NEPAD TV schedule

The next programme schedule for the NEPAD TV slot on the SABC Africa channel (DSTV Channel 286) is :

African Views - 12 March, 8pm-9pm (SA time)

This phone-in panel discussion will feature Prof. Eric Buch, NEPAD advisor on health, HIV and AIDS. He is professor of health policy and management in the School of Health Systems and Public Health at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and is a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of the International Centre for Human Resources in Nursing. He is also a board member of the Global Health Workforce Alliance.

The topic for discussion will be NEPAD policies on health in Africa and the panel will include three members of the World Health Organisation. NEPAD News, march 7, 2007

NEPAD Kenya keeps busy during difficult times

Kenya has been going through one of the toughest times in its history since the highly contested general election and the NEPAD Secretariat in Nairobi has felt the full effects of this crisis.

On 14 February 2008 the Secretariat managed to arrange a meeting with key civil society organsations which were active during the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) self-assessment process in 2005, in order to brainstorm on how NEPAD can incorporate them in the preparation of the APRM 2nd annual report for July 2007 to June 2008. This is expected to be presented during the NEPAD Heads of State Summit to be held in Cairo, Egypt.

Key issues were raised on the need to actively bring the civil society organisations into the process of collecting views from the people.

This process will carried out through issue-based forums, using the APRM as a tool to coordinate the voices of the civil society, to refine partnerships between the stakeholders and key policy formulating institutions, and also to create a greater platform from which the overarching issues arising from the APRM report of 2006 can be addressed and acted upon by the governing institutions.

The meeting also agreed on the need to ensure maximum civil society involvement in monitoring the implementation of the APRM National Programme of Action in the country.

On 28 February the official briefing of key stakeholders on the NEPAD Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) in Kenya was held at the Ministry of Agriculture headquarters in Nairobi.

During this briefing session the participants were taken through the origins of the programme and the state and non-state actors involved in its implementation.

In the course of the meeting t he USAID regional office presented its perspectives on how the CAADP programme can be creatively streamlined with their agricultural development plans for the Horn of Kenya region.

It was noted that most of the funding arrangements of the northern frontier districts go to emergency operations, with less being given for development initiatives.

Some important issues which emerged from the meeting included :

The need to establish even closer partnerships for implementation of CAADP in Kenya ;

National GDP is closely interlinked with agricultural GDP, hence budget allocations to the Ministry of Agriculture must increase with time ;

The need to incorporate the African Green Revolution (AGRA) component in the CAADP programme in Kenya ;

African Development Bank funding for fertilizer and seed distribution to farmers.

The NEPAD Secretariat in Kenya is now embarking on a rigorous planning phase for the preparation of the APRM 2nd annual report to be presented in June 2008, during the African Union Summit. This includes collection of views from the people through issue-based forums, desk research and provincial stakeholder workshops.

From 16-20 March 2008, the Kenya Secretariat will be holding a NEPAD Eastern Africa journalist/media forum in Arusha, Tanzania, which will bring together top media practitioners from the greater Eastern Africa region to discuss ways of improving media reporting on African issues. NEPAD News, march 7, 2007

NEPAD-Spanish Women’s Fund : applicants asked to wait for new deadline for proposals

Because of the already communicated changes in the management of the NEPAD-Spanish Fund for the Empowerment of Women, arrangements for the second call for proposals for project funding are being made. Applicants will be invited to submit or re-submit their proposals as soon as a deadline has been finalised. Applicants should in the meantime, please withhold their proposals until the new date has been announced.

The NEPAD Secretariat reiterates its apologies for any inconvenience that this delay may have caused.

In the meantime proposals for project funding submitted to the Fund following the first call for applications up to the end of August 2007 are still currently being processed.

Recruitment of members of the Technical Management Team (TMT) for the Fund is expected to be completed soon. NEPAD News, march 7, 2007