The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), provided an additional $10 million in humanitarian assistance to support regional operations to control locusts in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. This announcement brings the U.S. government’s regional humanitarian response to the locust outbreak to $19 million. By helping to reduce the size of the swarms, this aid is expected to have a positive impact on affected communities in Ethiopia and throughout the Horn of Africa.
The current outbreak of desert locusts is the worst to hit East Africa in decades. Billions of pests are infesting the region, eating their way through vegetation and livestock pastures. The new funding will support locust detection, surveillance, and control operations across the region, which include ground-based and aerial efforts. These programs are critical to mitigating a potentially larger impact on people’s ability to earn a living and provide food for their families in the future.
Additional $10 Million for locust control in East Africa
Hackathon Workshop on “A Digital Solution for Efficient Vote Counting and the Announcement of Election Results” in Ethiopia
The U.S. Embassy conducted its latest hackathon on the topic – “A digital solution for efficient vote counting and the announcement of election results.” This was the eighth hackathon conducted by the U.S. Embassy in a series of twelve under its Ethiopia Hacks! Program.
Ethiopia Hacks! is conducted in partnership with the Google Developers Group (GDG- Addis) and the Centre for Accelerated Women’s Economic Empowerment (CAWEE). Each hackathon challenges aspiring young tech developers to identify prototype solutions to community challenges in Ethiopia.
Election subject matter and technology experts described post-election challenges in counting votes efficiently and announcing election results in both urban and rural settings in Ethiopia. February 28 through March 1, 2020 students worked in a group to brainstorm and generate open-source, free, and easy-to-learn technology solutions to support the election process.
Well-fed schoolchildren are key to fuelling economic growth
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) joins the African Union (AU) and countries across Africa to celebrate the Africa Day of School Feeding on 01 March 2020, taking the occasion to underscore that investments in human capital through school health and nutrition programmes can garner huge pay-offs that extend far beyond the schoolyard.
“Investing in the next generation is an investment in our common future. We see how school feeding programmes are changing the lives of millions of people across Africa and the world – especially girls – and unlocking their potential,” said David Beasley, WFP’s Executive Director.
Across Africa, more and more countries have made school feeding a national priority, and over 30 million children now benefit from school feeding programmes across the continent. Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Zimbabwe all feed over one million children, while South Africa and Nigeria each feed more than nine million children every day of the school year. In West Africa alone, governments are investing US$ 500 million a year on school feeding.
Ethiopia’s school feeding programme is implemented by the Ministry of Education and its regional bureaus and operates in six regions: Afar, Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR, Somalia and Tigray. WFP assists the Government, increasing access and equity for primary school children by alleviating short-term hunger and increasing attentiveness through daily school meals; increasing farmer incomes and marketing opportunities through local procurement and processing; and capacity strengthening.
Exhibition on migration opens tomorrow
A new solo exhibition is to be opened at the Alliance Ethio-Francis on March 9, 2020. The exhibition is hosted by Tewodrose Hagos, which show cases the current issue of migration depicting a human tragedy.
The exhibition will be opened on Monday 6pm displaying paintings expressing the never ending situation of migration that is becoming crises of humanity, risk thousand lives of migrants from Africa and Asia on the desperate journey.
“The first inspiration happened when I saw the shocking news about the body of a Syrian boy found lying face-down on a beach near a resort in Greece. From that moment on, I couldn’t stop thinking about this “Desperate journey. Then I started to research further about this issue.” Tewodros added “for how much longer should we watch this human tragedy? Are we trying enough to change this problem from its root? Or are we just getting used to it? What is going on behind all these atrocities?”
The exhibition tries to embed those questions. The exhibition aims to reexamine this never ending situation that is becoming acceptable and wishes to challenge the viewers to raise their concern and act upon it in their own way.
Tewodros Hagos was born in 1974 in Addis Ababa. He has managed to establish a distinct style in portraiture in Ethiopian painters of his generation. His work has been presented at numerous solo exhibitions in Addis Ababa, as well as in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and USA.
