World Bank funds the connection not the generation of HydroPower in Ethiopia

ast Africa: World Bank Approves Contentious Ethiopia-Kenya Electric Line
BY CAREY L. BIRON, 13 JULY 2012


The World Bank has voted to approve funding credit for a major transmission line that would link Kenya to the controversial Gilgel Gibe III dam site in southern Ethiopia, pushing back against months of calls by local and international rights and environmental groups to keep out of the project.

For many observers, the move, announced Thursday, is complicated by the fact that the bank has already refused to fund the Gibe III dam itself, citing a lack of transparency. The African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank have similarly pulled out, although the project is going forward due to backing by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

"For us, the World Bank's double standards are unacceptable," Ikal Angelei, from Friends of Lake Turkana, a group of local communities that would be affected by the dam, told IPS.

"If the dam did not meet standards earlier, how can they fund what is produced by the dam?" he asked, calling Thursday's news a "blow" to local communities.

Relevant Links

World Bank Approves Funds for Ethiopia-Kenya Power Project
World Bank Now Approves Ethiopia-Kenya Power Line
Others have accused the World Bank of turning a blind eye to accusations of abuse and environmental concerns surrounding Gibe III in order to be able to fund the transmission line, for which the bank is offering 684 million dollars.

"Under its own safeguard policies, the bank is obligated to apply its policies not only to the direct area but also to associated facilities," Jessica Evans, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, told IPS.

"To do this, it must undertake its own due diligence to determine potential power sources and apply their safeguards to the main power sources - and Gibe III is, according to the bank, one of the power sources."

Construction on the dam, which is on the Omo River and at around 240 metres would be Africa's highest dam, has gone on since 2006, overseen by an Italian company. It is currently about halfway complete and is tentatively expected to be completed by 2014, while the transmission line could be up and running by 2018.

The benefits of Gibe III, and its downsides

When completed, the installation should produce around 1,870 megawatts of electricity, increasing Ethiopia's production capacity so significantly that the country will not be able to use all of the energy generated.

The newly approved 1,000-kilometre transmission line, while meant to service several power projects, will thus be a critical component of Gibe III, allowing Ethiopia to sell the power to its neighbours, particularly power-strapped Kenya. Proponents say the project will do much to bring affordable power to broad swathes of populations throughout of East Africa that currently lack electricity.

Yet the Gibe III project has run into longstanding and widespread opposition, including even from those who could benefit from its electricity. Critics have warned that insufficient attention has been given to fears of the dam's environmental and social impacts.

In 2011, the Kenyan Parliament passed a resolution urging the government to demand that the project be shelved pending additional investigation.

The same year, the U.N.'s World Heritage Committee noted its "utmost concern" over the dam's potential impact on the downstream Lake Turkana, which is surrounded by lands protected as World Heritage sites. The committee urged Ethiopia "to immediately halt all construction on the Gibe III dam".

Survival International, an advocacy group for tribal communities worldwide, has warned that the dam's impact on the Omo River's seasonal flooding would threaten up to 200,000 people in Ethiopia and Kenya as "subsistence economies ... collapse".

Despite these concerns, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has made construction of Gibe III an issue of both national and personal pride, stating that he would see the project through "at any cost".

Circuitous funding?

To be clear, few observers are accusing the World Bank of direct involvement in the displacement of indigenous communities, the negative impacts on fragile ecosystems, or the other points of criticism that have been levelled at the Ethiopian government's handling of the Gibe III construction.

Rather, the issue at stake is whether the bank can be seen to have done due diligence on a transmission line that will, in the end, comprise a critical component of the overall feasibility of a highly contentious project.

On Friday, in a collective release, five international civil society groups warned that the bank is "lowering its standards" by backing the transmission project without first addressing the criticism surrounding Gibe III.

"Financing the transmission line sends a signal to Ethiopia that it can ignore massive impacts of damming its rivers, and still get rewarded," Joshua Klemm, Africa manager of the Bank Information Centre, a World Bank watchdog based here in Washington, said in the statement.

Bank officials, meanwhile, see the transmission line as the first step in a much broader plan to interconnect the electrical grids of East Africa. Estimated to cost around 1.3 billion dollars, the so-called Eastern Electricity Highway Project is aimed at benefitting some 212 million people in five countries.

