To improve access to safe water, the Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to have a holistic revitalization of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) for the residents.
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Showing posts with label Access. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Access. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Safe water: Lagos, USAID to improve access, supply - NaijaAgroNet
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Friday, June 24, 2022
GCA, AfDB join forces to scale up access to climate-smart technologies - NaijaAgroNet
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The Global Center for Adaptation (GCA) and African Development Bank (AfDB) have advanced plans to scale up access to climate-smart digital technologies in Africa, reports NaijaAgroNet.
The Global Center for Adaptation (GCA) and African Development Bank (AfDB) have advanced plans to scale up access to climate-smart digital technologies in Africa, reports NaijaAgroNet.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
IFAD wants increased access to finance for smallholder farmers - NaijaAgroNet
Indications have emerged that over 440,000 smallholder
farmers in Mali to have better access to rural financial services thanks to a
new agreement signed on 6 July by the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD) and the Republic of Mali, reports NaijaAgroNet.
The new agreement will provide financial support to the
Inclusive Finance in Agricultural Value Chain Project (INCLUSIF), which will be
implemented in five regions of the country (Koulikoro, Sikasso, Kayes, Ségou
and Mopti). By providing a range of financial products, including savings,
credit and micro-insurance, the project will enable smallholder farmers to
invest in the necessary infrastructure and equipment that will help them
produce, store, process and better market their products.
“INCLUSIF’s vision is to promote the sustainable
transformation of agricultural value chains by improving financial inclusion
for disadvantaged groups, such as women and young people, and their
organizations,” said Philippe Rémy, IFAD Country Programme Manager for Mali.
Rémy said INCLUSIF will bring 440,000 smallholders and 360
agricultural professional organizations into the banking system. In addition,
over 40,000 producers will have access to financing for climate change
adaptation. The project will also develop profitable and sustainable
relationships with the private sector and the financial system.
Currently, financial inclusion in Mali’s rural areas stands
at 20 per cent. Small and medium-sized enterprises also experience difficulties
in accessing finance. In 2016, less than 1 per cent of bank credit went to the
agricultural sector.
The total cost of the project is US$105.5 million, including
a $22.9 million loan and $22.9 million grant from IFAD. The project will be
cofinanced by the Government of Denmark ($21.6 million), rural finance
institutions ($15.5 million), the ABC Microfinance (Babyloan) ($0.4 million),
the private sector ($5.4 million), the Government of Mali ($4.6 million) and by
the beneficiaries themselves ($1.9 million). The financing gap of $10.4 million
will be covered from future IFAD financing rounds or by other potential
cofinancing partners.
The financial agreement was signed by Gilbert F. Houngbo,
President of IFAD, and Boubou Cissé, Minister of Economy and Finance of the
Republic of Mali.
Since 1982, IFAD has financed 14 rural development
programmes and projects in Mali at a total cost of $630 million, with an IFAD
investment of $274.9 million. These programmes and projects have directly
benefitted more than 516,000 rural households.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
180m lack access to basic water, UNICEF
Over 180 million people do not have access to basic drinking
water in countries affected by conflict, violence and instability across the
world, UNICEF warned today, as World Water Week gets under way.
“Children’s access to safe water and sanitation, especially
in conflicts and emergencies, is a right, not a privilege” said Sanjay
Wijesekera, UNICEF’s global chief of water, sanitation and hygiene. ”In
countries beset by violence, displacement, conflict and instability, children’s
most basic means of survival – water – must be a priority.”
People living in fragile situations are four times more
likely to lack basic drinking water than populations in non-fragile situations,
according to a recent UNICEF and World Health Organisation analysis. Of the
estimated 484 million people living in fragile situations in 2015, 183 million
lacked basic drinking water services.
In Yemen, a country reeling from the impact of over two
years of conflict, water supply networks that serve the country’s largest
cities are at imminent risk of collapse due to war-inflicted damage and
disrepair. Around 15 million people in the country have been cut off from
regular access to water and sanitation.
In Syria, where the conflict is well into its seventh year,
around 15 million people are in need of safe water, including an estimated 6.4
million children. Water has frequently been used as a weapon of war: In 2016
alone, there were at least 30 deliberate water cuts – including in Aleppo,
Damascus, Hama, Raqqa and Dara, with pumps destroyed and water sources
contaminated.
In conflict-affected areas in northeast Nigeria, 75 per cent
of water and sanitation infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, leaving
3.6 million people without even basic water services.
In South Sudan, where fighting has raged for over three
years, almost half the water points across the country have been damaged or
completely destroyed.
“In far too many cases, water and sanitation systems have
been attacked, damaged or left in disrepair to the point of collapse. When
children have no safe water to drink, and when health systems are left in
ruins, malnutrition and potentially fatal diseases like cholera will inevitably
follow,” said Wijesekera.
