Africa

Khirkee Voice aims to bridge the divide between Indians and the large local African population.

Veteran Cameroon forward Madeleine Ngono Mani is targeting a first Women's Africa Cup of Nations title at her seventh attempt.

Equatorial Guinea name West Ham midfielder Pedro Obiang in their latest squad for an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Senegal.

Netherlands-born Osama Idrissi is yet to decide on his international future despite been included in the Morocco squad for upcoming matches.

Didier Drogba loses what could be the final game of his career, as his Phoenix Rising team are beaten in the United Soccer League Cup final.

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 9 2018 (IPS)

Marco Napoli, who passed away on November 6, began his early professional career as a New York-based correspondent for several international news organizations, including the Italian Il Progresso News, back in the 1960s, long before he was Regional Director, IPS North America.

Marco Napoli

As part of his beat, he had to cover some of the shenanigans of reputed Mafia families in New York, relying largely on anonymous sources in New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Organized Crime Control Bureau.

Marco once recounted one of his more memorable experiences interviewing a legendary Mafia boss in the backseat of a black limousine in New York’s famed Central Park.

Fearful of any possible attacks on the head honcho, who was apparently on a hit list, Marco was uneasily looking over his shoulder as he continued with his interview. Sensing Marco’s nervousness, the Mafia boss looked at him, tapped at the car window with his clenched fist, and told Marco: “Don’t worry, it’s bullet proof.”

And so began some of Marco’s adventurous days reporting from the asphalt jungle—a crime-infested 1960s New York City where a bank robber could get mugged fleeing to his get-a-way car.

At IPS, Marco led a more restrained life as an administrator and financial controller— graduating from shoe-leather reporting to shoe-leather fund-raising, as he pounded the sidewalks of the UN neighborhood, personally following up on project proposals as he shuttled from one UN agency to another – UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, all in the shadow of the UN secretariat where he had a third floor office.

As a longtime Regional Director, Marco was very protective of IPS staffers. When the head of UN media accreditation complained that he does not see any IPS reporters at the daily UN news briefings to justify press credentials, Marco angrily shot back: “Are you now spying on my staff”?

When I first walked into the IPS office in the late 1970s, IPS had a full complement of four staffers—all women, two Americans, one Indian and one French Moroccan. Talk of gender parity at the UN? I found myself a minority of one.

We all worked under the leadership of Marco who not only believed in perseverance and hard work but also punctuality. While Marco’s primary task was the economic survival of IPS, he scrupulously kept away from editorial assignments which were coordinated by an editor-in-chief, first in Rome, later in Amsterdam.

Over the years, Marco successfully extended the IPS empire, to include Canada and the Caribbean. With strong support from Director-General Roberto Savio, Marco was an aggressive fund raiser in the UN system, and sustained strong personal links to all of the UN agencies based in New York.

Marco’s crowning glory was the annual IPS International Achievement Award ceremony held at the UN delegate’s dining room– a high profile event attended by ambassadors, senior UN officials, representatives of civil society and the press corps.

The recipients of the awards, who added a tinge of political glamour, included two UN secretaries-general — Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan and three heads of state: Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti, Martti Ahtisaari of Finland (also a Nobel laureate in 2000) and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil.

Marco, almost singlehandedly, organized and coordinated the annual events, which in the hands of a novice, would have been a logistical nightmare.

As Marco would recollect, there was only one IPS correspondent, Deodoro Roca, when he joined the UN Bureau in January 1979.

And then began a wave of correspondents and stringers, including Jim Lobe, Mario Dujisin, Joan Draper, Karl Meier, Madeleine Eisner, Asma bin Hamida, Maria Blaque-Belair, Shalini Dewan, Farhan Haque, Jaya Dayal, Alejandro Kirk and Yvette Collymore.

“We shared the office with Japan’s Kyodo news agency and the New York Times (which used part of our office as its archives),” said Marco, who was the political live wire of the Bureau.

Marco, who retired on 31 December 1999, said the UN Bureau had very strong working relationships with successive Secretaries-General, including Kurt Waldheim (Austria), Javier Perez de Cuellar (Peru), Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Egypt) and Kofi Annan (Ghana).

Under Marco, IPS had one of the most spacious press offices on the third floor of the Secretariat building, which he jealously safeguarded as he presided over several successive IPS UN, Bureau Chiefs, including Claude Robinson (Jamaica), Appan Menon (India) and Rajiv Tiwari (India).

