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Eritrean delegation led by Mr. Biniam Berhe, Charge d’Affairs at the Eritrean Embassy in Ethiopia and Eritrea’s Permanent Representative at the African Union and Economic Commission of Africa, participated at the 17th African Union Extraordinary Summit and African Continental Free Trade Area held in Niamey, Niger, from 23 to 25 November.
At the summit focusing on the Industrialization and Economic Diversification in Africa and African Continental Free Trade Area, the Eritrean delegation noted the significance of the summit in the development of natural resources of Africa to the benefit of its people.
The delegation further stressed the importance of reprocessing the natural resources and ending exporting natural resources that are the main sources of employment as well as making a substantial investment in human resources development which is the main asset of Africa.
Pointing out that the 1.4 billion African people could be enough market for African products and African natural resources have initiated the Industrial Revolution of the Western countries, the Eritrean delegation said that developing the natural resources into industrialization will have a significant contribution to the qualitative transformation of the living standard of the African people as well as in putting Africa into its right place in the global order.
The summit conducted extensive discussion on the report presented focusing on the theme of the summit and adopted a resolution and declaration that could support the industrialization and economic diversification of Africa.
- Some residents of the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, are experiencing financial difficulties due to rising prices of basic goods, especially food.
They said in recent interviews that rising inflation is making life very difficult.
"I have come to the situation where I cannot provide enough food for my family," said Temechew Aklilu, a resident of Addis Ababa, adding that food prices are rising rapidly in the market.
Aklilu said the purchasing power of his limited monthly income has turned out to be too weak to cope with the daily rise in commodity prices.
"The price of teff (a staple grain in Ethiopia) has risen from about 40 birr to 60 birr (about US$1.13) per kilogram, while the price of five liter cooking oil has risen from 400 birr to more than 1,000 birr," he said. she said.
Samuel Gebremariam, a father of three, said that with a monthly salary of 7,000 birr, the rising cost of living has become unbearable.
"I am afraid of the current cost of living. The prices of renting a house, transportation, food and non-food items are increasing, which makes things get out of control," he said.
Adem Feto, a researcher at the Ethiopian Economic Association, who has conducted research on the performance of the Ethiopian macroeconomy, also expressed concern.
Feto said the Ethiopian economy has been experiencing huge macroeconomic imbalances, including budget and trade deficits, as well as payment imbalances amid severe foreign exchange shortages.
"Inflation is one of the phenomena in Ethiopia in recent years," Feto said, attributing the recent rise in inflation to the widening gap between production and consumption, the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in the northern part of the country. country.
According to figures from the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency, as of October 2022, the year-on-year headline inflation rate in Ethiopia stood at 31.7%, after reaching 30.7% the previous month.
The recent United Nations World Food Program Ethiopia Market Watch report released last week also noted that household purchasing power continues to weaken.
Feto cited structural imbalance as the main cause of inflation in Ethiopia, where the agricultural sector, which is the mainstay of the economy, is characterized by using outdated technology and an ancient agricultural system, which does not produce enough food to sustain the economy and satisfy the food demand of the population.
The researcher linked rising inflation in the East African nation to declining foreign exchange reserves, which he said also contributed to the decline in the value of the Ethiopian birr.
"Ethiopia exports primary goods, mainly agricultural products, but imports finished goods such as machinery and oil, which has put the nation in a trade deficit, exacerbating the country's foreign exchange shortage," Feto said.
The Ethiopian government has been introducing a package of economic measures to curb the rising cost of living and stabilize the food market.
Gebremariam said the government's effort to boost local wheat production is really encouraging. He also appreciated the school feeding program that the government is carrying out to ease the burden on low-income families. ■
- In the dispatch center of Djibouti's Nagad Train Station, young Djiboutian Aisha was observing staff operations while paying close attention to the different colored dots and lines flashing on the screen.
As part of the first batch of students enrolled in the Djibouti Luban Workshop, Aisha along with her classmates were learning railway-related knowledge through an internship program at the Djibouti home station of the Chinese-built Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway. .
