Calendar of events

 July, TerrAfrica executive committee meeting co-ordinated by NEPAD Secretariat.
 17 - 23 August, World Water Week, Stockholm, Sweden.
 31 August - 6 September, Conference and training seminar : micro, small and medium enterprise development, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Source : NEPAD, june 25, 2008

More disbursements from NEPAD-Spanish Fund

The following disbursements were made from the NEPAD-Spanish Fund for the Empowerment of Women for the week ending 25 July 2008.

Equality Now (Kenya) ; African Women Development (Kenya) ; Church of Central African Presbyterian Synod of Livingstonia (Malawi) ; Federation des Organisations de la Societe Civile Camerounaise (Cameroon) ; Dundacao para Desenvolvimento da Communidade (Mozambique) ; Cape Vert Institute for Gender Equality (Cape Verde) ; Femmes Africa Solidarite (Senegal). The NEPAD Secretariat reminds all beneficiaries to conform to the following rules and procedures on receipt of funds :

Acknowledge receipt of the funding ; Revise the budget to reflect encountered time delays by filling out the budget template provided ; Ensure that administrative costs do not exceed 8% of the total budget ; Forward to the NEPAD Secretariat the bank statements for the month of June and all the upcoming months. Organisations which have not yet responded to correspondence sent to them are causing a problem as the second call for funding proposals cannot be started before the first call has been completed. They are urged to submit the pending documentation immediately to enable the NEPAD Secretariat to bring the first call to an end.

The NEPAD Secretariat thanks all organisations and groups for their cooperation and continued interest in the NEPAD-Spanish Fund. Source : NEPAD, june 25, 2008

Great Green Wall across the Sahara desert

The Sahelo-Saharan states have launched the Great Green Wall project within the framework of NEPAD, which involves planting a five-kilometre-wide strip of trees over a distance of 7,000 km from Dakar to Djibouti, across the desert, to prevent further desertification. The wall will stretch from the Gulf of Aden on the east coast of Africa right across the Sahelo-Saharan states to Senegal on the west coast.

"With the regeneration of biodiversity, we plan to give our planet a new ’green lung’ and contribute thus to the fight against climatic changes," said a representative of the Government of Senegal.

The tree varieties have already been selected, in accordance with the climatic zones and each country is responsible for the Green Wall within its own borders.

There are plans to build water capture basins alongside the Green Wall.

"The process consists in collecting rain water during the rainy season at the lowest point of each village by compacting the ground as a basin.

"Every year during the rainy season we lose important quantities of water by evaporation, infiltration underground or running off to the ocean.

"With water capture basins these resources are valorised to enable farmers in rural areas to grow food all year long, develop fish farming and satisfy their nutritional needs and even export market garden produces."

The Senegal government believes that Africa "with its unexploited huge land resources — can at the same time be a bread basket and a reservoir for biofuel."

Plants like Jartropha which can be used for biofuel grow wild in Senegal.

(Source : The Gardian, 23 July 2008) NEPAD, june 25, 2008

NEPAD’s seconded officials are going home

NEPAD has said farewell to two senior programme co-ordinators, Karim Khalil and Belkacem Smaili, at an event held at the NEPAD Secretariat in Midrand, South Africa, and attended by NEPAD Acting CEO, Amb. Olukorede Willoughby, advisors and staff.

Khalil was seconded by the Egyptian Government as the NEPAD Co-ordinator for Trade Industry and Investment, and has been working at the Secretariat for the six years, while Smaili was seconded by the Algerian Government as NEPAD Co-ordinator for UN System Support, Regional Integration and Pan African Parliament, and has been with the Secretariat for three years. Both have been recalled by their Governments.

Ambassador Willoughby praised their dedication and success in their missions. “We are happy that you are going to continue fulfilling the NEPAD vision and objectives as NEPAD ambassadors in your home countries,” he said. Source : NEPAD, june 25, 2008

NEPAD-Spanish Fund support for women of Namibia

The NEPAD-Spanish Fund for the Empowerment of Women has donated R2.5 million to the Women’s Action for Development (WAD) for empowerment training and programmes for 2008 in Namibia’s 13 regions.

The training ranges from computer skills, typing and office administration, to needle-work, civic education, project management and bookkeeping as well as the Namibian constitution and laws.

WAD is a local non-governmental organisation established in 1994 to empower rural unemployed women through training to generate income for themselves. To date it has trained 30,000 women.

New courses in hospitality, housekeeping, upholstery, soap-making, civic education, brick-making, brick-laying and weaving were introduced this year.

At the handing-over ceremony WAD executive director Veronica de Klerk said she was grateful to the NEPAD-Spanish Fund for coming on board for 2008 and expressed her appreciation to the Spanish Government for its outstanding financial support.

The Spanish Ambassador to Namibia, Maria Victoria Scola Pliego, encouraged other women empowerment organisations to apply for the funds in order to improve the living standards of the Namibian women. Source : NEPAD, june 25, 2008

CAADP now seen as historic step in Africa’s development

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) is now perceived by African leaders, civil society and key development partners, as a historic step in Africa’s development, according to Prof. Richard Mkandawire, Head of the CAADP/NEPAD Agriculture Unit, in a recent note on the CAADP road map.

“As a component of the broader NEPAD agenda, CAADP is an Africa-led and Africa-owned initiative and framework to rationalise and revitalise African agriculture for economic growth and lasting poverty reduction results,” he said.

Ending poverty and hunger would require bold decisions from African governments, he added.

African governments have agreed to increase public investment in agriculture by a minimum of 10 per cent of their national budgets and to raise agricultural productivity by at least 6 per cent as is set-out in the CAADP agenda.

This is to be done through the four CAADP pillars :

Extending the area under sustainable land management ; Improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access ; Increasing food supply and reducing hunger ; Agricultural research, technology dissemination and adoption. Although CAADP is continental in scope, particularly at the level of the Regional Economic Communities (REC’s), focus is on implementing CAADP at the national level particularly through the country roundtable process.

The country roundtables are where key players come together to assess the realities of their own particular situation and develop a road map for going forward.

The roundtable process starts by getting national governments to buy into CAADP and to take leadership. This is then followed by engagements with key players, through coalitions, around a common commitment to move forward with CAADP.

A formal launch of CAADP is then carried out before going on to identify priority areas for investment through a compact agreement that is signed by all key partners.

The following map highlights some of the key CAADP implementation stages and processes leading to the country roundtable and the signing of the compact. The map also attempts to provide a snap-shot of country-level CAADP progress.

As at July 2008 more than a dozen countries are working at various levels towards the CAADP roundtable processes.

Rwanda was the first country to sign the first Country CAADP Compact with five other countries Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Nigeria and Zambia en-route to adopting their compacts this year.

According to Prof. Mkandawire, 2008 has now been designated as the year of CAADP with a major event being held in October 2008 to take stock of CAADP progress and the roles played by the RECs, African governments, development partners, civil society, farmers and business in supporting African agriculture. Source : NEPAD, june 25, 2008

Répondre à cet article