The newly launched Endangered Species Rescue (ESR) has said that its priority area of focus is to save cheetahs, the African painted dogs, pink dolphins, and the climate change-threatened coral.
Cheetahs
The New York-based not-for-profit outfit says it partners with leading conservation scientists to raise money for urgent projects that protect endangered animals and help local people economically.
“After a year of hard work with the world’s greatest scientists, we are proud to announce our launch,” says founder, Peter Gottesman, in a statement.
He adds: “The Endangered Species Revenge makes people laugh while teaching them about animal biology and behaviour. Our scientists lead small to medium-sized grassroots non-profits, which spend nearly all their money on fieldwork, with little overhead. This ensures donations are working efficiently. A Board of scientific advisors vets each project.”
Expressing concern over the fauna and flora under focus, he laments: “While 90% of the world’s cheetahs have vanished in the last 100 years and pink river dolphins across Bolivia are becoming stranded and are dying each year due to shallower river levels, 75% of the world’s coral reefs are already dead or damaged due to climate change. Also, African poachers hide deadly snares to catch antelope, but these snares are killing the last 4,500 painted dogs.”
According to Gottesman, ESR works with scientists like Dr. Greg Rasmussen (who has reportedly designed a cutting edge collar to save painted dogs), Dr. Laurie Marker (devised a way for dogs to protect cheetahs), Dr. Ruth Gates (seeking to discover “super corals” which will regenerate the world’s coral reefs), and Dr. Enzo Aliaga Rossel (creating an emergency rescue fund to save the freshwater dolphins).
Speaking at the Roundtable on Food Security in the Niger Delta on Thursday, July 29, 2017 in Abuja as part of the EU Climate Diplomacy Week, Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), says that food is a human right, hunger arises due to a complex of socio-political realities
Nnimmo Bassey, Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)
We are approaching this conversation on Food security in the Niger Delta from the premise that we must own our food narrative. We shouldn’t be adjudged malnourished or hungry simply because we do not eat certain prescribed foods, in what manner and in what quantities. This requires that we consider the crucial need to approach food security in the context of food sovereignty.
The implication is that we have to focus on food that is produced by the people and that are culturally appropriate. This is vital, because food availability does not necessarily address the issue of food security if the people end up eating junk or are force-fed on foods they don’t really want. In the Niger Delta, as in the overall national situation, while we have spots where few citizens battle with mountains of food, the majority are drowning in the ocean of hunger.
Hunger arises due to a complex of socio-political realities
Food is a human right. A good way to look at food security is to approach it in terms of agriculture, property rights and environmental management. The deep link to agriculture is inescapable, as the majority of our people are engaged in the production of food in one form or the other. And the story of the despoiled Niger Delta environment is well told.
In 1996, SERAC filed a case against the Federal Government of Nigeria at the African Commission Human and Peoples’ Rights, denouncing “the widespread contamination of soil, water and air; the destruction of homes; the burning of crops and killing of farm animals; and the climate of terror the Ogoni communities had been suffering of, in violation of their rights to health, a healthy environment, housing and food. In terms of the African Charter, these allegations included violations of Articles 2 (non-discriminatory enjoyment of rights), 4 (right to life), 14 (right to property), 16 (right to health), 18 (family rights), 21 (right of peoples to freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources) and 24 (right of peoples to a satisfactory environment)”.
When the Commission reached a decision in 2011, the FG was found culpable, violating the people’s right to food. Thus, when we consider the food security in the Niger Delta, we must keep in mind that there is a continued failure of the governments to uphold the right of the people to safe and satisfactory food and by extension, all the other rights.
Absence of food is a major threat to human security.
Food is available when food producers are able to invest their time, energy, resources and skills in farming, herding or fishing and attain good harvests for subsistence or for commercial purposes. Food is accessible when it can be found within reach of the hungry, and critically so when they have the purchasing power to acquire it. Food availability is also anchored on the appropriateness of the items within the cultural context.
