COTE D’IVOIRE- Agreement Paves the Way for the Socio-Economic Reinsertion of Former Combatants- IOM has signed a comprehensive agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to provide sustainable socio-economic reinsertion assistance to former combatants and ex-members of self-defence groups.

The USD 1,4 million, six-month programme, funded by the UN’s Peacebuilding Fund, aims to provide vocational training and in-kind assistance to set up the first 250 of 1,000 micro projects that will benefit 1,300 individuals who are currently demobilized in the Central and Western departments of Séguéla, Duekué and Guiglo.

The micro-projects will seek to support agricultural, cattle farming, small business and retailing activities, through the provision of a reinsertion kit, which will include a set of essential equipment and tools.

Priority will be given to former combatants and members of self-defence groups who choose to work together on common income-generating projects.

“Cote d’Ivoire is currently in a post conflict phase with elections scheduled for the coming months,” says Jacques Seurt, IOM’s Chief of Mission in Abidjan. “It is therefore critical to ensure the sustainable reinsertion assistance for former combatants, particularly in areas that have been worst affected by the conflict”

To date, some 10,000 ex-combatants have been disarmed, demobilized and regrouped throughout the country. A further 34,000 combatants and 20,000 members of self-defence groups are still in need of disarmament and demobilization assistance.

For more information, please contact Jacques Seurt at IOM Abidjan, Tel: +225 22 52 82 00, Email  jseurt at iom.int
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LIBERIA – Reintegrating Ex-Combatants – Two hundred former combatants of the conflict in Liberia will be given an opportunity to not only earn a living and complete their reintegration into society, but also to make a difference in reducing pollution and improving the health and living conditions of the most vulnerable communities in the capital, Monrovia.

The former combatants will take part in a new IOM programme funded by the German government which will help municipal authorities re-start and manage a comprehensive waste management system in Monrovia.

The fourteen year conflict which killed more than 200,000 people and displaced another one million also destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure, contributing to the spread of poverty and disease.
A middle-income country before the conflict began in 1989; seventy-five per cent of Liberia’s population now lives on less than a dollar a day.

The capital in particular is facing particular stress. Monrovia has more than tripled in size since 1989 and is now home to a third of the country’s total population. One million people are living in an over-crowded city severely lacking in key infrastructure including a waste management system.

Efforts to bring the country back to normal are dependent on the successful completion of the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of former combatants, more than 103,000 of whom have been registered so far through a national demobilisation programme. Monrovia itself has large numbers of unemployed former combatants on its streets with the national unemployment rate estimated as being as high as 85 per cent.

Coordinating the programme with Monrovia’s Municipal Public Works (MPV), the World Bank and the International Labour Organization (ILO) which are also supporting and carrying out projects focused on addressing unemployment and waste management issues, IOM will help restart a waste collection and management service.

The Organization will provide technical assistance to local authorities; create the necessary premises to implement a waste collection system; identify, recruit, train and manage a local workforce from among unemployed former combatants and devise information campaigns aimed at raising awareness among the city’s population of environment and health-related issues.

For further information, please contact Ferdinand Paredes at IOM Monrovia, Tel: + 231 6 448 129 or +231 666 5950, Email:  fparedes at iom.int

EU aid chief says rising food prices risk African ‘humanitarian tsunami:’ As food riots sweep the developing world, the EU’s foreign aid chief has warned that sky-rocketing food price rises threaten a “humanitarian tsunami” in Africa, and has promised a boost in aid to support food security.

“A global food crisis is becoming apparent,” said EU humanitarian aid commissioner Louis Michel after a meeting with African Union Commission President Jean Ping, “less visible than the oil crisis, but with the potential effect of a real economic and humanitarian tsunami in Africa.”

By Leigh Phillips, April 9, 2008, the EUobserver, Brussels.

The commissioner said that the EU would boost emergency food aid from the European Development Funds from its current €650 million to €1.2 billion.

In recent weeks, food riots have swept the developing world as UN World Food Programme officials warn that a ‘perfect storm’ of poor harvests, rising fuel prices, the growth of biofuels and increased pressure from a growing middle class in China and India is rapidly increasing world hunger.

Elsewhere, China, Vietnam, India and Pakistan are introducing restrictions on rice exports.

The UN’s undersecretary for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator, John Holmes, on Tuesday said that rising food prices are threatening political stability throughout the developing world.

“The security implications [of the food crisis] should also not be underestimated as food riots are already being reported across the globe,” said Mr Holmes, speaking at the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid & Development (DIHAD) Conference, according to the Guardian. “Current food price trends are likely to increase sharply both the incidence and depth of food insecurity,” he added.

Kanayo Nwanza, vice president of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said on Tuesday: “Escalating social unrest as we have seen in Cameroon, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and in Senegal could spread to other countries,” reports AFP.

African finance ministers met last week in Addis Ababa to consider the food crisis. In a statement, the ministers warned that food price rises “pose significant threats to Africa’s growth, peace and security.”

Last month, the head of the UN World Food Programme, Josette Sheeran, said that high oil prices, low food stocks, growing demand from China and the push for biofuels are causing a food crisis around the world.

“We are seeing a new face of hunger,” she said. “We are seeing more urban hunger than ever before. We are seeing food on the shelves but people being unable to afford it.”

EU court delivers blow on environment sanctions.

October 23, 2007, EUobserver Brussels, by  Honor Mahony - The European Commission’s hope of doling out specific criminal penalties for those who pollute the environment have been dealt a blow by the EU’s highest court.

The European Court of Justice in a ruling on Tuesday (23 October) reiterated its landmark finding of two years ago that the commission can oblige member states to introduce common penalties for environmental pollution - in this case ship pollution - but closed the door to Brussels on one key issue.

It said that the commission may not determine what criminal sanctions should be introduced for different environment crimes in member states.

“(…) contrary to the submission of the Commission, the determination of the type and level of the criminal penalties to be applied does not fall within the Community’s sphere of competence,” reads the crucial paragraph.

Inside the environment department of the commission there is strong disappointment with the ruling.

An official explained that the ruling has profound implications for a controversial piece of legislation proposed by Brussels earlier this year under which certain environment crimes such as unlawful treatment of waste or unlawful possession of protected wild plants and animals should be treated as a criminal offence. The punishment ranged from one to ten years in prison.

The proposal is currently going through the first stages of the Brussels legislative process with member states already objecting to the sanctions clause. Now with the court ruling, the official said that the proposal will probably proceed without the section on specific penalties.

“I would liken it to a cat that does not have its teeth and claws … a paper tiger,” said the official.

The law, proposed in February, came as a reaction to the outrage sparked last year when EU toxic waste dumped from a tanker killed people on the Ivory Coast. At the time environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said that the Ivory Coast incident was just the “tip of the iceberg” with 51 percent of EU waste shipments in 2005 found to be illegal.

“Member states have very different ways of punishing environmental pollution,” said the commission official, so things are done in the country “where there are least sanctions.”

The other alternative for the commission is to “start all over again with the law” but this “would take ages”, said the official.

However, environmental officials have not given up all hope. They are already looking ahead to the new Reform Treaty, which may be in place by 2009.  Under this new set of EU rules, the commission would have a basis for proposing such a law again, said the official.

{However:}  Reacting to the court judgement, Green MEPs were more positive.

“We hope Member States will introduce penalties, which reflect the gravity of environmental crimes to public health and the environment,” it continued.