Follow The Money, a campaign being promoted by the Abuja-based Connected Development (CODE) aimed at tracking and monitoring governmental and international aid disbursements, has commended the Federal House of Representatives (HOR) for commissioning its committees on Anti-Corruption, Environment and Habitat to begin an investigation over the last administration’s “Clean CookStoves For Rural Women Project,” a N9.287 billion scheme initiated in 2014 to supply 750,000 units of clean stoves and 18,000 wonderbags to rural women.
The clean cookstoves imported under the N9.2 billion Federal Government project
On January 24, 2017, the Reps adopted a motion moved by James Faleke on the urgent need to investigate the N9.2 billion made available by government to provide the stated items.
In September 2015, Follow The Money, which had been tracking the expenditure of the N9.2 billion since it was approved in November 2014, released and submitted a report to the National Assembly and the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), stating that only 45,000 clean cookstoves were provided and exhibited at the Velodrome of the National Stadium in Abuja.
The report also stated that, out of the N9.2 billion, the Federal Ministry of Finance only released N5 billion to the Federal Ministry of Environment for the execution of the project, and the Ministry of Environment only released N1.3 billion (15%) to the contractor of the project – Integra Renewable Energy Services Limited.
On learning about the investigation of the project by the HOR, Hamzat Lawal, the Chief Executive of CODE and Co-Founder of Follow The Money, said: “We applaud such phenomenal initiative by our law makers. We believe that such investigation would trigger proper sanctions for those that compromised the rule of law in the process of the project meant for rural poor women.
“Till today, we have not seen any single beneficiary of the cookstoves. Where are the 45,000 stoves that were procured?
“Ultimately, we call on the respective HOR committees to conduct the investigation in an open forum so that all relevant stakeholders, including the civil society and media, can participate, give feedbacks, share their findings on the white elephant scheme’s saga and ensure transparency in the investigation.”
According to CODE, the Anti-Corruption committee of the HOR will be investigating details of the contract, number of cookstoves supplied, mode of distribution and details of beneficiaries on a state-by-state basis. The group adds that the Reps will likewise seek to determine the status of the balance of N952,000,000 that is with the contractor since 750,000 units would have been supplied at a unit cost of N464, totalling N348,000,000 out of the N1.3 billion paid out.
In addition, CODE discloses, the committee will confirm the status of the balance of N3.7 billion which is outstanding from the initial payment to the Federal Ministry of Environment.
The lawmakers are expected to report back to the House within six weeks for further legislative actions.
The United States will switch course on climate change and pull out of a global pact to cut emissions, said Myron Ebell, who headed U.S. President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition team until his inauguration.
Myron Ebell, head of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) transition team. He says the country will soon switch course on climate change
“(Trump) could do it by executive order tomorrow or he could do it as part of a larger package,” Ebell told a conference in London on Monday, 30 January 2017. “I have no idea of the timing.”
Trump, a climate change doubter, campaigned on a pledge to boost the U.S. oil and gas drilling and coal mining industries by slashing regulation. He also promised to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement aimed at curbing global warming.
Trump’s administration has asked the EPA to temporarily halt all contracts, grants and interagency agreements pending a review, according to sources.
Ebell, who helped guide the EPA’s transition after Trump was elected in November until he was sworn in on January 20, said it was difficult to predict the timing of any action because government departments are still in transition.
Ebell is Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.
Trump appointed Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, who has led 14 lawsuits against the EPA, as the agency’s administrator, although a vote on his nomination has not been scheduled.
Trump also has drawn heavily from the energy industry lobby and pro-drilling think tanks to build its landing team for the EPA, according to a list of the newly introduced 10-member team seen by Reuters on Monday.
Science and Technology news The Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS), at its Annual General Meeting held in Lagos on Thursday, 26th of January, 2017, has inducted Professor Kalu Mosto Onuoha as its new President.
Professor Kalu Mosto Onuoha, 18th president of the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS)
Professor Onuoha took over from Professor Oyewale Tomori, a virologist, who served as President of the Academy between January 2013 and January 2016. Mosto, as he is fondly called, was the Academy’s Treasurer before he became Vice president in 2013.