The transmission line would eventually be used for several current and future power plants in Ethiopia, in line with the government's plans to expand Ethiopian production to 37,000 megawatts - still below the country's estimated hydropower potential of 45,000 megawatts, according to the bank.

"While it is true that Gibe III will contribute energy to the national grid, our analyses show that the interconnector line would be economically viable without Gibe III," a World Bank spokesperson told IPS.

"Ethiopia will benefit through the sale of energy to Kenya, which faces severe power shortages, and is among the five African countries considered likely to achieve middle-income status in the next decade, provided it can grow at six percent annually, significantly expand its electricity supply and improve its transport links."

In addition, the transmission line's flow is bidirectional, allowing Ethiopia to import energy as required. The bank suggests that such infrastructure flexibility will increase the involved countries' resilience in the face of future climate change-related uncertainty.

"Inter-country power sharing is vital for energy security, reducing energy costs, promoting sustainable and renewable power generation, and better protecting the region's environment," the bank spokesperson said, "thereby paving the way for more dynamic regional cooperation between the countries of East Africa.

Currently, the bank says, only about a third of Africans have access to electricity, including just a quarter of Ethiopians.

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Tagged: Business, East Africa, East Africa, Energy, Ethiopia, External Relations, International Organisations, Kenya


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Comments POST A COMMENT
Abiot Yenealem
Jul 16 2012, 08:46
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I feel sorry for those ‘researchers’ advocates in the name of human right. Evan Jessica (you human right ‘Researcher’) , now I know you for sure that you are struggling to see poor Africans, so that you can enjoy of them as a tourism. We want you to ask a very single question, even though, for sure you are not going to answer. You are giving us your false heart. You are enjoying your meal three or four times a… [Read Full Text]
INFOCUS
WORLD BANK APPROVES ETHIOPIA-KENYA POWER LINE

The World Bank has approved a funding loan that Ethiopia and Kenya needed to build a 1,000-kilometre high-voltage power line from the controversial Gibe III dam to Kenya. Read more »
EAST AFRICA: World Bank Approves Funds for Ethiopia-Kenya Power Project
EAST AFRICA: World Bank Approves Contentious Power Line


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GlobalDivineBelai
Jul 11 2012, 16:03

Re: Family Planning and Reproduction Health the way forward for Global Community!

It is interesting that the Family Planning Summit is taking place in London as a collaboration of UK Government and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with the global family planning and reproductive health communities.

The Global 7 Billion population and counting is expected to survive in a resource base that is fast disappearing either due to Global Climate Change or Global Greed Corporations that are sinking the global financial systems.
Regardless of this larger challenge, the family continues at the heart and center of our civilization. The size, character knowledge, health and wealth of that family is dependent on the education of mothers regardless of culture and geographic distribution.

Empowering young girls, and potential mothers with reproductive health and family planning skills is critical for our survival and future potential.
The main challenge is ignorance of reproductive health. Instead of having a clear scientific knowledge exchange, many have allowed un necessary religious and social misinformation about family planning.

The religious communities as well as the moral authorities of the world need to understand that we all need to have basic biological, financial and family value education.

Ethiopia and other developing countries are making a tremendous effort in the women empowerment and promotion of reproductive health across the community in a cost effective and culturally appropriate manner.

The debate should be how can we replicate this success across the world and not a value war between Catholics, Budhists and Muslim men. We need to educate both men and women, boy and girls about reproductive science and allow them to make the best choice for themselves.

We should not allow the misguided debate we hear in America under the banner of religious or tax issue. Reproductive health is basic human rights and we should encourage countreies like Ethiopia to share their expertise and lessons to other populations around the world.

My own research of Global Infant morbidity and mortality study at the University of Leeds, Public Health College in the early 1985, shows that the two critical factors important for the survival of any baby is the biological factor: mother's birth weight that is dependent on her own mother's mother and mother birth weight that is inherited over time. Secondly, on the mother's education that determines her social status and her ability to care for her newly born baby.

