ECA and partners have launched an initiative aimed at strengthening the capacities of city governments in Africa to develop and implement policy reforms and strategies to expand and build resilient urban fiscal space.

Referred to as Expanded and resilient urban fiscal space for an inclusive and resilient COVID-19 recovery in Africa-DA-15 Project, the initiative was launched in Nairobi on 22 May, 2024 and is being spearheaded by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with implementing partners, UN-Habitat and UNCDF, and the Nairobi City County.

According to Atkeyelsh Persson, Chief Urbanization and Development Section at the ECA, the project will be implemented in four cities in 2024- Addis, Nairobi, Kigali, and Lusaka. Two more cities -Dar es Salaam and Yaoundé will benefit from the project over the coming three years.

She noted that the project will support the selected cities through a chain of interventions, ranging from generating evidence to the design of actual interventions for improved fiscal space. Emphasis will be placed on the capacity of city authorities to carry out these functions whilst promoting fiscal transparency and accountability. 

Genetically engineered mosquitoes have been released in the tiny East African country of Djibouti to combat a surge in malaria infections caused by an invasive vector. This initiative started on Thursday, comes as Djibouti, one of Africa’s smallest nations with just over a million residents, grapples with a dramatic increase in malaria cases, skyrocketing from just 27 in 2012 to more than 70,000 in recent years, according to the WHO. The health body attributes the spike to the arrival of Anopheles stephensi, an invasive Asian mosquito species that transmit the deadly disease. (Garowe)

The United Nations has voiced renewed concerns about the dire situation facing a large group of Sudanese refugees who fled their camp in a volatile region of northern Ethiopia nearly a month ago and are still living on the side of the road.

Approximately 1,000 individuals left the Awlala refugee settlement in the Amhara region on May 1st due to fears for their safety, prompted by reports of armed robberies, shootings, and alleged abductions in the area. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), some of the displaced refugees have now begun a hunger strike as their precarious situation drags on.

The UN has expressed growing alarm over the plight of these vulnerable Sudanese refugees, who were forced to abandon their camp and are now stranded without proper shelter, food, or access to essential services. Humanitarian agencies are urging the Ethiopian government to intervene and provide assistance to these refugees who find themselves in an increasingly desperate predicament. (UN News)

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the first review of the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement for Somalia. The Board’s decision enables the immediate disbursement of SDR 7.5 million (about US$ 10 million), which will be channeled for budget support, bringing Somalia’s total disbursement under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) to SDR 37.5 million (about US$ 50 million). 

Somalia’s ECF arrangement was originally approved by the Executive Board on December 19, 2023. The program supports the authorities’ reform strategy, after achieving the completion point under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, to further strengthen key economic institutions and promote macroeconomic stability and growth. This is in line with Somalia’s national development plan and the government’s long-term vision to maintain economic stability, strengthen revenues and public financial management, promote financial deepening, improve governance, and enhance statistics. (Press Release)