Are you wondering how the new World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Anthony Joshua, knocked out former champion, Wladimir Klitschko? Then listen to this.
Joshua and Klitschko
The latest boxing sensation, Nigerian-born British boxer Anthony Joshua, says he was not surprised beating Klitchsko to take away the WBA and IBA belts to add to his IBF belt.
Shortly after beating Klitschko, Joshua said he spent time to study the strategy to beat the former holder of the belt, and was happy seeing his dream come true.
Joshua on Saturday night at the 90,000 capacity Wembley Arena secured an 11th round knock-out of Klitschko in a celebrated World Heavyweight title fight.
The 27-year-old Joshua, whose root is traceable to Sagamu in Ogun State, took his record to 19-0 with all victories by stoppage.
After preparing and submitting its First (FNC) and Second National Communications (SNC) to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in November 2003 and June 2014 respectively, Nigeria will this week commence the preparation of the Third National Communication (TNC).
Dr Peter Tarfa, Director, Department of Climate Change (DCC) in the Federal Ministry of Environment
At a project inception workshop holding from Tuesday, May 2 to Wednesday, May 3, 2017 in Keffi Nasarawa State, participants will attempt to produce a draft of the TNC. The event is holding courtesy of the Department of Climate Change (DCC) of the Federal Ministry of Environment in Abuja and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
National Communications are documents all Parties to the UNFCCC are obligated to prepare and submit periodically to the Convention. The purpose of preparing the National Communication is to communicate to the Convention a National Inventory of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission by sources and removal by sinks and measures established towards mitigating global climate change by country parties.
It also aims to intimate other Parties to the Convention about the national circumstance with respect to GHG composition of the atmosphere, vulnerability, adaptation and abatement analyses of the impacts of climate change, as well as what options are available to mitigate the effects there-from.
According to officials of the DCC, such document of national circumstances will form the basis against which future auditing of climate situation in the country will be compared.
Similarly, the DCC, in its capacity as the nation’s Designated National Authority (DNA) to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), is in the process of developing funding proposals to the GCF to source concessionary funds for the purpose of implementing sustainable climate adaptation and mitigation projects in the country.
With the support of the UNDP, the DCC is between Thursday, May 4 and Friday, May 5 in Abuja hosting a Stakeholders Forum to iron out inherent issues.
As part of the preparation for the future funding allocation, the DCC, it was gathered, has adopted an all-inclusive process for project identification across the length and breadth of the country to ensure optimal projects which fall into one or more of the three chosen sectors identified and targeted for funding.
Officials are keeping the identity of the three sectors close to their chests.
Should science not be to the advantage of society? Does science always serve the public interest? Nnimmo Bassey, director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), posed these questions in his opening words at a Media Training on Biosafety organised in Abuja recently. The answers to these questions are obvious. The training session went ahead to question whether science was being used in the public’s interest in matters of food safety in Nigeria.
A view of participants at the media training
The training featured top electronic, print and online media personnel in Abuja and Lagos and was focused on the issues of biosafety and the challenge of agricultural modern biotechnology.
GMOs, or “genetically modified organisms,” are organisms (plants or animals) created through the gene splicing techniques of modern biotechnology to possess certain characteristics that they do not naturally have. Such characteristics include the ability to withstand herbicides and also of making the organisms become pesticides.
The training sought to present facts that would help erase the tonnes of misleading information circulating about genetically modified organisms.
In his presentation, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, who is a Public Policy Expert and the Convener of Nigerians against GMO, said that problems started when the lines between public good and commercial interest became blurred, stressing that the scientists who should engage in proper research to ascertain and enlighten the public on the risks associated with GMOs were largely serving corporate interests, just as was the case when medical doctors were co-opted to present cigarettes as safe and promoted smoking. He also stated that even in the USA there is a dispute as to who has the ultimate responsibility of ensuring food safety. The question sometimes gets tossed between regulatory agencies in the USA and the manufacturers of GMOs, he added.
According to Ify Aniebo, a molecular geneticist from Oxford University, the very process of gene transfer creates lots of problems as scientists do not have absolute control over the movement of such genes. These new genes can disrupt the functioning of other genes and create novel proteins that have never been in the food supply and could create toxins and allergens in foods.