In his acceptance speech, the new President said he was honoured to be elected as president of Nigeria’s foremost science organisation. Professor Onuoha, a Fellow of NAS, served as the pioneer Mobil Professor of Petroleum Geology at the Mobil Producing Nigeria’s Chair of Geology at the University of Calabar (1991-92). He also served as Technology Development Adviser (Subsurface Development Services) at the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, Port Harcourt (1996-2002), and Shell/NNPC Professor of Geology at the Shell Chair, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (2003-2012). Prof. Onuoha additionally has served the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) in many capacities, including as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) between 2005 and 2009. Currently, he is the PTDF Chair of Petroleum Geology at the UNN.
In a statement, the NAS executive secretary, Dr Oladoyin Odubanjo, submitted: “Prof. Onuoha’s record of professional activities, community service, and services rendered to our nation, Nigeria includes membership of the Editorial Board of several reputable local and international scientific journals, Member of the Governing Council of Abia State University, Uturu (2000-2006), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (2005-2009), Federal University Ndufu Alike Ikwo, Ebonyi State (2015-2016), Visiting Professor to the African University of Science & Technology, Abuja (since 2010), and to the Federal University, Ndufu Alike Ikwo, and Member of the Board of Assessors (Science), Nigerian National Order of Merit (2003-2008).
“For the next four years, he will be leading the Nigerian Academy of Science in achieving an improved quality of life for the Nigerian society through the promotion and application of science and technology; as well as strengthen the nation’s ability to deliver the fruits of science to society by the acquisition, growth, and dissemination of sound scientific knowledge and facilitation of its use in the solution of major national problems.”
Established in 1977, the NAS is the foremost independent scientific body in Nigeria dedicated to the development and advancement of science, technology, and innovation, bringing scientific knowledge to positively guide policies/strategic direction of the country.
Fiji has outlined its leadership priorities ahead of its Presidency of COP 23 – the UN negotiations on climate change – on day one of a three-day meeting (30 Jan. – 1 Feb.) between Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and a delegation from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) led by its Executive Secretary, Ms. Patricia Espinosa.
Voreqe Bainimarama, Prime Minister of Fiji
The meeting also included Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Minister for Agriculture and National Disaster Management Inia Seruiratu – who is Fiji’s designated Climate Action Champion – and the Permanent Secretaries for the Office of the Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs, Civil Service, Environment, and Economy.
At the meeting, Fiji updated the UNFCCC on its preparatory work to meet the duties and responsibilities leading up the COP Presidency and its agenda for the upcoming negotiations.
Prime Minister Bainimarama identified climate adaptation finance, effective monitoring of adherence through the rulebook to the Paris Agreement and the objectives of the Climate Action Agenda as key issue areas for the Fijian presidency.
“Our Presidency will keep the interests of all nations – including those that are low-lying and vulnerable – at the forefront of our negotiations. We are also focused on turning the words and commitments of the Paris Agreement into measurable actions on the part of all nations, and are calling for transparent systems of accountability and practical outcomes to ensure the agreement is a success,” he said.
Prime Minister Bainimarama also pointed to the need for greater engagement from the private sector, NGOs and civil society in support of Fiji’s global effort to boost access to climate finance and reduce climate risks to developing economies.
Fiji will serve as the President of the COP 23 negotiations to be held in Bonn, Germany from 6-17 November 2017, making history as the first-ever small island state to hold the Presidency.
Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, has warned US President Donald Trump not to pull out of the Paris climate accord.
Donald Trump, US president
“Ultimately, this is about the competitiveness of the United States,” Espinosa, a former Mexican Ambassador to Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Slovakia, said recently in an interview.
During the election campaign, Trump repeatedly called for a renegotiation of the UN accord, whose aim is to keep global temperature increases well below 2 degrees Celsius by transforming the global economy away from fossil fuels this century.
“We do not know what he will do – all we know so far is that his stance differs from that of the Obama administration,” Espinosa, who served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of President Felipe Calderón, also said.
