Africa Weekly
Sustainable Development Guidance Document |
|
Edition 1:13 - Tuesday, 29 September 2009
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Editors Note: Welcome to the thirteenth issue of IISD's Africa Weekly Sustainable Development Guidance Document. The Guidance Document replaces our Linkages Africa newsletter, and we aim to provide this service on a weekly basis. If you should come across a news article or have a submission for the next issue, please send it directly to richards@iisd.org. The Africa Weekly Sustainable Development Guidance Document is an exclusive publication of IISD for the AFRICASD-L list and should not be reposted or republished to other lists/websites without the permission of IISD (you can write to Kimo Goree for permission.) If you have been forwarded this issue and would like to subscribe to AFRICASD-L, please visit: http://enb.iisd.org/email/#africasd-l
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 21 September: UNDP/UNAIDS: UNAIDS and the Millennium Villages Project signed an agreement in New York to strengthen efforts to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Africa. The aim of the partnership is to help local governments create “Mother to child transmission-free zones” in 14 ‘Millennium Villages’ across ten African countries. The Millennium Villages Project, a partnership between The Earth Institute at Columbia University, Millennium Promise, and UNDP, seeks to end poverty by working in rural areas throughout Africa. The new initiative will use the existing infrastructure, human capacity and technical resources in the villages, to help rapidly expand family- and community-centered heath services with focus on stopping new HIV infections among children. [More information]23 September: UNDP/Burundi: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is to manage a US$44 million basket fund to support Burundi’s 2010 election process, sealing the country’s transition to peace. Next year will mark the first time that an electoral cycle will have run its full course in Burundi. In 2005, following years of civil conflict, a new constitution was approved with over 90% of the popular vote and separate ballots were held throughout the country for the parliament and presidency. In the 2010 elections, Burundians will vote for local representatives, members of parliament and the president. [More information]
23 September: IFAD/Burundi: A US$8.1 million loan and US$8.1 million grant from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to Burkina Faso for the Rural Business Development Services Programme will help to develop the local private sector and harness the desire of young people to develop non-farm businesses. [More information]
25 September: AFDB: Canada: The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group welcomes Canada’s decision to temporarily make available USD$2.6 billion (CAD$2.8 billion) to the AfDB to enable the institution address the challenges resulting from the impacts of the international financial crisis on African economies. The decision, which represents a tripling of Canada’s callable capital to the AfDB, was announced during the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. [More information]
28 September: FAO: Africa’s Food Challenge: A new discussion paper, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), says that “the recent positive performance of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa indicates a break with the past and the outlook for the sector is improving,” however it warns that “concerted and purposeful policy action” is required to maintain the momentum. The discussion paper was prepared for a High-Level Expert Forum to be held in Rome on 12-13 October 2009 to discuss strategies on “How to Feed the World in 2050″. It called for determined action in areas such as technological innovation, the development of markets and services and better management of natural resources to feed a growing population and eradicate hunger in the region. [More information]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
IFPRI Publishes Papers on Climate Change and Economic Growth in Zambia, Agricultural Vulnerability in South Africa September 2009: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has recently published two papers modeling the impact of climate variability and change on economic growth in Zambia, and mapping the vulnerability of South Africa’s farming sector to climate change.
The paper on climate change and economic growth in Zambia combines a hydro-crop model with a dynamic general equilibrium model to assess the impacts of climate variability and change on economic growth and poverty reduction in Zambia. A similar method is also used to examine the potential impact of climate change on the economy based on projections of a well-known global climate model and two hypothetical scenarios. The authors, James Thurlow, Tingju Zhu and Xinshen Diao, estimate that climate variability could cost the country US$4.3 billion over a 10-year period. They highlight that estimates of the economic impacts of climate change are most sensitive to rainfall patterns, and that costs could rise to over US$7 billion under the worst rainfall scenarios. They underscore that climate impacts are likely to keep thousands of individuals below the national poverty line over the coming decade. In the paper on climate change and the South African farming sector, the authors, Glwadys Aymone Gbetibouo and Claudia Ringler, develop a vulnerability index and nineteen environmental and socioeconomic indicators to reflect the exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity of nine provinces of the country. The results of the study show that the regions most vulnerable to climate change and variability also have a higher capacity for adaptation. However, due to the high variability of development among the provinces, the authors highlight the need to develop region-specific policies and address climate change locally. [The impact of climate variability and change on economic growth and poverty in Zambia] [Mapping South African farming sector vulnerability to climate change and variability]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
28 September- 9 October: Ninth session of the AWG-KP and seventh session of the AWG-LCA, Bangkok, Thailand. [More information]
28-30 September: 13th Meeting of the Mediterranean Commission on Sustainable Development (MCSD), Cairo, Egypt. [More information]
29-30 September: Annual Humanitarian Development Summit, Nairobi, Kenya. [More information] [Conference website]
12-13 October: High-level Experts Forum on How to the Feed the World in 2050, Rome, Italy. [More information]
18-25 October: Thirteenth World Forestry Congress, Buenos Aires, Argentina. [More information]
19-23 October: LDC Workshop on Implementation of National Adaptation Programmes of Action, Dar-es-Salaam. [More information]
10-11 November: Fourth International Conference of the Egyptian Society for Environmental Sciences: impacts of climate change on natural resources, Ismailia, Egypt. [More information]
16-18 November: World Summit on Food Security, Rome, Italy. [More information]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Africa Weekly Sustainable Development Guidance Document is a publication of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) < info@iisd.ca>, publishers of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin © < enb@iisd.org>. This issue was compiled and edited by Tallash Kantai and Richard Sherman. The Guidance Document is part of IISD Reporting Service’s African Regional Coverage (ARC) Project in partnership with South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), the UN Environment Programme’s Regional Office for Africa (UNEP ROA) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Director of IISD Reporting Services is Langston James “Kimo” Goree VI < kimo@iisd.org>. The Programme Manager of the African Regional Coverage Project is Richard Sherman < rsherman@iisd.org>. Funding for the Africa Weekly Sustainable Development Guidance Document has been provided by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Development Research Centre, Canada, through the African Regional Coverage Project for IISD Reporting Service’s coverage of African regional meetings. IISD can be contacted at 161 Portage Avenue East, 6th Floor, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0Y4, Canada; tel: +1-204-958-7700; fax: +1-204-958-7710. The opinions expressed in the Guidance Document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IISD. Electronic versions of the Guidance Document are sent to the electronic distribution list (in HTML format) and can be found on the Linkages WWW-server at < http://enb.iisd.org/africa/>. For information on the ARC, including requests to provide reporting services, contact the Director of IISD Reporting Services at < kimo@iisd.org>, +1-646-536-7556 or 300 East 56th St., 11A, New York, New York 10022, US.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