In a recent interview with , Aisha said that after three years of training, some 20 young Djiboutian students, including herself, will complete their course at the end of this year and become the first batch of graduates from the local Luban workshop.
In March 2019, the Djibouti Luban Workshop was established, a vocational training cooperation project jointly implemented by two vocational schools located in the north Chinese city of Tianjin, the Djibouti Industrial and Commercial Secondary School and the Construction Corporation. and Civil Engineering of China. The workshop was the first of its kind established in Africa.
With Djibouti's transportation needs in mind, the Djibouti Luban Workshop offers specializations such as rail transportation operation and management in order to help build a local talent pool for the rail industry.
The workshop in Djibouti, as well as around a dozen others established in Africa over the years that offer different specializations and courses tailored to the needs of the workforce in various African countries, has epitomized growing skills development cooperation. between China and Africa.
PRODUCTIVE COOPERATION IN VOCATIONAL TRAINING
A report this year from the African Center for Economic Transformation, an Accra-based nonprofit think tank, showed that by 2030, the working-age population of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to reach 600 million, with Young people represent 37 percent of that population. number. However, he noted that African governments must address significant challenges to achieve the demographic dividend, including high youth unemployment due to poor quality education and a lack of infrastructure and inadequate equipment.
During the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Senegal a year ago, China announced nine cooperation programs that it planned to jointly implement with African countries over the next three years, one of them being the capacity-building program. . This program has been launched with the aim of boosting employment, especially for Africa's huge youth population.
The Luban workshops, as part of China-Africa cooperation in this regard, linked Chinese and African vocational schools, helped upgrade facilities and provided cutting-edge technology and training for host countries. Through collaboration between Chinese and African governments, companies and schools, 12 workshops have been established so far in African countries such as South Africa, Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya.
Different workshops may have different priorities. For example, in Djibouti, the Luban workshop focuses on developing railway operating talent, while in Ethiopia, the workshop aims to improve the teaching-learning process in the areas of mechatronics, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
In an effort to accelerate digital transformation in Africa, Chinese companies like Huawei have also been providing ICT training. Huawei this month launched a fund in Zambia to develop local innovation leaders, with plans to provide ICT training to 5,000 local youth and train at least 50 faculty and government officials in basic ICT skills by 2025. In Angola, Huawei also plans to train more than 10,000 local ICT employees in the next five years.
In Tanzania, a collaborative project with China was launched in June this year to boost vocational education through the development of new vocational standards in the East African nation. Adolf Rutayuga, executive secretary of Tanzania's National Council for State Vocational and Technical Education and Training, said the project will help develop a large pool of talented and skilled workers, and ensure that vocational education graduates meet the needs of the international market. .
BOOSTING EMPLOYMENT IN AFRICA
Under the capacity building program announced at the FOCAC meeting last November, Chinese companies operating in Africa are encouraged to provide at least 800,000 jobs to locals over the next few years.
According to a report published by Ernst & Young, China's investments in the continent totaled US$70.6 billion between 2016 and 2020, creating more than 170,000 jobs, making it one of the top job creators in Africa. . Instead of bringing in workers from afar, Chinese companies in Africa are hiring more local labor.
Chinese business associations in African countries have also been active in recruiting local staff by organizing job fairs. In October, the Zimbabwe Chinese Business Chamber partnered with Stanbic Bank to hold a two-day job fair with 30 Chinese companies offering 757 jobs.
"We have learned that it is difficult for locals to find a job, especially for recent graduates. That is why we created the platform to bring together job seekers and employers, as well as organizations, to understand their needs and also to get to know each other. with each other," said Shannel Liu, vice president of the chamber. Liu said the chamber's businesses currently employ more than 100,000 locals.
Vimbai Chiza, Deputy Director of Employment Promotion and Services at Zimbabwe's Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, said the platform is in line with the government's efforts to improve the livelihoods of ordinary citizens. "It is, therefore, complementary to the Government's proposal to promote employment."
In August, the China-Zimbabwe Exchange Center also held a two-day job fair to facilitate face-to-face interaction between job seekers and potential employers.