Whereas the impact of eating GMOs may take years to manifest, the best tests that biotech companies such as Monsanto have conducted have been on rats for a mere 90 days. Tests done by independent scientists such as Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini over a two-year period, using same parameters as Monsanto, have shown severe impacts on the health of the laboratory rats. The rats fed GM potatoes were seen to have smaller livers, hearts, testicles and brains and damaged immune systems. They were more vulnerable to infection and disease compared to other rats fed non-GMO potatoes.
Stomach and intestines cells proliferation was also observed and this could be a sign of greater future risk of cancer.
Another speaker at the training, Jackie Ikotuonye-Offiah, who is a botanist and Country Representative for Bio-integrity and Natural Food Awareness Initiative, explained that GMOs actually increase the use of pesticides and herbicides instead of reducing them.
She cited a report by agronomist, Dr Charles Benbrook, that showed that GM herbicide-tolerant crops led to a 239 million kilogramme (£527 million) increase in herbicide use in the United States between 1996 and 2011. Apart from contaminating soils and making them unproductive for non-GM crops, the herbicides do also wash or seep into water bodies making them harmful for aquatic species, animals and humans.
Should we embrace a harmful technology just because it is available?
Mariann Bassey Orovwuje, a Lawyer as well as an environmental and food rights advocate, spoke on the Nigerian Biosafety Management Act, 2015. She stated that the Act, which is supposed to provide the regulatory framework, institutional and administrative mechanisms for safety measures in the application of modern biotechnology in Nigeria, is flawed and incapable of protecting the people from the adverse impacts of GMOs on human health, animals, plants and environment.
She stressed that the Act, rather than being a strict regulatory tool, is a permitting instrument and does not make public participation obligatory when applications to introduce GMOs are being considered. Farmer and consumer organisations are not represented on the Governing Board, instead the Board has GMO promoters and vested interests on it. The Act has no provision for mandatory labelling, which leaves the public with no choice in an issue as important as the food they eat.
What is to be done?
It was a full day of robust presentations, debates and networking. At the end of the discussions, the following are the conclusions were reached:
The Nigerian Government needs to support our research institutions, invest in rigorous and independent scientific research that puts the health and welfare of Nigerian citizens first.
The agricultural system should be developed including by providing more extension services, food processing facilities and rural infrastructure to ensure that foods get from the farms to the markets.
The food and environment must be protected.
The Nigerian government should revoke the permits to Monsanto and partners
The National Biosafety Management Act 2015 should be urgently reviewed or repealed.
It was also agreed that the media has an enormous responsibility to inform the public about issues that fundamentally affect their safety – especially with regard to the sort of food or things that we eat. Nigerians can feed Nigerians. Genetic modification is not the silver bullet that would solve Nigerian or African food problems because the biotech corporations are only driven by their profit objectives. Our farmers have the solution.
By Joyce Ebebeinwe, Project Officer, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF)
Nigeria needs some $912 million to tackle the scourge of child malnutrition, which is presently ravaging the country.
Dr. Chris Osa Isokpunwu
Dr. Chris Osa Isokpunwu of the Federal Ministry of Health, Abuja, disclosed this at a two-day Media Dialogue on: “Leveraging Resources for Child Malnutrition in Nigeria,” held on April 28 and 29, 2017 in Enugu, Enugu State.
Dr. Isokpunwu, who spoke on: “Scaling up nutrition in Nigeria: What will it cost?”, described child malnutrition as a major challenge in the country.
He lamented that there are currently about 2.5 million severely malnourished children in the country.
The medical expert quoted Federal Ministry of Health figures as showing that not less than $912 million is required to tackle child malnutrition in the country over the next five years if the problem is not to get worse.
Painting a graphic picture of the crisis, he pointed out that the national budget provided only N2.4 million for child nutrition in 2016, while nothing was provided in the 2015 budget and N30 million was provided in 2014, but was not released.
Dr. Isokpunwu noted that the budget for child nutrition was created for the first time in Nigeria in 2014, describing child malnutrition as “a silent killer which has to be stopped” in view of its devastating consequences.
