The power outages being experienced in the Eastern Africa-Southern Africa-Indian Ocean have continued to affect productivity leading to Africa loosing 12.5% of production time compared to 7% for South Asia. The major reason for this has been attributed lack of adequate regional infrastructure in energy.
Recent studies have shown that many African countries some of which are in the Eastern and southern Africa and the Indian Ocean (ESA-IO) countries suffer power shortages and regular interruptions to services.
Assistant Secretary General in charge of Programmes in COMESA, Ambassador Kipyego Cheluget says bridging the energy gap is one of the main priorities of the region infrastructure development as it will reduce the cost of doing business and enhance the competitiveness.
Energy infrastructure development will unlock the region’s vast potential
COVID-19: UAE supported female health professionals in Ethiopia
In the frame of the continued cooperation between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Federal Republic of Ethiopia in various sectors especially in the health sector, the two countries are discussing the best means and sharing experiences in dealing with impacts of COVID-19.
The two countries bilateral cooperation focuses, among other things, on women empowerment as the UAE is keen to prioritize women in its humanitarian initiatives especially in the health sector. That is part of the UAE’s efforts to advocate and support women and to recognize their contributions in the societies, especially with the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The UAE provided Ethiopia with a total of 48 ton of medical supplies to bolster its efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 and assist medical professional in the country. Ethiopia is also an essential partner for the UAE’s efforts to deliver medical aid to the African countries, in coordination with international organizations.
A new partnership to enhance the sexual reproductive health of women and adolescents
CPAR and Global Affairs Canada are joining forces on a new four-year, $4.1 million CAD project to improve the sexual reproductive health (SRH) of women and adolescents in Ethiopia. The project will support the delivery of the national Ethiopian curriculum for SRH and the development of SRH service capacity. The Amhara and Oromia regions of Ethiopia, where the project will be centred, lack youth-friendly SRH services. Gender discriminatory norms related to early and forced child marriage, female genital mutilation, and early pregnancy are common in the project communities. Obstetric fistula, a preventable birth complication that can result from a prolonged or obstructed labour and create urinary and rectal incontinence, is a devastating condition that can lead to women being ostracized and shut out of community life.
Through this project, CPAR and Global Affairs Canada will work with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Women and Children, the Ministry of Education, and with regional and zonal health authorities, local universities, community healthcare teams and local grassroots organizations to address these and other issues related to SRH education and services.
New US, UK funders to join African narrative collaborative
The UK’s Comic Relief and the US-based Conrad N. Hilton Foundation are the latest funders to join Africa No Filter (ANF) – a donor collaborative working to change harmful and stereotypical narratives about and within Africa. Both organisations join existing partners Ford Foundation, Bloomberg, Mellon Foundation, Luminate and Open Society Foundations to fund an ambitious program – influencing how the world sees Africa and how Africa sees itself.
All seven funders have committed to a minimum of two years to capitalise the organisation which is led by recently appointed Executive Director Moky Makura, who left the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to head up the initiative. Despite the Covid-19 Pandemic, which has seen many funders divert resources to rapid response initiatives linked to the pandemic, Africa No Filter’s funders remain committed to the program.
