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For the past ten years, Africa has recorded some of the world’s strongest rates of economic growth. At the same time, many African economies continue to function at well below their full potential. Structural transformation is needed to create more jobs, reduce poverty and accomplish sustainable development objectives.
The African Development Bank’s High 5 priority areas are intended to support African countries’ achievement of the SDGS. They are: Feed Africa; Light up Africa; Industrialise Africa; Integrate Africa; and Improve the Quality of Life for the people of Africa.
Atta Abdul, Fatima-Zahra, Shuaibu, and Daniel are the faces of a continent that is being transformed. By betting on Africa’s youth, the Bank is banking on the future to make the continent a land of progress, prosperity and hope.
Feed Africa
Since 2015, 74 million Africans have benefited from improved agricultural technologies through the Bank’s efforts to support increased food security on the continent.
In western Mauritania, for example, the Brakna-Ouest irrigation infrastructure improvement project, supported by the Bank in the amount of $12 million, enabled 1 500 farming and livestock-producing families to return to cultivating their fields.
“We come from a farming and livestock-producing family and we grew up in that environment. Our harvest was very poor. We wanted to move somewhere else,” explains Atta Abdul Seck, a project beneficiary in Louboudou in western Mauritania. “As a farmer’s son, what I liked most when I returned was being able to continue farming. Farming is in my blood,” he says proudly.
Light up Africa
Without electricity, agriculture cannot effectively meet the growing challenge of food security in Africa. The Bank has made investment in energy a priority. Since 2016, it has mobilised $12 billion for its “Light Up Africa” strategic priority. Through this investment, 13.4 million people have gained access to electricity.
Morocco has made significant progress in widening access to electricity. In just the past twenty years, the electricity system has expanded to cover almost the entire country. The national rural electrification program, supported by the Bank with 155 million euros, has connected nearly 12.8 million Moroccans to the national power grid.
In Dar El Aïn, a village twenty kilometres from Marrakesh, the arrival of electricity has opened new doors for the women of the “Al Amal” cooperative. They use electricity to process their wheat into couscous or create other barley or wheat-based products. “The cooperative processes local crops into added-value products. Now, with electricity, the women are much more efficient, and their products are of better quality. It creates hope,” says Fatima-Zahra, a thirty-year-old member.
Industrialise Africa
As part of the Bank’s “Industrialise Africa” priority, 9 million people have gained access to private financing. In Nigeria, for instance, where more than 70 percent of the population depends on agriculture, fluctuating harvests have significant repercussions on yields, income and food security.
One solution is fertilizer, particularly if locally produced. The Bank provided $100 million to support construction of a modern fertilizer plant in Port Harcourt.
Shuaibu Yusuf, a farmer in his thirties who live near Port Harcourt, has experienced the impact of this project in his daily life. “When I used this fertilizer, I saw the difference. My harvest increased by more than 40 percent. I can feed myself, pay for my children’s education, and even their medical expenses,” he says. “I’m going to encourage my children, my neighbours and members of my community to increase their farming activities so we can all progress together,” Shuaibu continues.
Integrate Africa
To derive more benefit from industrialisation, Africa must become better integrated in terms of trade and markets. Through integration, African countries can gain access to larger markets and thereby increase incomes for millions of residents through new opportunities.
Since 2015, 69 million people have benefited from the Bank’s support for new transport infrastructure that has advanced integration. Gaps in the primary transport corridors have been filled, links between countries have been strengthened, and intra-African trade has been revitalised.
A good example of this is The Nairobi-Addis-Ababa corridor, which received$670 million in Bank financing and which has enhanced the potential for trade and job growth in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Daniel Yatta, a forty-year-old Kenyan lorry driver, has been transporting goods between Nairobi and Addis-Ababa for 15 years, and has seen the new road’s impact on his business. “ Back in the day, it would take more than two weeks to drive between Addis and Nairobi,” he says. The new road has made his life much easier. “With the new road, the trip takes only a few days. With 30 tonnes of freight, it only takes about 24 hours to drive to Addis!” he continues.
Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa
The study expands the scope of reporting for the first time to all countries with multilateral development bank operations. It now provides data on MDB climate finance commitments beyond those directed solely at developing and emerging economies, but with the focus remaining on low- and middle-income countries.
"The consequences of the pandemic could be long-lasting", stated Ambassador Smail Chergui, African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, adding that "the AU will continue to support governments to make extremely difficult choices to address the impact of COVID-19 across the continent".
Ebo forest is home to hundreds of rare species including Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees. A Cameroonian government decree allowing logging in a forest that is home to some of the world’s most endangered species has sparked outrage among local communities and conservation groups.
We are extremely proud and happy with our achievements this month. After more than 10 months of hard work at the Limbe Wildlife Centre, we have made a great step to further bridge the gap between animal welfare and conservation actions by inaugurating the first soft-release of endangered African grey parrot in Cameroon’s history.
The fifteenth session of the UN Forum on Forests (UNFF15) had been expected to adopt a resolution on several important issues including the UNFF Quadrennial Programme of Work (4POW) for 2021-2024.
In light of the continued COVID-19 global pandemic, the 42nd meeting of the Open-ended Working Group of the parties to the Montreal Protocol (OEWG 42) convened three identical, online technical sessions, in different time zones, from 14-16 July 2020.
Following virtual meetings in July 2020, the Group of 20 (G20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors issued a communiqué that acknowledges global economic activity is expected to contract sharply in 2020 due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic...