For the sake of future generations, let us educate our youth both boys and girls about responsible reproductive health ad family planning. The west should learn these great lessons and be part of progressive and evolving soco-cultural and biological evolution.

with regards
Belai Habte-Jesus, MD, MPH www.GlobalBelaiJesus.com


Ethiopia: Speech By Ethiopia's Minister of Health At the London Summit On Family Planning
11 JULY 2012
Comment  
DOCUMENT

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
A mother and her newborn child.
Washington, DC — Following is the text of the address by Ethiopia's Minister of Health Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to delegates at the London Summit on Family Planning:

Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a great pleasure and honour to take part in this landmark event. On behalf of the Government and people of Ethiopia, let me start by thanking the Government of the United Kingdom, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and all those involved in the organization of this momentous Summit.

Secretary Mitchell and Mrs Gates - your personal commitment to advancing the health and rights of women and men throughout the developing world is an inspiration to all of us. We salute you for all your dedicated efforts and leadership.

Ladies & Gentlemen: Today, we have before us a unique opportunity to transform the lives of millions of women and men around the world, by resolving to accelerate access to family planning.

Timing is of the essence. And I say this because I truly believe that the key conditions for achieving real and unprecedented impact are now aligned like never before. I want to highlight three key ingredients in particular.

Relevant Links

London Summit Aims to Save Lives With Family Planning
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First, the progress already achieved in building up health systems and improving health outcomes over the last two decades provides us with a stronger footing for scaling up access to family planning. Reinforced by the 2015 MDGs, countries have achieved tremendous progress particularly on the first two parts of the 4-point ICPD action plan set 20 years ago in Cairo: universal access to education; and reducing child mortality. In fact, emboldened by the substantial global progress on child health, last month, in Washington DC, we launched a new global call to action on child survival. We all came away from that meeting greatly energized. Of course, we know that improved child survival has a significant impact in increasing demand for family planning.

Importantly, we agreed that stronger emphasis will be needed on advancing a continuum of care for maternal, newborn and child health.

Second, family planning - which has proven to be a highly politicized issue over the years, is now starting to be seen in a different light by many. Providing access to family planning is about social justice. It is about upholding the rights of women and men to choose. It is about empowering them to take control of their own lives.

However, our progress in the latter two ICPD objectives - reducing maternal mortality and broadening access to reproductive health services and family planning has been relatively slower. Why? I believe largely because all the key conditions for success, had not been adequately aligned - strong political will, real country ownership and a commitment to understand and work together with communities to address socio-cultural and economic barriers to accessing health services, as well as the investments needed in building national capacities to deliver the services at scale. This summit, I believe, will be a real opportunity to turn things around.

Thirdly, today we have studies that have shown that voluntary contraceptive use can avert more than half of all maternal deaths in the developing world . This result lays bare our moral obligation to ensure universal access to family planning. Inaction is no longer an option.

Also, In order to really impact maternal health, we must continue to push on all the other key factors, including ensuring girl's education, access to skilled birth attendance, and overall improvements in living conditions.

*** Let me now turn to the encouraging progress my own country Ethiopia is already making on family planning.

Our Government is committed to enabling women and men to choose whether, when and how many children they have through the use of proven family planning methods. We are building a women-centered health system and family planning is part of our efforts to improve the health of women and girls. We now have in place a strong primary health care service.

Health extension workers in every village across our country are reaching women with vital reproductive health and family planning information.

As a result, we have seen an unprecedented upsurge of real voluntary demand for contraceptive. The broader range of free modern contraceptive options we offer has also been key to fuelling demand.

And we have made significant progress in meeting this demand. The unmet need for family planning in Ethiopia has declined, and the contraceptive prevalence rate has doubled in 5 years. Based on the current trends, contraceptive prevalence rates will reach 65% by 2015 by reaching additional 6.2 million women and adolescent girls.

This is a very ambitious goal. But our Government's commitment to realizing it is steadfast. The current demographic transition of falling birth and death rates, presents us with a unique window of opportunity to sustain economic growth and secure Ethiopia's place as a middle income country by 2020/22. It is an opportunity that we cannot afford to miss. We are determined to close the family planning gap and accelerate our efforts on maternal and child survival and health. This is why we are now focusing on three key challenges:

First, recognizing that early childbearing is a major contributor to maternal mortality, we are now targeting our efforts on adolescent girls (15 to 19 years) who have the highest unmet need for family planning.

Second, we must do more on ensuring commodity security by both strengthening the supply chain and expanding the contraceptive methods we offer.

