The President of the Republic of Liberia, His Excellency Joseph Nyuma Boakai, Sr., has congratulated the Government and People of the Republic of India on the occasion commemorating the 77th Anniversary of that country on August 15, 2024. “On the occasion commemorating the 77th independence anniversary of the Republic of India, I extend to you, and through your Excellency, to the Government and people of India, warmest felicitations and best wishes,” President Boakai said.

In his message to H.E. Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of the Republic of India, President Boakai stated that as the people of Liberia join their Indian counterparts in commemorating this historic occasion his Government acknowledges, with deep satisfaction, the heightened bilateral relations subsisting between the two countries and peoples.  “It is our fervent hope that these festivities will cultivate new frontiers in our bilateral ties and promote international peace and security in keeping with the principals of the United Nations”, President Boakai noted.

The Liberian President noted that Liberia is immensely gratified for the level of cooperation between the two governments and peoples. President Boakai further recounted that the bilateral cooperation between India and Liberia has a huge prospect with enhanced trade and investment which bring mutual benefits to the two governments and peoples. The Liberian leader also recalled, with deep appreciation, India’s contributions towards Liberia’s national development programs, particularly in the areas of infrastructure, human capacity development, transportation and health. President Joseph Nyuma Boakai then wished for Prime Minister Modi continued good health as he leads the people of India to greater prosperity.    

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Liberia.

When Yohannes Negash lost half of his wheat harvest to a crop disease known locally as wag, he asked himself, “how will I have the courage to plant again?”

“I am a farmer, son of a farmer, grandson of a farmer and I could go on,” he recalls jokingly today, but with a sense of pride in his voice.

For millions of Ethiopians, farming is not merely a profession; it is a way of life woven into their identity and passed through generations. But farming is a risky business in this East African country, where climate shocks, conflict and unpredictable market prices can spell disaster.

These dangers can discourage farmers from investing in improved agricultural practices, making them even more vulnerable to climate extremes and food insecurity. Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region, where Negash lives, is no exception.

But today growers like Negash, who plants chickpeas, pulses and soya beans along with his wheat, are starting to bet on their future, thanks to an innovative crop insurance scheme supported by the World Food Programme (WFP), the Ethiopian government and nonprofit social enterprise, Pula Advisors. Launched in 2023, it insures farmers against droughts, excessive rainfall, hailstorms, pests and crop diseases.

The Amhara farmers’ insurance scheme — amounting to WFP’s biggest of its kind to date — is part of broader, global rural resilience initiative that WFP supports with a raft of governments and partners. It targets some 54,000 farmers in the Amhara region alone. Beyond offering insurance, the resilience effort aims to improve farming practices and incomes, for example by hiring rural workers for projects like restoring degraded lands.

“The idea is to reinforce farmers’ resilience at every point in the farming process, which builds their capacity to withstand the effects of extreme weather and strengthens their food and income security,” says Olipa Zulumbata, WFP programme head in the Amhara region.

Big payouts

For Negash, the insurance has been a rare blessing amid a string of setbacks. Recurrent droughts, crop diseases, locust infestations, and more recently conflict have hit his region, decimating harvests and deepening hunger.

“The past couple of years have been difficult for us farmers,” he says. “We had just planted when the war first came to our area (in 2021), and I was unable to gather my crops.”

Last year wag disease, a fungal disease which affects cereal crops, wiped out Negash’s harvest — even as conflict continued. “How can we grow if there is no peace?” he asked himself.

Negash also had misgivings about the crop insurance scheme, when he learnt about it from his village savings group. “At first, I thought it was inviting bad luck on my farm,” he says. “I was very hesitant to join, but I decided to enroll after listening in various meetings.”

“We initially faced some challenges with gaining acceptance,” says Tackle Hailu, a project coordinator with the WFP partner, Pula Advisors. “But our collaboration with WFP and other partners to sensitize communities showed great results.”

This year, Negash counted among tens of thousands of farmers who received insurance payouts for their wag-destroyed harvests, totaling US$675,000 for the region.

“The biggest lesson for me from this experience is that while I cannot control the different issues that may affect my farm, I can prepare in advance,” he says. “For vulnerable farmers like me, this insurance is a necessity. Just as we have health insurance for our bodies, we also need crop insurance for our farms.”

Today, Negash plans to use the insurance payout to expand his farming activities. He has also become an advocate for the scheme, encouraging other farmers in his village to join it.  


“If I have a better harvest, I can ensure my children advance their education in the nearby cities,” Negash says. “If they don’t make it in school, I can give them money for seeds to start their own business.

“If you have the means,” he adds, “anything is possible.”

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Food Programme (WFP).

In August 2024, the United Nations (UN) in Tanzania presented the results of its second comprehensive assessment on gender equality and women’s empowerment, demonstrating significant strides made in mainstreaming Gender within the UN system.

The UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard is a critical tool for ensuring internal accountability and driving improvements in gender mainstreaming practices within the UN system by assessing the dimensions of UN planning, coordination, programming and results for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The 2024 Gender Equality Scorecard for Tanzania sheds light on the UN system’s collective efforts to mainstream gender.

“I am very proud of our achievements”, said the UN Resident Coordinator for Tanzania, Mr. Zlatan Milisic, noting that with the analysis, the UN in Tanzania is equipped to focus and allocate resources to catalyze and achieve gender equality results outlined in its current United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF).

Remarking on the achievements, Ms. Hodan Addou, UN Women Tanzania Representative said: “The significant progress we’ve made is through the dedication and collaborative spirit of our entire UN team in Tanzania to deliver on results for gender equality and women’s empowerment.”

The Scorecard report revealed a marked improvement in gender mainstreaming practices since the previous report in 2018. Currently, 80 per cent of indicators in Tanzania meet or exceed performance standards, surpassing other countries in the region where the continental average is 40 per cent. The assessment further reveals that resource allocation towards gender equality and women’s empowerment considerations in the current United Nations Sustainable Cooperation Framework 2022-2027 have surpassed the 70 per cent global target, with 77 per cent dedicated to sub-outputs prioritizing gender equality as a significant or principal objective.

UN Women’s coordination role is central to these efforts, supporting accountability for advancing women’s rights and opportunities.

In Tanzania, UN Women has facilitated collaboration among UN agencies on gender mainstreaming, fostering partnership opportunities, and joint action on priorities for gender equality through coordination platforms such as the UN Gender and Human Rights Coordination Mechanism, which brings together Gender Focal Points within the UN to engage in joint programming.

The UN in Tanzania will continue to champion gender equality and women’s empowerment by strengthening mainstreaming efforts, promoting gender parity, and being unequivocal in its commitment to Leave No One Behind. 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN Women – Africa.

Sudan’s deepening humanitarian crisis caused by nearly 16 months of war has left countless women and girls subject to sexual violence and rape and tens of thousands of children at risk of death from hunger, UN aid teams said on Tuesday.

Speaking from Sudan, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder described meeting a senior medical worker at a hospital outside Khartoum who had “direct contact with hundreds, hundreds of women and girls, some as young as eight years old, who have been raped. Many have been held captive for weeks on end.”

The medic from Al Nao hospital in Omdurman also spoke “of the distressing number of babies born – born after rape – who are being abandoned now”, the UNICEF spokesperson continued, during an update to journalists in Geneva via videolink from the wartorn country.

Countless horrors

He maintained that “countless atrocities” upon children had gone unreported, often as a result of very limited access.

He also warned that without action, tens of thousands of Sudanese children may die over the coming months, “and that is by no means a worst-case scenario…if there is a measles outbreak, if there is diarrhoea, or if there are respiratory infections, then the terrifying outlook for children in Sudan dramatically worsens.

“In the current living conditions, with the heavy rains and the flooding, these diseases will spread like wildfire.”

Echoing that grim update, the UN migration agency, IOM, agreed that flooding had added to the daily challenges facing millions of people whose lives have been uprooted by a battle for control of the country by rival militaries beginning in April 2022, stemming from the overthrow of long-time President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

Famine fears realized

At the start of the month, global food security experts at the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) Famine Review Committee (FRC) reported famine conditions in parts of North Darfur including Zamzam camp near Al Fasher town.

The camp is home to half a million displaced people confronted by extreme food scarcity, which has fuelled malnutrition and death. An additional 13 areas are on the brink of famine.

“The scale of devastation brought by the escalating violence in El Fasher town is profound and harrowing,” the IPC report’s authors noted, amid “persistent, intense and widespread clashes [that] have forced many residents to seek refuge in IDP camps, where they face a stark reality: basic services are scant or absent, compounding the hardship of displacement.”

According to IOM, almost all internally displaced persons across Sudan – 97 per cent – are in localities with acute levels of food insecurity or worse.

Staggering displacement

Worryingly, latest data from the UN agency shows that displacement continues to soar, with more than 10.7 million people seeking safety within the country and many displaced twice or more. Fighting in Sennar state alone displaced over 700,000 people last month with 63 per cent of this number originally displaced from other states, the majority from Khartoum.

Speaking from Port Sudan via video to journalists in Geneva, IOM’s Chief of Mission in the country, Mohamed Refaat, said that more the one in three of Sudan’s internally displaced have come from Khartoum. “That’s almost the whole capital of the country has been displaced, so imagine the scale of displacement,” he said.

Citing ongoing aid access obstacles which have prevented UN humanitarians and partners from reaching some of the most vulnerable civilians in Sudan, the IOM officer said that a large number of civilians remain “trapped” in a “very hostile war environment” and with no access to health care services. Many have had to walk large distances in a bid to secure food amid “skyrocketing” prices. “There is a shortage in everything,” Mr. Refaat explained, highlighting how “militias” had also seized control of various locations, restricting the movement of non-combatants.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN News.