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Making the World Better for Future Generations

‘Maestro of humanity’: Gino Strada dies at 73

‘Maestro of humanity’: Italian surgeon Gino Strada dies at 73Tributes paid to doctor whose NGO set up world-class hospitals in war zones such as Iraq, Yemen and SudanTributes have been paid to Gino Strada, the Italian surgeon and “maestro of humanity” known for setting up world-class hospitals for the victims of war, who has died aged 73.The medic, who in 1994 co-founded the humanitarian organization Emergency to provide free, quality healthcare for those injured in conflict, died on Friday in France, reports said.Rossella Miccio, the chair of Emergency, said the news had come as a shock. “No one was expecting this. We are dazed and distressed,” she told Corriere della Sera. “It is a huge loss for the whole world. He did all he could to make the world a better place. We will miss him enormously.”A heart and lung transplant surgeon by training, Strada embarked on a mission to help heal those caught up in some of the world’s bloodiest and most intractable conflicts, including in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen.Emergency started its work in Rwanda during the genocide, and says it has gone on to treat more than 11 million people in 19 countries. The organisation currently operates in Afghanistan, where it has a world-renowned surgical centre, Eritrea, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Yemen and Sudan, as well as Italy.Strada told the Observer in 2013 that the hospitals he set up needed to be at least equal to – if not better than – those in the west.“If you think of medicine as a human right, then you cannot have some hospitals that offer sophisticated, very effective, hi-tech medicine, and then go to Africa and think, ‘OK, here’s a couple of vaccinations and a few shots’,” he said. “Do we think that we human beings … are all equal in rights and dignity, or not? We say, ‘Yes, we are.’”The aim was, he said, to create facilities “that you would be happy to have one of your family members treated in”.Strada’s daughter, Cecilia Strada, said on Facebook that she had not been with him when he died, as she was onboard a rescue ship for the NGO ResQ – People Saving People.“Friends, as you’ll have seen, my father is no longer with us. I can’t reply to your many messages … because I’m in the middle of the sea and we have just performed a rescue,” she wrote. “And this I was taught by my father and mother.”Strada’s wife, Teresa Sarti, with whom he founded Emergency, died in 2009.In a statement, Mario Draghi, the Italian prime minister, praised Strada’s “professionalism, courage and humanity”, while David Sassoli, president of the European parliament, tweeted: “Farewell Gino Strada, maestro of humanity.”Renzo Piano, the Italian architect who designed a paediatric surgical hospital for Emergency in Entebbe, Uganda, said he had learned a lot from Strada, and that his death was “a big loss”.“He was one of these people with a simple, clear belief about science, about solidarity, human solidarity, even about beauty … Because he was one of those people who, talking about the hospital, it was about medical excellence, but it was also about environmental excellence and human excellence,” Piano told the Guardian. “It was kind of humanistic, I guess.”Piano said he had last spoken to Strada a few days ago, as the two men tried to find a way of getting to Uganda for the long-delayed inauguration of the hospital. “The hospital is already working,” he said. “But we never got the moment where [we] officially opened it. The other day we were discussing that: ‘could we try in October?’ It’s very sad.”Giles Duley first met Strada in 2010 at Emergency’s Salam centre for cardiac surgery in Khartoum, Sudan, documenting the surgeon’s work. Their relationship led in part to the photographer and activist going to Afghanistan the following year, where Duley was severely injured, losing both legs and an arm. It was also Strada’s influence, Duley said, that led to him setting up his own foundation, Legacy of War.“He was a man of principle and a man who believed in something,” said Duley. “We sadly live in a world now where few people really are principled. We’re surrounded by politicians who are not principled, and many NGOs lack that leadership.“There was a man who stood up and said what many of us believe: that the cause of so many problems in this world is war, and militarisation, and the profiting of conflict. And he stood up and said: this is what we have to stop.”On the last few occasions Duley saw Strada, he said, he had seemed tired. But he was never going to stop. “He dedicated his life to this work,” Duley said.“He was a man that had completely and utterly given himself to this. The last few times I met him it was obvious that that had taken a toll on him but there was no way he would ever retire or stop – this was his life, and he dedicated himself to people injured by conflict and those needing heart surgery around the world.”Strada had an opinion article in Friday’s edition of the Italian daily La Stampa excoriating the US war in Afghanistan, which he decried as a “failure in every possible way”.Paying tribute to the staff working in Emergency’s health facilities in the country, he wrote: “I cannot write about Afghanistan without thinking primarily of them and of the Afghans who are suffering right now, true ‘war heroes’.”

