29 October: UN: Funding Recovery and Development: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged international donors to step up funding of recovery and development efforts in countries emerging from violent conflict to give these nations hope of a durable peace.“As countries come out of conflict, they need basic services: water and sanitation, health and primary education, and sound food and agriculture systems,” Ban told a gathering at United Nations Headquarters in New York, examining the connection between the security and socio-economic aspects of peacebuilding.
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28 October: AfDB/Cape Verde: The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has approved Cape Verde’s 2009-2012 Country Strategy Paper (CSP), and elevated the country to Middle Income Country (MIC) Status, which entitles it to access resources from the Bank Group’s non-concessional and concessional windows. The 2009-2012 CSP is set within the dual framework of the country’s Economic Transformation Strategy (STE) – a long-term structural vision and its 2008-2011 Second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP-II).
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28 October: FAO/Tanzania: A new scheme from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) will help Tanzanian farmers expand their access to markets and ultimately bolster their food security. The nearly US$3 million project, funded by Germany, aims to help the nation’s agricultural sector shift from subsistence to commercial farming.
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27 October: ECA: African countries attending the Sixth Session of the Committee on Food Security and Sustainable Development (CFSSD-6) have elected South Africa as the Chair of its Bureau and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as the First Chair for 2009/2010. They also elected Morocco (second Vice-Chair), Gambia (third Vice-Chair) and Mauritius (Rapporteur) at the meeting which serves as the Regional Implementation Meeting for the 18th Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-18). The sixth session, which serves as the platform for the Africa Regional Implementation Meeting (RIM) for the Eighteenth Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-18), focused on sustainable consumption and production for sustainable growth and poverty reduction.
[Press release]
27 October 2009: Un Regional Commissions/Climate Change: The UN General Assembly Second Committee (Economic and Financial) held an interactive dialogue with heads of the UN Regional Commissions on 27 October 2009, on “regional perspectives on the economic impacts of climate change.”Abdoulie Janneh, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), reported that African Environment Ministers together with the African Development Bank (AfDB) were setting up an African Climate Policy Centre to improve climate-related data, and shape policy responses and action under a post-2012 regime.
[UN press release]
27 October: FAO: Land Tenure and Food Security: FAO has begun widespread consultations over the first ever international guidelines on governance of tenure to land and other natural resources such as water supplies, fisheries and forests. The consultations and negotiations, responding to requests from the international community and from governments, will take more than a year to complete. They will involve governments, the private sector, poor farmers, indigenous groups, local authorities, academia and independent experts and will be led by a secretariat based at FAO headquarters.
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26 October: UNEP: African Stand on Climate Change: Africa will neither accept replacement of the Kyoto Protocol, nor its merger with any new agreement, say African climate change negotiators, who met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the last African major preparatory gathering, before the UN Climate Change negotiations in Copenhagen in December. Negotiators say actions for Africa should be voluntary and nationally appropriate, and must be fully supported and enabled by technology transfer, finance and capacity building from developed countries. Added to this, any new climate deal must include provision for Africa to be compensated for climate related social and economic losses.
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26 October: UN/ Nigeria: Malaria: The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in its largest-ever malaria initiative, will provide 30 million long-lasting treated mosquito nets to Nigeria, a move applauded by the official tasked with spearheading United Nations efforts to tackle the disease. The Global Fund’s initiative will provide the African nation with half the nets needed to cover its entire population.
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23 October: AfDB/France/IFAD: An agreement establishing a multilateral Trust Fund to improve African migrant remittances was signed on Friday, 23 October 2009 in Paris, France, by the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, the French government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). To be managed by the AfDB, the Fund has an initial capital of more than €6 million, and is open to contributions from other donors and institutions.
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22 October: African Union/Climate Change: The Deputy Chairperson of African Union Commission, Erastus Mwencha, took part in a high level seminar held within the framework of the fourth edition of the European Development Days, under the theme: “Understanding the costs of adaptation”. Focusing on the costs of adaption in Africa, the Deputy-Chairperson observed that, there is sufficient evidence for action and “we should not wait until we know everything to act. The time to act is now”, he said. Mwencha underscored the need to screen each project for an opportunity so as to promote climate adaptation and reduce future impacts and establish a national and regional framework for action. “Delayed adaptation costs today will mean increased adaptation costs in the future,” said Mwencha, adding that, “provision of financial resources for implementation of adaptation measure is critical for Africa.”
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22 October: AfDB/Japan/Mauritania: The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Government of Japan have approved a grant of US$ 989,000 to la Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière (SNIM) of Mauritania to enhance SNIM’s institutional and operational capacities to implement the Environmental and Social Management Plan for the Guelbs II Expansion Project financed in part by the AfDB. The Guelbs II site promises to be one of the most abundant iron ore sites in Mauritania.
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