Meanwhile, in Zambia, organizations like the Zambia China Alumni Association (ZACOSA) are busy linking students graduating from Chinese universities with Chinese companies operating in Zambia. “As an association, since 2014 we have been instrumental in providing the link between Chinese companies and graduating students in China. I think in that area we would say we have been very successful,” said ZACOSA President Friday Mulenga.
According to the Chinese embassy in Zambia, there are more than 600 Chinese companies operating in the southern African country. ■
- Worsening socio-economic conditions, new and ongoing conflicts and a shortage of humanitarian funds are increasing the risk of gender-based violence for forcibly displaced women and girls, the United Nations Agency for Human Rights said here on Friday. Refugees (UNHCR).
Marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November, UNHCR said in a statement that a "toxic mix of crises" is having a devastating effect on forcibly displaced people, felt all over the world. the world. , but women and girls suffer especially.
“Displaced women and girls are often the most vulnerable to shocks, given the loss of assets and livelihoods, the disruption of community safety nets, and their frequent exclusion from education and other national social protection,” UNHCR said.
He added that among refugee populations in Algeria, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, Niger, Tanzania, Uganda, the Republic of the Congo and Zambia, UNHCR has reported severe nutrition problems, including malnutrition. acute, growth retardation and anemia.
In eastern and southern Africa, he said, more than three-quarters of refugees have seen their food rations cut and are unable to meet their basic needs. Inside Syria, 1.8 million people in displacement camps suffer severe food insecurity, while nine out of 10 Syrian refugees in Lebanon cannot afford food and essential services.
In the Americas, half of those forcibly displaced eat just two meals a day, and three-quarters reduce the quantity or quality of their food, according to the UNHCR statement.
The agency's data also showed that major deteriorations in food security are projected in Yemen and the Sahel, with millions of internally displaced people in countries like Somalia and Afghanistan living in situations where 90 percent of the population has no access. to enough food.
"Reports of girls being forced into marriage to allow the family to buy food are especially shocking. In East and the Horn of Africa, child marriages are increasing as a way of easing pressure on household income," she warned. UNHCR statement. and added that the risks of sexual violence are also exacerbated by the drought there, as women and girls are forced to walk longer distances to collect water and firewood. ■
- The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said on Friday that it has delivered more than 2,400 metric tons of food, medicine, nutrition and other vital supplies to the Tigray region of Ethiopia following the recent signing of a peace agreement. .
The WFP said 96 trucks have transported more than 2,400 metric tons of food, enough to feed some 170,000 people, as well as 100,000 liters of fuel to the conflict-affected Tigray region in Ethiopia since the November 15, when the WFP resumed operations using the four reopened road corridors. .
He said that for the first time in history, the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service is conducting flight rotations to transport passengers and humanitarian cargo to Shire Airport in Tigray.
However, WFP said aid deliveries within Tigray are not keeping up with needs, adding that WFP and its cooperating partners urgently need access to all parts of the region to provide food and nutrition assistance to 2.3 million vulnerable people.
WFP's fast-track humanitarian operation came after the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front earlier this month formally agreed to a cessation of hostilities after a two-year conflict. ■
The Ethiopian Disaster and Risk Management Commission has begun delivering food assistance in different areas of the Tigray region.
Medicine and related items have been delivered to Shire Town in three rounds.
These deliveries have allowed health centres and Hospitals to resume services in Shire areas.
The Ministry of Health has dispatched 14 health professionals to Shire Town to provide medical services and undertake a need assessment.
The assessment has covered the Shire Hospital and three other health centres.
Accordingly, 411 of the 520 health workers at the Shire Hospital have returned to work.
The Hospital has started its outpatient, inpatient, emergency, laboratory, and pharmacy services.
Delivery to other health centres continues imminently.
In areas not covered by the Government, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has delivered 33.9 metric tons of medicine and related necessities.
Others such as the World Food Program (WFP) have resumed distributing food, medicine, and essential goods to Mekelle and other parts of the region.
Apart from ensuring humanitarian provision, the Government is working to deliver on its commitment to restoring services across the Region.
In fact, the restoration of services started in some secured parts of the region even before the signing of the agreement.