757

14 August 2021
POLITICO Pro Q&A: Ban Ki-moon, former U.N. secretary-general

Ban Ki-moon led the United Nations from 2007 to 2016, an era that saw the rise of multilateral climate action culminating in the Paris Climate Agreement.Since leaving the U.N., he has used his leadership positions at civil society groups to continue his campaign against climate change. He founded the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens in 2018 and is a deputy chair at The Elders, a multilateral convention of senior political and civic leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela. One of his driving messages is that the U.S. and other rich nations need to do more individually and collectively through the World Bank and other international institutions.His message is resonating. On July 22, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen convened multilateral development banks to discuss how to align their portfolios with the goals of the Paris agreement and mobilize more private capital to combat climate change.Ban spoke with POLITICO. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.In your new book, you called climate activism one of your proudest moments. Why is that?Climate change has been approaching much, much faster than what we might have thought. Before I became the secretary-general, there were some science and climate skeptics from European countries like the United Kingdom. That really was a cold shower on our efforts. I really worked very hard to erase that kind of misperception. These days, nobody believes in climate skeptics because there have been so many unexpected natural disasters.Yet the skeptics remain.Particularly your President Trump, he was following the skeptics. His withdrawal from this hard-fought, hard-negotiated international agreement, the Paris Agreement, was very much irresponsible. I left the United Nations before his administration began, but I have been very critical that his decision was politically very short-sighted, economically irresponsible, scientifically very wrong. I warned that he will be standing on the cold side of history.I am very encouraged that President Biden has taken as his first presidential action to rejoin the Paris climate change agreement. People are now waking up. I was also encouraged by the G-7 countries, their meetings in the United Kingdom recently.You began this conversation in 2006, 2007. Did you think we\'d be further along by now?We are much better now than 2007. It was very difficult to [have a] dialogue with President Bush.I first met him in the White House, it was Jan. 16, 2007, if my memory serves me correct. I was warned by my staff, please don’t raise this issue. He’s not believing in climate change.I raised the subject and his immediate reaction was the U.S. is ready to do as much as China. He was pointing fingers at China.I invited him to a summit meeting. Of course, he agreed. Then he would not deliver his statement in the general assembly. That was embarrassing, very embarrassing. The president was in New York, participating in the United Nations General Assembly meeting but would not say anything.Bush later changed his position. He invited you to lunch just before he left the White House.Later on, after my retirement, I met him briefly on occasion and I really thanked him for his leadership on climate. It is a very interesting story. In the end, I got President Bush in this climate agreement.Fast forward to today. Is it time to ban financing and subsidies of fossil fuels, especially where the World Bank and IMF are concerned?I think it is necessary. There are many countries who have been financing [fossil fuels] through public financial organizations. Unfortunately, my own country, Korea, was one of them. I raised this issue very strongly with the office of the president of Korea and other ministers. Now Korea has decided not to provide any public financial support, except those which are now going on.I made a strong case that Korea must phase out all its 16 coal-fired power stations by 2045. That’s a policy now. I also recommended strongly that the old internal combustion engine cars must not be produced by 2035. It is now government policy.How do you assess the current situation globally?Unfortunately or fortunately, the Covid-19 crisis has made people realize much more seriously the importance of the interrelationship between climate and all these pandemics. Nature has its own way.Let\'s talk about the World Bank, the largest source of climate finance to developing countries. Are rich member nations stepping up? What should bank President David Malpass be doing?Mr. Malpass was critical of the World Bank before he was appointed as president and also because of his alignment with his boss, former President Trump. So there was some concern of how much the World Bank would be doing.Is the World Bank mobilizing enough money?Of course the World Bank is not printing money. I think they need to reach out to rich countries to contribute much more money. Without money, the World Bank has no power.What should Malpass do next?There\'s a lot of talk that we have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but you\'re not investing for the future wisely, investing in wise ways, in adaptive activities like infrastructure for small farmers, for water, green energy. For small island developing countries, even planting mangroves. It’s very small, but that will help.$100 billion was committed by the United States and Japan and European Union, and that has not been kept.You think the U.S. is not doing enough to help?That’s right. They must make up for the loss over the last four years. President Obama in 2014 promised $3 billion and paid $1 billion, and $2 billion is still pending. This is an outstanding $2 billion. The U.S. must, should lead this campaign, otherwise the European Union and other countries will not do it. I’m counting on your support.I’ll pass on that message.This is part of your responsibility, working together. I\'m a lone soldier now.Let\'s talk about the private sector. In the U.S. during the Trump administration, a lot of private companies made a lot of promises. Are they delivering?In fact, the private sectors are doing better and more than government. Government has their restrictions and laws and opposition parties. But corporations, when the owners, presidents or chairmen have conviction, they can do more.Business says it needs government leadership. In the U.S. for example, there’s resistance to massive spending and carbon pricing.We have to do twofold, threefold, tenfold investing in green energy, and make sure that the OECD countries raise their ambition by announcing a nationally determined contribution of 45 percent by 2030.Europeans are trying to lead this campaign, but my own country, Korea has not been able to do that. I’ve been in the process of trying to convince business sectors in Korea: Look, whatever you may do, if the European Union imposes a carbon tax by 2035, then whatever you manufacture, you will not be able to sell there. So it’s no use. You have to change.You’ve talked about your concern for your children.I have three children, two girls and one boy, but more important is I have four grandchildren, three granddaughters and one grandson. I am worried for them.It is us and our forefathers who have been abusing the privileges given by nature. I am also blaming political leaders. This is a sort of a presidential campaign period in Korea. I\'ve been watching the conversation today and no one is talking about it.Really? No one’s talking about climate change in the campaign?They’re talking, you know, housing prices. This is really disappointing.Has the world become more divided since you were secretary-general?On climate change they are more united. Because they have been hit, they are experiencing it by themselves. They know that climate change is now happening. At that time I was a lone voice speaking out. Convincing leaders was very difficult. One European leader I won’t name, he gave me a book about climate skeptics. He said he wrote it. Then when I was convening a summit meeting on climate, one environment minister of that country came to me and said, look, Mr. secretary-general, please do not invite my president. He will spoil your summit.I think most of the climate skeptics, they’re gone. Now people understand climate change is happening much, much faster. Pope Francis is a strong supporter. He issued his own decree.Yes, the encyclical. What did he tell you when you met him?He told me, \"God always forgives. Human beings sometimes forgive. But nature never forgives.\"

