Agriculture, fisheries & rural development
Small-holder farmers, especially the resource poor in remote rural communities in Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific are not receiving adequate extension – application of scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices - and advisory services. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can support the realignment of these services.
In the prevailing climate, in which governments and extension ag ... Continue reading
Civil society
Formerly a teacher, Australian- born Dame Carol Kidu is PNG’s Minister for Community Affairs and sole female Member of Parliament. She became a naturalised PNG citizen by her marriage to a Papua New Guinean, the late Sir Buri Kidu. She has been revered both at home and internationally for her work with the marginalised in PNG and her contribution to poverty alleviation. In 2005, she was made a Dame of the British Empire and in 2009 beca ... Continue reading
Culture
The Uganda National Museum is one of the most important heritage sites in Eastern Africa, but if all goes as the Ugandan government plans, it could be destroyed. In fact, the government has planned to construct a 60-story ultra modern building in Kampala, at plot 5 Kiira Road, the exact location where the Museum building currently stands.
Culture and heritage don’t have big success among the politicians, and those pa ... Continue reading
Development policies & partnerships
Interview with Martin Dihm, EU Ambassador to the European Union in Papua New Guinea Newly-appointed Ambassador of the EU in PNG, German national, Martin Dihm, has previously held senior posts in the EU’s delegations in Barbados and Abuja, Nigeria. From 2001, he was on the trade desk and EPA negotiator for the Pacific and from 2005, Deputy Head of Unit in the EU’s Directorate for Trade dealing with relations and EPA negotiations with Eastern and Southern Africa and the P ... Continue reading
Environment & Energy
The NGO ActionAid has brought to light the potential negative effects on developing nations of the EU’s renewable energy policy.
Its report, ‘Fuelling Evictions: Community Cost of EU Biofuels,’ documents how 20,000 people in Kenya’s Dakatcha woodland are facing eviction from land where an EU company plans to grow jatropha to manufacture biofuels.
Fifty kilometres from the town of Malindi, the woodla ... Continue reading
Health & education
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Ten years and thousands of child beneficiaries later, Sylvia Arthur reports on a unique British charity whose aim is to put itself out of business.
When Georgie Fienberg visited Ghana on a gap year almost fifteen years ago, she couldn’t have known the impact it would have on the rest of her life. Not just hers, but those of thousands of children in northern Ghana whose lives she would touch through the work of the charity she would create. Now, fifte ... Continue reading
Infrastructure
Without volcanoes Iceland would not exist. The Icelanders know it and have not only learned to live with the fact but to welcome it as a life source. Despite - or perhaps due to - being always on the alert, they cultivate a gentle way of life and show genuine affection for their rumbling mountains.
“Very often when people see our car they come and ask us about the latest seismic activity in the area or if something extraordinary is ... Continue reading
Natural resources
The NGO ActionAid has brought to light the potential negative effects on developing nations of the EU’s renewable energy policy.
Its report, ‘Fuelling Evictions: Community Cost of EU Biofuels,’ documents how 20,000 people in Kenya’s Dakatcha woodland are facing eviction from land where an EU company plans to grow jatropha to manufacture biofuels.
Fifty kilometres from the town of Malindi, the woodland has been held ... Continue reading
Science & technology
The winning in 2012 of the bid to site the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) – the most powerful radio telescope in the world would bring a plethora of benefits to South Africa and the African continent, says South Africa’s Project Director for SKA, Dr. Bernie Fanaroff.
South Africa was short-listed to site this iconic telescope in 2006 by the SKA Steering Committee. Eight other Africa nations; Namibia, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mada ... Continue reading
Security, governance & migration
EU member states are becoming increasingly inward-looking and eager to promote aid policies which prioritise foreign or domestic policy objectives. These are the main conclusions of the annual AidWatch report by CONCORD, released on May 19th in Brussels.
Despite being the world’s biggest aid donor, only nine countries met their EU aid targets in 2010, with the bloc as a whole falling short by a whopping €14.5 bi ... Continue reading
Trade & economy
The new support programme for microfinance institutions (MFIs) has just been launched. The main aim is to strengthen the capacities of more than 100 MFIs in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
“We believe that microfinance as a support tool for generating revenue - for informal micro-companies or marginalised peasant farmers for example - can contribute to development and help reduce poverty,” explains Alessandra Lust ... Continue reading
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