Repair works on major electricity substations connecting the Region to the national grid have been going on.
Telecom services have resumed in areas where power connection has been re-established.
In other areas, repair work is underway to reconnect power.
Now that the peace agreement provides the required guarantee for the safety of service operators, the government will be able to fully deliver on its responsibility of restoring services in all towns in Tigray and the neighbouring Amhara and Afar Regions.
The government welcomes the readiness of partners to contribute to this reconstruction effort.
Worsening socio-economic conditions, new and ongoing conflicts and humanitarian funding shortfalls are increasing the risk of gender-based violence for forcibly displaced women and girls, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is warning today.
“A toxic mix of crises -- conflicts, climate, skyrocketing costs, and the ripple effects of the Ukraine war – are inflicting a devastating toll on the forcibly displaced.
This is being felt across the world, but women and girls are particularly suffering,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.
Many refugees and internally displaced people are unable to meet basic needs, owing to inflated prices and limited humanitarian assistance precipitated by disrupted supply chains and shortfalls in funding.
Displaced women and girls are often the most vulnerable to shocks, given the loss of assets and means of subsistence, the disruption of community-based safety nets and their frequent exclusion from education and other national social protection.
Faced with food shortages and surging prices, many women and girls are being forced to take gut-wrenching decisions to survive.
“With savings depleted, many are skipping meals, children are being sent to work instead of school and some may have no options but to beg or engage in the sale or exchange of sex to survive.
Too many are facing heightened risks of exploitation, trafficking, child marriage and intimate partner violence,” said Grandi.
Among refugee populations in Algeria, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, Niger, Tanzania, Uganda, Republic of the Congo and Zambia, UNHCR has recorded serious nutrition concerns.
These include acute malnutrition, stunting, and anaemia.
Across eastern and southern Africa, more than three quarters of refugees have seen food rations cut and are unable to meet their basic needs.
Inside Syria, 1.8 million people in displacement camps are severely food insecure, while nine in 10 Syrian refugees in Lebanon are unable to afford essential food and services.
Across the Americas, half of those forcibly displaced eat only two meals a day, with three quarters reducing the quantity or quality of their food, according to UNHCR data.
Major deteriorations in food security are projected in Yemen and the Sahel, and millions of internally displaced people in countries like Somalia and Afghanistan live in situations where 90 per cent of the population are not consuming enough food.
There is a shocking, pernicious cycle of hunger and insecurity, each exacerbating the other and fuelling risks to women and girls, as harmful coping strategies are adopted across communities.
Reports of girls being forced into marriage to allow the family to buy food are especially shocking.
In the East and Horn of Africa, child marriages are on the rise, as a way of alleviating the strain on household income.
Sexual violence risks are also aggravated by the drought, with women and girls being forced to trek longer distances to collect water and firewood.
While the need for programmes to address gender-based violence has never been greater, UNHCR is concerned that funding has not kept pace.
UNHCR’s identified global needs for gender-based violence prevention and response programs in 2023 will reach around USD 340 million, the highest ever.
Marking this year’s UN theme for the 16 Days of Activism in uniting to end violence against women and girls, UNHCR is urging donors to support essential gender-based violence prevention and response services, and to sustain funding for life-saving humanitarian programs to ensure refugees and other forcibly displaced can meet their basic needs.
More information on UNHCR’s work to tackle gender-based violence can be found here: https://www.unhcr.org/gender-based-violence.html
In April 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) Training Centre was officially inaugurated by Dr Matshidiso Moeti WHO Regional Director for Africa, and Honorable Dr Lia Tadesse Minister of Health (MoH), Ethiopia in the presence of Dr Abdou Salam Gueye, Regional Emergency Director, and Dr Boureima Hama Sambo, WHO Representative in Ethiopia.
The training centre has since trained over 100 cohorts of emergency medical teams (EMTs) from different parts of the country.
In June 2022, 17-member EMT that were trained by the EMT centre were deployed to Gode, a town in the Somali Regional State, for the team’s first mission to provide clinical care to people affected by drought, and to support the local health system.