The hard-won accord reached by some 195 nations in December 2015 is viewed sceptically by Trump, who has indicated that climate change is a hoax and said environmental regulations were “out of control” at a recent meeting with US carmakers.
“They destroyed my cassava, yam, cocoa-yam, vegetable and my traps as well, everything has been destroyed. Oh! If you see what these herdsmen have done to me, you will weep for me.”
A armed herdsman
This was the lamentation of one Mr. Chijoke Nwachukwu, a farmer from Mgbede community in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State.
“Every place we used to farm is lama, lama (the local name for cows). Lama has filled everywhere so there is no way we can farm; this is very bad,” he adds.
Mr. Nwachukwu is just one of the numerous people hard hit by the rampaging herdsmen and their cattle. There has been no love lost between the communities of Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area and the herdsmen as some people still remember the tragic events that caused the animosity between the herdsmen and their host communities.
Prince Obinna Peters of Obiakpu, a neighbouring community in Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State, recalls: “I can still remember that fateful day Mrs Akuoyibo Ndudi had gone to farm to weed her cassava farm. As she got there she fell into the waiting arms of the herdsmen who laid an ambush for her, having had an altercation with some members of the community whom the herdsmen’s cows had eaten their cassava. The woman, who was pregnant, was murdered in cold blood. Her unborn baby was removed from her womb and murdered as well.”
These killings sparked off a bitter war between the herdsmen and the Obiakpu community. The youths of the community mobilised and went after the herdsmen who, at the end of the day, were dislodged from the community.
Another woman who tasted the bitter herbs of the herdsmen is Mrs. Adanna Ifeakachukwu, a widow in her late 50s. Mrs. Ifeakachukwu told this Reporter that, last September, she has gone to uproot cassava near the Orashi River along Ndoni Road close to a former PGH Camp site, and she left her bicycle near the road while she went into her farm.
“After harvesting the cassava, I carried the bag of cassava to where I parked my bicycle but the bicycle had been completely damaged. The place looked like some elephants were fighting there,” she says. When she looked up, she saw the herdsmen and their cattle as they headed down the river. She summoned courage and went to the river bank to meet them. The herdsmen denied that their cows were responsible for the damaged bicycle.
“When I insisted that they should repair my bicycle, one of them pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot me if I made noise or uttered a word of what happened to someone else. I cried and cried, then I wiped my tears and said to myself, at least I am alive, and the worst could have happened.”
Narrating his own ordeal, another farmer, Mr. Nnanna Okoro, who is aged 47 years, told EnviroNews: “The cows ate up the leaves and tubers of my cassava. Even when you harvest and keep it in your farm, they were eaten up, so what will I do now?”
Mr. Tito Ezebuike had gone to his farm one morning in November 2016. He recalls: “As I approached my farm, I saw a herd of cattle feeding on my cassava so I pulled my cutlass and seized the nearest person, saying: ‘You will pay me for my cassava’. He said, ‘No be me o, my brother,’ pointing to the other herdsman. As I made for the other man, he uttered a kind of command and, immediately, all the cows scattered and took to their heels. I followed them, but it was too late; in a minute, they were all gone – cows and herdsmen.
Tito Ezebuike’s story somehow illustrates how potentially dangerous the situation could be.
But these entire episode to insignificance when compared to the wanton destruction of crops going on daily at the Ogbreanya and Ntu Farmland, described as the “scorched earth” by Chief Levi Ekukwu. According to him, “the outcry by the women and men who farm in this area is so unbearable. Everyday, farmers come to me crying about what the herdsmen and their cattle are doing to them.”
Chief Ekukwu told EnviroNews: “The combined losses of farmers run into millions of Naira. So when all the farmers met and on the 20th of September 2016 we raised a letter to the Divisional Police officer in charge of Omoku , Divisional Police Headquarters, describing the damages done to our farms by the herdsmen.”
The letter, which was made available to EnviroNews, reads in part: “It should be noted that some of these farmers whose farms have been destroyed borrowed the money from banks and cooperative societies to finance their farms with a promise to pay back with the proceeds from the farms.”
