UN chief begins Africa trip noting finance worry

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened a nine-day African tour telling United Nations personnel Tuesday that the world's economic woes won't wreck their efforts to reduce poverty, war and effects of climate change. [...] Despite more than a half-trillion dollars of world aid spent on Africa in the 50 years since the first African countries won independence, many Africans are poorer now than a quarter century ago. Total aid to Africa from the world's richest nations amounts to less than one-third of 1 percent of their combined national incomes, far below the U.N. target of 0.7 percent. [...] Ban is exploring ways to expand U.N. help for Zimbabwe, given South Africa's powerful regional role. Mbeki remains the South African Development Community mediator on Zimbabwe, and the ANC is expected to win South Africa's national elections April 22. But Ban's travel plans do not include a visit to Zimbabwe, where the U.N.'s No. 2 humanitarian official has spent the past few days exploring ways of ramping up aid for that collapsing nation.

WFP gets new country boss

The new Country Director and Representative of World Food Programme (WFP), Abdoulaye Balde, yesterday presented his credentials to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rosemary Museminali. Balde, a Senegalese national, will be responsible for all WFP Rwanda programmes and operations. According to a statement issued by the WFP, Balde is expected to lead the WFP Rwanda team in implementing the three-year corporate strategic plan of 2008-2011; which will see WFP embark on a historical shift from a food aid agency to a food assistance agency. “Our new strategy aims at reducing dependency through supporting governmental and global efforts to ensure long term solutions for food security,” Balde is quoted in the WFP statement as saying.

'Pray and fast' plea for Zimbabwe

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has called on Anglicans to "pray, fast and give" to highlight Zimbabwe's slide toward starvation. Dr Williams and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, have chosen the growing crisis in Zimbabwe for their first joint appeal for funds. They said people should give now rather than wait for a political solution. [...] Despite Zimbabwe's desperate plight, the UN's World Food Programme recently reported that donor countries had actually reduced the amount they were giving. The UN said donors were apparently waiting to see what would result from the power-sharing deal between President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai before committing themselves to further funding.

China: Wheat Belt Shrivels

Northern China is dry in the best of times. But a long rainless stretch has underscored the urgency of water problems in a region that grows three-fifths of China’s crops and houses more than two-fifths of its people — but gets only one-fifth as much rain as the rest of the country. The current drought, considered the worst in Northern China in at least half a century, is crippling not only the country’s best wheat farmland, but also the wells that provide clean water to industry and to millions of people.