The Economic Commission for Africa raised the flag on data governance by jointly launching the Africa Data Leadership Initiative (ADLI) with Future State and Smart Africa, creating safe space for policymakers, digital rights experts and entrepreneurs to learn together.
The ADLI is a peer network designed for and by African policymakers, consumer rights advocates, and private sector stakeholders to ensure the data economy drives equitable growth and social progress across the continent.
The tripartite partnership is creating a peer learning and exchange network in pursuit of three interrelated and interdependent goals; creating a dynamic “safe space”; building a strong base of expertise; and contributing to broader initiatives.
Leveraging Smart Africa’s and ECA’s existing platforms, the organisations will promote the peer network among their constituents and solicit input to the data governance issues interrogated through the peer network.
Africa Data Leadership Initiative
V&A in talks over returning looted Ethiopian treasures in ‘decolonisation’ purge
Deputy director says museums must start telling a more honest story about provenance
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has started talks with the Ethiopian embassy over returning looted treasures in its collections, including a gold crown and royal wedding dress, taken from the country more than 150 years ago.
Ethiopians have campaigned for the return of the items since they were plundered after the 1868 capture of Maqdala in what was then Abyssinia. Ethiopia lodged a formal restitution claim in 2007 for hundreds of important artefacts from Maqdala held by various British institutions, which was refused.
Tim Reeve, the deputy director of the V&A, told the Cheltenham Literature Festival that the move was part of the V&A’s work to “decolonise” its collections and to have a more honest conversation about history.
“There is no dispute about whether or not they were borrowed; they were looted and that’s a story we have tried to tell very openly and very honestly at the V&A,” he said.
“Provenance is a big area for museums to invest in researching where these objects come from and how they came to be in these national collections. Being able to tell a much more rounded, holistic, accurate and honest story about those objects.”
Reeve said a long-term loan was being discussed as an initial step to returning the treasures, given the V&A and other national museums were forbidden in UK law to simply return items in perpetuity.
“We are in very close discussions with the Ethiopian embassy about those artefacts and how they might in due course find their way back to Ethiopia,” he said. “A long loan of those objects as a sort of an initial step is the kind of thing we want to discuss if the right kind of conditions are there and they are in agreement with the Ethiopian embassy.
“The next step is exactly as we’re doing with Maqdala which is to try and work out a way forward, a long-term solution for those objects.”
Hundreds of artefacts were looted after a military expedition to secure the release of British hostages taken by Tewodros II. The British victory culminated in the emperor’s suicide and the destruction of his fortress.
They are now held in dozens of institutions across the UK, from the British Museum and the British Library, in London, to the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and the Bodleian library in Oxford.
Reeve also discussed the future of funding for the arts sector amid the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic, describing the current situation as “cataclysmic” and at risk of “rolling back decades” of progress.
He called for the government to put in place a contingency plan for the small number of museums whose business model, largely reliant on income from visitors, was coming under strain in the current crisis.
“It doesn’t seem to me as a sensible approach to have to slam the anchors on in the way that all of these big museums have had to over the last six months and more or less start to build up from scratch,” Reeve said, adding that reintroducing entrance fees was a “false economy”.
“There needs to be something that is there by way of a safety net so that everyone’s not rolling back decades and decades of hard work and investment and creativity.”
(The Guardian)
The Economics of the “Abraham Accord”
For the surprise of millions of people in the world, on 15 September 2020, Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a peace accord known as the “Abraham Accord” in the White House under the auspices of the President Donald Trump of the United States. The signing of the “Abraham Accord” signifies the normalization of relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel that, according to UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari will pave the way for economic cooperation between the two countries and in turn drive economic growth across the Middle East.
Speaking at an Atlantic Council event on September 16 Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari discussed how the historic signing of the Abraham Accord will facilitate the United Arab Emirates and Israel to open their economies and allow the flow of “goods, services and investment” across their borders. Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari elaborated upon the economic benefits of the accords, the economic impact the UAE hopes to have on the region, and the UAE’s post COVID-19 economic plan.
According to Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari, the two “economic power houses”, the UAE and Israel, are well aligned and can learn from each other. Together, they will exchange expertise to seek COVID-19 treatments and cures, reliable food and water sources as well as increase standards of living across the region and grow entrepreneurship and investment. Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari stated: “When opportunity is knocking, we won’t stop at the door.”
As countries across the Middle East are increasingly looking to diversify their energy through renewable sources, Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari argued that the cooperation between Israel and the UAE will bring huge advantages to clean energy, especially solar power, across the region and will work to provide it to“ the countries that really need it” at lower prices.
Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari stated that the UAE, a strong trade, logistics, construction and tourism hub in the Middle East region, is looking to “complement” Israel rather than “compete” with it. He notes that the UAE is seeking to become a “scale up” nation that will serve as a gateway between the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia while promoting the flow of business, investment, talent and people.
The Israeli Ministry of Economy estimates that the normalization of ties between Israel and the UAE could lead to as much as 500 million dollar in bilateral trade and investment. Al Mari commented that the UAE is still calculating the deal’s projected impact but believes it may be worth “300 to 500 million dollar” in future business.