In Yemen, for example, children make up more than 53 per
cent of the over half a million cases of suspected cholera and acute watery
diarrhoea reported so far. Somalia is
suffering from the largest outbreak of cholera in the last five years, with
nearly 77,000 cases of suspected cholera/acute watery diarrhoea. And in South
Sudan, the cholera outbreak is the most severe the country has ever
experienced, with more than 19,000 cases since June 2016.
In famine-threatened north-east Nigeria, Somalia, South
Sudan and Yemen, nearly 30 million people, including 14.6 million children, are
in urgent need of safe water. More than 5 million children are estimated to be
malnourished this year, with 1.4 million severely so.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Saturday, April 22, 2017
Over 1.2bn Africans lack access to basic sanitation
Over 1.2 billion Africans are surviving without basic
sanitation and 395 million people are without clean water, reports NaijaAgroNet.
This is coming as over 130 million Nigerians have been identified
as not having access to adequate sanitation out of the total in Africa.
WaterAid made this
disclosure as part of the commemoration of the 2017 World Earth Day which theme
centred on “Environmental and Climate Literacy” saying the collaborative
monitoring platform set up by WaterAid, showed that 57 million people in
Nigeria don't have access to safe water.
Also, WaterAid revealed
that the over 130 million people living without access to adequate sanitation accounts
for the two third of the population and around 45,000 children under five years
old die every year from diarrhea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation.
NaijaAgroNet further gathered that with Africa’s population
projected to be 2.2 billion by 2030, only 32 per cent of Sub-Saharan Africans will
have access to sanitation by 2030.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Thursday, February 16, 2017
Bolivia gets support to access climate funding
The South American country of Bolivia, has received support
to access the United Nations (UN) Green Climate Fund, requesting $250 million for
efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change on food security and rural
livelihoods in the country reports NaijaAgroNet.
This, NaijaAgroNet gathered formed top agenda of a meeting Thursday,
between the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) led by Director General
José Graziano da Silva and President Evo Morales, which is projected to assist
Bolivia in accessing financial support for improved water management programmes
in those areas of the Andean nation that have been hardest hit by prolonged
drought.
Both agreed to jointly submit a technical proposal to the
UN’s Green Climate Fund to the tune of $250 million in support for efforts to
reduce the impacts of climate change on food security and rural livelihoods in
Bolivia.
“This effort represents a clear example of how countries can
access the Green Fund and will serve as a model for other nations in similar
situations looking to access resources,” said FAO’s Director-General.
Strengthening water security is fundamental to boosting the
resilience of small farmers, he said, adding that it would be important to
establish institutional mechanisms for overseeing and evaluating how the
funding is used.
“People are extremely worried as a result of the drought and
lack of rain, so working with FAO we’re examining how the Green Fund can help
us address this problem. Guaranteeing water for drinking and irrigation for our
indigenous family farmers is equivalent to liberating our communities from
poverty,” said President Morales.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
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Monday, January 23, 2017
EU signs N22.086trn grant with Zambia, improves access to energy
The European Union (EU) has signed up the sum of €65 million,
about N22,086,252,500.00, grant with Zambia to improve access to energy,
reports NaijaAgroNet.
This programme, NaijaAgroNet gathered would provide access
to reliable, clean and affordable electricity services to at least 63,000
households, or about 300,000 people, to social and public infrastructure and to
eligible Micro Small Enterprises (MSEs), which will be done through the
rehabilitation and expansion of the low voltage distribution network in
selected low income areas of Lusaka City with high population density.
The financing agreement for a grant of €65 million was
signed today in Brussels by Commissioner for International Development and
Cooperation Neven Mimica and the Minister of Finance of the Republic of Zambia
Felix Mutati. This took place in the framework of a meeting where Commissioner
Mimica and Minister Mutati exchanged views on the very good bilateral relations
between the European Union and Zambia.
Speaking on this occasion, Commissioner Neven Mimica said:
"This €65 million programme demonstrates the continued commitment of the
European Union in collaboration with European Financial Institutions (EFIs) to
provide the much needed capital investment for basic infrastructure
development, in order to improve the livelihood and social status of poor
communities in Zambia.
"The rehabilitation of the low voltage distribution
network and the new connections will allow for the provision of reliable and
affordable energy services and economic empowerment. The programme will support
the implementation of the European External Investment Plan which prioritises
socio-economic development through infrastructure and energy in particular."
The project is co-financed with the European Investment Bank
(EIB), which provides additional loans amounting to €15 Million. It is also
part of a larger Lusaka Transmission and Distribution Rehabilitation plan,
co-financed by the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and ZESCO Limited.
Currently Lusaka faces challenges, because its electricity
network infrastructure results in significant energy losses. This is coupled
with an increasing population in high density low-income areas, which is unable
to access electricity services due to high connection costs.
Lack of access to
electricity services seriously deprives the affected population, in terms of
quality of life and exposure to various hazards that go with it (in-door
pollution, unsafe cooking, poor social services, low self-esteem etc..),
worsening the social inequality gap between the low density and high density
urban areas.