Production and consumption of food depend not just on current realities, but also on the collective and cultural memories of the people. These include how seeds are acquired and from whom, as well as how they are sown and by whom. Are the seeds purchased or do farmers get them from what they had saved? Is planting solely individual effort or does it include the cooperation of neighbours and other communal configurations?
For farmers to supply food in quantities that cover their needs and leave surpluses for the market, they have to sow sufficient seeds of good quality and on good quality soil. The impoverishment of farmers could lead to reduction in the scope of their productive ability – including farm size, quality and quantity of seeds, as well as their capacity to work.
Soil and Seeds
When soils are of poor quality, the best efforts of the farmers would be largely futile and unproductive. When the soils are bad, the harvests would be bad and seeds saved to be planted would be of poor quality and are bound to yield poorer harvests. In situations of this nature, farmers engage in farming as a routine, on automaton, expecting little and getting nothing. With the depth of pollution in the Niger Delta, farming is often mere tradition.
Over the years, local food varieties have been lost or abandoned. Massive deforestation due to logging, land use conversion, infrastructure development and industrial activities threaten vital food sources.
What Changed?
Oil exploration and extraction have brought about major changes in food production and access in the Niger Delta. The impacts come through the entire chain: from seismic activities of the exploration stage to the production, transportation and eventual usage stages. Seismic activities in the seas have direct impact on aquatic life forms and drilling wastes impact both land and water bodies.
Dumping hundreds of millions of barrels of produced water into the environment adds to the deadly pollution. Oil spills from equipment failure and from third party interferences add to the tragic situation. Gas flares diminish agricultural productivity and the use of the furnaces to process foods contaminate and poison the people.
Indiscriminate harvesting of fish by international fleets raise unique security issues and wreaks havoc on fisheries, further impoverishing local fishers.
Canalisations for oil sector operations have also damaged fresh water systems by bringing in salt water from the sea. This has marked implications for fish and agricultural productivity.
Coastal erosion is driving less of farmland and infrastructure.
The overall situation is so bad that fishermen and women depend on imported fish for sustenance.
When Security Breeds Insecurity
Paradoxically, the presence of security forces in the Niger Delta to some extent promotes insecurity in the region. This happens in the sense that the citizens are insecure in the presence of these officials. Curtailment of certain undesirable activities may also become impossible if those charged with halting them do nothing or get compromised in the process. Collective shaming and punishment as evidenced in the many checkpoints in the creeks and have been seen in the cases of Ogoni, Odi, Odioma, Gbaramatu and many others attest to this.
Military shields around oil and gas facilities reduce the fishing zones and keep fishers away from customary or known fishing zones. Fisher folks now have to go to international waters, at great cost and risks, if they hope to make any reasonable catch.
Dumping of industrial waste at sea further hampers the productivity of the efforts of the fishers. This has raised concerns for fisher folks in the Niger Delta and in nations with offshore extractive activities.
Biodiversity
The most assured way of ensuring food security in Niger Delta is the protection/management of the environment and the enhancement of her agricultural biodiversity. Agro-biodiversity is one of the basic productive assets of family farmers. This will require a halt of the pollutions, including gas flaring going on in the Niger Delta. On a national scale, it would necessitate the repeal of the National Biosafety Management Act 2015 and the enacting of a National Biodiversity Management Act that would not only protect and ensure the preservation of our agricultural biodiversity but would also help kick start a bio-economy based on nature’s gifts to the nation.
Working the Future
Clean up the Niger Delta, restore the environment and compensate the people for loses suffered
Government to support farming and fishing communities structurally – including agricultural extension services, finance, creation of fish markets, storage facilities and rural infrastructure
Research into and support biodiversity conservation and promote the building of an economy that is based on local knowledge as well as on the principles of Re-Source Democracy
Establish a National Biodiversity Management Agency – and cover Biosafety matters within this agency
Demilitarise the Niger Delta and encourage community policing instead
African countries must work closer together when implementing national climate action plans under the Paris Climate Change Agreement and mobilising climate finance, whilst better integrating climate action into sustainable development planning. This was the key conclusion of ministers and key delegates who convened for the Africa Carbon Forum which ended on Friday, June 30, 2017 in Cotonou, Benin.
