The United Nations Development Programme has launched, together with partners, a new centre that will help countries to best use mining revenues for sustainable development. Currently based in Addis Ababa, the African Minerals Development Centre (AMDC), launched here by Esperanza Biaz, Mozambique’s Minister of Mines, will help implement the Africa Mining Vision, which aims to ensure the extractives sector can boost social and economic development across the continent. The centre is co-sponsored by the Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The new hub will help implement the African Mining…
Author: ARO-News
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging the Security Council to boost the capacity of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) as the crisis continues in that country. Speaking to reporters on Monday, Mr. Ban said tens of thousands of people have been displaced, including 45,000 seeking protection at the bases of UNMISS. The Secretary-General said the situation in the newest nation is of mounting urgency and he is especially worried by reports of ethnically targeted killings. He said he would spend most of the day calling regional leaders and others to bolster support for UNMISS as well as…
Amid escalating tensions and deadly clashes between military factions in South Sudan, the United Nations Mission in the country today announced that it has begun relocating staff from the capital, Juba, while Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has demanded that South Sudanese political and military leaders end all hostilities and targeted attacks against civilians. In a statement issued early this morning, UNMISS announced that, as a precautionary measure to reduce pressure on its limited resources, it will relocate non-critical staff from Juba to the Ugandan city of Entebbe. Also, on Saturday, UNMISS relocated all remaining civilian staff from its compound in the…
The security and humanitarian situations in South Sudan are rapidly deteriorating as a result of the country’s political disputes, the Security Council said today, expressing its “grave alarm” and strong condemnation of the ongoing fighting and targeted violence, including the deadly attack on a United Nations base yesterday, which killed at least 20 civilians and two peacekeepers. The civilians, and two peacekeepers from the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), lost their lives when an estimated 2,000 heavily armed youth believed to be of Lour Nuer ethnicity surrounded the UN base in Akobo, and opened fire on the Dinka ethnic…
The President of the General Assembly today encouraged the United Nations to honour Nelson Mandela “by letting his legacy live on” in the world body’s continued struggle against poverty, injustice and the destruction of the human person and human spirit. “Let us remember that we can also be like him – because we too can choose the better way, choose to work toward those causes that are greater and better than our narrow interests,” John Ashe said during a special meeting convened at UN Headquarters in New York to give Member States an opportunity to pay tribute to the life and memory…
Control operations are continuing in Madagascar against an invasion of the Malagasy Migratory Locust, a voracious insect threatening rice and maize crops and therefore the food security and livelihoods of millions of people.Jointly prepared by FAO and the Government of Madagascar, the three-year Programme in response to the locust plague is being implemented and coordinated by FAO in close collaboration with the Government. The programme is composed of three successive locust control campaigns with the last one ending in 2016.”We are using helicopters and vehicles to carry out survey and control operations,” explained Said Lagnaoui, FAO’s locust campaign coordinator. “We…
Boosting productivity, fostering competitiveness and ensuring that small-scale farmers have greater access to markets are key to West Africa realizing its full agricultural potential, according to a new study released today by FAO and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).The publication, Rebuilding West Africa’s Food Potential, presents a range of successful case studies since the region stepped up investments in agricultural development in the wake of the world food crisis in 2007-2008.But the book argues that countries could benefit significantly from policy support that targets broader agricultural development and greater coordination among producers, private industry and the public and financial…
The top United Nations official has welcomed the signing of long-awaited accords between the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the M23 rebels it has been fighting until last month, and called on all other armed groups in the country to lay down their weapons and join the political process. “This constitutes a positive step towards ending cycles of deadly conflicts that have caused immense suffering to the Congolese people,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in astatement from his spokesperson. Talks between the M23 – mostly composed of soldiers who mutinied from the DRC national army in April last year…