The only drawback was that it was a windowless office– perhaps one of the few such offices among the UN press corps on the third floor. But as one wisecracking IPS Bureau Chief remarked: “We never had a room with a view– but all our new computers had windows.”

The post Marco Napoli, 86, Ensured the Survival of IPS at UN appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A selection of the best photos from across Africa this week.

The 'Triple Cripples' AKA Jay and Kym are fighting three forms of discrimination.

Hauwa Ojeifo set up a mental health helpline for women after suffering from depression herself.

The grave containing 200 bodies was found between in the area between the Oromia and Somali regions.

A woman making tortillas in her home in the village of San Lorenzo, Chiapas, Mexico. In Latin America, 8.4% of women are in a situation of severe food insecurity, compared to 6.9% of men. Credit: FAO

By Julio Berdergué, Marita Perceval, and Miguel Barreto
SANTIAGO, Nov 8 2018 (IPS)

The number of undernourished people increased for the third consecutive year in Latin America and the Caribbean. It has exceeded 39 million people. In addition, almost one in four adults is obese, while overweight affects 250 million; more than the entire population of Brazil.

For this reason, for the first time, four agencies of the United Nations system -FAO, PAHO/WHO, UNICEF and WFP- have joined together to publish the Panorama of food and nutrition security in Latin America and the Caribbean 2018.

In Latin America, 8.4% of women are in a situation of severe food insecurity, compared to 6.9% of men. In ten countries, 20% of the poorest children suffer three times more chronic malnutrition than the richest 20%.
This year’s edition focuses on inequality, a fundamental issue for the region. Inequality contributes both to hunger and several different forms of malnutrition. In Latin America, 8.4% of women are in a situation of severe food insecurity, compared to 6.9% of men. In ten countries, 20% of the poorest children suffer three times more chronic malnutrition than the richest 20%. Indigenous populations suffer greater food insecurity than non-indigenous people, and rural populations have higher rates of poverty than urban ones.

Without addressing inequality in food security and nutrition, we will not be able to fulfill the commitment we have adopted to leave no one behind, established in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

It is necessary to understand why malnutrition, lack of micronutrients, overweight and obesity have a greater impact on people with lower income, women, indigenous people, people of African descent and rural families. Above all, we must act in a differentiated way to ensure that these social groups and the populations of territories that are lagging behind can also fulfill their right to food.

FAO, PAHO/WHO, UNICEF and WFP are convinced that it is perfectly possible to transform our food systems to ensure a better diet for all, in a way that is more sustainable an adapted to climate change.

Today we understand that we need actions in production, international trade, processing and marketing of products to have healthy food. We can work to improve environments, in a way that facilitates access to healthy foods, and encourage practices that help people make more informed and responsible consumption decisions.

It is possible to change the current course of the region to accelerate progress towards the goal of eradicating hunger and all forms of malnutrition: the Sustainable Development Goal 2. For this, what we need most is to recover greater political commitment with the eradication of hunger and all forms of malnutrition.

Some governments are already implementing a new generation of policies to address the specificities of the groups that are suffering the most. Innovative public policies to reduce overweight and obesity are also being applied for the first time.

For these policies to be successful, we need the participation of everyone. Together we must think of ways for all the actors of the food system to act more responsibly with society and the environment, from producers to consumers. Together we can build food systems that ensure adequate food in the present and in the future. Together we can guarantee a healthy life for all and become the zero hunger generation.

The post Only Acting Together Can We Stop the Rise in Malnutrition appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Julio Berdegué is FAO Regional Representative, Marita Perceval is Director of UNICEF in Latin America and the Caribbean, Miguel Barreto is Regional Director of WFP

The post Only Acting Together Can We Stop the Rise in Malnutrition appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A 20-year-old Algerian was caught up in wintry weather in the Pyrenees and found by police.

Young farmers and brothers Prosper and Prince Chikwara are using precision farming techniques at their horticulture farm, outside Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Credit: Busani Bafana/ IPS

By Busani Bafana
WAGENINGEN, The Netherlands, Nov 8 2018 (IPS)

At every conference she has attended on the youth, Nawsheen Hosenally has been frustrated to hear that agriculture is not ‘cool’. The 29-year-old graduate in agricultural extension and information systems knew she wanted to do something to redeem the image of agriculture among young people.

So the Mauritian and her Burkanibe, journalist husband decided to co-founded Agribusiness TV. Content for the channel is viewed through the website where short video stories about successful youth entrepreneurs who have careers in agriculture are uploaded.

