In an effort to tackle the devastating impact of climate change on rural hunger and poverty, the French development agency, Agence Française de Développement (AFD), today signed a €300 million loan to the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to help small-scale farmers in high-risk countries build their resilience to shocks and increase their productivity.
“If we want a world without hunger and poverty we have to focus our attention on the most vulnerable places where the poorest people live – and this is in rural areas,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD, the UN agency dedicated to eradicating rural poverty and hunger.
“This loan demonstrates France’s strong commitment to investing in rural people, as well as the role of IFAD in assembling development finance to fight climate change in line with the Paris Agreement.”
€300 million loan from AFD to IFAD to support millions of small-scale farmers
Pandemic cuts global maritime trade, transforms industry – new UNCTAD report
Global maritime trade will plunge in 2020 due to the unprecedented disruption caused by COVID-19, UNCTAD says in its Review of Maritime Transport 2020 released on 12 November.
The report warns that new waves of the pandemic that further disrupt supply chains and economies might cause a steeper decline and the short-term outlook for maritime trade is grim.
Predicting the pandemic’s longer-term impact as well as the timing and scale of the industry’s recovery is fraught with uncertainty.
The report outlines how COVID-19 has sent shockwaves through global maritime transport and laid the foundations for a transformed industry and associated supply chains.
It also provides highlights and figures on maritime transport in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean regions.
The FDRE Ministry of Innovation and Technology and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) launched today “The road to Addis: Shaping the 2021 digital development conference” a virtual kickoff event between Addis and Geneva. The event was officially kicked off by a signing ceremony to host WTDC in Ethiopia. An official countdown started on November 8, 2020 to The World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC – 21) to be held in 2021.
The WTDC -21 will be hosted by the government of Ethiopia from November 08 – 19, 2021 in Addis Ababa. This conference will be the first WTDC ever hosted in Africa.
This event will be preceded by “The Road to Addis”, a series of events hosted by ITU, which aims to build momentum towards the WTDC, strengthen partnerships and engagement and help shape, with key stakeholders, the WTDC agenda.
UAE and Ethiopia looking to cooperate in artificial intelligence
UAE and Ethiopia are to consider possibilities of cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).
This came at a meeting held between Talal Al-Azeezi, Head of the Political, Economic, and Media Affairs Section at the UAE Embassy in Ethiopia, and Worku Gachena, Director General of the Artificial Intelligence Center of Ethiopia (AIC).
Talal congratulated the Director General on inauguration of the AIC, noting it can play a prominent role in AI research and development in Ethiopia and for technological advancement of various fields including; agriculture, health, finance and transport, which are very important for Ethiopia’s economy.
Talal said that the UAE is among the first countries in the world that prioritize AI in its development policies, as it adopted its (Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031). It is also the first country in the region to open a university for AI, Mohamed Bin Zayed University for Artificial Intelligence, which provides AI academic programs (MA and PhDs) for local and international students. The UAE also appointed the world’s first Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence.