In an interview, another farmer, Chief Samuel Ogbangwo, from Mgbede-Egbema in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area, said: “There will be hunger, because the cassava and other crops we are to harvest now have been eaten up by cows.”
Chief Ogbangwo, who is one of the signatories to the petition to the DPO of Omoku Police, said that the Divisional Police Officer arranged a meeting between the affected farmers and the herdsmen (one Alhaji Yahaya and his brother) on the 3rd 0f October 2016. They all agreed on the need to undertake an on-the-spot assessment of the farms.
Chief Ogbangwo continued: “So the DPO assigned some policemen led by the O/C Crimes who were joined by some members of the Joint Task Force (JTF) that led us to the farms. As we got to the farm, Chief Levi Ekukwu said, ‘We saw how the cows have eaten several hectares of cassava farms, we saw fresh cow dung everywhere. I then asked Alhaji Yahaya, ‘Who ate all these cassava?’ And he said, ‘Cows, but not my cows.” Then, I asked him, ‘Whose cows did it?’ But he didn’t answer.”
Chief Ekukwu told this Reporter that when they returned to the station the DPO decided to mediate on the matter. “At a meeting held on the 6th of October 2016 at the DPO’s Office, Alhaji Yahaya and his brother agreed not to take their cows to graze in the farms again. When the farmers pressed for damages for the losses they suffered, Alhaji Yahaya refused to take responsibility.
“Several weeks passed by and the cow were not seen again, so we started replanting the cassava. But, all of a sudden, the cows have come back in full force,” he said sadly.
When the Reporter asked Chief Samuel Ogbangwo, one of the farmers, how they hoped to handle the situation, he said, “We can’t fight but we will seek for justice.” He disclosed that the traditional rulers have been involved in the matter. The traditional rulers could not be reached as at the time of going to the press but their spokesperson, Nelson Ekperi, an engineer, confirmed that the traditional rulers in the area held a meeting on Sunday, 15th of January 2017 and that they would soon officially come out with their position on the matter.
Urban planners, architects, engineers, builders, construction firms, project owners, students and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are targeted participants at the 2017 LafargeHolchim Construction Awards competition, which is seeking smart solutions for cities and the built environment.
Lafarge Africa Plc’s Group Managing Director/CEO, Michel Puchercos
The competition, which awards a total of $2 million in each three-year cycle, seeks projects that go beyond balancing environmental performance, social responsibility, and economic growth.
Already, 26 participants from Nigeria (14 professionals and 12 students) have reportedly submitted entries for the 5th International LafargeHolchim Awards, which commenced on July 4, 2016 and closes for submission on March 21, 2017. The award seeks to recognise and reward high profile projects from professionals as well as bold ideas from students and upcoming professionals in the built environment sector that combine sustainable construction solutions with archirectural excellence.
The award, according to the promoters, is relevant to Nigeria, a rapidly urbanising country of over 170 million people and projected to be the third biggest country in the world in terms of population by 2050. As at 2016, the combined population of Abuja, Benin City, Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos, Onitsha and Port Harcourt (regarded as the fastest growing cities in Nigeria) was put at 31.4 million; and their number is expected to swell to 54 million by 2030, according to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).
There is thus a press need for sustainable urban design and construction in Nigeria, says Lafarge Africa Plc’s Group Managing Director/CEO, Michel Puchercos, while expressing delight that more Nigerians are tapping into the opportunity offered by the award.
His words: “Nigerian professionals and students participating in the country live and work in some of the fastest growing cities in the world. The competition is therefore an opportunity to address the myriad challenges of urbanisation as it develops.
“In Nigeria, like many emerging economies, urbanisation is outstripping the pace at which homes, offices, roads and bridges are being built. An infrastructure deficit and a low degree of industrialisation coupled with the amount of natural resources required highlight the important role which the construction industry will play in the socio-economic and environmental future of Nigeria.”