“I had heard so much about how uncool agriculture was and realised no one changes this image but youth themselves,” Hosenally tells IPS.

“Our tagline at Agribusiness TV is ‘seeing is believing’. The visuals showing success stories in agriculture have greater impact than, for instance, reading a publication. Slowly, youth are seeing agriculture differently.”

With a little help from their mobile phones, apps, YouTube and Facebook, young entrepreneurs like Hosenally are changing the face of farming across Africa. Despite having 60 percent of the world’s arable and uncultivated land, the African continent is battling to eliminate hunger and poverty as the majority of its smallholder farmers are getting older, and realising lower crop yields than before.

The likelihood of the agriculture sector spurring Africa’s economic turnaround are huge, as are the challenges of attracting young farmers to an industry employing more than 60 percent of the continent’s population.

Population experts project that Africa’s population will double to 2.5 billion people in the next 40 years. This will place pressure on African governments to deliver more food, energy, jobs shelter, health and better standards of living for their citizens.

The digitalisation of agriculture offers young entrepreneurs the opportunity to create disruptive business models that accelerate modernisation of the sector, says Michael Hailu, Director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), based in The Netherlands.

“Young people can relate. When they see other young people doing something, they ask ‘why not me’?” said Hosenally. “By showing that farmers and entrepreneurs can be young and successful, they are changing the narrative about agriculture,” she adds. More young people are tuning into Agribusiness TV for inspiration and farming tips.

The TV channel, which also has a mobile application, attracted 500,000 views in the first year of its launch in 2012. Within six months, the videos had drawn 1 million views. Today, the viewership has increased to more than 8 million on the app, with over 180,000 followers on Facebook and almost 18,000 subscribers on YouTube.

“We conceived it for mobile phones because we were targeting youth,” Hosenally tells IPS. “The statistics are really great and show the audience is growing over time, but in terms of stories we see more impact in the feedback we get. The first impact is when someone is featured online. All of a sudden they are like a star as soon as their video is published. Some have 100,000 views in less than 24 hours. It is visibility that leads to networking and other opportunities.”

A pig farmer from Burkina Faso featured on Agribusiness TV mentioned that he was keen to expand his business into crop production, but did not have a tractor. A Burkinabe living in Spain saw the video and donated a tractor to the young farmer.

“This is the impact we want to see, and this will get more young people to see agriculture as a business,” says Hosenally. She has also created an Agribusiness Shop that sells natural value-added products from youth and women in Burkina Faso through a Facebook page.

More than 1.3 billion people are employed in agriculture across the world, making it one of the largest job providers and key source of income and livelihoods, according to figures from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Farming role models

Youth in Ghana look down on agriculture because they can only see elderly and poor farmers struggling to make ends meet, says Michael Ocansey, a computer science specialist and founder of Agrocenta, an online platform linking small-scale farmers and large farmer organisations in Ghana.

“Many young people move out of the farming communities to the cities to seek delusional greener pastures,” Ocansey tells IPS. “At AgroCenta, we are changing this by improving the financial livelihood of smallholder farmers, and also making agriculture sexier for the younger generation.”

Ocansey admits that examples of struggling farmers still exist, making it hard to undo the perception youth have about farmers and farming. More success stories may help to change the mind-set so that young people are persuaded to make a career in agriculture.

Lilian Mabonga, Head of Programmes at Ustadi foundation, a capacity development organisation based in Kenya, agrees.

“Many youth do not view agriculture favourably, and it is usually seen as something you do when you retire,” says Mabonga.

“Youth are the majority of the population in my country, and agriculture employs more than 40 and agriculture contributes 26 per cent to GDP while providing livelihoods for more than 80 per cent of the population.”

Barriers to young entrepreneurs

Youth entrepreneurs can face rough ground when it comes to planning a future in agriculture. Many lack access to land and infrastructure, and have inadequate skills and knowledge, as well as limited access to agricultural information, markets and finance.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) forecasts that Africa can increase its agricultural output to 880 billion dollars per year by 2030 if it removes barriers to development, which include, among other factors, low investment, poor credit access for farmers, limited market access, and limited use of modern agro inputs and mechanisation.

Already, Africa’s agribusiness market is projected to be valued at 1 trillion dollars by 2030, according to the AfDB.

Show the money

The perception that you can make money on the farm needs to be supported with advise that hard work must be expected, cautions Lawrence Afere (35), founder of Springboard, an online network of producers and rural entrepreneurs in Ondo State of Nigeria.

