UNED Forum HIV/AIDS Paper

The devastating toll of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is examined in this paper. Its present and future impact on global sustainable development, especially for the poorest members of society and least developed countries, is discussed. Some of the suggested strategies for dealing with the most critical aspects of the disease are also reviewed.

Convention issues guidelines to prevent biopiracy

At a global environmental conference held in The Hague, Netherlands, during April 2002, environmental ministers from over 160 countries formulated a set of guidelines designed to encourage multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to pay indigenous communities for genetic resources used in the production of medicines and cosmetics.

Improving Nutrition through Permaculture in Malawi

In Malawi, health is directly dependent upon the environment as over 90% of people living in Malawi fulfill their nutritional needs through subsistence agriculture. If the environment around them doesn't supply the food they need, then they do not eat. Despite this, we are finding that current agricultural systems are destroying the very soil that plants depend on to grow, making it more difficult every year to extract a yield. Permaculture can be a useful approach for improving the environment around us while at the same time providing us with food and healthy water, in addition to medicines, fuel, and building materials.

Legal status for healers on the cards

Traditional healers may soon be given the same legal status as Western medical practitioners if a new Bill to be introduced in parliament later this year is adopted. This was said at KwaDukuza (Stanger) on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast this week by the KZN Minister of Health, Dr Zweli Mkhize. He was addressing a workshop to gather submissions for the Bill.

Earth Summit AIDS Briefing Paper

"With aspects of health, education, equity, poverty elimination and human rights agreed as international goals, any attempt to tackle the HIV/AIDS epidemic will need to put these aspirations at its core in the struggle to give an adequate level of support for all those living with and affected by the disease. AIDS is already impacting on millions of lives, but the full death toll and impact of the disease is only likely to reveal itself over the next five to ten years. The epidemic poses a very real and immediate global challenge and what is needed now is a concerted and co-ordinated international response." Quoted from the 2002 Earth Summit's HIV/AIDS Briefing Paper, entitled "AIDS - The Undeclared War".

We need to structure our environment to combat AIDS

"HIV/AIDS has to be part of every design brief and every call for tender ... practitioners cannot simply bumble along as part of denial"

Dual tragedy of hunger and AIDS in Africa

HIV/AIDS and hunger were a "dual tragedy" threatening sub-Saharan Africa and endangering the lives of millions. They were also hindering development, UNAIDS told the World Food Summit in Rome (12 June 2002).

A funding bonanza that will save lives

Professor Salim Abdool Karim, one of the world's most respected AIDS scientists, is understandably a very happy man. After years of underfunding and a lack of resources, he can now confidently state that scientists in South Africa are now not only willing, but also able, to undertake cutting edge research on HIV/AIDS.

HEARD - AIDS Brief - Community-Based Natural Resource Management

As part of the current USAID project "Operationalising HIV/AIDS Issues For Development", which commenced early in 1998, HEARD identified a need for a much wider, expanded and more detailed series of documents.

HEARD - AIDS Brief - Architects

As part of the current USAID project "Operationalising HIV/AIDS Issues For Development", which commenced early in 1998, HEARD identified a need for a much wider, expanded and more detailed series of documents.