Author: Akanimo Sampson

Better life is underway for more than 250 000 smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa and in the Near East as a result of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)-designed projects for them. One of the projects is focusing on agroforestry in sub-Saharan Africa and the other on water management in the Near East. The two projects have received $80 million to pave the way to improve their livelihoods. The Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved the funds for initiatives in the Republic of Congo and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Both are the first GCF-funded projects in those countries, underscoring…

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United Nations agencies are calling for urgent action to combat ageism, saying it is costing economies billions of dollars. They also pointed out that negative stereotypes, prejudice and perceptions towards people based on their age, equally leads to poorer health and social isolation. In a new report, the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Population Fund (UNFPA), Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), and the UN human rights office (OHCHR), warned that key institutions – health, social and legal systems – are impacted by ageism. Before now, UN human rights expert warned in June 2018 that older people are increasingly subject to financial abuse,…

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International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is battling to identify specific gender-preferred characteristics that relate to postharvest, nutritional, and processing qualities with implications for future breeding of maize varieties appropriate for both male and female farmers. This is coming as the global population is rapidly increasing. For IITA, there is a need to increase global food production to meet the growing population needs. Although maize is one of the most important and widely cultivated staple crops in sub-Saharan Africa, yields have been significantly low in many countries. However, research has shown that gender has significant impacts on agricultural activities. One…

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Despite the familiar resignation and massive repression of all opposition, the latest intelligence report by Menas Associates says France is still supporting President Idriss Déby of Chad for a sixth term. Going by its February Sahara Focus, the political risk consultancy reported that Chad is heading inexorably and suffocatingly towards presidential elections on April 11, which will see President Déby installed for a sixth term. On February 28, however, that scenario changed after Déby adopted an entirely new approach to getting rid of his electoral opposition. The government claims that the courts had issued two judicial warrants against Yaya Dillo Djérou (a.k.a. Yaya Dillo) (b.1976)…

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International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) says it has always maintained a policy of zero tolerance for discrimination. As a demonstration of that, it said that explains why it joined the rest of the world to celebrate Zero Discrimination Day on March 1 by organising a virtual seminar themed “End Inequality,” The purpose was to create awareness on the concept of discrimination and how to guard against it in the workplace and society at large. On behalf of the management team, Hilde Koper, Deputy Director General, Corporate Services, gave the opening address, noting that the need for awareness was due to…

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Disasters are hampering agricultural production most in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs), going by a new report released by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Between 2008 and 2018, the impacts of natural disasters cost the agricultural sectors of developing country economies over $108 billion in damaged or lost crop and livestock production. Such damage can be particularly detrimental to livelihoods of smallholder and subsistence farmers, pastoralists, and fishers. Over the analysed period, Asia was the most hard-hit region, with overall economic losses adding up to a staggering $49 billion, followed by Africa at $30 billion, and Latin…

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Internal wrangling in Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), allegedly caused by battles for supremacy, is tearing it apart and weakening its capacity to become a credible alternative government, intelligence report says. A political risk consultancy, Menas Associates in its Nigeria Politics & Security, a weekly intelligence report on Nigeria says the main opposition party is not being taken seriously when it comes to national issues. In Western Nigeria, the battle is between Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and former Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose. They are, according to the report, fighting over who should be seen as PDP’s regional leader. The intelligence…

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Governors of the nine oil-bearing states- Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo, and Rivers- will soon be sweating it out on the floor of the Senate on how they expended Niger Delta Development Commission’s (NDDC) N900 million COVID-19 palliatives. The interventionist agency is claiming that it gave each of the nine oil governors N100 million each as COVID-19 palliatives. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Patrick Ayo Akinyelure, said in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city that NDDC officials told them so. According to Senator Akinyelure, the Red Chamber of the National…

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United Nations human rights office, OHCHR, is pressing for military and political officials in South Sudan supporting community-based militias in the Greater Jonglei region, to be held accountable for violence that killed more than 700 people over a six-month period last year. Previously, there has been a report of undue restrictions on freedom of expression having a “chilling effect” and “further shrinking the space for debate and dissent” in war-torn African country. In a joint report by the UN Mission in the country (UNMISS) and the Organisation’s human rights wing, the also warned that incitement to hatred continues to cause mistrust, fear…

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A primary school and a healthcare centre in Katarko community of Gujba Local Government Area in Yobe State have been burnt down by suspected Boko Haram insurgents. Local sources the community was attacked on Tuesday by gunmen who ruptured the peace of the area. Fantami Kura, a resident in the community who confirmed the attack told Channels Television that the gunmen stormed the community at about 5:30 am when Muslim worshippers were going to the mosque for prayers. “We came out as usual around 5.30 am for prayers, we sighted the gunmen, we immediately alerted our people and ran into the bush…