The competition seeks projects of ideas that embody the target issues for sustainable construction – the five Ps: Progress (innovation and transferability), People (ethical standards and social inclusion), Planet (resource and environmental performance), Prosperity (economic viability and compatibility) and Place (contextual and aesthetic impact), while providing the opportunity to institute the principles of sustainability for future constructions.
The projects are grouped into: architecture, building and civil engineering (Group 1); landscape, urban design and infrastructure (Group 2); and materials, products and construction technologies (Group 3). Past winners include Francis Kere (Gold award, 2012) and Kunle Adeyemi (Acknowledgement prize, 2014).
“I found this demolition as an inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of the right to dignity enshrined in Section 34 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Article 5 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.”
– Justice Onigbanjo of the Lagos High Court, Thursday, 26 January 2017.
Makoko, a waterfront slum community in Lagos. The court finds the planned demolition by the Lagos government as an inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of the right to dignity as enshrined in the Constitution
Since Justice Onigbanjo of the Lagos High Court delivered his epoch decision on Thursday, 26 January 2017 in a lawsuit filed by more than 20 member communities of the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation against the Lagos State Government (LASG), the news have reverberated beyond the shores of Lagos, nay Nigeria. It was instant global news headlines in many online newspapers (including EnviroNews), notable Slum NGOs’ newsletters from different continents of the world, international organisations news portals and commentaries from law pundits/human rights activists, women groups, and globally-acclaimed urban planners.
Justice Onigbanjo was not afraid to act within his legal authority. He acted as an arbiter and interpreter of the law in a dispute between the government and the governed in accordance with the dictates of the Nigerian Constitution, which guarantees “the right to dignity for all citizens.”
Using his discretion and God-given wisdom further, he directed the two warring entities (slum communities and the Lagos State Government) to embrace dialogue and find an amicable solution to the dispute that brought them before the court. To the belief of the learned judge, peoples’ lives must not be degraded at the altar of urban development. There must be a compromise and just compensation for people affected by unavoidable demolition arising from inevitable urban renewal for overall public good.
No Lagosians can doubt the good intention of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode in making the Lagos mega city a place comfortable to live, work, move around unhindered and play under a secure and wholesome environment. He has embarked on a gamut of infrastructural provisioning projects, social amenities, public transportation and environmental improvement and city beautification in the effort to make the Lagos mega city a hub on the African continent and a city of international status. In the process of doing this, it has come at a cost to the government and umbrage from a certain group of Lagos residents, most especially the marginalised urban poor and those living along the ubiquitous lagoon waterfronts whose shanty settlements had either been bulldozed or slated for imminent demolition due to insecurity and subhuman living conditions.
As well-intentioned the aim of the government seems to be, the brute force approach it took was roundly condemned and thus caused the LASG negative publicity both at home and in the international community, particularly among the proponents/advocates of “inclusive city.” Could it have been done differently without degrading the humanity, dignity, and families of over 30,000 slum residents and more without just compensation for the indignity suffered by the families affected? Will urban planning technocrats in government and other professionals have a rethink of slum bulldozing and the courage to press for more inclusive Lagos mega city? Are they ready to honestly advise the government to brace up and plan for urbanisation and not try to halt it? Are the planners ready to assist the government in planning for inclusive cities generally? These are unassailable questions that the LASG must try to reflect upon and be dispassionate in providing very truthful answers.
The planning and management of cities in the 21st century globally call for inclusiveness of all city dwellers in the social, political and economic fabrics of the city whether rich or poor, male or female and with equal oppourtunity for a decent life. Particularly, national governments all over the world are enjoined by the United Nations to imbibe good governance and be pro-poor in their planning efforts for the marginalised group as echoed at the just-concluded Habitat III Conference held in Quito, Ecuador in October 2016. The adopted New Urban Agenda, a document endorsed by member nations at the Habitat III Conference, called on governments to ensure that “cities and human settlements are participatory, promote civic engagement, engender a sense of belonging and ownership among all their inhabitants.”