Dignitaries at the Africa Carbon Forum in Cotonou, Benin
Over 600 practitioners, experts and policy makers, including ministers from governments across Africa and other high level participants, met in Cotonou to take stock and align strategies on how financial resources should be mobilised to ensure sustainable development and emissions reduction on a continent-wide scale.
“Africa is the continent most affected by climate change. Two thirds of Africans make their living off the land, consequently, it is critical that the continent secures a climate-resilient economic and development path. Hosting this Africa Carbon Forum on the topic of collaborative climate actions for sustainable development demonstrates Benin’s own commitment to the national climate action plans and the broader concern of Africa to promote collective actions for the climate,” said Abdoulaye Bio Tchane, Senior Minister in charge of Planning and Development of Benin.
With ambitious commitments already made by countries under the Paris Agreement, and with more commitments expected, African ministers and other leaders stressed the importance of building momentum that will enable the transformational shift towards low carbon and greater resilience to climate change. They also highlighted the need for new partnerships to develop and further spur sustainable development.
Speaking to delegates in Cotonou, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, said: “Africa will see explosive growth through to the middle of the century. Not only that – Africa is one of the most important engines for growth worldwide in the coming years. African people are at the core of this growth. But the growth needs to be shaped on the basis of related climate and sustainable development criteria.
“Africa’s nationally determined contributions to the agreement are blueprints for attracting private sector investment and pushing forward. Implementation of the Paris Agreement is the foundation for stability, for security and prosperity as the population grows to nine billion people or more by 2050. It is food and water and energy for everyone. It is good jobs. It is the foundation for building sustainable, resilient communities powered by clean, renewable energy.”
Moving forward, the Africa Carbon Forum is developing into the regional climate action event supporting, in conjunction with Global Climate Action events, non-government (“non-Party”) stakeholder action in the run-up to the annual UNFCCC Conference of the Parties.
Delegates at this year’s Africa Carbon Forum confirmed that non-Party stakeholders, including private sector and cities, stand ready to enhance ambition on climate action and welcomed the event as a unique regional event, which facilitates knowledge and new partnerships which are key to allowing Africa to realise its potential and meet the ambitions goals set in the Paris agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Delegates discussed crucial themes ranging from climate policy options to the future of the existing and widely use mechanisms that are suitable to the different domestic context and can be scaled up at regional level in Africa. Many discussions centered on how to strengthen cooperation between Parties and non-Party stakeholders in key sectors for Africa – notably energy, agriculture and human settlements – including the role of future carbon markets in boosting climate action for sustainable development.
“The private sector is vital in bringing climate finance to Africa,” says Dirk Forrister, IETA’s CEO and President. “Markets are the most efficient way of driving that investment, which in turn aids African nations to grow in a cleaner, more sustainable way.”
“This meeting shows that many countries in the region are advancing on the domestic policy front and a number are finding new innovative ways of engaging their local private sector in project development and finance,” said Miriam Hinostroza from UNEP DTU.
The Forum was organised under the umbrella of the Nairobi Framework Partnership and partners and cooperating organisations involved in this year’s Africa Carbon Forum include the UNFCCC, World Bank, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), UNEP DTU Partnership, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Africa Development Bank Group, Low Emission Development Strategies Global Partnership (LEDS Partnership) and Climate Markets and Investment Association (CMIA). The event was supported by the West African Development Bank (BOAD).
The Nairobi Framework Partnership was launched in 2006 by then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to assist developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, to improve their level of participation in the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism.
Illegal fishing, logging and poaching are impacting two-thirds of the 57 natural World Heritage sites monitored by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) this year, putting some of the world’s most precious and unique ecosystems and species at risk.
The vaquita porpoise
Ahead of the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee, starting on Sunday, July 2, 2017 in Kraków, Poland, IUCN has recommended listing Mexico’s Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California on the List of World Heritage in Danger due to illegal gillnet fishing, which threatens the vaquita with imminent extinction.
