
the Centro de Agronegócio will be integrated in the Escola de Economia de São Paulo da FGV. Besides aiming to become a leading bioenergy consulting body, its actions will focus on networking with other organisations, creating an exchange platform on agronomy and bioenergy, organising advanced courses, and distributing information to larger audiences.
ANBA: Europeus querem produzir etanol com o Brasil na África - November 29, 2006
The new expert blog on Brazil's bioenergy developments: EthanolBrasil.
The Fundaçao Getúlio Vargas.
Presentation of the newly established Centro de Agronegócio, at the Escola de Economia de São Paulo.
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posted by Biopact team at 9:55 PM 0 comments links to this post