The collusion between the waterfront dwellers and the LASG could have been avoided if, ab initio, the latter has carried along the former at the initial stage and intimate the people about the good intention of the government to redevelop the waterfront. During the public hearing/consultation, the issue of compensation and alternate settlement area could have been sorted with relate ease. All things considered, the waterfront dwellers have their nuisance value to the mega city. Their men engage in daily fishing as their occupation while the women are fish sellers. They both occupy an important spot in the food chain supply/food security to most residents of the mega city. They provide an invaluable service.
They also have their political relevance and civic value; they are willing tools in the hands of the politicians who often seek their votes during general elections (Federal, State, and Local Government elections). If the waterfront dwellers discharge their civic duties responsibly by voting for State and Local Governments’ elected officials, it behooves the government to listen to the genuine complaint or agitations of the people in time of crisis. Some of these people are responsible citizens who pay their taxes to the government, no matter how minimal is the amount.
Dislodging them from their source of livelihood and abode without any resettlement plan does not conform to international best practice. This inadvertent gaffe has been the undoing of the LASG, notwithstanding the good intention of the government to turn the waterfronts to a linear development for tourism and entertainment activities.The LASG seems to be at a crossroad on the next step it will take having been ordered to suspend further demolition of the waterfronts pending a court-ordered mediation of the legal tussle through the Lagos State Multi-Door Courthouse for an amicable settlement of the matter.
Any proponent of good city planning would lend support to the ongoing transformation of the Lagos mega city into a more functional, liveable and environment-friendly urban hub. No doubt, the colonies of the shanty and unauthorised structures along the waterfronts are unsightly and constitute a serious health risk for the city residents and a bad image for the entire city. However, it must be pointed out that these shanty developments are a cumulative effect of dereliction of duty and laxity in enforcing planning and building regulations for so many years. As a result, the proliferation of such illegal settlements was intensified anywhere they could be found along the lagoon shores. The human population also increased astronomically raising a social problem and grave moral issue for the government to manage.
The present administration is battle ready to rid Lagos of unauthorised development and unequivocal about its resolve for “zero tolerance” for ramshackle structures along the waterfronts throughout the state in the bid to restore the city masterplans. The LASG cannot be faulted for taking such proactive decision. However, caution must be taken about the approach or methodology applied. Such action should not cause untold human hardship or at the detriment of a particular voiceless group of people. If there are causes to dislocate families, those affected must be adequately compensated and resettled where possible. The scenario that led to the present face-off between the LASG and the waterfronts communities must be guided not to repeat itself in the future.
Therefore, we want to counsel that the remaining unoccupied waterfronts or any area earmarked for future development must not be left unprotected if incursion by illegal developers is to be forestalled. Squatters are like birds, they squat on any available city space. The LASG should mandate that unoccupied waterfronts must be sign-posted with a strict warning to ward-off itinerant or hobo people who are likely to jump on the vacant space and erect illegal structures. The struggle for survival by the urban poor in a rapidly growing megacity like Lagos is a constant struggle. The urban poor would employ any means legal or illegal to eke a living.
Those in government with a remit for urban development should be not deluded with the notion that where one lives determines your access to oppourtunity. It is erroneous. Different oppourtunities must be created for all strata of city dwellers irrespective of their social status. Rather than ignore the existence of the urban poor, it is the duty of the government to strive to accommodate the “left behinds” by providing social safety nets to ameliorate their burden of poverty and not aggravate them with unpopular urban development policy.
By Yacoob Abiodun (Urban Planner and Planning Advocate, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos)
A global coalition to create new vaccines for emerging infectious diseases has emerged with the ambitious aim of protecting the world from future epidemics.
Bill Gates of the the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is contributing $100 million to the initiative
Announced at the recently held World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the initiative has an initial investment of nearly $500 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Britain’s Wellcome Trust and the governments of Japan, Norway and Germany.
The partnership will be called the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI. It grew out of the lessons from the world’s woeful lack of preparedness for the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which killed more than 11,000 people and caused at least $2.2 billion in economic losses in the three hardest-hit countries.
As a result of that and the current Zika epidemic in the Americas, a global consensus has steadily grown among an array of governments, public health leaders, scientists and vaccine industry executives that a new system is needed to guard against future health threats.
