UNICEF receives 115,800 COVID-19 test kits from IHS - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

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United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has received the delivery of 115,800 COVID-19 test kits to support the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, courtesy of IHS Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Testing remains the mainstay of the response led by the Presidential Task Force and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the first step towards diagnosing the infection. Tests enable health officials to understand the COVID-19 status of an individual and link that person to care, support and treatment while contributing to the protection of families and communities.

Post-COVID-19: FAO reiterates mandate delivery despite pandemic - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

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The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has reiterated delivery on its mandate while safeguarding the health and wellbeing of its employees, especially since the early days of the pandemic, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The UN agency, NaijaAgroNet gathered had in July, presented the FAO COVID-19 Response and Recovery Program aimed at preventing a global food emergency during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, while working on medium- to long-term development responses for food security and nutrition.

On the normative side, the International Code of Conduct for the Sustainable Use and Management of Fertilizers and the Ten Elements of Agroecology were adopted by the FAO Conference; and the FAO Climate Change Strategy is being implemented.

On the operational side, FAO continued to support its members in combatting plant pests and animal diseases that affect lives and livelihoods of millions of people such as the Desert Locust, a threat that remains a priority for FAO with the pandemic making activities on the ground more difficult.

"Between January and August 2020, over 760 000 have been controlled across 10 countries from the Horn of Africa to Yemen," official hinted.

FAO said that in this area, control operations have averted the loss of an estimated 1.52 million tonnes of cereal in the region, stressing that this amount of grain is enough to feed 9.88 million people for an entire year and is valued at $456 million.

In some countries, including Ethiopia and Somalia, FAO and governments are currently fighting the second generation of a widespread desert locust surge. National governments continue to lead control and surveillance operations supported by FAO through the provision of pesticides, bio-pesticides, equipment, aircraft and training.

FAO has also launched the Global Action for Fall Armyworm Control for a strong and coordinated response to the rapid spread of the Fall Armyworm at all levels.

Additionally, the UN agency said, its providing assistance for a Peste des Petits Ruminants-free world, and measures aimed at countering African swine fever and other major animal diseases.

Isaac Oyimah/Editor

Renewable Energy Jobs grew to 11.5m worldwide - NaijaAgroNet ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

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The renewable energy sector has continued to bring socio-economic benefits by creating numerous jobs worldwide, according to the latest figures released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), reports NaijaAgroNet.

The seventh edition of Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual Review shows that jobs in the sector reached 11.5 million globally last year, led by solar PV with some 3.8 million jobs, or a third of the total.

United for global biodiversity agenda - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

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Ahead of the UN biodiversity summit later this month, a partnership of environment and development organisations – including IIED – are urging world leaders to ramp up ambition on action for nature, climate and development.

COVID-19 has proved that transformative action is possible with political will, so a breadth of organisations are calling on world leaders to take action to stop biodiversity loss (Photo: Tomas Munita/CIFOR via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

In June and July this year, IIED joined 27 partners – ranging from UN agencies to business groups to Indigenous Peoples’ organisations – to co-convene a series of “Virtual biodiversity dialogues”. The purpose of the dialogues? To explore some of the issues under consideration in the emerging post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and to highlight common concerns and priorities for global leaders to take into account during the negotiations.
Making the most of COVID-19 constraints.

The partnership of environment and development organisations was established in anticipation of the IUCN World Conservation Congress being held in France in June 2020. The original purpose of the partnership was to co-organise a series of side events at the congress, located in a joint ’pavilion’.

All events were to focus on the new framework due to be agreed at the Conference of the Parties (CoP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), that was due to be held in October 2020.

COVID-19 obviously put a halt to both the IUCN and CBD gatherings but the ’Post-2020 Pavilion Partnership’ decided to make the most of these global meetings being postponed and organised a series of online events instead.

Overall, nearly 900 people from all corners of the world participated in the series of 10 dialogues discussing issues ranging from the scope and content of ambitious global goals for nature to governance for transformative change; from synergies with other conventions and the Sustainable Development Goals to intergenerational equity.
Equity and justice at the heart of a new biodiversity agreement

Perhaps one of the most significant outcomes of the dialogues, from an IIED perspective, was the clear message that rights, equity and justice must lie at the heart of the post-2020 framework. These are issues that IIED has long advocated for, particularly through our work on equity in the context of protected area management. We recognise the urgent need to tackle biodiversity loss and to protect the world’s remaining intact habitats.

But efforts to protect biodiversity that ride rough-shod over local people’s rights to own and manage their resources are not acceptable, and we share concerns with human rights groups as to the potential implications of calls for 30% of land to be protected by 2030.

The dialogues made clear that this year must mark the start of a pivotal moment in human history when we reset our relationship with nature. COVID-19 has shown just how catastrophically misaligned we currently are. Last year’s IPBES Global Assessment highlighted how nature underpins the delivery of all the SDGs. And our own work emphasises the development implications of biodiversity loss.