The IUCN is also concerned over continued impacts of illegal activities, including logging and poaching, on the unique biodiversity of Madagascar’s Rainforests of the Atsinanana and on Białowieża Forest – one of Europe’s last remaining primeval forests located in Poland and Belarus.
“It is alarming that even our planet’s greatest natural treasures are under pressure from illegal activities,” says IUCN Director General Inger Andersen. “World Heritage sites are recognised as the planet’s most unique and valuable places, for nature and for people. If destroyed, they are lost forever.
“World Heritage status is designed to grant these places the highest level of protection, and we as the international community are responsible for the effectiveness of this protection. Only through strong international cooperation can we eliminate the illegal and unsustainable practices that are having such a devastating impact on these extraordinary places.”
Illegal wildlife trade is threatening the vaquita – the world’s smallest porpoise – with extinction. The Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California became a World Heritage site in 2005 due to its unique marine biodiversity. It hosts a third of the world’s cetacean species. The vaquita is a victim of by-catch from illegal fishing of a Critically Endangered fish, the totoaba, whose swim bladder fetches high prices in Asian markets.
Despite Mexico’s extensive efforts to combat the illegal gillnet fishing, the vaquita’s survival remains at severe risk, with a crash in the population leaving only about 30 individuals in the wild. IUCN recommends placing the site on the List of World Heritage in Danger to mobilise urgent action to protect the site. It calls for a permanent ban on gillnets, as well as strengthened international cooperation to address threats to the site.
Madagascar’s Rainforests of the Atsinanana acquired ‘in danger’ status in 2010 – only three years after being listed as a World Heritage site – due to illegal logging of ebony and rosewood. The site is a key habitat for endangered lemurs, which are also the target of poaching. Despite Madagascar’s ongoing efforts to address the threats, in 2016 there was a marked increase in illegal logging. IUCN recommends that the site should remain on the List of World Heritage in Danger and calls for stronger efforts to address the threats, including increased cooperation between countries along trading routes.
If Poland continues to undertake wood extraction and logging in old-growth areas of Białowieża Forest, intact habitats will be lost. The European Commission recently expressed concern over the removal of ancient trees from the forest, which is also a Natura 2000 site. Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1979 as one of the first World Heritage sites, and extended in 1992 and 2014, the site is shared between Poland and Belarus and covers a total area of 141,885 hectares. Białowieża is one of the few remaining primeval forests on the European continent. It is home to the iconic European Bison and hosts more than 250 bird and over 12,000 invertebrate species.
The IUCN recommends a monitoring mission to the site so that the situation can be fully assessed, and actions agreed. Should danger to the site’s Outstanding Universal Value be confirmed, Białowieża will be considered for inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2018.
International cooperation is starting to demonstrate results in addressing illegal activities in Thailand’s Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex. IUCN’s mission to the site noted that that cooperation between Thailand, Cambodia, China, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam, in addition to strengthened coordination of efforts within Thailand, resulted in a decrease in illegal logging of Siamese rosewood, which had been on the rise in recent years.
More resources are now invested into the site, with an action plan aiming to intensify patrol efforts using space technology. The forest complex is internationally important for the survival and conservation of globally threatened mammals, birds and reptiles. It also serves as one of Thailand’s most important watersheds.
The IUCN is the official advisory body on nature to the World Heritage Committee, recommending new sites to be included on the World Heritage list, and proposing actions to protect World Heritage sites facing threats.
Achim Steiner, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator, has said that the Maldives will benefit from the current transfer of Green Climate Funds (GCF) funds to an adaptation project run by the UNDP.
UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner. Photo credit: David Fisher/Oxford Martin School
While surrounded by water, many people in the outer islands of the Maldives suffer from recurring water supply emergencies. Variable rainfall patterns and increasing salinisation caused by rising sea levels have led to a dearth of drinking water.
GCF’s disbursement of funds to the project will bolster an integrated water supply system based on rainwater, groundwater and desalinated water to provide a low-cost supply to vulnerable households. The project will also provide an uninterrupted supply of water to 49 islands that currently rely on emergency deliveries for three months of each year.
