News

Somalia: EU to invest extra €175 million in governance, education and food security

The European Commission announced on August 5th the decision to step up Europe's long-term commitment to Somalia with an extra €175 million in development assistance. The funds will flow into Somaliland, Puntland and other regions where viable security conditions and minimum levels of governance have already been established, as well as in Central Somalia, where stability is improving and the conditions allow for development assistance to make a difference.
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EU funds for Ivory Coast’s rehabilitation
Five programmes totalling €125M to assist Ivory Coast’s economic recovery and national reconciliation received the go-ahead from the European Union on July 21.They are in the sectors of vocational training, health, transportation, public finance management and assistance to strengthen civil society organisations.
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Urban-Eye Competition, a new eye on photography
The new online photographers’ organisation, Urban Eye, has launched a photography competition via its website www.urban-eye.org. From July 4th until July 31st 2011, Urban-Eye will reward the best images of everyday life under the heading, “Urban Street” or in other words, Street Photography. The competition is open to both  professional and  amateur photographers from all corners of the world.
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Cameroon’s parliament ratifies agreement with EU to fight illegal timber trade.
Cameroon’s parliament has ratified a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT) with the EU in forestry, known as a FLEGT. This means that companies that want to export timber from Cameroon to the EU will now have to prove that it was harvested legally and sustainably. The EU drew up an implementing Regulation to control the entry of timber from third countries in 2008 for those with a bi-lateral FLEGT in place.
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ACP Secretary General receives development award
Secretary General of the 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Secretary-General Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, received the Crans Montana ‘Prix de la Fondation’ (Foundation’s Prize) during the 22nd Crans Montana Forum held in Brussels, June 22-25. Dr. Chambas was awarded for his dedication to the advancement of democracy and justice in Africa when head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He was Executive Secretary of ECOWAS from 2002 to 2006 and subsequently President of the ECOWAS Commission, 2007-2010.  
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ACP winners of ‘Drawing a better world’

School children from Zimbabwe, Eritrea, the Central African Republic, Mauritius and Trinidad and Tobago are among the winners of the European Commission's (EC) International Drawing Competition on Gender Equality, announced on June 29th. The winning drawings were picked by pupils of between eight and 10 years of age at the European School in Brussels, the same ages as the entrants. Each winner will be given €1,000 to spend on computers, books or pay for school, library fees or other educational materials.
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EU resumes cooperation with Niger
The EU’s Council of Ministers confirmed on June 20th that development cooperation with the Republic of Niger, a member of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of countries, has fully resumed in the wake of the country’s successful democratic transition and return to constitutional order.
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EU Voluntary Humanitarian Aid Corps is piloted
The pilot phase of the European Voluntary Humanitarian Aid was announced in Budapest, Hungary, on June 17 under the current Hungarian presidency of the EU. It brings the EU a step closer to launching a fully-fledged EU corps. The vision of the Corps is set out in the new EU’s Treaty of Lisbon. The pilot body builds on existing volunteering schemes across the EU, taking into account stakeholders’ recommendations.
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Ever closer EU-US development dialogue
The United States and the European Union are stepping up their cooperation on overseas development assistance to increase the impact of their aid. It follows a meeting between EU Development Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs and USAID Administrator, Ravij Shah in London on 14 June.
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EU pledges aid for life-saving vaccines
The European Commission is poised to pledge an additional €10M to immunise millions of people against life threatening diseases. EU Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs, will make the announcement at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisations (GAVI) in London on 13th June. It is a contribution to a total of €2.6bn GAVI says it needs to vaccinate nearly 250 million children over the next five years. The campaign is expected to save almost four million children’s lives by 2015.
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“Bushmeat traders are emptying the forests” – Catherine Bearder MEP
Recommendations for a multi-pronged attack on the illegal international trade in meat and other part of wild mammals were tabled at a recent international conference in Nairobi, Kenya.   Attending the event, British Liberal Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Catherine Bearder, said that the trade is causing widespread loss of biodiversity, threatening the livelihoods of communities around the world, and destabilising fragile tropical forest ecosystems.
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New support for culture in ACP countries

The Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States is seeking proposals for cultural cooperation projects at intra-ACP wide level. The deadline for submission of proposals is June 30, 2011.

