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Showing posts with label initiative. Show all posts
Showing posts with label initiative. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Kilimanjaro Initiative heads to AU Summits


As part of the action plans for the Kilimanjaro Initiative, which commenced since March, this year, will in the coming months head to the headquarters of the African Union Commission (AUC) to register the advocacy and call for action, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This, NaijaAgroNet gathered, will come as part of their participation via delegation at selected AU summits between the month of July and August 2016.

Confirming these plans in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire during a presentation at a workshop hosted jointly by the Africa Media Initiative (AMI) and World Bank in Abidjan, the Africa Advocacy Officer, ActionAid International, Mr. Buba Khan, informed NaijaAgroNet that the plan to AU Summits is a continental call to action so as to push the advocacy to the heads of governments and states in Africa.

Khan also said that the march to AU Summits, will be heralded with a launch of a flagship report on the status of women land rights in Africa.

The target for this specific action will be regional actors in support of rural women to engage in African Union (AU), Southern Africa Development Commission (SADC), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) heads of states summits.

Further, he said, the journey to Kilimanjaro as scheduled between September and October this year, will see to the launch of Caravans to Kilimanjaro as a creative digital engagement tools will be made available to communicate, mobilise and engage supporters from global North.

Additionally, he revealed that stunts, speaking tour, lobby visits and story-gathering will be planned to engage the public and decision makers in the north.

“Rural Women across Africa, Latin America and Asia will be mobilized to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa,” he said, stressing they will reclaim their power and demand right to access and control of land. Just as government officials and high profile women leaders will be called upon to witness and hear direct voices from rural women.

Key demands the initiative will be asking from AU, Khan hinted will include full implementation of the AU guiding principles on large scale land based investment and the tenure guidelines on land, fisheries and forests through participatory, inclusive mechanisms that prioritise the rights and needs of legitimate tenure users, especially women.

The summit will be charged to ensure free, prior and informed consent for all communities affected by land transfers, including the fair and equitable participation of local communities, especially excluded and marginalised groups such as women, youth, children, minorities, the elderly and disabled.

Participation of the delegation, he explained, will spur review of public policies and projects that incentivise land grabbing, and instead support policies that prioritise the needs of small-scale food producers – particularly women – and sustainable land use.


This, he pointed out will help in regulating businesses involved in land deals so that they are fully accountable for respecting human rights, tenure rights and environmental, social and labour standards. This includes ensuring that investors carry out comprehensive human rights due diligence, are transparent and are fully accountable throughout all their operations at home and abroad, to name a few.

+Remmy Nweke in Abidjan/ED Ops 
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Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Kilimanjaro Initiative gathers momentum

The Kilimanjaro Initiative is gathering momentum as its council with five-regional representatives acting in the capacity of Rural Women Steering Group step-up activities for the actualization of its objectives, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The council, NaijaAgroNet comprising five regional women representatives from Northern Africa, Eastern Africa, Central Africa, West Africa and Southern Africa.

This is coming as international agency steering group, is currently being convened by ActionAid and made up of Oxfam, ILC, WILDAF, Tanzania Gender Networking programme, Kenya Land Alliance among others, to see to the success of the programme.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that members of the council include Moroccoan Ghita Ait Ben Lmadani, who is representing North, Flora Mathias Mlowezi of Tanzania representing Eastern Africa; Cameroonian Augustina Takah and Vanessa Adoko standing in for the Central Africa, whereas Nigerian Lovelyn Ejim Nnenna is representing West Africa in the council.

Kilimanjaro Initiative, conceived by rural women in 2012 with support from civil society organisations at a meeting held in Dar e salaam, Tanzania, creates space for rural women to participate in decision making about the issues dear to them.

Also, the initiative seeks to mobilise rural women from across Africa towards an iconic moment at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro in October 2016, with access to and control over land and natural resource as an entry point.

The mobilisation is expected to culminate in a mass African rural women’s assembly and a symbolic ascent of the mountain by a delegation of women to proclaim a charter of principles and demands on women’s access to and control over their land. Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa, is a powerful symbol of a challenge to climb and of a starting point to spreading a message across Africa.

NaijaAgroNet further gathered that the objectives include strengthening the movement of rural women in claiming and defending their defending land and natural resource rights in Africa; engender political will amongst national governments, donor and regional institutions to implement an all-inclusive African women’s charter.

The initiative, NaijaAgroNet reports, will work towards mobilising and supporting the participation of 100,000 rural women in the Kilimanjaro initiative across Africa and raising awareness on existing frameworks and safeguards around large scale land based investments and demand for their application in securing legitimate tenure rights of rural women in Africa.

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Friday, July 17, 2015

FF, AUC say leadership, partnership key for Africa’s agricultural transformation



NaijaAgroNet

 
A panel co-hosted by the United States government's global food security initiative, Feed the Future, and African Union Commission (AUC) have said government leadership and partnerships with the private sector as well as civil society are crucial for Africa to achieve food security, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Held recently in Addis Ababa, the panel was a side event of the Third Finance for Development Conference aimed to highlight how the commission's Comprehensive Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) set the foundation for enhanced engagement for the governments throughout the continent with the private sector as well as how non-state actors could play a role in advancement of country-led approaches towards food security.

Deputy Chairperson, AUC, Erastus Mwencha, in his keynote said, "Since the initiation of CAADAP we have seen a tremendous transformation in agriculture sector."

Acting Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),  Ambassador Alfonso Lenhardt, on his part, said that "the possibilities are truly endless" when the private sector, the civil society and all relevant stakeholders are engaged in ensuring food and nutrition security, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

He went further to say, "We are on a critical part of the post-2015 agenda. And we must work together" towards the transformation of the agricultural sector."

In support of  Lenhardt’s position, NaijaAgroNet reports, was a panelist, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ethiopian Government's Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), Khalid, Bomba who said "increase production and productivity, manage risks and disaster as well as work on commercialization, we must work together to translate policies into action. We must engage the private sector and civil society groups."

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE
 
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Monday, April 20, 2015

Taking healthcare delivery to another level through ICT

 NaijaAgroNet

The African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI) – a pan African initiative hosted by the United Nations in Addis Ababa recently highlighted Nigerian example in containment of Ebola and emphasized the role of technology in transforming health care delivery and Ebola research and development, NaijaAgroNet reports

Executive Director of ANDI, Dr. Solomon Nwaka said that the meeting recommended that the Nigerian approach to Ebola outbreak be written and publicized broadly, as a model for future outbreaks or emergent infections.

The establishment of a properly resourced Ebola emergency operation centre by the Nigerian government under the Nigerian Center for Disease Control of the ministry of health as well as a strong coordination of efforts with functional public and private diagnostic laboratories, NaijaAgroNet gathered, was important to this success.

“Ongoing development of diagnostics and surveillance tools for Ebola in Nigeria and Uganda as well as the pioneering work of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) Abuja on the development of NIPRISAN from local traditional medicines for the management of Sickle Cell Anaemia, were examples of technologies discussed at the ANDI event, Nwaka stated.

According to information made available to NaijaAgroNet, experts agreed that the containment of Ebola is one of the most noted public health crackdowns in the largest African country and this serves as a model for the rest of the world.

NaijaAgroNet further learnt that recognizing Nigeria’s successful response to Ebola, according to the health professionals, is an indication that with same commitments and adequate preparations, the clamour for functional health and innovation system is attainable.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

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