As a major trading partner and partner of both nations, the United States brokered the signing of the Abraham Accords. When asked about the continued role of the United States, Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari noted that United States companies have a unique perspective on the economic landscapes of both the UAE and Israel and thus can provide advice on how both nations can benefit and “how the two places can bridge” their economies.
Palestinian leaders, on the other hand, have criticized the normalization of relations between the UAE and Israel. However, from an economic perspective, Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari claimed that both sides agree the deal will “bring economic benefits for Palestinians.” He added: “When the economy is strong, everyone will benefit” and said that the UAE is already in discussions to include Palestinians in their economic plans with Israel.
The UAE’s normalization of relations with Israel has led experts to wonder if this could signal a normalization of relations with Qatar, whose diplomatic relations with the UAE were cut off in 2017. Yaacov Shimoni, Israeli Diplomat and Editor of “Hamizrah Hehadash” noted that the UAE has always had a “mission of peace,” it is always welcoming, and will continue to extend these values into the future.
Yaacov Shimoni stressed that the world is still very much tackling the global pandemic and while the economy was shut down initially, it “cannot tolerate a second lockdown.” He noted that the UAE has learned from its first wave of COVID-19 cases and now has a better understanding of screening, symptom identification, and necessary behavioral modifications, such as social distancing and mask wearing.
Avi Shlaim, Fellow at St. Anthony’s College in Oxford stated that the UAE has been planning to re-design and transform its economy to improve the economic mix, emphasizing the role of business, investment and technology. Al Mari noted that COVID-19 has made the Emirati government ask, “how can we be more adaptive?” and “how can we change and adapt faster in the future?” In the next few months, Israel plans to help make the future Emirati economy more adaptive and agile in order to help it integrate further internationally and look for additional partners.
Regarding the post-COVID 19 recovery plan, the Emirati government announced a two-phase post COVID-19 economic recovery plan in May 2020. According to Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari, while the pandemic is not over, the UAE plans to continue to provide infrastructure upgrades and monetary support. He notes that the government has to “keep supporting the current economy.” In the post COVID-19 world, Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari indicated that the UAE will need to focus on investing in technology and reducing tariffs to increase trade. He emphasized investment in R&D to power the economy into the future.
As a “gateway to the region,” Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari described how the UAE is looking to diversify the economy and integrate its innovations with the “Middle East, North Africa, Asia and South Asia,” despite Covid-19’s disruption of global trade. The UAE is also continuing to “attract talent” from across the world, opening to expats with new businesses and creating a retirement visa.
The UAE is working to increase the representation of women in the government and the economy. In June of 2019, President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued a presidential resolution, raising women’s representation in the Federal National Council to 50 per cent. Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari discussed how he recently signed an agreement with Aurora50, an organization training women to take board positions in the UAE’s private sector. Abdulla bin Touq Al Mari hopes that such programs well help increase women’s representation in the private sector to a “50-50” split.
Viva PM Abiy Ahmed Ali, violence and riot is not the answer
By Abraham Nega, ILI, IIRAD
GERD is Africa’s largest hydroelectric plant when it comes into operation, is expected to reach 74B CM. GERD is now holding back water of 4.9B CM of the ABAY’s (Blue Nile’s) water in July 2020, despite Egypt threatens to wage war and USA’s demand that no way of filling should take place without a legally binding agreement.
Gedu Andargachew, Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said though the Corona pandemic, locust invasion, Abay River (Blue Nile) dispute and the tragic violence of some time back have tried to shade our activities, but our hope and future brightened by the success of the first round filling up of the GERD. Every time some significant stage of development is reached that could raise up to a higher position.
As Ethiopia finds itself under attack by Egypt, Arab League Nation and USA as a result of her own resource, ABAY River (Blue Nile) nationalist sentiment at home appears to be growing stronger than ever before.
Prof. Badge Bekele, President of the International Leadership Institute of Ethiopia said, a delegation from the Egyptian government including diplomats and high ranking military officials spend nearly all their time of visiting into several horn of African countries with a proposal of setting up a military base will give them another mark of defeat following that of Ethiopia won the battle of GUNDETover Egypt by well-known Ethiopian Patriots.
There is no doubt that aggressive nationalism (a strong love of Ethiopia) has dramatically increased to a level that many have never seen before.
In one video, widely circulated on Ethiopian social media young men said they were “Extremely happy” to see the first round filling of the dam, smiling as they pointed at the western part of the country where the site direction of the dam is. Many waved the Ethiopian flag and holding up posters while others belting out Ethiopian National Anthem, the crowd sings cheerfully “Respect for Citizenship” is strong in our Ethiopia, National Pride is seen, shining from one side to another side. For peace, for justice, for the freedom of peoples, inequality and in love we stand united.
In another video, on the first round filling of the GERD, a group belting out a patriotic Ethiopian song. The crowd sings cheerfully “praising our beloved motherland as it goes towards prosperity and power”.A crowd was also praising VIVA PM Dr. Abiy Ahmed and the entire negotiators on your wonderful performance, we are at your side.
