During this year’s World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, marked on 24 March, the Stop TB Partnership called for an urgent and substantial increase of funding to fight TB in order to meet the goal of ending the disease by 2030. The organization’s latest projections show that an average of US$19.6 billion per year will be needed over the next eight years for TB prevention and care, up from the pre-COVID-19 estimate of US$13 billion per year. An additional US$4 billion per year will be required for research and development (R&D) of the new diagnostics, medicines and vaccines needed to end TB. This represents about four times what is currently available for the TB response (in 2020, US$5.3 billion was available for care and prevention and US$0.9 billion for R&D).
The year 2022 is critical for the global fight to end TB as the world faces a fast-running countdown to reaching the 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) TB targets, which the international community agreed to meet by the end of December. All projections show that the world is not on course to meet the UNHLM treatment targets set for 2022.
Stop TB Partnerships calls for quadrupling of funding available in the fight against Tuberculosis
Africa Hall’s historical significance showcased at Expo 2020
The #UNHub at Expo 2020 Dubai’s Mission Possible – The Opportunity Pavilion featured an exhibition showcasing the significance and ongoing refurbishment plans of the iconic Africa Hall in Ethiopia’s capital city Addis Ababa.
Titled ‘Africa Hall, at the Origin of the UN in Africa with a Look to the Future,’ the exhibition highlights Africa Hall as a historical landmark, as well as the permanent headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
Africa Hall is a momentous edifice in the continent’s history, donated to the UN by former Ethiopian ruler Emperor Haile Selassie, with a vision of attracting the organisation to Africa and uniting African nations.
The Hall was inaugurated in 1961 as the permanent seat of ECA and has hosted a number of important meetings in the history of Pan-Africanism, including the liberation of Africa from colonialism. The charter of the Organisation of African Unity – now the African Union – was signed at Africa Hall in 1963 between 36 heads of African states.
Au, EU step up digital cooperation following Summit
Digital cooperation is a cornerstone of the Africa-EU strategic partnership. This was underlined by representatives from the European Union and the African Union on the 18th of March 2022 at the Africa-Europe Digital for Development (D4D) Hub Multi-Stakeholder Forum. The event, which took place virtually, was co-hosted by the African Union Commission and the European Commission with the aim of promoting exchanges and collaboration with enterprises, civil society organisations, and experts in the digital field.
Dr Amani Abou-Zeid, AU Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, commented “the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of digital technologies to keep our businesses, healthcare, education and public services running. These exceptional times have also shown the urgency to invest in Africa’s digital infrastructure and build on Africa’s innovation potential.”
IFC, African and European Partners launch alliance to support private sector growth in Africa
To support a stronger private sector, entrepreneurship and the growth of small and medium-sized businesses across Africa, African, European, multilateral and bilateral partners today launched the Alliance for Entrepreneurship in Africa (AforE).
The Alliance will combine and focus the technical and financial strengths of its members to improve Africa’s business environment and support the growth and success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), women in business and young entrepreneurs. In addition to its core members, the Alliance aims to bring together multilateral and bilateral development banks, bilateral donors and African national development banks.
The Alliance was first announced at the Summit on Financing of African Economies in Paris in May 2021.
Alliance core members include the African Development Bank (AfDB); the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD); the European Investment Bank (EIB); the European Development Finance Institutions (EDFI); the French Treasury; the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Proparco, the private sector financing arm of Agence Française de Développement Group (AFD Group).
