Shelter Afrique Development Bank (ShafDB) and the African Union (AU) have signed a groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on addressing Africa’s critical housing and urban development challenges.

The partnership which confers Shelter Afrique an Observer Status at the African Union, aligns with Agenda 2063 and underscores a shared commitment to ensuring a high standard of living, quality of life, and well-being for all African citizens.

The MOU outlines key areas of cooperation aimed at tackling Africa’s housing deficit, promoting sustainable urban development, and advancing capacity-building efforts.

With approximately 53 million housing units required across the continent and a $1.4 trillion financing gap, this partnership will leverage innovative solutions, resource mobilization, and policy development to create lasting impact.

Raxio Group the leading provider of Tier III certified and carrier neutral data centres across Africa, is proud to announce that its facilities in Mozambique and Ethiopia have achieved the prestigious Uptime Institute Tier III Certification of Constructed Facility (TCCF). This accomplishment is an endorsement of Raxio’s commitment to delivering state-of-the-art, reliable, and efficient data centre infrastructure across Africa.

The Tier III Facility Certification confirms that these facilities have been constructed in accordance with the original Tier III Design Certification standards and rigorously tested to meet Uptime Institute’s performance criteria. This certification ensures that the data centres are capable of providing the expected reliability and performance under various operational conditions.

Robert Saunders, Chief Technology Officer at Raxio Group, emphasized the importance of this achievement for customers:
“Achieving the Uptime Institute Tier III Facility Certification for our Mozambique and Ethiopia facilities is a significant milestone. It reassures our customers that these data centres are designed and constructed to meet the highest international standards. This guarantees operational resilience, reliability, and a robust environment to support their critical business operations. Our customers can confidently scale and innovate, knowing that their data is hosted in facilities that are built for peak performance and future growth.”

Africa’s economic and social fabric is disproportionately affected by climate change. Over 95% of Africa’s food production depends on rainfed agriculture, with over 70% of the continent’s population relying on it for their livelihoods, making them highly vulnerable to erratic weather patterns. Disasters like droughts and floods exacerbate food insecurity, damage infrastructure, and erode decades of developmental progress. Current humanitarian aid systems are reactive, slow, and insufficient, and many African nations lack the financial and technical resources to respond effectively to such disasters, leaving countries to face delays that deepen human suffering and economic loss.

To help address this gap, Norway, through the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) has provided NOK 50 million (about $4.5 million) to African Risk Capacity Limited (ARC Ltd.) to implement the Supporting Adaptation Capacity Through Increased Parametric Insurance Penetration in Africa (SACPIP-Africa) initiative. The partnership was made official during a signing ceremony in the CARICOM Pavillion at COP29 on 13 November 2024, marking the significant contribution this initiative will have in addressing climate change issues.

Since the Syrian civil war broke out more than a decade ago, Syrians have fled to countries in the Middle East and Europe, as well as to African countries that have been grappling with instability. Many Syrian refugees found themselves in Somalia, a war-torn nation in the Horn of Africa that has faced terrorist attacks, piracy and humanitarian crises…There is no official data on the number of Syrian refugees living in Somalia, but officials estimate it to be in the thousands. Syrians who found refuge in Somalia said the two countries’ history of amicable relations drove them. The Syrians say Somalis’ friendliness toward refugees and Somalia’s lack of visa restrictions also drew them to Mogadishu and other major cities in the country. In return, the Syrian refugees, which include doctors, nurses, engineers, chefs, technicians, and teachers among their ranks, have enriched Somalia culturally and economically because of the knowledge and skillsets they brought with them. (VOA)