The drivers of both biodiversity loss and the emergence of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 lie in our mismanagement of nature – in unfettered land conversion and habitat destruction driven by our global food system.

Reflecting this, a further clear message from the dialogues was that world leaders must adopt an ambitious global goal for nature that commits the world to halting further loss of nature and restoring what we have already lost. Participants discussed the concept of ‘nature positive’ as a parallel to ‘carbon neutral’ in the climate negotiations and in one session agreed we would like to see a global ambition for an equitable, carbon-neutral and nature-positive world.
Calling on world leaders to do better

Achieving this ambition would require transformative change in many areas. In our financial systems, food systems, trade systems, and in governance – from international to local levels. If COVID-19 has shown us anything at all it is that transformative action is possible when the risks of inaction are perceived to be great enough. Governments can take actions that previously might have been thought impossible.

One of the objectives of the virtual biodiversity dialogues was therefore to recognise the moment of opportunity that COVID-19 presents amid catastrophe and to collectively craft some key messages for the UN Summit on Biodiversity on 30 September. The heads of the partner organisations have signed a call to action (PDF) aimed at the world leaders participating in the summit.

The call outlines four key measures we would like leaders to take, to deliver an ambitious post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and contribute to the achievement of the SDGs and the Paris Agreement.

The Post-2020 Pavilion partners are not the only organisations issuing a call to action ahead of the UN Biodiversity Summit. Other sectors of society are also calling for ambitious, collective action for nature, climate and development including (but not limited to) business, humanitarian organisations and youth.

Will world leaders respond to these calls or will it be just business as usual? Critical agreements on nature and climate will not be forged until next year. But this month’s summit provides an opportunity for heads of state and government to set the tone for the negotiations to come.

Let’s hope that the tone in the statements that will emerge from the UN summit reflects the high ambition we need, and is accompanied by commitments to real action and change (yes, even the transformative stuff), not the lip service we’ve been used to.

Read the joint press release where hundreds of organisations – including businesses; environment and development organisations, humanitarian organisations; faith groups; local and regional governments; Indigenous Peoples; and youth – call on world leaders to ‘Act on nature’.

Contributed by Dilys Roe, a principal researcher in IIED's Natural Resources research group, Dilys Roe, 
@dilysroe

SDGs: FAO's Committee on Agriculture focuses on livestock sector transformation - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

NaijaAgroNet: 
The agricultural sectors and livestock farming in particular must shift towards sustainability to enhance their contribution to food security, nutrition and healthy diets and build back better to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenges, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu has said, reports NaijaAgroNet.

In his opening remarks to the 27th session of the Committee on Agriculture (COAG), the DG called for an integrated agri-food systems approach to better address food insecurity and malnutrition amid COVID-19.

Africa oil sector to leverage technology for optimisation - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

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The ‘Leveraging the Power of Technology for Oilfield Optimization’ webinar was organized by Microsoft in partnership with Africa Oil & Power and the African Energy Chamber, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Participants also foresee lower production costs are paramount to a revamped global oil sector with technology to spearhead cost reductions. 

LMMS performs ground-breaking for multi-specialty trauma centre - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

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The Loveworld Medical Missions and Services (LMMS) has performed the ground breaking for a multi-specialty hospital that will improve trauma care and emergency services in Nigeria, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The proposed facility to be known as the "Loveworld Medical Centre," will be situated at Aseese, along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, Ogun State and will boast of modern equipment and highly skilled personnel dedicated to service, reports NaijaAgroNet.

2020 Report on State of Agricultural Commodity Markets debuts - NaijaAgroNet: ... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched the State of Agricultural Commodity Markets 2020, reports NaijaAgroNet.

FAO, NaijaAgroNet gathered, posited that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the close relationship between markets and food security, and the role of global food systems in withstanding shocks.

Electricity hike: FG to provide solar solution for 5m says minister – NaijaAgroNet

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The Federal Government of Nigeria has advanced plans to provide solar power to some 5 million Nigerian households in the next 365 days, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed this to NaijaAgroNet on Saturday in Lagos while reacting to insensitivity of FG over the recent increases in petrol and electricity prices, said the truth is that the government can no longer afford the cost of subsidy, mostly under the prevailing economic conditions.

Omar Farouq: Cywinsky urges Buhari to reverse sentence, ready to mobilse 120 global volunteers - NaijaAgroNet

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A Director of Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland, Dr. Piotr M.A. Cywinsky, has made appealed to the Nigerian President, General Muhammadu Buhari, retired, to intervene in the recent sentencing of a 13-year Omar Farouq to 120 months in prison, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Gov. Ganduje of Kano State

He berated the Sharia court judgement, saying its disgraceful and proposed to take the place Omar if the clemency he was pleading was not appealing enough, just as he plans to mobilise some 120 adult volunteers to serve Farouq’s jail term, including himself.