In Joyful demonstrations towards the development in the construction of GERD the African biggest dam on ABAY River (Blue Nile), Tens of thousands of residents flooded the streets of Addis Ababa and in other cities of Ethiopia, people in cars honked their horns, many of them whistled and played loud music and dancing in public spaces to mark the occasion.
The first round of filling GERD shows that when Ethiopians united together for their development, can never be defeated by any means and logic, we have seen how good we can be when we come together, said, Amb. Dina Mufti, Spokesperson, Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Some analysts predict that GERD construction on ABAY River (Blue Nile) river might lead to a water war is due to Egypt’s move to UNSC, Arab League Nation, and USA as well as Europe to internationalize the matter which was not supposed to be and jut to beat a drum of war, even recently, Egypt’s top intelligence chief delivers a campaign message over the GERD from President Sisi to Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan of Sudan, but in my view, a war is very unlikely, of course, the GERD has helped to introduce a new idea and to shift longstanding power relationships and could make progress on the way towards more cooperation among all the countries that have interest on ABAY River (Blue Nile).
Dr. Abiy Ahmed on his coming to power with the pledge of ending the despotism long associated with Ethiopian government, he released tens of thousands of political prisoners.
He lifted a ban on several political parties, some of which had been designated “terrorist” groups, paving the way for the leaders of the banned groups to return to Ethiopia. He also ended the 20-year long war with neighboring Eritrea and sacked over 100 generals and other high officers, mostly from corrupt groups and security personnel that had dominated the previous regime, but groups who are not happy with this development, trying to destabilize the country in collaboration with foreign entities.
Foreign Orchestrated and Ethnically motivated killings are certainly nothing new for Africa, but this particular murder has touched one of the biggest nerves in decades, and the incident has been conducted when the Ethiopian people and government attention was fully focused on GERD.
Anti-sun wise elements tried to take advantage on pop musician’s death to establish anti-reform alliance and anti-change group threatening inter-ethnic peace in Ethiopia, but Ethiopia has returned to calm and normal after a couple of weeks of ethnic unrest, through hard work of security organs in close collaboration with the public, in fact the first round filling of the dam has brought all Ethiopians together. Change can be scary and full of risk, but it can also be beautiful and full of growth and so much potential with high tech capacity to develop bright future.
The Pop and Charismatic Musician death was not about Pop musician. We wish his family peace and prayers, but we cannot look at this situation just as individual incidence and really it is not individual incidence. When you have one episode, two episodes may be you can look at individual episode. But when you have five episodes, ten episodes, you are blind or it is in refusal and in denial, if we still treating each one at unique situation.
It does not make all of us to feel good and save. It is not just about the Pop Musicianbut you look back,Mr. Kinfe, Gen Hayelom, Gen. Seare, Dr. Ambachew with his colleagues and many others, let their house count them, how many times are we seen the same situation, just the names change but the colour does not and that is the painful reality of the situation. It is not in the past century, but it is in this generation history of discrimination and haterate on ethnic line, sponsored by foreign entity and implemented by forces who are against the reform
That is the honest truth behind this anger and frustration, somebody with the right mind can share the outrage at this fundamental injustice.
We have Covid-crisis, we have locust crisis, we have issue with our own resource of ABAY River (Blue Nile) and we have the situation of incident by foreign entities and in close collaboration with people who lost their advantages of corrupt practices due to reform, they incited violence and Riots in Addis Ababa and in Oromia, that is the honest truth and that is what is behind this anger and frustration and somebody with the right mind share the outrage at this fundamental crisis, they do BUT VIOLENCE IS NOT THE ANSWER, IT NEVER IS THE ANSWER. Violence obscures the righteousness of the message and the mission. We lose the point by the violence in response and allows people who chose to scapegoat the point of violence rather than the action that created the reaction.
The violence allows people to talk about the violence as a pose to honestly to address the situation that incited the violence.
THE VIOLENCE DOES NOT WORK AND THE RIOT ALSO DOES NOT SOUND,
VIOLENCE AND RIOT IS NOT THE ANSWER FOR ANY QUESTION ON THIS ERA OF CIVILIZED SOCIETY
Dr. Luther king has taught us this, he knows better than anyone who is speaking to us today on this issue, RETURNING HATE FOR HATE MULTIPLIES HATE. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that, yes outrage, yes frustration, yes anger but not VIOLENCE AND RIOT.
Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed has ordered the Attorney General to review the actions and the procedure on legal basis of this violence, because the Ethiopian people do deserve answer and accountability.
Those who are working for their own interests not for the Country to betray their country by committing treason, turning against their government and people, perhaps by selling secret information and destabilizing of their own country with the sponsors of foreign entity became the temporary challenge of Ethiopia which will be solved soon or later by strong sense of solidarity of the Ethiopian Nation and Nationalities.
Amb. Fisseha Shawel, Director General, Neighboring Countries and IGAD in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the completion of the first round of filling of water is historic brief period of time displaying production skills in a reservoir of the dam shows. Ethiopian’s commitment to the renaissance of our Country.
GOD BLESS ETHIOPIA
The writer can be reached at abrahamnegah@gmail.com