GCF’s transfer of $3 million marks the start of GCF’s total contribution of $23.6 million. Other contributors to this five-year grant project, totaling $28.2 million, are the Maldives Ministry of Environment and Energy and the UNDP, which GCF has accredited to implement the project.
“We are delighted that the Green Climate Fund’s first disbursement to UNDP will help realise this exciting project, which will see almost a third of the population of the Maldives becoming freshwater self-sufficient over the next five years,” Steiner said.
“Projects such as this can have enormous impact in countries like the Maldives, which is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels, saltwater intrusion and more frequent droughts, storms and flooding,” explained Mr Steiner. “This new, integrated approach to climate-induced water scarcity will help build a more sustainable, climate-resilient future for the people of the Maldives.”
The geographic characteristic of the Maldives – consisting of 1,190 small, low-lying coral islands spread over 90,000 square kilometres – puts this South Asian nation at the forefront of climate change. High poverty levels in the Maldives’ outer islands exacerbate drinking water shortages during its dry season, leading to environmental and social impacts.
Howard Bamsey, GCF Executive Director, said this project matches neatly with a GCF priority to reduce the climate vulnerability of societies in Small Island Developing States (SIDS).
“The Maldives have identified water shortages caused by climate change as a key developmental challenge,” Mr Bamsey said. “GCF climate finance will help to alleviate a near-term emergency and build the long-term strategies needed to deal with a changing climate.”
The Maldives’ Minister of Environment and Energy, Thoriq Ibrahim, wrote in an online publication last year that plans by GCF and UNPD to work together in addressing the Maldives’ climate challenges fits well with his country’s long-term adaptation plan. This consists, he wrote, of introducing strict zoning regulations for coastal communities and strengthening infrastructure against erosion, rising seas and other climate impacts.
Mr Ibrahim indicated common perceptions about SIDS’ vulnerabilities meant concerns over scant water supplies were often overlooked. “Ironically, with all the attention given to our low-lying islands’ vulnerability to sea level rise, water shortages represent an even more urgent threat,” he wrote.
In order to stay below the 2 °C guardrail set in the Paris Agreement, climate policy should be integrated with the G20 finance ministers’ agenda. Finance ministers should consider the merits of carbon pricing for sound fiscal policy and thereby stimulate investments in carbon-free infrastructure.
Ottmar Edenhofer, Chief Economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
“It is rational for G20 finance ministers to embrace climate policy, even if climate change is not their primary concern,” writes a team of authors led by the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) in an article published in the new issue of the journal Nature Climate Change.
In their article titled: “Aligning climate policy with finance ministers’ G20 agenda”, Ottmar Edenhofer, Chief Economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Director of MCC, together with MCC Secretary General Brigitte Knopf and colleagues from other institutions argue that investments in fossil fuels have become more risky in the post-Paris world.
Most of the fossil fuel reserves have to remain unburnt in order to stay below a 2 °C temperature increase. “Financial markets have to deal with the risk that climate regulation may devalue assets — they must do so without destabilising international capital markets”, the authors, who chaired the Think20 Task Force on Climate Policy and Finance, write.
The scientists from the MCC, the Brookings Institution in the US and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) from Canada contextualise this problem with the ever more urgent need to build new infrastructure around the globe while the world is facing declining tax revenues.
“Carbon pricing could become particularly important for the developing countries due to rapid urbanisation and economic growth,” says Amar Bhattacharya, senior fellow at the Global Economy and Development Programme at Brookings Institution. “In the next 15 years they will have to finance more than $80 trillion of infrastructure in energy, transport infrastructure, potable water supply and sanitation and telecommunications.”
The US administration is facing the same challenge as many other G20 countries. “Additional funding sources are crucial in the face of the rising need to rebuild American infrastructure,” says MCC Director Edenhofer. “Business leaders and international organizations have already understood that despite the announced withdrawal from the Paris Agreement by Donald Trump, in a globalised economy there is no longer a choice between climate and non-climate policy but between smart and costly regulation. Furthermore, there has even been some support by fiscal conservatives in the United States for a budget-neutral carbon tax.”