828

30 July 2021
70 Years Ago, the World Made a Pact to Protect Refugees. Too Many of Our Leaders Are Failing to Upho

How the world treats refugees is a litmus test of our common humanity. I say that as a refugee myself, having experienced the trauma and wrenching displacement of fleeing my home during the Korean War, when I was a child. The human suffering that I witnessed as I fled my burning village with my parents has stayed with me throughout my life.It’s something that our leaders acknowledged 70 years ago this month, when the 1951 UN Refugee Convention was signed — a landmark treaty that has formed the backbone of international protection for people fleeing persecution in their own country, and should remain the lodestar guiding all national and international policies.The treaty is just as essential today as it was seven decades ago. The UNHCR’s latest Global Trends report found that a record 82 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes in 2020, including 26 million refugees who have fled their own country. These numbers are not going to decline as long as conflict and instability persist.Yet the guarantees in the 1951 Convention are being ignored. As forced displacement reaches unprecedented levels, the reaction in many prosperous countries in the Global North continues to be driven by fear and self-interest. Populist, nationalist and sometimes openly racist politicians have manipulated people’s fear and ignorance of refugees for electoral gain, leaving refugees and migrants even more marginalized and vulnerable to abuse, including physical attacks.Instead of offering protection, some of those in power want to shut down asylum routes, introduce punitive measures against those exercising their right to seek asylum through irregular routes, and forcibly return people to situations of uncertainty.Over the last five years, Afghan refugees whose asylum claims have been rejected have been forcibly returned to Kabul from the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Austria and Finland, during periods of acute insecurity and war. The threat of a renewed takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban will create a further surge of refugees, including women and girls who face the brutality of that regime.Denmark is currently reassessing the temporary residency permits for Syrian refugees who originate from Damascus and its environs, stating it is now safe to return to those areas despite the repressive nature of the Assad regime.Other countries don’t even let displaced people stay within their borders while they seek asylum. Australia maintains its longstanding discriminatory policy towards refugees and asylum seekers who arrive irregularly by boat, forcibly transferring and detaining them in Papua New Guinea and on Nauru island. It has had a devastating impact on the physical and mental health of those individuals and families. This type of policy is an affront to human dignity.The U.K.’s new Nationality and Borders Bill also provides for off-shoring of asylum-seekers, following the damaging path set by Australia. It further proposes a two-tier system which would discriminate against those who arrive through irregular routes, even if their asylum claim is successful, effectively condemning them to a life of limbo with reduced rights. If implemented, the proposals would set a dangerous precedent in Europe – one which other European states should firmly reject.Such measures, designed to avoid or shift responsibility, are contrary to the 1951 Convention, the Global Refugee Compact and core principles of global responsibility-sharing and solidarity.The Global North’s regressive asylum policies stand in stark contrast to the generosity of developing countries, who continue to host 86% of the world’s refugees. For example, in February 2021, Colombia granted a 10-year protection status to 2 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants in the country, enabling them to integrate and plan for their future. Such examples put wealthier countries to shame.It is incumbent on these countries to step up and deliver a global resettlement programme on a meaningful scale. President Biden’s decision to restore U.S. resettlement levels with a goal of 125,000 in the next fiscal year is a welcome development. The Elders support UNHCR’s call for the E.U. to commit to meet at least 40% of the global target to resettle 1 million refugees by 2028, equalling a pledge of 36,000 for 2022. This should be followed by setting ambitious multi-year targets in line with this commitment.When I was U.N. Secretary-General, I met so many children around the world, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, who reminded me of my own painful experiences as a child displaced by war. For them, and for so many others, I remain determined to keep the plight of refugees high on the global agenda.

806

30 July 2021
Republic of Senegal and Team Europe agree to build a manufacturing plant to produce vaccines against

Producing COVID-19 vaccines in Africa came one step closer today after Team Europe formally agreed to support large-scale investment in vaccine production by the Institut Pasteur in Dakar, alongside other support measures. The new manufacturing plant should reduce Africa\'s 99% dependence on vaccine imports and strengthen future pandemic resilience on the continent.The agreement is part of a major package of investment in vaccine and pharmaceuticals production in Africa launched by Team Europe in May, which brings together the European Commission, EU Member States, and the European Investment Bank, and other financial institutions, in line with the EU\'s Strategy with Africa and the strategy of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM).Team Europe, together with other international partners, has committed to a significant package of support for the medium- to long-term sustainability of the project. This includes: Germany\'s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is supporting the manufacturing hub in Senegal with a €20 million grant through KfW (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau), the German development bank.France, through the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), has already granted two initial financing packages totalling €1.8 million to the MADIBA project (Manufacturing in Africa for Disease Immunization and Building Autonomy) at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar for feasibility studies and initial investments. The AFD Group and its private sector subsidiary, Proparco, are also working within the group of technical and financial partners to structure the project in order to reach financial support at a larger scale.Belgium will support Senegal in structuring initiatives to produce vaccines and pharmaceuticals, such as the Pharmapolis pharma hub. Belgium also welcomes the fact that a Belgian biotech company in novel bio-manufacturing platforms is forging, with the support of Wallonia, a partnership with the Institut Pasteur in Dakar, as a key partner for building capacity and transferring technology.The European Commission is discussing with the Senegalese authorities the possibility of mobilising further financial support by the end of 2021 under the new NDICI / Global Europe instrument to support this project. This is part of the €1 billion Team Europe initiative to boost the manufacturing of, and access to, vaccines, medicines and health technologies in Africa, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in May 2021.At a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Dakar, the President of the Republic of Senegal, His Excellence Macky Sall, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton and representatives of Germany, France, Belgium, the European Investment Bank and other development finance institutions, including the IFC, today confirmed details of Team Europe support to accelerate project preparation, expand manufacturing capacities and undertake technical feasibility work. These will be crucial to unlock large-scale investment in the new plant. This will be built over the next 18 months and will equip the African continent with a state-of-the-art facility for the production of authorised COVID-19 vaccines.Today, Team Europe is providing €6.75 million in grant support to enable technical feasibility studies and project preparation for the new facility at the Institut Pasteur in Dakar. This amount includes €4.75 million from the European Commission and the European Investment Bank, €200,000 from Germany, and €1.8 million from France. This will also enable the total investment cost and financial structures to be defined and agreed with Senegalese and international partners. Construction of the new plant is expected to start later this year, with 25 million vaccine doses being produced each month by the end of 2022.

