The Africa Innovation Summit (AIS) (www.AfricaInnovationSummit.com) today announced the innovators selected from across the continent to exhibit their solutions at the forum, which will take place from 6 to 8 June 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda under the esteemed patronage of His Excellences President Paul Kagame and Pedro Pires (ex-President of Cabo Verde and 2011 Mo Ibrahim Laureate). The AIS serves as a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue and a catalyst for coalition and action towards building robust innovation ecosystems in Africa. AIS 2018 will focus on innovation as a tool to address Africa’s pressing challenges. An important aspect of AIS 2018 will focus…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The 53rd Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) opened in Busan, Korea, on Monday with a call on African Governments to create the right environment for the private sector to lead the continent’s industrial revolution. Participants also advocated for a balance between the role of the State and the private sector. Korea was presented as a good model for industrialization which African countries can learn from. “Korea’s example is incredible. Korea was as poor as any African country in the 1960s with a low per capital income. Today, thanks to the determination of its people and its commitment…
The African Development Bank (AfDB) (www.AFDB.org) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) (www.UNIDO.org) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Monday, May 21 to step up collaboration to boost Africa’s industrialization. “The Bank launched in 2016 its Industrialization Strategy for Africa 2016-2025, which was the outcome of collaborative work with UNIDO and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. The signing of the present MoU is key to our Strategy’s implementation,” said African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina. “The Bank already benefits enormously from UNIDO’s expertise in developing policies, programmes and knowledge tools which supports our member countries…
“Africa’s role is pivotal to feeding the world’s growing population and repairing the problem of global food security,” says Martin Richenhagen, President, Chairman and CEO of AGCO, Your Agriculture Company (NYSE:AGCO) (www.AGCOcorp.com), a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment. In a keynote speech, Mr Richenhagen outlined AGCO’s vision and strategy for advancing African agricultural prosperity, at the official opening of the company’s new Africa headquarters in Johannesburg on 21 May 2018. “With global sales of US$8.3 billion, AGCO is making major investments in Africa to engineer food security and support sustainable productivity through technology and innovation,” explained Mr Richenhagen.…
New Delhi, May 23, 2018: Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), has strongly condemned the killing of innocent protesters in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu. The residents of the area were protesting against the proposed doubling of capacity of the Vedanta group’s Sterlite copper plant. Further, citing long-festering pollution concerns, they were demanding permanent closure of the plant. “We condemn the killing of innocent protestors. Considering the history of this plant, the residents were justified in protesting against the expansion. This plant has polluted the environment and flouted standards with impunity for the past 20 years”, said Sunita Narain, Director General, CSE. The 400,000-tonne-capacity…
Scientists say among organ transplant patients, those receiving new lungs face a higher rate of organ failure and death compared with people undergoing heart, kidney and liver transplants, and one of the culprits is inflammation that damages the newly transplanted lung. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have uncovered the precise cells that flow into and harm the lung soon after transplant. Studying mice that had undergone lung transplants, the researchers found that monocytes are rapidly released from the spleen after lung transplantation. These cells infiltrate the newly transplanted…
Northeast China’s Jilin Province is suffering from a drought which has affected 1.36 million hectares of crops, local authorities said on Wednesday. The province has received 31.4 millimeters of precipitation since mid-April when spring plowing started, down 46 per cent from average levels in more than 10 years. The city of Songyuan is the worst-hit area, with just 3.8 mm of rainfall, down 90 per cent from average levels. Higher-than-average temperatures and windy weather worsened the drought conditions in central and western Jilin, said the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters. Amid a series of measures to relieve the drought,…
Kenya plans to reform its laws in order to enhance biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilisation of national resources, a government official said on Tuesday, May 22, 2018. The Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Keriako Tobiko, said in a statement published in the Daily Nation that the country’s efforts to conserve biodiversity had not matched increasing evidence of biodiversity loss. “The ministry of environment had formulated and reviewed laws and regulations to implement the provisions of the constitution as well as the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity,” Tobiko said. “The new legislative frameworks are geared to enhance biodiversity conservation and…
At least seven people have been killed by cholera in Tanzania’s southern highland region of Rukwa, authorities said on Tuesday. Sumbawanga District Commissioner, Halfan Haule said 166 patients are being treated in different parts of the region. Fresh cases of cholera were reported in Maenje, Milepa, Kapaenta, Mkusi, Tunko and Laela villages, Haule told a meeting of health experts on measures to strengthen surveillance against Ebola following an Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Haule attributed the cholera outbreak to drinking of unsafe water and non-use of toilets. Rukwa Regional Medical Officer Boniface Kasululu said special centres…
United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has appointed a Tanzanian as Deputy Executive Director for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), a statement said on Tuesday. According to the statement issued by the UN Information Centre in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, Joyce Msuya replaces Ibrahim Thiaw, a Mauritanian national. “Prior to her appointment, Msuya served as the advisor to the World Bank Vice-President for East Asia and Pacific region, based in Washington, D.C.,’’ the statement said. Msuya also served as regional coordinator at the World Bank Institute covering East Asia and Pacific region, based in China. She holds a Master’s…