DAKAR, 20 July 2007 (IRIN) - DAKAR, 16 July 2007 (IRIN) - CONTENTS:   COTE D'IVOIRE: Top UN election monitor eliminated WEST AFRICA: New evidence democracy reduces corruption COTE D'IVOIRE: Impact of terminating top UN election monitor post - analysis LIBERIA: Too few rice seeds to sow COTE D'IVOIRE: Return to peace means return to health care fees SENEGAL: Primary schools grapple with digital technology

________________________________________

COTE D'IVOIRE: Top UN election monitor eliminated

Two months after President Laurent Gbagbo demanded the removal of the UN High Representative for Elections, the Security Council passed a resolution on 16 July that terminated the post."The UN will still certify the elections and this is what has been paramount for us," a Western diplomat who speaks only on condition of anonymity told IRIN. The responsibilities for overseeing the election process will now go to the special representative for the UN Secretary General (SRSG). The acting SRSG is Abou Moussa. Officials with the UN Mission in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI) reached by IRIN on 16 July would not comment on the qualitative difference between retaining the post of High Representative for Elections and transferring its functions to the SRSG's office. UNOCI spokesman Hamadoun Toure said the SRSG will set up a special technical unit for certifying the stages of the elections process.

ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73261

WEST AFRICA: New evidence democracy reduces corruption

West African countries which have made gains in democracy, such as Ghana, Liberia and Niger, also appear to have reined in corruption, according to a 10 July 2007 World Bank report. "Countries that have undergone a democratic transition have much lower cases of corruption than other countries," Edouard Al-Dahdah, operations officer at the World Bank Institute, which produced the report, told IRIN. Corruption raises the cost of building infrastructure in countries by up to 20 percent, leaving the state with less money to spend on public services, Mouhamadou Mbodj, coordinator of Forum Civil, the Senegalese chapter of global anti-corruption organisation Transparency International, told IRIN. African youth continue to see corruption as their best hope of advancing, Mbodj said. Democracy also suffers when corrupt politicians attempt to buy votes. Yet democracy provides mechanisms by which to fight corruption, such as a free press to air allegations of corruption and the right of citizens to go to the streets to protest the questionable actions of officials, Al-Dahdah, of the World Bank, said.

ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73273

COTE D'IVOIRE: Impact of terminating top UN election monitor post - analysis

Most observers agree that the UN Security Council's 16 July resolution eliminating the senior UN election monitoring post in Cote d'Ivoire was a concession to President Laurent Gbagbo who in May demanded the removal of Gerard Stoudmann, the man who had held the position. However, observers are more divided over whether the move dooms the electoral process. "Getting rid of the High Representative for Elections is only part of the story," said one Western diplomat who spoke to IRIN but did not want to be identified. "The full story is we're getting rid of the post but not its responsibilities." The 16 July resolution transfers the functions of the High Representative for Elections to the permanent Special Representative to UN Secretary-General (SRSG), head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Cote d'Ivoire (UNOCI). The resolution states: "[The SRSG] shall certify that all stages of the electoral process provide all the necessary guarantees for the holding of open, free, fair and transparent presidential and legislative elections in accordance with international standards."

ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73297

LIBERIA: Too few rice seeds to sow

The difficulty in acquiring seed rice during the current planting season is having a negative effect on rice farming in rural Liberia where there has been a massive return of former internally displaced persons and refugees, agriculture officials told IRIN. "One major problem affecting rice farming in Liberia after years of conflict is the availability of seed rice. Most often the seeds do not reach the farmers in time because we had to import them, since we are not producing them here", Liberia's Agriculture Minister Chris Toe said. Toe said farmers should normally receive seed rice in February ahead of the rainy season. "But because farmers receive the seed rice in June or July at the start of the rainy season, they find it difficult to plant during this period and, as a result, rice production is now on a lower scale", Toe said. Rice is the staple diet in Liberia. However, rice planting is most commonly left to local farmers. Agriculture Ministry statistics indicate there is heavy reliance on small-scale subsistence farmers.

ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73328

COTE D'IVOIRE: Return to peace means return to health care fees

As Côte d'Ivoire's peace process creeps forward and emergency health care providers start withdrawing, the government is beginning to provide medical care again and that will mean reintroducing fees. "[In conflict zones] communities benefited from free health care," Jean Denoman, deputy director general at the Ministry of Health, told IRIN. "Now the communities will have a difficult time paying." For proponents of universal free health care a return to full health care costs will penalise the poor. The World Bank and some donors have long argued the merits of user fees for basic health and education, while many aid groups argue that user fees deprive a major portion of the population of basic services and severely diminish standards of living. In public hospitals in Man and Bouaké, Médecins Sans Frontières began providing free health care services after rebels took over the cities in 2002 and government-paid doctors and nurses fled for their lives. But with efforts toward peace advancing, health workers have started returning to the region. MSF pulled out of Bouaké public hospital in May and the Man public hospital in July.

ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73329

SENEGAL: Primary schools grapple with digital technology

In the poor fishing neighbourhood of Medina in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, a small school sits wedged between a run-down cemetery and a craft market. Piles of rubbish line a sandy alleyway that leads to the school's front gate. The school walls are stained; desks are cracked and dusty. Yet among the dirt and disorder of one classroom, six shiny flat-screen computers line one side. They are seemingly out of place. At one computer ten-year-old Amadou Diallo is fighting off his classmates to be the one to turn it on. Amadou is in grade 4, and had never used a computer until 10 appeared in his elementary school library. Now, he uses a computer five hours a week.

ALSO SEE: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=73348

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.irinnews.org

IRIN news