Third, although we are increasing our national budgetary allocations to family planning each year, we still have a 50% funding gap for commodities.

These challenges amount to a five point action plan for Ethiopia:

We will make family planning a cross-sectoral development issue by securing family planning commitments across all stakeholders and all leadership levels.
We will make more domestic funding available for family planning.
We will focus more efforts on adolescent girls, by expanding youth friendly services.

We will scale up delivery of services to hard to reach groups 5. We will monitor the availability of contraceptives by using innovative approaches
Ethiopia is committed to take a very bold action and will never shy away. We will fight because it's a cause worth fighting for.

We also count on the continued support of all our partners. We have very high hopes that this landmark initiative will help us mobilize the resources and ensure affordable market to make a lasting difference in the lives of millions.

In closing, let me just add that it is not what we promise here today but what we will do when we go back home that matters. Let's seize this opportunity today to give millions of people the choice of how they will live their lives tomorrow. If united anything is possible. I wish us a successful summit.

Thank you.

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Tagged: East Africa, Ethiopia, Health, Health, Pregnancy and Childbirth, Sustainable Development, Women

Melinda Gates responds to contraception program controversy

By Stephanie Smith, CNN

updated 8:40 AM EDT, Fri July 6, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Melinda Gates is co-founder with Bill Gates of charitable foundation
Melinda Gates is a practicing Catholic

Her foundation initiative for contraception in third world generating Catholic criticism

Gates says she will continue to advocate for access to birth control
Editor's note: Watch more of Dr. Sanjay Gupta's interview with Melinda Gates on Sanjay Gupta MD on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET and Sunday at 7:30 a.m. ET.

(CNN) -- Responding to simmering controversy among Catholic bloggers about her new birth control program, Melinda Gates -- a practicing Catholic -- said she will not shrink from her role as an advocate for poor women.

"Part of what I do with the (Gates) Foundation comes form that incredible social justice I had growing up and belief that all lives, all lives are of equal value," said Gates during a recent interview with CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

About the flak over her Catholicism she said: "We're not going to agree about everything, but that's OK."

Gates is promoting an ambitious family planning program -- which includes raising billions of dollars to provide contraceptives to 120 million women worldwide -- at the London Summit on Family Planning July 11.

While most Catholics, in the United States, at least, according to polls, seem to agree with Gates that contraception for women is not controversial, some Catholic bloggers are taking issue with the plan.

One blog in particular, LifeSiteNews.com, has frequently published diatribes against Gates, calling into question her faith, and calling her plan a "blatant attack on Catholic sexual morality."

As far as the broader Catholic church stance on the Gates program, CNN requested a comment from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, but did not get a response.

For her part, Gates is trying to deflect the controversy, and concentrate on what she describes as a real need for contraception to empower women.

"I think we made birth control and contraceptives way too political in the United States," said Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "I think if people understood that 200 million women want this around the world they would start to say, 'OK that makes sense.' ... We shouldn't make it such a political issue."

According to the Gates Foundation website, the focus of the family planning initiative will be on urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, areas where maternal and infant mortality rates are high and contraception use is low.

"Africa's the one place really in the world, for the most part, that contraceptives haven't been available and it's really been a crime," said Gates. "If you see what's happened in other countries that have had contraceptives, they use them first of all and the birth rates go down. ... The question is could it have come down even more quickly?"

Gates frequently cites research from a decades-long study in Bangladesh as a rationale for family planning. Given the ability to space out their children using birth control, women can begin what Gates calls a "virtuous economic cycle."
The study, started in the 1970s in Matlab, compared a group with access to contraception and birth-control education to a similar group that did not have access to those things.

"(In) the community that had access to contraceptives, the women chose to use them, the families grew up wealthier, fewer women died in childbirth," said Gates. "And what we're seeing happening with that is that it's playing out again all over the world. These small scale things you have in terms of giving a family the access leads to huge economic changes. "

To effect that cascade of economic change worldwide will take $4 billion, according to Gates. The London summit kicks off the Foundation's official campaign for support and funding for that effort.

No doubt, the family planning initiative will roll out despite Catholic protestations, and Gates says this is the issue for which she hopes to be remembered.

"I work on a broad set of foundation issues," said Gates. "But this one for me has really grasped my heart and my mind.

She added: "This will be my lifetime's work at the foundation."