PHA-Exchange> WG: PPP by UNICEF - a dirtiest example

[Dr. Gopal Dabade]

Dear Ravi,
 This is one more example of the dirty PPP by UNICEF. There is undoubtfully
some thing that need to be done urgently. Keep me informed.
From;
GOPAL



> HERE IS THE WRITE UP;
>
>
>   Subject: Kerala washes its hands of World Bank project
>
> AgBioIndia's release on World Bank's misplaced development emphasis
> through the "washing hands" initiative has been instrumental in
> kicking-off a political storm in Kerala, India. The State government of
> Kerala, which
> had planned to launch the Rs 480-million "washing hand" programme to
> coincide with Mahatma Gandhi's birthday on Oct 2, has dropped the
> project.Well, the less educated political class of Kerala (compared to the
> World
> Bank's so-called team of 'distinguished' economists) has finally proved
>  that you don't need degrees from Harvard and Cambridge to acquire what is
> called "common sense".
>
>   AgBioIndia started it all. Our report and the accompanying analytical
>   piece under the caption: "Of World Bank, toilet paper and washing soap"
>   (AgBioIndia, Sept 23, 2002), was circulated widely and received an
>   overwhelming response. We are aware that many of the top politicians,
>  policy
>   makers, economists, civil society groups, scientists and other ardent
>   subscribers were outraged at the World Bank's initiative and had built
up
>   the campaign that resulted in some sobering impact on the powers that
be.>
> What we however regret is that Kerala's rejection of the faulty
> development programming may not be able to make the World Bank change its
> inherently
>   faulty prescriptions for human development. But we are surely not
>   discouraged. We will continue to make an effort.
>
>   What we are keenly looking forward is to a World Bank's multi-billion
>   dollar project to get the western society get rid of the unhygienic
> practice
>   of using the toilet paper. After all, we are all aware that the dreaded
>   diseases AIDS emerged from North America. Though medical scientists in
the
>   developed world avoid establishing the link, AIDS could have a direct
>   correlation with the use of toilet paper (see Devinder Sharma's article
>   below). If only the World Bank had launched a hygiene campaign in its
own
>   backyard, probably the world would have been saved from the greatest
>  scourge the mankind has known.
>
>   We bring you the news report from the pages of New Delhi's major English
>   daily, The Hindustan Times, along with an edit page article from Deccan
>   Herald, Bangalore.
>
>   Contents:
>
>   1. Kerala washes its hands of project -- by Ramesh Babu
>   2. Saving lives by selling soap: World Bank's phoney campaign -- by
>   Devinder Sharma
>
>   1.Kerala washes its hands of project
>   The Hindustan Times, Oct 8
>
>   By Ramesh Babu
>
>   Thiruvananthapuram: The West's ambitious project to teach Keralites a
>   lesson or two in matters of hygiene has raised a storm. Reason? The
>   Malayalee feels that people who don't wash after eating or visiting the
> loo
>   have no right to preach to them on the subject. The state government is
> now
>   in a dilemma whether to go ahead with the Rs 48 crore 'washing hands
>   project' funded by the World Bank, in partnership with the London School
> of
>   Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Unicef among others.
>
>   An ad campaign that was to be kicked off on October 2 has been shelved,
>   and the government is grappling with the problem of how to go ahead with
> the project.
>
>   Nobody knows why Kerala - whose overall health index is better than some
>   Western countries, and is one of the most prosperous Indian states - was