In her paper entitled: “Child nutrition situation in South-East and South-South Zones of Nigeria,” Ngozi Onuora, Nutrition Specialist at the Port Harcourt office of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), lamented that, every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five-year-olds and 145 women of childbearing age as a result of malnutrition.
This, Onuora said, makes the country the second largest contributor to the under-five and maternal mortality rate in the world.
According to Onuora, there are multiple dimensions of child malnutrition which can co-exist in individuals, households and populations, including stunting, wasting, micronutrients deficiencies, overweight and obesity.
“These are all manifestation of under-nutrition,” she said.
Statistics provided at the Media Dialogue by nutrition experts showed that malnutrition, though a national problem, is much worse in the North.
The statistics showed that the total number of children affected by malnutrition in the South East in 2016 was 34,889, while 6,700 deaths were recorded.
In the South South, 86,304 children were affected, out of which 16,700 died, while the South West had 84,417 cases and 16,300 deaths; North-West 1,594,462 cases and 308,000 deaths; North-Central 43,635 cases, with 8,400 deaths; and North-East 695,998 cases and 134,000 deaths.
Malnutrition not only contributes to close to 50 per cent of deaths in children under five, but also results in a massive cost for the nation.
Nigeria loses over $1.5 billion in GDP annually to vitamin and mineral deficiencies, according to the World Bank.
The Media Dialogue attracted print, electronic and online journalists from Enugu, Lagos and Abuja.
Moderated by Geoffrey Njoku, the UNICEF Communication Specialist, and Ibiba H. Bello, Head, Child Rights Information Bureau, Federal Ministry of Information, Abuja, the event featured a broad spectrum of experts who explored various relevant themes.
They included Dr. Bamidele Omotola, Nutrition Specialist at UNICEF Abuja; Dr. Ken Ozoemena, Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF, Enugu Office; and Onche Odeh, a Communication Consultant.
Experts on environmental issues have urged the Federal Government to expedite action for immediate implementation of a policy on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).
They spoke at a Validation Workshop in Keffi, Nasarwa State, organised by the National Emergency Agency (NEMA) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The Federal Government has approved Ilorin and Enugu University Teaching Hospitals as special sentinel sites for surveillance of Rotavirus Diarrhea disease and Pediatric Bacterial Meningitis in children.
Dr. Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency
Rotavirus is the most common cause of diarrheal disease among infants and young children.
Dr. Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, made this known in a statement issued by Saadu Salahu, Head, Public Relations Unit of the agency.
Shuaib said the findings from the sentinel sites would help in information sharing and data collection on rotavirus and pneumococcal disease burden in Nigeria.
He added that the sites would provide additional information on the impact of the vaccine introduction into routine immunisation, guide government in making public health policies and interventions.
The executive director said government in collaboration with World Health Organisation (WHO) had earlier operated three sentinel sites for new Vaccines Surveillance in Nigeria.
According to Shuaib, the sentinel sites are University Teaching Hospital Benin, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital Bauchi, and Lagos University Teaching Hospital Lagos.
Shuaib said: “The three sites provide Paediatric Bacterial Meningitis (PBM) services only, while UNTH and UITH had been designated as sentinel sites for Rotavirus and other diarrhea-related diseases among children aged under years.”
He said the data from the sites would provide baseline information for different serotypes of rotavirus and other diarrhea causing pathogen diseases before the planned Rotavirus vaccine introduction in 2018.
He said WHO had earlier recommended the introduction of rotavirus vaccines into the routine immunisation schedule in countries with high diarrhea mortality rates in children as an approach to prevent and control diarrhea.
He said government would work closely with the five sentinel sites and partners to further reduce morbidity and mortality from vaccine preventable diseases.
The executive director appealed to parents, guardians and all caregivers to avail themselves of the rare opportunity provided by the joint investments of the Federal Government and WHO.
Nigeria has underscored the need for the proposed actions for strengthening the Science-Policy Interface in the BRS Conventions.
Prof. Babajide Alo
At a side event held on Tuesday, April 25, 2017 during the 2017 Conferences of the Parties to the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions holding in Geneva, Switzerland, the West African country suggested the adoption of a comprehensive road map to actualise this suggestion.