In addition to the rehabilitation and expansion of the low
voltage distribution network, the programme includes a connection-fee subsidy
scheme to encourage new household connections as well as measures to promote
productive uses of electricity by women and Micro and Small Enterprises. These
will include facilitated access to micro credit lines and training in business
management and entrepreneurship.
Chuks Egbune/GEE
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Friday, March 20, 2015
2.5m Nigerians now have access to safe water in rural areas
Estimated 2.3 billion Nigerians now have access to enhanced drinking
water since 1990, according to the United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) reports NaijaAgroNet.
Also UNICEF said is coming as a
result of the Millennium Development Goal (MGD) target of halving the
percentage of the global population without access which is met in 2010.
In the case of sanitation, nearly
2.5 billion people worldwide still do not have adequate toilets and among them,
1 billion defecate in the open. While some 70 million people without access to
safe water and over 110 million people without access to improved sanitation,
Nigeria is currently not on-track with regard to its attainment of Water and
Sanitation targets.
The poor bear the greatest brunt of
this lack of access to water and sanitation. For women and girls, collecting
water cuts into time they can spend caring for families and studying. In
insecure areas, it also puts them at risk of violence and attack. UNICEF
estimates that in Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just
walking to collect water. For children, lack of access to safe water can
be tragic. On average, nearly 1,000 of them die globally every day from
diarrhoeal diseases linked to unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation, or poor
hygiene.
This year’s theme on World Water
Day, which falls on 22nd March, is “Water and Sustainable Development”.
The theme aptly encapsulates the overarching role of water in our lives, be it
for human consumption, food production, for health, for power generation, for
industry and for the sustenance of nature as a whole, without which life would
not exist.
This year’s theme highlights the
importance of water to our existence and emphasizes the need to look at the
holistic development of the water sector, reduce water wastage and prevent
contamination of this increasingly scarce resources. “Everyone, be it the
government, the civil society, international development partners and the
citizens including children have a critical role to play in ensuring that water
is sustainably used and is available for generations to come” said Kannan
Nadar, Chief, Water and Sanitation, UNICEF.
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Sunday, December 29, 2013
West Africa food security: Small-scale farmers must have access to markets
A new study by the Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development
(IFAD) made available to NaijaAgroNet
shows that for West Africa to surmount its food security challenges,
small-scale farmers must have greater access to markets.
NaijaAgroNet
gathered that the study, entitled Rebuilding West Africa’s Food
Potential, presented 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.
The study revealed to NaijaAgroNet 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 sectors.
FAO Senior Economist, Aziz Elbehri, who edited the publication told NaijaAgroNet that although some West African countries are doing better than others, the region has lagged behind other parts of Africa in terms of basic infrastructure, investments, research and development and agricultural processing.
The study revealed to NaijaAgroNet 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 sectors.
FAO Senior Economist, Aziz Elbehri, who edited the publication told NaijaAgroNet that although some West African countries are doing better than others, the region has lagged behind other parts of Africa in terms of basic infrastructure, investments, research and development and agricultural processing.
The book reasons, Elbehri said that the region should direct greater efforts to develop its staple food crops, which in the past have been sidelined in favour of a few export commodities.
NaijaAgroNet noted that Maize and cassava, which are two of the main pillars of West Africa’s food security, could form the backbone for a thriving agro-industry given their multiple market applications, the publication suggests.
“There is a huge production deficit in rice in the region, which currently imports an unsustainable 70 per cent of what it consumes,” FAO said, stressing that yields of sorghum and millet which are critically important for the food security of 100 million people in the Sahel, could double or triple with the help of improved seed varieties and fertilizer. Pointing out that providing farmers’ with the means to boost the yields of staple food crops is not enough.
“Farmers have little incentive to increase production if they can’t sell their crops because of cheaper and easily accessible imports. Policy and market incentives are needed to improve the competitiveness of locally grown crops and increase their share in the consumer market,” Elbehri said.
NaijaAgroNet recalls that the study also underscored the importance of continued investment in export crops such as cotton, coffee and cocoa, which play a significant role in generating income and employment, and flags tropical fruit and vegetables and other emerging niche products like sesame and cashew nuts as another viable area for export growth.
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Monday, June 18, 2012
Nigeria: Expert attributes food price hike to Boko Haram insurgence
Market women selling farm produce |
The Technical
Adviser to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi
Adesina, Dr. Tony Egba said the activities of the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria
are responsible for the rise in food price in the northern part of the country.
NaijaAgroNet gathered that Dr. Egba said,
fears arising from the activities of the sect have resulted in transporters
avoiding some areas in the north.
He also said that
Nigerians’ involvement in subsistence farming was also responsible for the low
food productivity and that the minister planned to change this.
The change, he
said would come through the encouragement of mecahnised farming to boost food
production.
Source: NigerianObserver
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