The Regional Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project, which has a total cost of $468 million and an eventual 80 megawatt generation capacity, will boost reliable power supply to the electricity grids of the three countries, reduce electricity costs and promote renewable power.

It will also spur job-led economic development and pave the way for more dynamic regional cooperation, peace and stability among the countries of the Nile Equatorial Lakes (NEL) sub-region in east Africa, the Bank stated in a news release.

“This landmark project will have transformational impact, bringing lower-cost energy to homes, businesses, and clinics in Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania,” says Colin Bruce, Director, Strategy, Operations and Regional Integration.

“By connecting grids, people and environmentally sensitive solutions, the project will help to catalyze growth and to encourage peace and stability in the sub-region.”

The project is the first operation under the World Bank Group Great Lakes Regional Initiative, which was inaugurated during the visit by Ban and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim in May.

The joint visit was in support of a UN-brokered peace agreement signed earlier this year aimed at ending the cycles of conflict and crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and to promote economic development in the region.

In 2011, the Bank helped to provide electricity to an additional 1.4 million people in African countries; construct and repair some 6,640 kilometres of roads; and improved water supplies for more than 8 million people.

“The Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project takes a regional approach to tackling sub-Saharan Africa’s power crisis, providing low-cost, clean, renewable energy to people in Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania,” says Jamal Saghir, World Bank Director for Sustainable Development in the Africa Region.

“The new power plant signals the Bank’s commitment to keeping the lights on across the African continent, necessary for achieving growth, ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity in the region.”

“There are worrying signs that the interests of coffee growers have been shut out of the reform process, despite coffee producer organizations showing themselves open to reform of the sector in a way that allows them to climb up the value chain,” said the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter, and the Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, Cephas Lumina.

“In Burundi – the third poorest country in the world – coffee revenues represent the difference between food security and hunger for much of the population, and yet the country is in the process of reforming the sector in ways that risk undermining their livelihoods.”

Coffee accounts for 80 per cent of the country’s export earnings and provides the livelihood of 55 per cent of the population – representing some 750,000 families – many of whom are small-scale farmers.

Mr. De Schutter and Mr. Lumina called on the World Bank to consider the human rights implications of privatization, adding that it must not repeat errors made in the 80s and 90s, when developing countries were encouraged to sell off State assets without taking into account the social consequences on the population.

In 2007, the Burundian President declared that coffee was owned by the growers until it was exported, an arrangement that allowed them to manage the supply chain and entitled them to 72 per cent of revenues from coffee sales on international markets.

However, in 2008-2009 the Burundian Government moved towards full privatization of the industry under alleged pressure from the World Bank, whose support for public health programmes was reportedly tied to coffee sector reforms. Since then, less than 5 per cent of Burundian coffee was processed in the country, with the higher value-added operations taking place abroad.

“States must not confuse their own priorities with those of corporations,” Mr. De Schutter and Mr. Lumina stressed. “Institutional actors like the World Bank must support States in their attempts to reform key economic sectors in ways that do not expose vulnerable farmers and growers to the uncertainties of the market.”

The experts also expressed concern that, after six months of exchanges with the World Bank, the information provided to them falls short in scope and transparency, and fails to acknowledge disagreements between the Bank and the Burundian Government.

“We expect fuller cooperation from the World Bank with the independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council,” they said. “In appropriate circumstances such as these, international law imposes on the Bank a duty to consider the human rights implications of its activities.”

“Children without a birth certificate have no legal status,” UNICEF’s Deputy Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Elke Wisch, said at the opening of the Second Conference of African Ministers responsible for Civil Registration.

“Birth registration protects children from child labour, recruitment into armed forces and militias, human trafficking, early marriage as well as other forms of exploitation,” Wisch added. “Birth registration is essential for children to access health care and education, as well as for orphans to inherit from their parents.”

The two-day conference, organized by the African Union Commission, the African Development Bank, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and other UN bodies, including UNICEF, as well as other partners, will deliberate on ways to strengthen national civil registration and vital statistics systems. In addition to the registration of births, civil registration includes the registration of death, marriage and divorce.

Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a UNICEF press release, has the lowest birth registration rates in the world, with on average only 38 per cent of children below the age of five holding a birth certificate, although there are wide disparities between countries, with South Africa, Djibouti, Burundi, Togo and Gabon all having made strong advances.

In Nigeria, Africa’s largest country with a population of 160 million, just 30 per cent of children are registered at birth. Some countries, such as Namibia, have high registration rates in urban areas, but low rates in rural zones.

UNICEF said that factors contributing to low registration rates include a lack of sustained political commitment, limited institutional capacity, costs, cultural barriers and lack of awareness among families about the importance of registering their children.

The agency stressed that innovative partnerships with the health sector and the use of mobile technologies are opportunities to achieve greater registration coverage.

In Namibia, for example, 95 per cent of pregnant women attend ante-natal care services. Within two years of introducing birth registration facilities in 23 hospitals, the number of infants registered at birth increased by 50 per cent.

In Uganda, where 43 per cent of children are not born in health facilities, UNICEF said it supported, along with Uganda Telecom, the Government’s launch of an internet-based registration system using mobile phone technology that aims to further boost registrations.

“Throughout the continent, millions of people are using the internet on a daily basis and there are few places in Africa that do not have mobile phones network coverage,” Wisch said. “But when we look at the civil registration systems, we find that some countries have not yet caught up. We have to take advantage of these new technologies to make our civil registration systems more effective.”