Practice Makes Perfect in the Agriculture sector

Accompanied by his 2 year twin girls, Manyoh Besong and Ayamba Besong; Josiah Egbe strolls out of his family house to extend a hand shake to a journalist. His cold and solid smile creates a good friendship. Josiah’s typical playful African twin -(talkative indeed) run around the giant cocoa nut tree, in front of their house where their father Josiah Egbe has planted their family treasure, 4 active snail farms. Josiah is a tall handsome dark young man referred to in his community as “Tanyi” meaning father of twin. 

In the context of the Cameroon’s snail farming project Josiah is a special case and his slow space belies his accomplishments. Josiah, wife and three children live in the Ekona village some 10KM from Buea the capital of the South West Region in Cameroon. 

Women Empowerment Holds the key to Transforming Africa’s Agriculture

Priscilla Achekpa

Women groups under the aegis of the African Working Group on Gender and Climate Change (AWGGCC) at the ongoing African Climate Change conference in Marrakech, Morocco have identified increase in women’s access to productive resources such as land, credit, transfer and enhancement of indigenous technology as instrumental to transforming Africa’s agriculture.

Priscilla Achakpa of the Working Group decried the slow advancement and transformation of African women’s access to formal education and called on African governments to implement policies that support gender research and full documentation of impact of climate change on gender as well as build the capacity of women to participate in key decision making processes.

 

Speaking during a side event on the theme” using climate knowledge to empower women in the value chains. Towards transformation of Africa’s Agriculture” Ruth Aura, Researcher in Kenya reported that “It was evident that there is no specific government policy on climate change that targets women” but, she confirmed that if women are mobilized and trained they can really influence Africa’s agriculture. 

From the Successful CSA Evidence Stories shared by Ruth, on how small-scale women dairy farmers profitably participate in the growing dairy industry, improving nutrition and increasing farmer income and access to markets.

 

According to Ruth, Women make up at least 80% of the farming labor force in Kenya, so if these women are trained, given the right tools, they can produce not only subsistent but commercially which will subsequently change livelihood. 

With climate smart agriculture, the effects of variability and changes in climate which affects agriculture, production and storage will be better faced by women.  

Journalists, key to Africa feeding itself

Journalists attending the Fourth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Morocco have unanimously agreed that their involvement in dissemination of information on climate change will enhance Africa’s chances of feeding the continent.

In interviews with media personnel at the Conference’s newsroom, journalists echoed out their importance in the dissemination of timely and accurate  information to the public.

Emmanuel K. Bensah, a blogger and radio journalist from Ghana, says knowledge is acquired through a process of learning.

 “For journalists to be effective in their work, they need capacity building, training that will afford them the skill required to disseminate climate change information which would in turn make people, especially farmers, make informed decision,” Mr. Bensah says.

Mr. Bensah says climate change is a development issue and journalists therefore need to move beyond politics in their reporting and bring climate change closer to the people who are mostly affected by it.

Reject World Bank's Rating, Civil Society Network Urges Nigeria

Ahead of the planned October 29 2014 release 2015 Doing Business report and ranking of some 189 countries, including Nigeria by the World Bank, a civil society network under the aegis of Climate and Sustainable Development Network of Nigeria (CSDevNet) has urged the Nigerian government to reject the ranking.

In a release dated the 24th of October 2014, the network enjoined the government to formally challenge the World Bank’s rating of countries as it considers it as "an activity for which the Bank has no mandate and legitimacy to conduct." 

Since 2002, through this annual publication, the World Bank has been benchmarking and ranking countries according to the ease of doing business. The Doing Business is based on the principles of privatization, deregulation, low taxation for corporations, and ‘free market’ fundamentalism. It rewards the lowering of social and environmental safeguards, therefore allowing the exploitation of natural resources and human capital by foreign corporations and local elites.

This flagship project of the World Bank is used for other benchmarking projects, such as the 2013 Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture (BBA), created by the G8 to “develop options for generating a Doing Business in Agriculture index. 

Gov Fashola Rattles Presidency with “THE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE”

“THE CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE”, BEING TITLE OF LECTURE DELIVERED BY THE GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE, HIS EXCELLENCY, MR. BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA, SAN ON THE BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY OF HIS EXCELLENCY TIMIPRE SYLVA

I think it is too elementary to attempt any formal definition of democracy.
It will serve our purpose to say that it is participatory governance in the sense that we all have a say, whether we vote or not. It is also useful to remind ourselves that participation is largely by representation; in other words, those who are old enough to vote and those who are not, are represented by people elected to speak, think and act for us.

This part is very important because we all cannot be in Government, especially the Executive and Legislative arm, so we must elect or otherwise choose people to go there on our behalf.
The problem is compounded by size.

Can you imagine what a Senate or House of Representatives where all 160 million of us can sit will look like? From this point we can see the inherent challenges that lie in a process of collective decision making.
In order to further highlight some of the challenges that lie in democratic governance, I will share with you a report of developments across the World published by Newsweek Magazine on August 23 & 30, 2010 edition titled “the Best Countries in the World”, Newsweek Top 100.

An article by Rana Foroohar posed the following question before delivering the report of a survey of 100 nations:-
”If you were born today, which country would provide you the very best opportunity to live a healthy, safe, reasonably prosperous and upwardly mobile life?”

WHO Declares Nigeria Ebola-free, Hails Spectacular Feat

(Photo:dw.de)

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Nigeria Ebola-free after 42 days or double the incubation period of 21 days with no new case.

The world body confirmed this on Monday, through its country director in Abuja, Dr. Rui Gama Vaz, describing the nation's exemplary handling of the outbreak as a "spectacular success story".

Nigeria has won praise for its swift response after a Liberian diplomat, Patrick Sawyer, brought the disease to Lagos in July. At the last count, Nigeria recorded 19 cases of the virus, out of which seven died, amongst them doctors and nurses. 

The disease has killed more than 4,500 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. An estimated 70 per cent of those infected have died in those countries. "The virus is gone for now. The outbreak in Nigeria has been defeated," Gama Vaz said.

Cease-fire Hopes Wane As Boko Haram Abducts More Women

Over forty Women and girls from two villages in Nigeria's north-eastern Adamawa state have been abducted by suspected militants, residents say. 

The abductions have not been confirmed by the authorities, but residents say they took place a day after the military announced it had agreed a ceasefire with the Boko Haram group.

The government hopes the Islamist group will free more than 200 girls seized in April as part of negotiations.

Boko Haram is yet to confirm the truce. Following Friday's ceasefire announcement, the government said further talks with Boko Haram were due to be held this week in neighbouring Chad. 

On Oct. 17, Nigeria’s chief of defense, Air Marshall Alex Badeh was quoted widely as having engineered a ceasefire in “all theaters” of operation against Boko Haram, though the news was taken with some skepticism. Nigeria has seen a number of botched truces with the insurgents.