My fellow Africans! I am pleased to issue this press briefing at the launch of the Inaugural Africa Report on Disaster Risk Reduction. As you might be aware, disasters have become a recurrent phenomenon in Africa and the Africa Union wants to ensure that countries prepared to minimize...
The 36th Extraordinary Assembly of IGAD Heads of State and Government was held on 14th July 2020 via videoconference, chaired by H.E. Dr. Abdalla Hamdok, Prime Minister of the Republic of the Sudan.
While the coronavirus pandemic presents enormous health and economic challenges, there are also opportunities to jumpstart economies and rebuild societies through green recovery plans that are aligned with the 2030 Agenda.
It is not easy to plan for the future during a pandemic or a recession. But this is 2020, and governments and businesses are working hard to navigate both challenges at once.
The global phenomena of the COVID-19 pandemic is tangible evidence of how an imbalanced ecosystem can bring massive economic damage and social inequalities, putting millions of lives and businesses at risk.
Asha Bobb-Semple is an Analyst with the Global Environment Facility’s land degradation focal area, and works with cross-cutting global programs related to food systems, commodities, land use, and drylands. In an interview, she reflected on her career path that has led her from Jamaica’s watersheds to the landscapes of Central Asia in support of a better tomorrow.
As the concept and principles of integrated landscape approaches (ILA) become increasingly popular, researchers and practitioners must consider not only their considerable potential to address socio-economic and environmental trade-offs facing people and nature...
In the present article, we develop conceptual links between diet diversity and forested landscape mosaics within the rural tropics. First, we summarize the state of knowledge regarding diets obtained from forests, trees, and agroforests.
How fair is fair trade to women and marginalized people? A study commissioned by Fairtrade International to assess how effectively Fairtrade initiatives address gender equality revealed that fair markets alone are not enough to motivate gender- equitable benefit sharing.
Farmers, regardless of gender, age or education, are well aware of land degradation, what it looks like and how it impacts their livelihoods. Their perception of the effects of land degradation, how they deal with the risks and their responses in turn shape options for restoration and the outcomes.
Adaption to climate change requires funding. An expert panel put the case for bringing the two sectors together. The pertinence of ecosystem-based adaption and risk finance couldn’t be more timely considering the unarguable, growing divergence between humans and the natural world.
How is racial equity related to climate justice? Our next GLF Live tackles these timely issues with Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement. But first, take a step back, and hear how the recent boom in digital events is reshaping the way we learn.
We have all heard the figures: by 2050, the world’s population is expected to increase to nearly 10 billion, and most estimates suggest an increase in global food demand over the same period of at least 50 percent.
As noted in a recent blog post, both the impacts of—and recovery responses to—the COVID-19 pandemic can be linked to a country’s priorities for adapting to climate change.
A new UN drive to increase global protected areas could lead to severe human rights violations and cause irreversible social harm if not backed by much stronger guarantees of the rights of indigenous people and other local communities, the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) warns today.
The Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) met on 3 July 2020 to discuss how trade policy can address plastics pollution and a circular economy and to review the resumption of work on other initiatives disrupted by COVID-19.
Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) reaffirmed their commitment to work towards an agreement on negotiations on fisheries subsidies that undermine marine resources as well as the food security and livelihoods of fisheries-dependent populations.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has published a report warning that over half of the global gross domestic product (GDP) is potentially threatened by nature loss. The report argues that 15 systemic transitions across three socioeconomic systems could create annual business opportunities worth USD 10 trillion and 395 million jobs by 2030.
For ten years, Dixon Parmuya has guided tourists on bush walks around Amboseli National Park in Southern Kenya. But since COVID-19 swept through Kenya in mid-March, the country’s tourism industry has dwindled, leaving many locals without jobs and animals without protection.
The €1.8 trillion pandemic recovery plan and long-term budget deal agreed by EU heads of government on 21 July 2020, after nearly five days of haggling, is widely seen as a political and economic landmark. But from an environmental perspective, the package is an opportunity missed.
CIF and CSIS recently held a second workshop to discuss just transitions—an approach that seeks to ensure workers and communities are both protected and benefit from the deep and rapid changes to come in the transition to a new climate economy. Experts discussed case studies from countries where just transitions approaches are advancing and shared ongoing research and lessons learned that can further inform the next phases of the Just Transition Initiative.
Mr. Ollikainen discusses how Adaptation Fund projects are building resilience to climate change in vulnerable communities, and also broader resilience against environmental, health and economic risks through their inherent adaptation measures. He also discusses how some projects are adapting to directly help with the crisis in creative ways.
Developing countries – already the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change – are hardest hit by the humanitarian and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In due consideration of the many unknowns still surrounding the evolution of the COVID19 pandemic during the remainder of the current year, including unforeseen developments in mandatory public health policies around the world, and taking into account similar decisions taken by other Bonn-based organizations, CRIC19 will be rescheduled to take place in Bonn during the first quarter of 2021.
An international technology competition to design software that can support well-informed land use decisions is launched by the Group on Earth Observation Land Degradation Neutrality (GEO-LDN) Initiative.
UNCCD and CAREC organized an online stakeholder consultation to exchange recommendations on the project “Regional approaches for combating sand and dust storms and drought in Central Asia” and discuss expected regional strategic documents.
Two congolese Ministers share their vision on NDCs and partnerships with CAFI. “In difficult times, we need to explicitly stress the importance of land-use and sustainable forest management as primary solutions to control disease outbreaks and fight the climate crisis”.
It is with immense delight that we proudly invite you to the 27th Annual Conference of the Cameroon Bio-science Society (CBS) (Bioscience 2020), to be held at the University of Douala, from December 1st - 5 th, 2020.