>   selected for the project, in the company of deadbeat African countries
> such
>   as Somalia.
>
>   The project, which is to be carried out mainly through soap
advertisements
>   and education campaigns, is aimed at lowering diarrhoea death rates,
>   organisers claim.
>
>   Keralites, however, aren't impressed. They see a soapy agenda behind
this
>   professed concern for the people. "For Malayalees, cleanliness is next
to
>   Godliness. It is nothing but a ploy by MNCs to sell their products. It
is
> an
>   insult to enlightened Malayalees," says C.R. Soman, chairman of Health
>   Action by People.
>
>   "The survey for the project was sponsored by Unilever, the parent
company
>   of Hindustan Lever which makes soaps (in India). It will only help the
> soap
>   industry not the poor," claims a social activist. The Ministry of
>   Irrigation, which is the nodal agency for the project, is not amused.
> "What is wrong in availing aid?" asks State Irrigation Minister T.M.
Jacob.
>
   The medical fraternity will have none of it. "The state's diarrhoea rate
>   is one of the lowest in the country. Besides, about 95 per cent of the
>   people here know what to do in the event of an outbreak, especially ORS
>   usage. They should use this money for some good purpose," says IMA state
>   secretary Dr T. Suresh Kumar.
>
>   Why accept aid when there is no problem in the first place, goes modern
>   Malayalee wisdom.
>  ----------------------
>
>   2. Saving lives by selling soap -- World Bank's phoney campaign
>   Deccan Herald, Bangalore,
>   Sept 28, 2002
>
>   By Devinder Sharma
>
>   "Washing hands" is the new development mantra from the World Bank. The
new
>   initiative, to be launched in Kerala on Gandhi jayanti, is aimed at
>  reducing deaths in the developing world accruing from cholera and
> dysentery. After
>   all, cholera and dysentery alone take a heavy death toll - some seven
>   million children succumb to these two diseases every year, roughly 6,000
>   deaths a day.
>
>   Launched in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
>  Medicine, US Agency for International Development (USAID), UNICEF, WHO
and
>   multinational soap companies like Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Colgate
>   Palmolive, the project talks of "saving lives" by doubling hand washing
by
>   selling soap. It surely is a 'win-win' situation for the soap industry
>   currently reeling under an economic downslide. With World Bank, US
>   government and the ever-eager UN agencies willing to throw their weight
>   behind, the soap industry never had it so good. It doesn't need any more
> to
>   invest any money in advertisement blitz.
>
>   Faulting Third World
>
>   Over the past few decades, especially after 1992 Earth Summit at Rio,
the
>   development paradigm has begun to fault the developing world for every
> known
>   global malady. Whether it is sanitation, disease, global warming, AID,
> war,
>   gender discrimination, subsistence farming, poverty and hunger, it is
the
>   developing world that harbours the sick Planet's major illness. And so
the
>   cleansing operations are all directed at the developing economies.
> "Washing
>   hands" makes economic sense too if it is launched in the developing
world.
>   Kerala and Ghana obviously are the two suitable places where the
> initiative
>   is being launched to coincide with Mahatma Gandhi's birthday. It is true
>   that sanitation is a big problem in the developing world. It remains a
> fact
>   that lack of adequate sanitation takes a heavy human toll. But it is
>   certainly not a fact that people living in the rural and the
>   poverty-stricken shanty towns in the developing world are not aware of
the
>   virtues of "washing hands."
>
>   Misplaced priorities
>
>   The Hindus, for instance, are known to be religiously committed to
>   physical cleansing. A morning bath, and a hand wash before you sit down
to
>   eat are a daily ritual for any Hindu family howsoever poor they may be.
> And
>   similarly for the tribal societies in this part of the world. Known to
> have
>   invariably missed the woods for the trees, the World Bank's initiative
> once
>   again falls short of expectation and is based on misplaced priorities.
>   Perhaps what the Bank failed to see was that one of the major factors
for
>   lack of sanitation in India and for that matter in the developing world
is
>   the absence of clean toilets.
>
>   Whether it is ten or twelve per cent of the population that has access
to
>   clean toilets, the fact remains that a majority of the population in the
>   developing world uses available open spaces for answering the morning
> call.
>   Travelling by train in the morning in India is therefore not a very
> pleasant
>   experience. But lately, travelling by road after the sunset too is
> becoming
>   an unpleasant task. Lack of sanitation facilities forces people to squat
> on
>   the roadsides, using it conveniently as open toilets.The World Bank
>   therefore could have done much better than to help sell soap brands to
the
>   poor and marginalised. Perhaps the right approach would have been to
> further
>   the reach and scope of the highly successful Sulabh Sauchalayas. But
then,
>   when was it the last time you heard the international development
agencies
>   trying to pick up on traditional wisdom and initiatives that exist in
the
>   developing world? It has always been a one way channel - while the
> problems
>   only exist in the developing world, the solutions are only practical and
>   useful if they come from the rich and industrialised countries. Wisdom
is
> a
>   prerogative of the developed world.
>
>   Extending the scope of the public toilets in the rural areas would
address
>   other problems relating to gender discrimination, increasing crime
against
>   women, environmental pollution, groundwater contamination and general
>   hygiene. The crux of the sanitation problem that continues to plague the
>   developing societies lies in launching a mass movement to set up
toilets.
>   But promoting public toilets is not a 'win-win' situation. After all,
you
>   need a private multinational to achieve a 'win-win' situation, and that
>   aspect of economic development is surely missing in promoting public
>   toilets.
>
>   Helping MNCs
>
>   The World Bank and the UN agencies (after its recently launched 'global
>   compact' initiative) are obviously not interested if the economic
benefit
>   does not flow to a western company. Public-private partnership for
>   development in reality has degenerated into an unabashed utilisation of
>   public infrastructure and resources for boosting commercial interests of
> the
>   private companies. Whether it is agricultural research, environmental
> impact
>   studies, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, industrial and motor vehicle
>   pollution and so on, the private sector must be allowed to walk away
with
>   more profits. Peoples' participation, the other development ingredient
> that
>   forms part of every development project, too is based on the unholy
>   principle of "I plan and you participate." The World Bank's "washing
> hands"
>   initiative too has been formulated with the objective of ensuring more
>  profits for the multinationals.
>
>   True hygiene
>   Isn't it appropriate to ask whether sanitation and hygiene are only a
>   problem of the developing world? Agreed that lack of sanitation is the
> cause
>   for more than three quarter of the diseases world-wide. But what is
>   intriguing is why initiative should not be launched to ask the developed
>   countries for a change to fight what is commonly known to be the worst
>   unhygienic practice that the human society knows of - using toilet
paper.
>   Can the London School of Hygiene (and of course the World Bank) tell us
> how
>   hygienic is the use of toilet paper? And how does the world know that
the
>   unhygienic trend that the west has lived with for ages is not
responsible
>   for all the major diseases and skin ailments that prevail? After all,
>   dreaded diseases like AIDS have their roots in the developed world. In
>   addition to promoting safe sex, wouldn't it be more hygienic if the
>   development organisations and donor agencies were also to launch a
> campaign
>   against the use of toilet paper?
>
>
>