The aim of the programme is threefold: reinforce the creation and production of cultural goods and services in the ACP States in an integrated approach with distribution circuits; improve access of ACP cultural goods and services to local, regional, intra-ACP, European and international markets; and strengthen capacities of cultural stakeholders, operators and entrepreneurs in the ACP States.

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African nations call for ICTs to tackle disease

African health ministers have called for the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to help with attempts to tackle Non-Communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes and sickle-cell disease.

The recommendation that ICTs be harnessed to increase health awareness and empower individuals and communities was part of the Brazzaville Declaration on NCDs, which the ministers have signed.

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Pan-African parliamentary science forum launched May 5th
An Africa-wide forum for parliamentarians which aims to give science, technology and innovation (ST&I) a more central role in the policy-making process was launched 2 May. The East African Legislative Assembly may host the new pan-African forum – East African Legislative Assembly.
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South Africa-European Information Day and Experience Exchange in FP7 Energy and Environment
An information-sharing meeting that will provide an overview of the Environment, as well as Energy topics of the latest FP7 call has been scheduled to take place on in Pretoria and Cape Town from 6-7 June and 8-9 June 2011 respectively. The second day will be led by European Union National Contact Points for these thematic areas.
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EU calls on other nations to match its aid pledge to LDCs
The European Union will urge other nations to match its pledge of 0.15-0.20 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) to Least Developed Countries at the Fourth United nations Conference on LDCs to take place 9th-13th May, 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey. The purpose of the conference is to assess the results of the 10-year action plan for the LDCs adopted at the Third United Nations Conference on LDCs in Brussels, Belgium, in 2001 and adopt new measures and strategies for the sustainable development of the LDCs into the next decade.
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EC’s 2011 press prize on development issues is open

Fittingly launched on May 3rd, World Press Freedom Day, the EC’s Lorenzo Natali Journalism Prize 2011 awards excellence in written, radio and TV journalism on development issues. Established in 1992 by the European Commission, the prize pays homage to the commitment to development of the late Lorenzo Natali, a former European Commissioner for Development. Prizes are awarded to print, online and broadcast journalists based in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Arab World, Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Asia and the Pacific.
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Bill Gates says governments should be smarter with aid
On a recent visit to the European Parliament (EP), Microsoft founder and major private aid donor, Bill Gates, presented his ‘Living Proof’ initiative to the EP’s Development Committee triggering a debate on private philanthropy versus government aid. "Millions of lives can be saved each year," the founder of the Gates Foundation said. "The bottom line is that the aid community makes a difference and there are opportunities to do more."   He urged governments to be smarter with their development spending.
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Interview with Tuiloma Neroni Slade, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF)

To what extent did the global economic crisis affect the region?
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Poverty focus of EU under scrutiny
A leading UK-based think tank says that European Union (EU) development spending should focus more on alleviating poverty in developing nations. Only 46 per cent of EU-managed aid reached lower income countries in 2009 says the recent report by Open Europe, a research body which is calling for reform of the EU.The figure compares with 74 per cent of UK aid and an overall EU Member State average of 58 per cent.
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Seychelles telecommunications boost

EIB supports international fibre-optic link. The European Investment Bank (EIB), the EU’s body for long-term lending, has recently announced an €8M loan to the Seychelles Cable Systems Company (SCS) for the first international submarine fibre-optic link with the African mainland. The cable will link the 115 island archipelago to Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. This move will drastically improve both internet access and telecommunications capability in the Seychelles allowing for faster speeds of access and lower prices for subscribers, and is expected to be up and running by the second half of 2012.

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Planning for a brighter future in agricultural and rural development

Agriculture is firmly back on the international agenda. Never before has there been such a high degree of global consensus and financial commitment to improve agricultural productivity and increase farmer’s incomes in developing countries.

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Economists call for airline ticket tax to raise cash for climate change fund

As the international donor community ponders how to raise innovative financing for development, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) suggests that a tiny tax on international airline tickets could raise $US10bn a year to help people adapt to climate change.

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EU calls for implementation of reforms in Guinea Bissau

Consultations took place in Brussels on March 29 2011 between the government Guinea Bissau, the EU and members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group to avert aid and development cooperation being suspended in the West African country.

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UNIDO fosters increased cooperation with ACP and EU

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Brussels on 24 March between Secretary General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas and Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), to accelerate the sustainable industrial development of ACP countries and regions. The overall goal is poverty alleviation.

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