812

15 July 2021
Nigeria’s diversity, its strength for economic prosperity, says AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina

‘Nigeria’s youth must be turned into a first-rate, well-trained workforce’The President of the African Development Bank, AfDB, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said that Nigeria’s diversity is not its problem, but rather how it’s managed for economic growth and development.Adesina shared his thoughts on what it will take to rebuild Nigeria and put it on a path to greatness in a keynote address at the convocation ceremony of the American University of Nigeria in Yola, Adamawa State capital.Citing Singapore as an example that has successfully managed ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity, Adesina said diversity is strength and not weakness.According to the AfDB President, Nigeria’s future rests on what it does now with its vibrant youth population.In the keynote titled “Building a New Nigeria: Imperatives for Shared Prosperity,” he said: “For Nigeria to be all that it can be, the youth of Nigeria must be all that they can be.He emphasized that Nigeria’s future development and growth hinged on transforming the country’s youth demographic advantage into a world-class and well-trained workforce for the country, region, and world.He urged stakeholders to prioritize investments in the youth, and up-skill them for future jobs, as well as shift from policies of “youth empowerment” to “youth investment”.According to Adesina, this would also help open social and political spaces for youth to air their views, become a positive force for national development, and ensuring the creation of youth-based wealth.“From the East to the West, from the North to the South, there must be a transformative change in economic, financial, and business opportunities for young Nigerians,” the Bank President told the large gathering.“The young shoots are springing up in Nigeria. Today, Lagos has its own Silicon Valley. Yabacon Valley has emerged as one of the leading tech hubs in Africa with between 400 and 700 active start-ups worth over $2 billion, second only to Cape Town.Citing examples of entrepreneurial success among young Nigerians, he noted that “Andela, a global technology start-up based in Yabacon Valley, recently attracted $24 million in funding from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.The $200 million investment by Stripe (a Silicon Valley firm) in the local payments company Paystack, and $400 million into three Fintech companies in just one week in 2019 signals the huge potentials of Nigeria to attract global digital commerce and financial services.“The African Development Bank is currently working on a $500 million programme, Digital Nigeria, which is designed to transform Nigeria’s digital competitiveness and build on the incredible entrepreneurship of Nigeria’s youth.“The Bank is also exploring the establishment of Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks- financial institutions for young people, run by first-rate young bankers and financial experts, to drive youth-wealth creation,” he told participants.“Nigeria is blessed with incredibly rich diversity: of people, of cultures, of religions, of mineral resources, oil, and gas, amazingly rich biodiversity, that should make us the envy of the world.“We are blessed with abundantly diverse agro-ecologies, that should also make us a land of bountiful harvests with the capacity to feed Africa. Nigerians deserve wealth, not poverty,” he added.Students from all around Nigeria, as well as international students from South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Cameroon, India, and Romania, make up the American University of Nigeria’s class of 2020 and class of 2021.In his concluding remarks, Adesina urged the graduating class to make a difference in their sphere of influence, Nigeria and the world.“I have a dream that we will arise, from our challenges, and build a more prosperous and united nation,” Akinwumi Adesina prophesied.

769

15 July 2021
‘Africa is at ground zero,’ Adesina calls for support at US’ climate summit

The President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, has called for global support for Africa to move towards net-zero at the ongoing Leaders Summit on Climate convened by the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden.He made this call while participating in a panel session on how combined public and private finance can be galvanized to accelerate the move to a net-zero economy.“To be sure, climate change is a threat to Africa. The continent loses 7-15 billion dollars per year to climate change, and this will rise to 50 billion dollars per year by 2040 according to the IMF. Africa, the least emitter, suffers the worst of the impacts of climate change including droughts, floods, locust and pest invasions.“Africa is not at net-zero, Africa is at ground zero. We must, therefore, give Africa a lift to get a chance of adapting to what it did not cause,” he said.He also talked about how the African Development Bank is leading this charge to support Africa.According to him, “we have committed 25 billion dollars to climate finance over the next four years, our share of financing devoted to climate rose from just a mere 9% in 2016 to 35% in 2019 and we will reach 40% in 2021, this year. We are also setting the pace… African Development Bank is the only multilateral development bank to meet and exceed the 50% parity for climate adaptation and resilience. Indeed we devoted 50% of our climate finance to climate adaptation and resilience in 2018 and last year we increased that to a record 63%.”“We are climate-proofing Africa,” he added. “The bank is targeting 40 million farmers with climate-smart agricultural practices. We are also speeding up Africa’s energy transition to renewable energy. We help to support the largest wind power plant in Africa in Kenya. And now we have embarked on what we now call desert to power. A 20-billion-dollar investment that would provide opportunities to turn the Sahel into the world’s largest solar zone and provide electricity for 250 million people.”“We are securing the future of the Sahel. We have pledged 6.5 billion dollars towards building the great green wall in the Sahel to protect against desertification. We are deploying our Africa disaster risk facility to help countries to pay for insurance premiums against catastrophic climate events. We are also building strategic partnerships in particular with the Global Centre for Adaptation. And together we have created and launched the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Programme.”“Our goal is to mobilize 25 billion dollars for the programme exclusively for scaling up actions on climate adaptation. Just three weeks ago, thirty African heads of states, global leaders including the UN secretary-general, Guterres, joined forces to back this African Adaptation Acceleration Programme.”