A major decision to be taken by the BRS COP 2017 is on the need to strengthen the science-policy interface and to consider establishing a Science to Action road map for further engaging Parties and other stakeholders in an informed dialogue for enhanced science-based action in the implementation of the BRS.
The Nigerian stand was unveiled in a presentation titled: “The need for science-policy interface” delivered by Professor Babajide Alo of the University of Lagos during the side event, which was organised by Nigeria in collaboration with the GEF-STAP (Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel) and the BRS Secretariat.
Pointing out that, as good policies for sustainable development will require the best possible science, the Professor of Chemistry clamours support by policy makers of strategies to strengthen partnerships between the science community and the BRS Conventions.
According to him, capacity-building of scientists and increased dialogue between scientists and governments/policy makers especially in developing countries and CEITs is crucial, in order for scientists to provide policy relevant advice.
“The case of the IPCC shows that there can be close interaction with policy makers throughout the scientific process, without compromising on the independence of scientists,” he stated.
Prof. Alo, who is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences (NAS), adds that awareness raising of all stakeholders of the science behind emerging environmental issues is also critical.
“As Glaser and Bates posited in 2011, education and awareness raising in Science for policy is of vital importance for the process and this can be achieved through educating the public and policy makers about scientific processes and scientific findings, so that they will be more engaged and interested in the entire process of scientific research; training of new scientists, in developing countries through improving education and capacity-building,” he stressed.
Prof. Alo emphasised that, besides educating scientists on how to effectively communicate their findings, more funding to support generation of relevant scientific data and new knowledge to assist decision-making and policy development will also positively impact the importance of the science-policy interface.
Essentially, Prof Alo in the paper reaffirmed that scientific assessments do underpin and have globally been used by all legally binding instruments to inform the decisions made by the Conferences of the Parties (COPs) of the Conventions, and that the triple Conventions of the BRS cannot be different as the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm conventions are indeed science-based, legally binding global treaties.
He recalls that several paragraphs of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA 2) in 2016 especially the Resolution 2/7 on Sound Management of Chemicals emphasised the importance and need for good science to inform policy.
“Scientific knowledge and appropriate technologies are central to resolving the economic, social and environmental problems that make current development paths unsustainable. Hence there should be an intimate connection between the scientific and policy making communities. Such a connection will help make research and scientific information more policy-relevant, and policy development and implementation more science based,” he noted.
Prof Alo says that despite clear scientific evidence of the importance of scientific knowledge, the implementation of sustainable development issues in developing countries has to a large extent failed so far. He attributes this to “serious disconnect between scientific knowledge generation/availability and the way that policy is formulated, and there often seems to be a lack of urgency among policy makers when addressing sustainable development issues leading to calls for improvements in the science-policy interface.”
His words: “Many policy decisions in many developing countries like in Nigeria and CEITs are taken even in the absence of full scientific certainty. Such countries use scientific data from other countries to make decisions in recognition of the precautionary approach. Good examples of science-policy interface global level include the Montreal Protocol On Substances That Deplete The Ozone Layer and the UNFCC with the IPCC mechanism. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is today perhaps one of the best examples of a body which combines full scientific credibility with full policy relevance and high political legitimacy.”
The thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (BC COP-13), the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Rotterdam Convention (RC COP-8) and the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Stockholm Convention (SC COP-8) commenced on Monday, April 24, 2017 and will come to a close on Friday, May 5.
The UN Women, with support from the Green Climate Fund (GCF), has launched a new guidebook to help practitioners mainstream gender into climate change projects and programmes. It has been described as a “go-to” publication, which presents methodologies and tools to address the gender gap.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director, UN Women
Gender mainstreaming for climate change is the process of assessing and responding to the differentiated implications for women and men of any planned climate action, including legislation, policies or programmes. Gender mainstreaming is not simply about adding a “women’s component”. Gender mainstreaming is about thinking differently, modifying climate and development interventions so that they will benefit men and women equally. It is about transforming social, economic and institutional structures towards gender equality and women’s empowerment in climate action and resilience building.
The impacts of climate change, including on access to productive and natural resources, amplify existing gender inequalities. Climate change affects women’s and men’s assets and well-being differently in terms of agricultural production, food security, health, water and energy resources, climate-induced migration and conflict, and climate-related natural disasters.