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With the alleged $2.00 billion arms deal scandal of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, yet to conclusively come to an end, another armsgate scandal under the Buhari administration that prides itself as a corruption fighter is developing.  Dasuki is facing trial for allegedly awarding phantom contracts to buy 12 helicopters, four fighter jets and ammunition. He denies the allegations. The equipment was meant for the fight against Boko Haram Islamist militants. President Muhammadu Buhari in November 2015 ordered Dasuki’s arrest after he was indicted by a panel investigating the procurement of arm under the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Former…

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In spite of the fact that the world’s indigenous peoples live in areas that contain around 80 per cent of the planet’s biodiversity, many are still struggling to maintain their legal rights to lands, territories and resources, going by a new UN report.  The world’s indigenous peoples call 22 per cent of the global land surface home. They live in areas where you find about 80 per cent of the planet’s biodiversity and much of the world’s non-commercially exploited land and many of its remaining mineral and forest resources, major rivers, fossil fuels and sources of renewable energy. While often described…

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United Nation’s reproductive health agency says around 12 million women are experiencing disruptions to their family planning services one year since COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic. According to new estimates from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and Avenir Health, this has led to around 1.4 million unintended pregnancies. These latest figures come as many countries, particularly high-income nations, show early signs of steeply declining birth rates. Together, the findings demonstrate how the pandemic has severely impacted women’s control over their own reproductive health, and undermined family planning.   Analysing contraceptive service disruptions last year in 115 lower and middle income countries, data from UNFPA,…

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UN-appointed independent rights experts want US President, Joe Biden, to do everything in his power to end death row executions in America. The call is coming after a resumption of federal executions in the US in the last year of Donald Trump’s Presidency, in which 13 people were put to death. In their appeal to the White House, the rights experts insisted that the death penalty served “no deterrent value and cannot be reconciled with the right to life”. The punishment is “inherently flawed” and disproportionately affected African-Americans and people living in poverty, they maintained. Due process guarantees were also violated…

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To build resilience in Africa, African Development Bank (AfDB) says strengthening food systems must be an integral part of efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bank’s Director General for Southern Africa, Leila Mokaddem, who said this in a session on sustainable food systems at the Southern Africa Impact Forum on March 9, explains that hunger is a greater threat to many Africans than the COVID-19 crisis. “Africa must now urgently strengthen its food systems as an integral part of efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to build resilience”, she said. University of Pretoria Vice-Chancellor, Tawana Kupe,…

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The Buhari administration is currently taking major steps to expand Nigeria’s capacity in wheat production. It has already entered into a partnership deal with Crown Flour Mills. This is coming as a Chinese firm, Chinese Green Industry Company has promised to invest $50 million in the country’s agricultural sector through a partnership with a Nasarawa State-based farmers’ group, Nigerian Farmers Group and Cooperative (NFGCC). A Consultant and Representative of the firm, Li Jian made this known after a visit to the NFGCS Managing Director, Reston Tedheke, who also doubles as the National Coordinator of the group. Jian says the firm…

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African Development Bank’s (AfDB) Board of Directors has approved a grant of $1.024 million for artificial intelligence enabled systems to process customer complaints on behalf of the national banks of Ghana and Rwanda and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission of Zambia. The grant resources are from the special fund of the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI), a financing vehicle to accelerate digital financial inclusion across Africa. ADFI is a pan-African instrument designed to accelerate digital financial inclusion throughout Africa, with the goal of ensuring that an additional 332 million Africans (60% of them women) have access to the…

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Nigeria and 36 other countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East will benefit from a $110 million support to vulnerable people. United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has already welcomed the total contribution of $110 million from the Government of Japan towards its food assistance and livelihood support to vulnerable people. Some $20.6 million will be used to provide life-saving support to families in conflict-stricken Yemen, where nearly 50,000 people are living in famine-like conditions, with 5 million just a step away from those same desperate conditions. In Afghanistan, a $12.9 million allocation will support WFP’s response for families…

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A female officer in Sierra Leone’s army is currently in the forefront of coordinating the national effort to combat COVID-19. Lieutenant Matilda Mattu Moiwo holds a senior position in the West African country’s National COVID-19 Emergency Response Centre, which is supported by the United Nations. “COVID-19 is a dynamic and fluid situation”, says Moiwo. “You can’t predict everything that will occur in advance.” Moiwo is a staff officer of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces. Her military training serves her well in the fight against COVID-19. As the National Emergency Medical Services Referral Coordinator in the capital city of Freetown,…

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Complementing recommendations from Dasgupta’s landmark review, Chief Economist at International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Paul Steele, has set out ways to spur urgent and immediate investment in biodiversity conservation. The Dasgupta Review, a mammoth 600-page treatise on the economics of biodiversity, places its faith in influencing future finance ministers. Steele is however, arguing that without tangible figures on the costs of inaction on biodiversity loss and fiscal and monetary policy recommendations, the review misses engaging current finance ministers and economic decision-makers, whose support is urgently needed to reverse the nature crisis. This was illustrated by the glaring absence of UK…