Financing such infrastructure in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement would require a reallocation of resources towards a climate-friendly infrastructure. However, the current fiscal system in many countries will not provide the necessary resources. Furthermore, because low-income households consume a higher share of carbon-intensive goods in their household budgets, the burden of carbon pricing on those households is relatively high compared with high-income households. The article in Nature Climate Change therefore calls for a well-designed progressive recycling of carbon pricing revenues.
Carbon pricing is already increasingly being taken up by business leaders and investors as an efficient way to reduce emissions. “The agenda of the global business community becomes ever more consistent with civil society’s agenda,” says Céline Bak, a senior fellow with CIGI’s Global Economy Programme.
“For example, in preparation for the G20 summit in Hamburg, German industry representatives call for an ambitious timeline for phasing out fossil-fuel subsidies, effective and globally converging carbon pricing mechanisms, as well as to implement international disclosure and reporting standards for environmental and climate-related financial risks.”
Meanwhile, China will implement a nationwide trading scheme this year, which has the potential to become much larger than the European carbon market. Carbon taxes have also been successfully implemented in British Columbia, Canada. The overall resistance within the business community to carbon taxes or emission trading schemes is weakening. A carbon pricing landscape is already emerging, with about 17 percent of emissions in the G20 covered by pricing schemes. The G20 countries are heavyweights in the arena of climate policy. They are responsible for roughly 80 percent of global energy use and CO2 emissions.
The Federal Ministry of Environment on Thursday, June 29, 2017 gave conditional approval to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report prepared by the Cross River State Government in respect of the proposed Superhighway project.
Governor Ben Ayade’s Superhighway project has encountered stiff opposition
At a brief ceremony, officials of the Federal Ministry of Environment handed the conditionally-approved EIA report to the Deputy Governor of Cross River State, Professor Ivara Esu, who represented Governor Ben Ayade.
Federal officials were said to have given assurances that government would not renege on its promise to support the state in ensuring the succesful completion of the project.
According to CrossRiverWatch.com, a state promoted portal, Governor Ayade insinuated an “immediate return to site to commence work”.
The governor reportedly told CrossRiverWatch that he was greatful to his detractors who, according to him, actually propelled the government to work harder in order to achieve the feat.
“I want to use this opportunity to congratulate Cross Riverians and indeed all the detractors of the Superhighway for their opposition to the project, which actually propelled us to work harder to achieve this.
“For those who have been worried about where the money will come from, I have insisted repeatedly that that has been taken care of. I want to assure Cross Riverians that equipment is returning to site and work will commence immediately as earlier planned.
“We give all thanks to God and to all Cross Riverians who abided with us in prayer and assure everyone that we will continue to work hard to achieve our set goals regardless of the obstacles.” the governor was quoted by CrossRiverWatch as saying.
But, in a reaction, Environment Minister of State, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, said that Cross River State cannot immediately commence work as there are no fewer than 20 conditions to be met before a final approval is given to the EIA report.
His words: “We have handed a conditional approval (over 20 conditions) to be fulfilled by the Cross River State Government. No final certificate yet until those conditions are met.
“We shall carry out a review within the next two or three weeks. Be rest assured that we will not compromise in any way please.”
The Additional Financing to the Third Fadama Development Project (Fadama III-AF) has been honoured with the Africa VPU Team Award by the World Bank.
Vice President for Africa of the World Bank, Makhtar Diop
The award was announced by the Vice President for Africa of the World Bank, Makhtar Diop.
It will be recalled that Fadama-II got the Award in 2007 and Fadama-III secured the same in 2014.
The Africa Region Award of Excellence is an annual event instituted by the African Region of the World Bank to recognise excellence in project management and evidence of pro-poor impact of development projects.
Fadama III-AF was selected as a demonstration of an important example of how client-driven agricultural and rural development projects can have significant development impacts on the national economy.
The Additional Financing for the Third National Fadama Development Project (Fadama III) is one of the World Bank’s flagship operations with total finance of $200 million.
Fadama III Additional Financing is a follow-up on to Fadama III project and it is being implemented in six core and 21 cluster states.