The United Nations family today mourned the loss – and celebrated the enduring legacy – of Nelson Mandela, the former South African leader and peace advocate who passed away yesterday at the age of 95. As the UN flag was lowered to half-staff over the world body’s Headquarters in New York, the 193-member General Assembly held a moment of silence to honour the memory of the man affectionately known as “Madiba,” who emerged from 27 years of imprisonment to become South Africa’s first black President and is known worldwide for his compassionate yet determined efforts to dismantle the country’s legacy…
Do you ever listen to a song and find yourself moved so deeply you are almost in tears? Have you ever been to a live performance that turned your worst day into your best? Have you ever heard a song that inspired you? Music has the power to move us and to change us. Yet today’s music mostly does not seem to have the same earth-moving, society-shaping effects as that of the past. Much rarer are the antiwar sentiments of composers like Bob Dylan of the USA. The anti-apartheid and government-challenging lyrics of musicians like South Africa’s Miriam Makeba and…
An average of about 45 elephants per day were illegally killed in 2011 in every two of five protected sites holding elephant populations in Africa, thanks to the growing illegal trade in ivory, which continues to threaten the survival of elephants on the continent. A joint report by four international conservation organizations says that 17,000 elephants were killed in 2011 alone and the amount of ivory seized has tripled over the last decade. “Organized criminal networks are cashing in on the elephant poaching crisis, trafficking ivory in unprecedented volumes and operating with relative impunity and with little fear of prosecution,”…
In the summer of 2005, South Africa–based entrepreneur Marilyn Cooper decided to give her neighbors in a suburb of the capital, Pretoria, a barbecue treat. Alluding to the inscription on her drinking glasses, “Soweto Beer Festival,” she asked her guests, “Why can’t we have a Soweto wine festival?” The economic situation was just right for such a celebration, she felt, as many residents of Soweto, a predominantly black township in Johannesburg, were already showing flashes of middle class life: buying new cars, modern electronics, mobile phones, designer dresses and houses. And they appeared to love a good wine. Within a…
Charles Dhewa loved to write about agriculture, especially soil and crops. In early 2000 he decided to turn his words into action by becoming a cattle and horticulture farmer in Zimbabwe. He bought a small farm in Marondera, a town about an hour’s drive from the capital, Harare. His experience as a farmer enriched his writing, as he articulated issues in agriculture in ways that appealed to smallholder farmers. He soon became the communications expert for the Zimbabwe Farmers Union. But Mr. Dhewa later changed jobs when he was hired as a local consultant for the British-funded Crop Post Harvest…
Last July, US President Barack Obama set the spark for his Power Africa programme that will help sub-Saharan African countries build power production and transmission projects and double their electricity access. President Obama announced in Cape Town, South Africa, his plan to mobilize $16 billion for investments that will generate 10,000 megawatts of electricity. With Nigerian billionaire and philanthropist Tony Elumelu pledging $2.5 billion towards that amount, it appears that Obama’s turn towards Africa is energizing the continent’s new philanthropic elites who can play a critical role in social enterprise, build capacity and pilot new technologies. Before accompanying President Obama…
Last year the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa inaugurated the 10-member High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa chaired by former South African president Thabo Mbeki to look into the problem. Africa Renewal sat down with one of the panel’s members, Ambassador Segun Apata of Nigeria, who was in New York for a round table discussion of the problem. These are excerpts from the interview. First of all, how serious is the problem of illicit financial outflows from Africa? Segun Apata: The estimate on record is that between 1970 and 2008, illicit financial flows were over $800 billion…
The figures are staggering: between $1.2 trillion and $1.4 trillion has left Africa in illicit financial flows between 1980 and 2009—roughly equal to Africa’s current gross domestic product, and surpassing by far the money it received from outside over the same period. Illicit financial flows are money earned illegally and transferred for use elsewhere. The money is usually generated from criminal activities, corruption, tax evasion, bribes and transactions from cross-border smuggling. The numbers tell only part of the story. It is a story that exposes how highly complex and deeply entrenched practices have flourished over the past decades with devastating…
For many people, the phrase maritime piracy evokes images of a one-eyed sailor drinking rum and singing obscene songs. For some younger people, piracy may bring to mind the picture of Hollywood actor Johnny Depp, wearing a headband in a scene from the film Pirates of the Caribbean. But maritime piracy is not just an action movie. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea defines piracy as “illegal acts of violence or detention” committed on the high seas against ships or aircraft. Piracy is a serious problem and it poses a real threat not only to the safety…