673

23 April 2021
Adesina Urges FG to Enhance Youth Competitiveness

The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has called on the federal government to embark on bolder measures to enhance the competitiveness of youths in order to match their peers on the global level.He added that the government must do everything possible to reinvent itself by focusing on the youth population, adding that with a population of 206 million people, out of which 70 pent are under the age of 30 years, “what Nigeria does with its youth will determine the future of the country”.He spoke virtually at the Joshua Generation International Youth Conference, themed: “Living with a Purpose,” held recently.He expressed worry that currently, Nigeria’s youths are faced with several challenges, including unemployment, limited technical and vocational skills, limited inclusion in social and political space, and lack of financing for ventures and businesses.Adesina said: “The greater wealth of Africa, and of course Nigeria, will come from the youth. I know there are several misconceptions about the youth. I don’t understand why, because I was once a youth myself.“The youth are not the problem of Nigeria; the youth are the assets of Nigeria. We must not relegate the youth to the background; we must put the youth in the fore.”He added that the country must explore all possibilities to reinvent itself by focusing on the youth, adding that, “Nigeria must embark on bolder measures to grow its youth into a well-trained globally competitive workforce.“The youth do not need empowerment. Look around, often those who say they are empowering them are actually simply empowering themselves. The youth do not need handouts. The youth need investment.”Adesina further said the AfBD recognized the importance of youth to the economy, stressing that this was why the bank created the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Banks.Through this, he said they will be financial institutions for young people, run by first-rate young bankers and financial experts, to drive youth-wealth creation in Africa.He also said the AfDB is implementing a program to support Africa’s youth in computer coding for employment.Launched in 2018, he said the bank’s ‘Youth in Africa Coding for Employment Programme,’ had already equipped over 80,000 young people with ICT skills to enhance their employability in this digital era.According to him: “Huge opportunities exist for the youth in agriculture. You might wonder why? Well, consider this: the size of the food and agribusiness market for Africa will be worth a whopping $ 1trn by 2030.“The millionaires and billionaires of Africa will no longer come from the oil and gas business, they will come from agriculture. Nobody drinks oil. Nobody smokes gas. But everybody eats food.“Nigeria must ensure that poverty does not become the heritage of its youth. Today, Nigeria’s youth are largely poor, unemployed, underemployed, and unhappy.“Majority of them are in the informal sector which accounts for 93 percent of all employment. The high level of youth unemployment is at the core of the massive wave of insecurity being witnessed in Nigeria.”

653

22 April 2021
A Lifeline to Bloom Again

The project Desert Flower Center Waldfriede (DFC) came into being out of clinical necessity, as many women in Germany also suffer from the health and psychological consequences of FGM. The project was realized in cooperation with the Desert Flower Foundation under the patronage of former model Waris Dirie and her manager, Walter Lutschinger, in December 2011, as it became clear that purely preventive work did not meet the needs of those affected.Our goal is to offer wholistic medical care to women suffering from the consequences of genital mutilation. This includes not only surgical interventions and reconstructive operations but also psychological and physiotherapeutic help. We also offer a self-help group that meets once a month at Waldfriede Hospital.A Lifeline for Affected WomenSince the opening in September 2013, more than 600 women have sought our medical help. Surgery was necessary for half of them.A stable solution has also been found in the meantime for the financial settlement of problematic cases. An operation costs around 2,000 to 4,000 euros. For people with statutory health insurance, the costs are covered by health insurance. However, since we also want to treat people who are not insured, we have founded the Förderverein Waldfriede e.V. (Waldfriede Association). The association, financed by donations, supports or assumes the costs in these cases.Since January 2015 we have been conducting support group meetings once a month. Both women whom we have already treated and those still looking for help come to the meetings. In a protected setting, the women can exchange experiences and learn that they are not alone with their fears and worries. Sometimes affected women talk about their fate, or women who have already undergone reoperation talk about their experiences.A Wholistic ApproachThe most important measure in the fight against FGM is widespread education and schooling of children, locally, in their home countries. In general, the public should be sensitized to the issue. Information on FGM should be bundled and further developed on an interdisciplinary basis, and professional competencies should be strengthened. To this end, in 2020, we founded the Berlin FGM Coordination Office. The coordination office aims to link existing services in Berlin and expand them according to need, train professionals in dealing with the issue, and strengthen awareness-raising activities in communities.In the sense of wholistic support, the coordination office offers psychological support and psychosocial group services for those affected, in addition to medical counseling and treatment.To this end, the coordination center focuses on raising awareness among professionals, and qualifies them for dealing with those affected. A hotline also offers the first point of contact and counseling for affected persons and professionals and enables simple and low-threshold mediation.As we receive many inquiries about shadowing at the Desert Flower Center, we have been offering an FGM-intensive seminar for colleagues, midwives, and nursing professionals, twice a year since 2018.An Honorable EnterpriseAs medical coordinator and senior physician of the Desert Flower Center Waldfriede, I am the first person the women get in touch with by phone or e-mail. The fact alone that these often very emotional preliminary talks, and the medical examination, take place in a trusting environment from woman to woman, makes it easier for them to open up to me.In the counseling session, problems presented are dealt with individually. It is not always about an operation. Some want to talk to our psychotherapist or join our self-help group. Others need a medical certificate for their ongoing asylum procedure. It is important to take time for a detailed anamnesis and examination and respond to the patients’ needs, thus alleviating their fears and addressing their concerns.As a specialist in our department, I am grateful to be able to be engaged in such a noble endeavor at the Desert Flower Center Waldfriede. The many positive responses encourage me to continue in this highly important work.ResourcesIn October 2020 we published the first German-language reference book on FGM. We aim to share our experiences with this complex issue and provide assistance for all professions in coping with the multifaceted problems of circumcised women. That month the center also published the first issue of the new Desert Flower magazine. In it we provided a detailed overview of the task, and our projects,and successes, in the worldwide fight against FGM. The magazine is available in German, English, and French.Giving Lives BackA major problem at the beginning was intercultural perception and communication. We are delighted to now have two employed counselors/interpreters, in addition to volunteer counselors, who help us and the women we serve to overcome these nonverbal hurdles. With Evelyn Brenda (born in Kenya) and Farhia Mohamed (born in Somalia), we have two therapists on the team who can work psychotherapeutically both in German and in their respective mother tongues.All the women tell us how valuable this sense of community within the self-help group is for them. There they can often talk about their worries and experiences for the first time in their lives—in a protected setting among like-minded people. At these meetings we are always aware that our work with the women is much more than just a job.When they come together, there is always a very warm atmosphere. We all call each other by our first names, and especially the women who have already been treated are bursting with self-confidence. In these moments we realize how much this task fulfills us and what the team at the Desert Flower Center Waldfriede achieves. Here women are literally given their lives back.