The states were selected based on comparative advantage and high potential to increase production and productivity of cassava, rice, and sorghum and horticulture value chains and link them to better organised markets.
The AF is well aligned closely with the new Agricultural Promotion Policy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It is facilitating linkages between federation of producers and existing processors.
The project was approved by the World Bank’s Board of Directors in June 2013 and implementation began in October 21 of the same year.
The objective of the project is to increase the incomes for users of rural lands and water resources within the Fadama areas in a sustainable manner throughout the recipient’s territory.
Taking a value chain orientation, the AF is attracting private investment in processing and milling, and other commercial aspects of agriculture around nucleus farms, with associated small-holder linkages such as out-grower schemes.
The programme has proved to be a reliable tool for responding to fragility and crises situation.
It recently extended its reach to the victims of insecurity in conflict-affected areas of Northern regions of Nigeria with a $50 million Additional Financing in June 2016.
The project is said to have generated good results on the ground. It has also supported farmers to increase rice yield from 2.84mt/ha to 6.40mt/ha.
Sorghum yield went from 1.14mt/ha to 3.65mt/ha, tomato yield from 12.56mt/ha to 28.60mt/ha and Cassava yield from 11.92mt/ha to 15.76mt/ha.
With a disbursement of 67.22 per cent, at mid-term, the project is cruising sustainably towards achieving its development objective at completion.
The Fadama project stands out as a success within a country portfolio that faces numerous implementation challenges.
The Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Africa (SDGC/A) has picked Nigerian youth campaigner and digital media expert, Olumide Idowu, to manage social media and communications functions during the upcoming forum on “Mobilising African Intellectuals Towards Quality Tertiary Education” scheduled to hold July, 2017 in Kigali, Rwanda.
Olumide Idowu
The primary objective of the conference, according to the organisers, is to create a coalition of African intellectuals who will brainstorm and hold principal discussions on practical actions, as well as explore solutions and build consensual approaches on the major themes relevant to SDG implementation in tertiary education and research throughout Africa.
Key priority action areas for consideration at the workshop include:
The Enabling Environment in Education – Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Research – Scope and Reputation
Building Reputable University Systems in Africa
Knowledge for Development – Transforming Societies
Additionally, participants will share experiences, as well as agree on common actions to ignite the big push needed at continental level to transform the academic ecosystem.
Idowu has over 10 years’ working experience on social media, environment, climate change, monitoring & evaluation and sustainable development issues.
A youth climate change policy expert and trainer, he has represented Nigeria and Africa at over 10 high-level global governance meetings on sustainable development.
He is co-founder of Climate Wednesday, a not-for-profit outfit that seeks to identify key climate-based issues affecting developments in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general.
Besides leading the youth advocacy efforts on environment, climate change and sustainable development in Africa, Idowu serves as Senior Communication Officer for African Youth Initiative on Climate Change, and volunteer to Save the Children Nigeria on advocacy and campaign.
The Director General/CEO, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr. Rufus Ebegba, on Wednesday, June 28, 2017 in Abuja re-emphasised the need to regulate the practice of modern biotechnology in the country.
Director General/CEO, National Biosafety Management Agency (NBMA), Dr. Rufus Ebegba, with members of the Real-Life Civil Society
Dr. Ebegba made the submission while receiving members of the Real-Life Civil Society, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), at the NBMA Office. According to him, government in its wisdom established the NBMA to guard against the misuse of modern biotechnology and its products.
“The practice of modern biotechnology ordinarily is not intended to pose any harm or danger to the public or the environment and to ensure that this potent tool is not misused, the NBMA was established,” he said.
He reiterated the determination of the Agency to implement the NBMA Act 2015 according to international best practices, and assured that the Agency had the requisite manpower to implement its mandate without fear or favour.
Comrade Akin Akinsola, Coordinator, Real-Life Civil Society, said that the group was at the NBMA to familiarise with the operations of the Agency vis-à-vis negative publications in the media about NBMA.
“Having learnt and seen for ourselves what you do and the facilities you have, we call on all Nigerians to trust the Agency and give it a chance,” he said.