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In a recent op-ed, Director General of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nteranya Sanginga and his International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) counterpart, Martin Kropff, played up CGIAR centers’ investment in long-term breeding to increase genetic gains in a vital food crop like maize using many new tools and technologies. According to them, adopting drought-tolerant maize variety has helped lift millions of people above Africa’s poverty line. In his recently launched book, How to avoid a climate disaster: The solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need, Bill Gates mentioned this innovation, singling out CGIAR as being “at the forefront of supporting the…

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International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) says it has continued to take a leading role in driving domestic agricultural transformation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Between February 15 and 19, the Institute carried out multiple interventions to boost agriculture in the region. The Institute organised a regional capacity-building workshop on the management of aflatoxins under the auspices of the Integrated Project for Agricultural Growth in the Great Lakes [Projet Intégré de Croissance Agricole dans les Grands Lacs (PICAGL)]. The workshop benefitted the national agricultural research partners of the DRC and Burundi as part of a framework of regional…

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Ahead of a joint International Women’s Day event on Monday, heads of three United Nations’ food agencies have rang out an unequivocal warning to the world. They are warning that unless more women in rural and urban areas hold leadership positions with increased decision-making power, hunger and famine will persist, and that there will be unequal recovery from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event, co-organised by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and World Food Programme (WFP), will focus global attention on the vital role that empowered female farmers, entrepreneurs and leaders need…

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Ahead of International Women’s Day on Monday, Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), a partner of the United Nations says the proportion of female legislators globally is still far from gender parity.  According to it, the proportion of women parliamentarians worldwide however, reached more than 25 per cent last year, a historic first.   IPU Secretary-General, Martin Chungong, in launching its latest Women in Parliament report at the UN Office in Geneva says,  iIt gives me great pleasure to announce that for the first time, women now account for more than a quarter of parliamentarians worldwide. The global average of women in parliament has now reached 25.5 per cent.” As…

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United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO says of Pope Francis’ touchdown in Baghdad, the capital city of Iraq that it is a symbol of hope and an opportunity to join forces for peace and unity.  The Pope’s arrival in the Christian northern heartland, will come as a “message of peace and unity supported on a pillar of diversity”, UNESCO said.  “This message is at the core of our mandate, where inclusion and diversity are critical to understanding, mutual respect, and ultimately a more peaceful and just world”, it added. Pope Francis arrived in Iraq on Friday, and is expected to travel to Mosul on…

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The violent extremist group, Boko Haram is actively building alliances with gangsters as part of its expansionist agenda, so says Institute for Security Studies (ISS). ISS Researcher for West Africa, the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin, Malik Samuel, states in ISS Today, a newsletter of the Institute, ‘’when Boko Haram faction leader Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility for the December 2020 mass abduction of more than 300 schoolboys in Katsina State, he wasn’t taken seriously – not even by government.’’ ISS is, however, concerned with enhancing human security as a means to achieve sustainable peace and prosperity. Continuing, the researcher says, this despite the…

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More than 60 extension workers have been trained by Women Farmers Advancement Network (WOFAN) on the use of drones and other modern agricultural technologies. This is even as Abuja has began plans to identify new actions and partnerships that are critical to developing sustainable, healthier, all-inclusive, and equitable food systems in the country. Executive Director of WOFAN, Salamatu Garba, says the trained extension workers were selected from four states in Nigeria, and will soon go-ahead to engage hundreds of farmers on modern farm technology. “We invited 60 extension workers from four states in Nigeria to train them on ICT-led technology…

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President Muhammadu Buhari’s attitude towards the Northern bandits is strengthening the perception of a Presidency that is showing favouritism towards the area of the country where he comes from, says Menas and Associates in its Nigeria Politics & Security, a weekly intelligence report on Nigeria.  According to the political risk consultancy, ‘’like so many others in Nigeria, the past week has been dominated by security. Although they were released late on March 1, the February 26 kidnapping of 279 girls from a government boarding school in the North-west’s Zamfara State was the fourth such incident since December 2020. ‘’President Buhari said…

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Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State is advocating for not less than 10 percent oil revenue to oil-bearing communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill that is still crawling at the National Assembly.According to Wike, it is also necessary that the bill states in clear terms what specific development projects that the allocated fund should be spent on, so that development of host communities can be truly actualised.He gave the charge when the members of the National Assembly Committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill,  visited him at Government House, Port Harcourt, on Thursday.Wike stated that oil-bearing communities have suffered the loss…

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Former Governor of President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state, Katsina, Ibrahim Shehu Shema, is calling on Nigerian leaders to sink their differences and work together against insurgency that has continued to threaten national peace and unity. He made the call while inaugurating a reconstructed Chief Ferdinand Alabaraba Crescent and Opobo Crescent in GRA Phase 2, Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Wednesday just as his host, Governor Nyesom Wike said his administration is making its modest contribution towards restoring the Garden City status of Port Harcourt..Shema who was Wike’s special guest, said most Nigerians have become preoccupied with their disagreement in the political…

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