“When we project farming as a viable economic opportunity for young people, we should tell them it is a process and you have to get your hands dirty,” says Afere whose programme is working with 3,000 members across six states in Nigeria, growing plantains, beans and rice. Springboard gives the farmers inputs and training, and buys back the produce for processing and value addition.

Access to finance tops the farming bucket list. Some initiatives are helping young entrepreneurs to go into agriculture without breaking the bank.

An FAO programme on Youth Employment is helping to beat poverty by developing the technical skills of young people in agriculture. In Guinea Bissau, FAO has promoted skills development for young farmers in aquaculture after realising that its target group of young entrepreneurs did not have the technical skill to run fish farming projects, even if they had all other resources.

Skills, effective policies and a conducive environment are key foundations on which to build successful agribusiness entrepreneurs, argues Tony Nsanganira, a youth employment specialist with FAO in Ghana.

Entrepreneurship needs education too

Despite the many success stories of agripreneurs, one of the evidence-based studies from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) shows that youth entrepreneurship cannot be the solution for the massive youth employment challenge.

Over the next two decades, 440 million young people in sub-Saharan Africa will enter the labour market looking for work, according to the World Bank and the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).

Most youth in sub-Saharan Africa are poorly educated and have low skills, and the majority live in rural areas, says Ji-Yeun Rim, project manager at the OECD’s Development Centre, based in Paris.

“Yet rural youth have high job expectations, and they do not want to farm,” Rim told IPS.

A recent OECD study on rural youth aspirations in developing countries shows that 76 per cent aspire to work in high-skilled occupations, but in reality, only 13 per cent are actually in such jobs.

In the past four years, Rim has coordinated a youth inclusion project supporting governments in nine developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to improve policies targeting youth.

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The post Making Agriculture Cool appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Colombia hosts the highest number of migrants and refugees from Venezuela. Photo: IOM

By International Organization for Migration
Nov 8 2018 (IOM)

IOM, the UN Migration Agency, and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency announced today that the number of refugees and migrants from Venezuela worldwide has now reached three million.

According to data from national immigration authorities and other sources, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean host an estimated 2.4 million refugees and migrants from Venezuela, while other regions account for the rest.

“Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have largely maintained a commendable open-door policy to refugees and migrants from Venezuela, however, their reception capacity is severely strained, requiring a more robust and immediate response from the international community if this generosity and solidarity are to continue,” said Eduardo Stein, UNHCR-IOM Joint Special Representative for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela.

Colombia has the highest number of refugees and migrants from Venezuela, a total of over one million. It is followed by Peru, with over half a million, Ecuador over 220,000, Argentina 130,000, Chile over 100,000 and Brazil 85,000.

In addition to South American countries, countries in Central America and the Caribbean also recorded increasing arrivals of refugees and migrants from Venezuela. Panama, for example, is now hosting 94,000 Venezuelans.

With rising numbers, the needs of refugees and migrants from Venezuela and the communities hosting them have also significantly increased.

Governments in the region are leading the humanitarian response and coordinating their efforts, including through the Quito Process, which has been an important step towards a regional approach to scale up the response and harmonize policies. The second Quito meeting of governments from the region will take place on 22 and 23 November.

To support this response, the Regional Inter-Agency Coordination Platform, established in September and composed of 40 partners and participants, including UN Agencies, other international organizations, civil society and faith-based organizations, is strengthening the operational response and on a humanitarian Regional Response Plan for Refugees and Migrants from Venezuela (RMRP), to be launched in December.

The RMRP will focus on four strategic areas: direct emergency assistance, protection, socio-economic and cultural integration and capacity-building for the governments of receiving countries.

For more information contact:

Juliana Quintero, IOM (juquintero@iom.int +54 1132488134)
William Spindler, UNHCR (spindler@unhcr.org +507 69290257 or +41 79 2173011)

The post Number of refugees and migrants from Venezuela reaches three million appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Ivory Coast include Manchester United defender Eric Bailly in their latest squad despite him not playing for his club since 6 October.

Swansea City's Wilfried Bony is set to end a nine-month recovery from serious knee injury after being declared fit.

The prince included some choice phrases from the West African language in his speech in Lagos.

Issa Samba is the latest France youth international to commit to playing for an African nation at senior level as he chooses Mauritania.

Andre Ayew and his brother Jordan are recalled to the Ghana squad after a year's absence for an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia.

Some think the buffaloes were running away from lions when they got stuck in the Chobe River.