At the same time, women are powerful change agents to address climate change at scale. They are key actors in building community resilience and responding to climate-related disasters. Women tend to make decisions about resource use and investments in the interest and welfare of their children, families, and communities.
Systematically addressing gender gaps in responding to climate change is one of the most effective mechanisms to build the climate resilience of households, communities and nations.
For this, a paradigm shift is needed towards gender mainstreaming.
This guidebook is part of UN Women’s and its partners’ efforts to champion such a paradigm shift. The handbook can be accessed here.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will hold a scoping meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on from Monday May 1 to Friday, May 5, 2017 to draft the outline of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). The meeting will bring together 200 experts from some 60 countries.
The IPCC decided to produce the AR6 in February 2015. It is due to be completed in the first half of 2022. The meeting in Addis Ababa will draft the outline and indicative coverage of the contents of the three Working Group contributions to the report, which will be released in 2021, for consideration by the IPCC when it next meets in September. A further scoping meeting is planned for November 2018 to draft the outline of the Synthesis Report, which will integrate the three Working Group contributions and the three Special Reports that are being prepared in this assessment cycle.
“With this meeting we are taking a decisive step to advance the work plan of the IPCC. During the AR6 cycle we will see one or more policy-relevant reports released almost every year from 2018 until 2022,” said Hoesung Lee, Chair of the IPCC. “The AR6 Synthesis Report will be delivered in time for the first global stocktake in 2023 by the UNFCCC under the Paris Agreement.”
The AR6 will assess scientific findings that have been published since the IPCC’s last comprehensive report, the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), which was completed in 2014. AR5 provided crucial input into the Paris Agreement on climate change adopted in December 2015. The AR5 report findings pointed to the fact that the world has the means to limit global warming and build a more prosperous and sustainable future, but pathways to limit warming to 2ºC relative to pre-industrial levels would require substantial emissions reductions over the next few decades.
Prior to the scoping meeting, IPCC Bureau members and authors are presenting the findings and activities of the Panel in workshops for policymakers, academia, media and students as part of a two-day outreach event on 29 to 30 April organised by the African Climate Policy Centre of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
“Africa is vulnerable to climate change but various adaptation and mitigation options exist to make society more resilient and create opportunities for a sustainable future,” said Youba Sokona, Vice-Chair of the IPCC. “We hope that these timely events will encourage more scientists from the region to participate in the work of the IPCC during the AR6 cycle.”
The scoping meeting, outreach event and an Expert Meeting on Mitigation, Sustainability and Climate Stabilisation Scenarios, which held 26 to 28 April, were hosted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and ofo, a Beijing-based start-up company that has become the world’s first and largest bike sharing platform, are joining forces to raise public awareness about climate change.
L-R: Mr. Li Zekun, Vice President of Marketing, and Mr. Dai Wei, Founder and CEO, with ofo’s bright yellow bikes outside UN Headquarters. Photo credit: Freya Morales / UNDP
The partnership will also provide financial support to innovative projects that address urban environmental challenges, expected to reach 100 million people, including school children, with campaign messages about the adverse effects of climate change and ways all of us can reduce CO2 emissions.
UNDP and ofo will also establish a joint scholarship programme to support environmental research projects and will provide small grants to start-ups offering green products and technologies.
ofo, which currently has over 30 million people using its app to share bicycles in China, Singapore and the US, will donate its income on the 17th of each month to celebrate the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs – also known as the Global Goals – are an ambitious blueprint agreed upon by nearly 200 nations to eradicate poverty and inequality by 2030.
UNDP, which is the world’s largest development organisation, will advise ofo on an innovative initiative which will see ofo redistributing abandoned bikes to rural areas to improve access to education for children living in poverty.
“Both UNDP and ofo are innovators when it comes to finding ways of reducing the emissions related to the burning of fossil fuels, and this is an innovative partnership which will make real strides towards protecting our precious environment,” said Michael O’Neill, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director of External Relations.
“We are very proud to be partnering with UNDP as we both work together towards achieving one of the key goals agreed by the world in 2015: the goal of a clean, sustainable safe environment and planet for all of us,” said Chief Executive Officer of ofo, Dai Wei.
