Ambassador Tracey Ann Jacobson, Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Deputy Assistant Administrator (DAA) for Africa, Tyler Beckelman, and USAID/Ethiopia Mission Director Sean Jones visited Jigjiga and Kebre Biyeh in Somali region. The delegation met with Somali Regional President Mustafe Omer as well as with humanitarian and development organizations and with people of the Somali region.
During the meeting with regional President Mustafe Omer, the delegation discussed USAID’s ongoing response to the catastrophic drought, including life-saving food and other assistance. They also discussed USAID’s historical support in Somali region, the urgent needs facing the drought-stricken region now, and the continued U.S. support and collaboration towards peace and stability. Ambassador Jacobson and the USAID team also noted the region’s commitment to climate adaptation and development.
The delegation visited humanitarian and development programs responding to the drought to see the effects of American aid firsthand. They began with a stop at the Kebri Beyah Hart-Sheikh Health Center, which provides emergency stabilization and treatment for children suffering from severe and moderate acute malnutrition and receives funding and life-saving medicines from USAID.
US delegation strengthen partnership in drought response during visit to Somali Region
MOU signed at COP27 sees global risk pools join forces to raise visibility and influence
Strengthening the reach and impact of the world’s risk pools is the key objective of a Memorandum of Understanding between African Risk Capacity Limited (ARC Ltd.), CCRIF SPC (formerly The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) and Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company (PCRIC) signed on the sidelines of COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.
The relevance and importance of the three global risk pools is clear especially in the face of the increasing frequency and intensity of climate change induced events. The MOU formalises and establishes a framework for enhanced cooperation and partnership among the three risk pools.
At the signing, Isaac Anthony, CCRIF CEO said: “This is an opportunity to take risk pools to the next level so that these are not just seen as insurance or mechanisms for transferring risk, but also are viewed as tools to scale up disaster risk finance in a very significant way to enable governments to provide higher levels of financial protection for their populations, including the most vulnerable.”
Raxio Data Centre in receives Tier III Certification from Uptime Institute
Raxio Data Centre in Ethiopia (“ET1”) officially became the first Tier III certified independent data centre in the country after receiving the Uptime Institute Tier III Certification on 21 October 2022. This certification was achieved after a diligent assessment and evaluation by the Uptime Institute’s expert international teams to ensure Raxio ET1 meets the stringent requirements of Uptime’s Tier III Certification.
With this certification, Raxio ET1 becomes one of the few Tier III, privately owned, carrier-neutral data centres in Africa to receive this designation, which also includes Raxio’s facility in Uganda. The Uptime Institute’s teams evaluated all aspects of the facility’s design and equipment, such as power, cooling, fire suppression and detection and others, in its certification process.
To pass as a Tier III compliant data centre, the mechanical and electrical infrastructure must be concurrently maintainable, meaning the data center has redundant capacity components and multiple power and cooling paths to the IT equipment. Tier III data centres offer redundant capacity allowing each and every component needed to support the IT processing environment to be shut down and maintained without impacting the facility’s operation and provision of services to customers.
Academy for Women Entrepreneurs 2022
In observance of International Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) Fiona Evans, launched a year-long nationwide project for the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) 2022 in the U.S. Embassy, Addis Ababa.
In her remarks, DCM Evans highlighted the importance of partnership between the United States and Ethiopia. “Empowering women entrepreneurs benefits not only individual families, it also contributes to the Ethiopian economy overall.” The DCM invited recruits to take advantage of the targeted training to enhance their businesses and startups.
AWE is a U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs initiative that gives enterprising women from around the world the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and scale-up successful businesses. The Center for Accelerated Women’s Economic Empowerment (CAWEE) is the organization in charge of the project in Ethiopia, and CAWEE CEO, Nigest Haile, who is also an alumna of the U.S. Embassy’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), led discussions during the event.