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8 April 2021
OPINION: African agriculture is ready for a digital revolution

Akinwumi Adesina is president of the African Development Bank. Patrick Verkooijen is CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation. After a dark 2020, a new year has brought new hope. In Africa, where up to 40 million more people were driven into extreme poverty and the continent experienced its first recession in 25 years, a brighter future beckons as the economy is forecast to return to growth this year.Africa now has an opportunity to reset its economic compass. To build back not just better, but greener. Particularly as the next crisis—climate change—is already upon us.Africa’s food systems must be made more resilient to future shocks such as floods, droughts, and disease. Urgent and sustainable increases in food production are needed to reduce reliance on food imports and reduce poverty, and this is where digital services come into play.With mobile phone ownership in Sub-Saharan Africa alone expected to reach half a billion this year, digital services offered via text messaging can reach even the most remote village. And at least one-fifth of these phones also have smart features, meaning they can connect to the internet.We can already see how digital services drive prosperity locally and nationally. In Uganda, SMS services that promote market price awareness have lifted the price farmers receive for bananas by 36 percent, beans by 16.5 percent, maize by 17 percent, and coffee by 19 percent. In Ghana, services that cut out the middleman have lifted the price for maize by 10 percent and groundnuts by 7 percent.But digital services don’t just raise farmgate prices, they are the gateway to farm loans, crop insurance, and greater economic security, which in turn enables farmers to increase their resilience to climate change—by experimenting with new, drought-resistant crops, for example, or innovative farming methods.Text messages with weather reports help farmers make better decisions about when and what to plant, and when to harvest.In Niger, a phone-based education program has improved crop diversity, with more farmers likely to grow the cash crop okra, while an advisory service in Ethiopia helped increase wheat production from one ton to three tons per hectare.The data footprints phone users create can also be analyzed to help assess risk when it comes to offering loans, making credit cheaper and more accessible.Phones and digital services also speed up the spread of information through social networks, helping farmers learn about new drought-resistant crops or services that can increase productivity. Free-to-use mobile phone-based app WeFarm, for example, has already helped more than 2.4 million farmers find certified suppliers of quality seeds at fair prices. They can also connect farmers to internet-based services.Examples of digital innovation abound, sometimes across borders. In Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria, equipment-sharing platform Hello Tractor is helping farmers rent machinery by the day or even hour, while in Ethiopia, AfriScout, run by the non-government organization Project Concern International with the World Food Programme and the Ministry for Agriculture, provides satellite images of water supplies and crops every 10 days so problems can be spotted quickly to aid remedial action.Transforming food systems digitally has demonstrably excellent results: the African Development Bank, which has allocated over half of its climate financing to adaptation since 2019, has already helped 19 million farmers in 27 countries to lift yields by an average 60 percent through applying digital technology, for example.This is why the Global Center on Adaptation and the African Development Bank have launched the Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) to mobilize $25 billion to scale up and accelerate innovative climate-change adaptation across Africa.Once developed, the digital nature of these services often makes such projects easy to replicate elsewhere and scale, even across large rural areas with little existing infrastructure.Further, adaptation projects are proven to be highly cost-effective, often delivering value many times the original investment and so helping African economies grow faster and create many more much-needed jobs.This makes it imperative that the global resolve to rebuild economies in the wake of Covid-19 is harnessed in the most effective way. We must not simply replicate the mistakes of the past. We must build back stronger, with a more resilient and climate-smart focus.Funding and promoting disruptive business models in which digital technologies are embedded to increase productivity without using more land or more water will create a triple win: increased production, a more resilient climate and more empowered farmers.We have the means and the technical capability to put Africa well on the way to achieving food self-sufficiency and greater climate resilience. In doing so, we can help millions move out of food poverty. We must not squander this opportunity to create truly historic and lasting change.

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8 April 2021
Africa Economic Outlook 2021: AfDB, debt and vaccine injustice

