16 June: UNEP: Desertification: Improved varieties of the tropical, nutritious 'Sahel Apple' tree allied to the setting up of market gardens and community nature reserves are helping to turn the tide of land-degradation and desertification in some African countries, a new study shows. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced the findings of the US$10 million Desert Margins Programme (DMP), led by UNEP in partnership with the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics and with support from the GEF. This project has involved nine pilot countries in Africa and has employed technologies that combine modern science with traditional and indigenous knowledge in an effort to identify anti-desertification strategies
[Press release]
16 June: AWEPA : Climate Change: Levels of increased co-operation between parliamentarians and the private sector were described as “highly encouraging” by Pär Granstedt, Secretary General of AWEPA (European Parliamentarians for Africa), at the conclusion of a two day seminar on “The Role of Parliamentarians in Private Sector Development and Climate Change Adaptation”. The seminar, organized by AWEPA, the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), and the East African Business Council (EABC), involved parliamentary delegations from EALA, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Republic of Congo, Southern Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
[Press release]
18 June: WMO: Weather Monitoring: The Global Humanitarian Forum and its President, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, together with Ericsson, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), mobile telecommunications company Zain, and the Earth Institute at Columbia University have announced an initiative, dubbed “Weather Info for All,” which will seek to improve Africa’s weather monitoring network in the face of the growing impact of climate change risks, focuses on the area around Lake Victoria in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The first 19 automatic weather stations installed will double the weather monitoring capacity of the Lake region.
[WMO press release]
18 June: UNEP/Uganda: The National Environment Management Authority of Uganda, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UNEP GRID Arendal and other partners have published a new atlas titled “The Uganda Atlas of Our Changing Environment.” The Atlas provides scientific evidence of Uganda’s changing environment and was modeled after “Africa: Atlas of our Changing Environment” published by UNEP.
[The atlas]
19 June: UNDP: Regional Bureau Meeting: Both the UNDP Administrator and the Regional Director for Africa spoke at UNDP's regional meeting for Africa (16-19 June), held to review UNDP's contribution to poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals on the Africa continent.
[Statement by Helen Clark]
19 June: UNEP: Chemicals Management: Forty-seven representatives from 24 English-speaking African countries participated in a regional capacity-building workshop on Best Available Techniques and Best Environmental Practices (BAT and BEP) and the Environmentally Sound Management (ESM) of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), at UN headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. The meeting was organized to build national capacity to manage POPs waste, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) oils and contaminated equipment in an environmentally sound manner.
[UNEP press release]
19 June: UNDP: The UN Development Programme (UNDP), in partnership with Olympus Corporation and the Agence France-Presse (AFP), has launched an African-based photo contest titled “Picture This: Caring for the Earth.” The contest, open to anyone residing in Africa, is accepting single photos or photo essays that picture people as stewards of their natural environment, with special focus on the role of women in environmental protection.
[Press release]
22 June: FAO: Agriculture: Unlocking the potential of a massive stretch of Savannah spanning 25 African nations could boost commercial farming on the continent, according to a new United Nations study. Some 400 million hectares in the Guinea Savannah zone – stretching from Senegal to South Africa – are ripe for commodity production, but at present, only 10 per cent of that area is actually being farmed, according to the book published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the World Bank.
[Press release]
22 June: UNECA: Climate Change: As part of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Library Book Review Series, the UNECA organized a lecture to revisit the Stern Review on Climate Change on 22 June 2009, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Kwadwo Tutu, UNECA Economic Affairs Officer, and Josue Dione, Director of UNECA’s Food Security and Sustainable Development Division and Coordinator of UNECA’s African Climate Policy Centre (ACPC), highlighted the impacts of climate change on Africa, as well as the measures being taken in the region in response to this challenge.
[Press release]
22 June: World Bank: South-South Cooperation: The World Bank's Human Development Department for the Africa Region (AFTHD) in partnership with the Government of Singapore organized the Third South-South Study visit to Singapore, on skills and knowledge development for growth in Africa, from 21-27 June 2009. More than 35 practitioners and Ministers representing different sectors from Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tanzania, are taking part in this week-long event.
[More information]
24 June: UNEP/Eritrea: Following an invitation of the Government of Eritrea, a high level delegation from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) regional office for Africa is conducting three days visit to Eritrea to discuss the possible cooperation between UNEP and major stakeholders in the country and identified the potential areas of cooperation in land degradation assessment, water and sanitation, climate change and environmental health.
[Press release]
24 June: FAO: Biopesticides: According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the international Red Locust emergency campaign in Eastern and Southern Africa has succeeded in containing a massive locust outbreak in Tanzania. The FAO said this was the first time that biopesticides were used on a large scale in Africa against locusts.
[Press Release]
24 June: EU-Africa: Transport: Strengthening cooperation between Europe and Africa in the transport sector is at the core of the communication that the European Commission adopted today. It aims to connect the Trans-European and African networks, in particular through developing a common map of transport infrastructures. The Commission will make available the experience it gained from European transport policy to its African partners. This seeks to contribute to the implementation of a more efficient transport system, assisting in the development of the African continent in order to face the challenges of poverty, environmental degradation and migratory imbalances.
[More information] [Press release]
25 June: ECOWAS-SPAIN: In a joint Communiqué issued at the end of a special Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) and Spain Summit attended by Heads of State and Government of the region and Spain's Prime Minister a substantial part of the Spanish donation, some 240 million Euros, will be dedicated to boosting agricultural productivity to be spread over three years. The amount will help facilitate the implementation of ECOWAS Agricultural Policy (ECOWAP), the promotion of gender and professional training, national and regional priority programmes as well as efforts towards increased food production and anti-famine activities through support for regional agricultural programmes.
[Press release]
26 June: EAC: The East African Community (EAC) has launched the EAC Web Portal as the main entry point to all resources from the EAC that are available online and provides links to fully-fledged stand-alone websites newly created for the Community’s various sectors, organs and key offices at the Secretariat.
[EAC web portal]
