Africa CSOs canvass for more openness, inclusiveness in STC

NaijaAgroNet:

The African Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) has canvassed for more openness and inclusiveness in the activities of the Specialised Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (STC-ARDWE), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Arising from the meeting of the African CSOs Working Group (AWG) at the on-going inaugural conference of the STC on Rule of Procedure held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, NaijaAgroNet gathered that the group called for a review of the Rule 14 on “Open and Closed Sessions.”

According to the chairman of the group, Mr. Martin Tsoukeu, in a working group report, said that Rule 14 should better be put the other way round by stating that all sessions are open but a decision could be made whether any of these shall be closed.

They also expected that STC-ARDWE recommends to the Ministerial Meeting to reconsider the idea of alleged abolishing of existing Ministerial conferences, in addition to the long-standing request submitted by the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN), with regards to their relationship with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The African Working Group urged that the STC on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment should be designed in a spirit that could make it an effective coordinating body, rather than a political representation organ.

In addition, AWG, Tsoukeu said, should be made to compliment the functionalities of the existing Ministerial conferences to be renamed or reconstituted, because Ministerial conferences have shown obvious effectiveness.

These, AWG emphasized should be maintained and fully capitalized on in the new STC operating format.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia +NEPAD CAADP CAADP 
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Bissi highlights essence of media on CAADP strategies

NaijaAgroNet:

The essence of media participatory roles in scaling up the strategies of Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has been highlighted, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The CAADP coordinator, Mr. Komla Bissi shared some insights with NaijaAgroNet on the importance of media in achieving CAADP strategies, saying that farmers and related actors both states and non-states should be regularly kept informed of CAADP initiatives, especially developments projects capable of assisting them to improve on whatever is on the ground at any particular time.

This, he said, gave AU and CAADP precisely, the impetus to support the on-going first meeting of the Specialised Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment in Addis Ababa.

He also said that his office would continue to work very closely with the communication units within the African Union organs to ensure that media participate in most of the meetings where initiatives are structured so as to carry the media industry along thereby encouraging them to disseminate right and knowledgeable information for the African people.

In addition, this will assist development partners to keep a tap on African efforts in increasing agricultural productivity and fight against hunger as well as enlightenment of citizens and most essentially the farmers and farmers-based organizations adequately.

Equally, Bissi said, CAADP would continue to seek better ways of collaboration to make media practitioners’ job easier and CAADP initiatives based on AU policies easily adopted by the stakeholders like on issue of climate change among others.

He urged journalists, precisely those in CAADP Journalist Network to see their role as essential to bridging the gap between African farmers and government policies.

NaijaAgroNet recollects that CAADP is a programme of the African Union in the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) established in July 2003 with focus on improving and promoting agriculture across the African continent as part of efforts aimed at eliminating hunger and reducing poverty through agriculture.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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Financing agriculture tops new AU’s funding initiative – Bissi

NaijaAgroNet:

The Coordinator of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), Mr. Komla Bissi disclosed that financing agriculture and related sectors like water and environment are likely to top the initiatives to benefit from the new financial scheme of African Union Commission (AUC), reports NaijaAgroNet.

Mr. Bissi made this disclosure in an interview with NaijaAgroNet in Addis Ababa at the ongoing inaugural Conference of African Union Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment (STC-ARDWE) with respect to the new funding facilities of the Commission.

Though he noted that financing may not have been an easy task, especially for developing countries, but AU alongside development partners are working closely to ensure viable projects on the continent receive relevant financial supports.

He pointed out to NaijaAgroNet that the Malabo Declaration was very clear on where Africa as a continent should be headed to in order to achieved the set goals for the sustenance of the region.

He expressed optimism on the expected recommendations of STC-ARDWE to be submitted to the Council of Ministers for onward exploration in the next two days of the conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

 
Bissi further said, they are currently consulting on which element of their programmes this facility will be channeled to in line with AU and development partners’ guidelines.

+Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia +CAADP NEPAD 
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Pix: Coordinator, Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, CAADP, Komla Bissi,

Digitally reconstructed skull provides insight into dinosaur brain

NaijaAgroNet:

Some experts have described one of the most complete sauropod dinosaur braincases ever found in Europe, with a digitally reconstructed skull providing insight into dinosaur brain, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This finding, scientists said could help uncover some of the mysteries of how dinosaur brains operated, including their intellectual and sensory abilities.

NaijaAgroNet gathered that the team had digitally reconstructed the cavity where the brain lay, the passages of the cranial nerves and certain blood vessels as well as the labyrinth of the inner ear.

An extract from a journal PLOS ONE published Wednesday, the team led by a senior research fellow from The University of Manchester, Dr Fabien Knoll, described the rare find. 

“Skulls, and particularly the braincases, are very fragile so not many have survived. That is not the case with this find, which is remarkably complete,” Dr. Knoll said, stressing that the skull, from a titanosaur, a type of sauropod, was found at a dig site in eastern Spain in 2007 and experts have spent the last few years studying it to see what secrets it may reveal.

“This is such a rare finding that is why it is so exciting. Usually we find vertebrae or other bones, very rarely the braincase and this one is complete. I was present on the dig site when it was uncovered and it was a very special moment,” he said.

Pointing out that nowadays, man knew very little about the brain of dinosaurs. Research such as this is fundamental if we want to get an idea about the cognitive skills of these animals or if they had keen hearing or good eyesight and plenty of other information.”

The titanosaur  lived about 72 million years ago. Like all sauropods it was four-legged with a long neck and a long tail and herbivorous. It was a distant relative of Diplodocus but, with about 14 m in length, was only half its size. The study shows that its brain fitted in a diminutive cavity of only 6.3 cm in length.

Dr Knoll, who made the first digital reconstruction of a dinosaur endocranial cavity in the late 1990s, said: “In a few years’ time if more finds like this come to light and, above all, if they are studied with the modern imaging technologies then we could really start to understand more about dinosaur brains.” 

Isaac Onyima +ITRealms DSA

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