Permit me to step aside this week from contextual reporting of the terrorism of the bandits and the hypocrisy of the crisis entrepreneurs in the land. Reason for the cross-over: It is expedient for us to study the essentials of the Africa Economic Outlook 2021 the African Development Bank (AfDB) launched virtually the other day. It appears that there are so many features in the report for the governments and people of Africa to study and learn from at this moment. The deliverables from report and colloquium on the launchare quite didactic.The 2021 AEO highlights one of the most fundamental questions for Africa today: How can African countries regain growth after COVID-19? What hurdles must they clear to avoid debt burden? And what changes does this mean for the international debt architecture and for governance systems in Africa?Specifically, for those who haven’t read the economic outlook highlights, the 2021 edition focuses on debt resolution, governance, and growth in Africa. The opening chapter examines Africa’s growth performance and outlook amid the COVID–19 pandemic. The chapter emphasises policy options to mitigate the effects of the pandemic in the short, medium, and long terms. The second chapter explores the causes and consequences of Africa’s debt dynamics by showing how the changing structure and composition of debt create vulnerabilities. The third chapter takes stock of the challenges in the current global architecture for debt resolution and explores the link between governance and growth with an emphasis on proposed reforms to improve the processes of debt resolution, governance, and sustainable growth. Those managing debt and indeed duty bearers in Africa’s most populous country need to study this report very meticulously. According to the economic outlook in focus, “Africa is projected to recover in 2021 from its worst economic recession in half a century.” It may be gratifying to read that forecast at this time in Nigeria. It will be recalled that economic activity in Africa was constrained in 2020 by an unprecedented global pandemic caused by COVID–19. Real GDP in Africa is projected to grow by 3.4 percent in 2021, after contracting by 2.1 percent in 2020. This projected recovery from the worst recession in more than half a century will be underpinned by a resumption of tourism, a rebound in commodity prices, and the rollback of pandemic-induced restrictions. The outlook is, however, subject to great uncertainty from both external and domestic risks.On Debt Dynamics And Consequences, the analysis signposts some paralysis as the COVID–19 pandemic has caused a surge in government financing needs in Africa. Since the COVID–19 pandemic began in early 2020, governments have announced fiscal stimulus packages ranging in cost from about 0.02 percent of GDP in South Sudan to about 10.4 percent of GDP in South Africa. The AfDB estimates that African governments need additional gross financing of about $154 billion in 2020/21 to respond to the crisis. These fiscal stimulus packages have largely had immediate, direct implications for budgetary balances, borrowing needs, and debt levels.As reported in the third chapter, under “debt resolution and the nexus between governance and growth”, debt resolution in Africa has often been disorderly and protracted, with costly economic consequences.In the same vein, the economic consequences of sovereign debt restructuring are less severe in countries that act pre-emptively and collaboratively and in those countries where economic governance is stronger. However, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative took more than a decade to be implemented, and recent debt resolution in Africa has been delayed by long-lasting litigation with private and official creditors. “The absence of orderly and successful sovereign debt resolution, especially with private creditors, makes the prospects of debt distress worrisome for African economies”, the report indicates.So, AfDB asks countries to establish mechanism for debt restructuring. That is official from the newly named World’s Best Multilateral Financial Institution, AfDB. At the launch of the 2021AEO, the Bank (AfDB) asked governments on the continent to establish a financial stabilisation mechanism for debt restructuring plan. Akinwumi Adesina, president of the AfDB, made the call for the mechanism at the launch of the bank’s 2021 edition of its annual African Economic Outlook. Debt restructuring is a process that allows a private, public or a sovereign entity facing cash flow problems and financial distress to reduce and renegotiate its delinquent debts to improve or restore liquidity so that it can continue its operations. Meanwhile, a debt becomes delinquent when payment is not made by the due date or the end of the “grace period” as established in a loan or repayment agreement. I hope Abuja is reading and studying this mechanism.Adesina noted that African governments need to consider establishing a collective mechanism, which would give Africa the fiscal space needed to deal with debts. According to Nigeria’s former Agriculture Minister, the process can be initiated by developing macroeconomic and fiscal policy reforms. His words: “It is high time that we set up a homegrown financial stability mechanism where we work together to mutualize our funds and ensure we avoid the spillover effects that come from global pandemics or any external shock. We must start by making sure that we carry out the macroeconomic policy reforms and the fiscal policy reforms that we need to get done…Africa is not looking for a free pass. We are just looking for an equitable way in which Africa’s fiscal space gets dealt with.”Adesina proposed a financial stabilisation mechanism as a solution that would allow African countries to agree on a set of convergent macroeconomic policies and principles and pool funds. He said this would allow Africa “deal with the cause of the illness and not always the symptoms.” The AfDB president added that the mechanism would allow countries to handle debt and re-engage in massive pro-growth investments that would help them to quickly recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, in a recent data, the Debt Management Office (DMO) said Nigeria expended $243 million on debt servicing alone from January to December 2020.There is, however, a glimmer of hope from the AFDB: The African Development Bank is to support African countries to produce required vaccines within the continent, in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Adesina, the President of the Bank, confirmed the development while speaking on Africa’s Debt and Growth in an interview with CNN ahead of the launch of AfDB’s African Economic Outlook 2021. The promise: “We at AfDB have therefore decided that we are going to support Africa to have quality healthcare infrastructure and also make sure that it develops its own pharmaceutical capacity and also produce vaccines in Africa; not running from pillar to post.”The AfDB President noted that the issue of vaccine was a big problem and that the Africa has so far received a mere 1 per cent of the continent’s needs. His words: “You know so far 40.6 million vaccines have been delivered in Africa and people can’t even get a shot in the arm. That 40.6 million is only 1 percent of what we need; talk less of having 60 percent of herd immunity. So we are way off the mark on that.” The former AGRA chief emphasised the importance of Africa to have access to the vaccines and the need to have vaccine solidarity, pointing out that although those concerned are doing a great job, “the amounts are still in miniscule as far as we are concerned. We need to actually have global solidarity on this; but beyond that, there must also be vaccine justice, making sure that everybody has the vaccine.” Dr. Adesina warned against leaving Africa behind in the distribution of the vaccines. His words, “If we deal with this pandemic in one part of the world and don’t deal with other parts, we are going back to square one. So, absolutely we must make sure that we ramp up access to vaccine. Africa needs it in quantity, it needs it on time and it needs it on an affordable price.”Already, there are challenging economic situation across the continent leading to loss of jobs, more poverty and hunger. This has the tendency of worsening social, economic and political fragility of countries.According to the AfDB’s chief executive officer, “a lot of young people lost jobs, and so for us, it’s how do you build back, making sure you have economic resilience. Of course, doing that with climate resilience; also make sure that we can secure the health of the populations with health resilience. Now the political dynamics of this is very important because when young people can’t find jobs, it can really worsen social, economic and political fragility of countries. And here is the thing, everything comes back to making sure Africa is supported at this time to meet its deficit. Adesina revealed: “We were looking for $154 billion last year – that was all. Developed countries were spending over $9 trillion, the G20; but Africa couldn’t just get $154 billion. There needs to be a total change in that, to make sure that Africa gets the resources to expand its fiscal space; and in particular the issue of debt, because you can’t really run up the hill with a backpack that is full of sand.”The AfDB boss also urged creditors to extend the period of debt repayment and forgiveness in such a way that the period of deferment continues to be helpful to African countries. This prescription can’t be discounted in that COVID-19 related spending has swollen many countries borrowing; and without more aid, 39 million Africans stand the risk of falling into extreme poverty this year. More than 30 million Africans are already in the extreme poverty bracket. On the growth in Africa, Dr. Akinwunmi said, “We projected that Africa will grow back. We projected 3.4 percent back this year; but all that is conditional on two things: Access to vaccines and the issue of debts.The African Economic Outlook is the African Development Bank’s flagship annual publication. It provides economic data as well as analysis and recommendations for the continent’s economies. Each edition focuses on a contemporary theme. Our economic managers need to study the facts behind the figures – to show themselves approved at this time. Meanwhile, will the rich lenders listen to the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz who also called for a comprehensive global plan to help countries cope with mounting debt that has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic? Stiglitz, a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2001, who was speaking at the virtual launch of the 2021 African Economic Outlook report during a conversation with Bank President Dr. Adesina noted, that’s a question I’ve been very concerned with for a long time … You need debt restructuring, and that needs to be really high on the international agenda…Every country has bankruptcy laws but there’s no bankruptcy law for international debt. Remember when there’s too much debt, it’s as much the creditor’s problem as the debtor’s problem’, said Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University, New York. That word is also enough for those who like to borrow for just consumption.