Global health experts welcomed the initiative, saying it would complement efforts already underway by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Department of Health and Human Services, which are working on Ebola and Zika vaccines.
The United States is not providing funding for CEPI, but it is offering subject expertise. Officials took part in the planning discussions, and “while we are not a formal partner to CEPI, we foresee synergies between our approaches,” BARDA Director Rick Bright said in a statement. One such area is development of the most efficient technology for bio-defence and infectious disease response, he said.
Rebecca Katz, director of Georgetown University’s Centre for Global Health Science and Security, expects the new coalition “will just add much needed resources to a hard problem” and not detract from other efforts’ funding and resources.
CEPI initially plans to target three viruses that have known potential to cause serious epidemics and can be transmitted from animals to humans: MERS, a deadly respiratory virus first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012 that can be spread by camels and now is in 27 countries, including the United States; Lassa fever, an acute viral illness mainly found in West Africa and spread by rats; and Nipah, a newly emerging infection initially identified in 1999 in Malaysia and Singapore. During a Nipah outbreak there among pig farmers and people with close contact with pigs, nearly 300 people were infected and more than 100 died.
Each virus is among WHO’s priority pathogens. Few or no medical countermeasures exist to combat them.
The current system for vaccine development is in crisis, health experts say, because it’s a costly, complicated and labor-intensive development process that prioritises therapeutics with the biggest possible market.
CEPI hopes to develop two vaccine candidates against each of the target diseases. Officials said they did not choose Ebola and Zika vaccine work because considerable research is already underway.
“The last thing we would like to do is duplicate efforts,” Trevor Mundel, president of the Gates Foundation’s global health division, told reporters during a briefing.
Officials said they have raised $460 million, almost half of their $1 billion target for the first five years. They’re now seeking proposals from researchers and companies and expect to announce which will be funded by mid-year. They’re also calling for other governments and organisations to help complete fundraising by the end of the year.
The Indian government, one of the coalition founders, is finalising a financial commitment, according to CEPI.
Several major pharmaceutical companies are providing support in the form of vaccine technology, expertise and guidance. Industry representatives are on the coalition’s board and scientific advisory committee.
Bill Gates has said his biggest worry is a pathogen, more infectious than Ebola, for which the world is totally unprepared. In a statement, Gates said, “The ability to rapidly develop and deliver vaccines when new ‘unknown’ diseases emerge offers our best hope to outpace outbreaks, save lives and avert disastrous economic consequences.”
Wellcome Director Jeremy Farrar was among those who first proposed a global vaccine development fund in mid-2015. CEPI’s initial $1 billion investment goal, he said, pales in comparison to the tens of billions of dollars in costs from epidemics, starting with the 2003 SARS outbreak.
“Vaccines can protect us, but we’ve done too little to develop them as an insurance policy,” Farrar said.
CEPI’s financial contributions so far for its first five years include:
Japan: $125 million
Norway: about $120 million
Germany: about $10.6 million in 2017 with more funding to come
The Ogun State Government says it has requested for technical support and grant-in-aid from the Federal Government to further boost its reforestation programmes in its nine Forest Reserves.
Ogun State Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal
Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal, made the disclosure while speaking at a meeting with the Executive Director, Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The Commissioner, through his media aide, Olusola Olubodun, said the meeting was imperative so as to bridge the communication gap between the institution and Ogun State Government as well as to enable the institution identify with the state reforestation project.
Chief Lawal noted that the state needed technical support of the institution on the best ways to safeguard its forestry assets, especially on reforestation of depleted forest reserves in the state.
The Commissioner explained that, to achieve its set objectives, the state government had sourced for grants from the Federal Government to fund agro-forestry projects, saying that more capacity building would be needed especially in the training of forest guards that would combat illegal activities in the reserves.
Responding, Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. Adesola Adepoju, said the institution was established to assist states in capacity building and was ready to support Ogun State in achieving its set objectives, especially the reforestation project.
He promised that the institution would assist the state in accessing the grants by including it in the appropriation bill which would be presented to the Federal Government.