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1 April 2021
[myREPUBLICA] Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon awarded with Sunhak Peace Prize

Published On: February 5, 2020 02:02 PM NPT By: RepublicaSOUTH KOREA, Feb 5: Former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has bagged the Sunhak Peace Prize during the World Summit 2020 General Assembly held in Seoul on Wednesday.The assembly was organized to celebrate the 100th birthday of Dr. Sun Myung Moon on Tuesday.Around 6,000 distinguished guests from home and abroad, including Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, co-founder of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, Brigi Rafini, prime minister of Niger, and around 150 former and current heads of state from 120 countries participated in the program.In his speech during the assembly, the former UN Secretary General said \"I can feel the passion for world peace at World Summit 2020. I firmly believe that this summit will serve as a great springboard for gathering the board, substantial support of the international community in achieving this vision for the sake of a unified Korea, and for the sake of the international community more largely.”Ban said in his welcoming speech “Among the world’s thorny issues such as exclusive nationalism, peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula and environmental issues, the World Summit 2020 is indeed a timely conference.”Furthermore, he emphasized that “As the natural environment is becoming the silent harbinger of the world’s end, I concluded the Paris Agreement as the first agenda to be done during my tenure at the U.N. We need more worldwide efforts to make this realization. Therefore, this summit will be a significant opportunity to bring substantive support for the peaceful reunification on the Korean Peninsula and world peace centered on co-existence, cooperation, and prosperity.”Moon also said that he would continue to work for international peace and humanity till his last breath.

692

7 March 2021
[Washington Times] Senegal president, Lutheran pastor win peace prizes

NAGOYA, Japan — President Macky Sall of Senegal and Lutheran pastor Munib Younan were awarded the Sunhak Peace Prize Saturday for their work promoting peace and prosperity in Africa and the Middle East.The Sunhak Peace Prize Committee also chose former U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for its Founders Award, citing his service with the international body and his commitment to addressing climate change.The fourth peace prize awards were announced by Hak Ja Han Moon, widow of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and leader of the Unification movement that arose from the Unification Church he founded in 1954. She is the head of the Universal Peace Federation, which held its leadership summit and conference this weekend in Nagoya, Japan. The peace prize committee honored Mr. Sall for “spreading mature democracy to neighboring countries in the African continent, where dictatorship and poverty are still rampant, by successfully shortening the presidential term [from seven years to five] and leading an economic revival through transparent policy.”The committee noted that Mr. Sall’s two-phase economic program has stabilized Senegal’s growth at around 6%.Bishop Younan, an Arab Christian born in Jerusalem, served as president of the Lutheran World Federation from 2010 to 2017, where he “led efforts toward religious harmony on a global scale,” the committee said. He is credited with helping to foster a closer dialogue with the Catholic Church and devoting his life to promoting harmony among Jews, Christians and Muslims.They will share the $1 million prize.Mr. Ban will receive $500,000 as the winner of the Founders Award at a ceremony in Seoul in February, to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rev. Moon, whose ministry grew from a tiny, embattled church in his native South Korea to a global spiritual movement and an affiliated commercial empire comprising real estate, manufacturing and agricultural operations, and media properties including The Washington Times.He was chosen for “his devotion in leading the U.N. toward a sustainable world in the face of unprecedented global challenges and crises, such as the global economic crisis, climate change, terrorism and refugee issues during his term,” the committee said.The laureates were selected from a total of more than 80 nominees worldwide.Original article is available in the link below:https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/oct/5/senegal-president-lutheran-pastor-win-peace-prizes/

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7 March 2021

6 7 8 9 10

Sunhak Peace Prize

Future generations refer not only to our own physical descendants
but also to all future generations to come.

Since all decisions made by the current generation will either positively
or negatively affect them, we must take responsibility for our actions.