After receiving pre-deployment orientation from WHO, MoH and the Somali Regional Health Bureau, the emergency medical team composed of general practitioner physicians, pediatricians, nurses, and nutritionists took up the responsibility of supporting the emergency response in Gode for 21 days.
During their deployment, the team executed several clinical activities including managing severe acute malnutrition with medical complications at the stabilization center, screening and admission of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) cases patients into Targeted Supplementary Feeding services.
During their three-week deployment, the team conducted nutritional screening of 211 children at IDP sites and Gode Hospital, and admitted about 100 children with severe acute malnutrition to the stabilization center at the Hospital.
The team closely followed up the patients at the stabilization centre, and conducted two rounds of screening daily for 3 weeks.
Ninety children showed improvement under their care and were discharged during the same period.
"We're proud of our team's well-coordinated engagement for a successful response.
We request our partners' long-term sustainable support for the continued impact of the team.
We have set the foundation for the future."
Degisew Dersso said, Surge and clinical Disaster management coordinator, EMT Coordinator and Conflict Response IMS-Acute care and clinical Section Lead.
The team also provided training and health education to mothers whose children were admitted to the stabilization center and IDP sites.
The education focused mainly on breastfeeding, complementary feeding, environmental and hand hygiene, appropriate feeding practice and detecting signs of severe acute malnutrition.
The Ethiopian EMT also provided training to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) staff at Gode Hospital on essential relevant skills to operate a mechanical ventilator, provision of basic life support, critical care, Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), medical crash cart handling and documentation.
In addition, the team handled some minor maintenance and repair tasks to on medical equipment in the hospital.
The structure of the Ethiopian EMT core technical team is linked with the routine health system and coordinated with the Ministry of Health National Incident Management System.
The technical team leads were recruited from WHO and MoH.
Following two local and one international EMT induction training with simulation exercises, 70 volunteer members were put on standby for emergency response.
The global EMT initiative aims to improve the timeliness and quality of health services provided by national and international EMTs and enhance the capacity of national health systems to lead the activation and coordination of emergency response in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, outbreak and other emergencies.
Thirty-seven of 52 African countries have become more industrialized over the past eleven years, according to a new report from the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org), the African Union and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
The Africa Industrialization Index (AII) report provides a country-level assessment of 52 African countries’ progress across 19 key indicators.
The report will enable African governments to identify comparator countries to benchmark their own industrial performance and identify best practices more effectively.
The African Development Bank, the African Union and UNIDO jointly launched the inaugural edition of the AII on the sidelines of the African Union Summit on Industrialization and Economic Diversification in Niamey, Niger.
Scoring industrialization across a range of metrics
The Index’s 19 indicators cover manufacturing performance, capital, labor, business environment, infrastructure, and macroeconomic stability.
The index also ranks African countries’ industrialization across three dimensions: performance, direct determinants and indirect determinants.
Direct determinants include such endowments as capital and labor and how these are deployed to drive industrial development.
Indirect determinants include enabling environmental conditions such as macroeconomic stability, sound institutions and infrastructure.
South Africa maintained a very high ranking throughout the 2010-2021 period, followed closely by Morocco, which held second place as of 2022.
Rounding out the top six over the period are Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritius, and Eswatini.
Abdu Mukhtar, African Development Bank Director for Industrial and Trade Development, represented the institution at the launch event.
He said that while Africa had shown encouraging progress in industrialization over the 2010-2022 period, the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had set back its efforts and highlighted gaps in production systems.
“The continent has a unique opportunity to sort out this dependency by further integrating and conquering its own emerging markets.”
He added: “The African Continental Free Trade Area is creating a once-in-a-lifetime single market opportunity of 1.3 billion people and total aggregate consumer and business spending of up to $4 trillion creates an opportunity to enhance their trade and production linkages and finally reap industrial competitiveness from regional integration as other regions have done.”
The African Development Bank has invested up to $8 billion over the past 5 years under its Industrialize Africa High-5 priority.
“In the pharma sector alone, we intend to spend at least $3 billion by 2030,” Mukhtar said.
Building productive industry will be integral to Africa’s development, offering a path to accelerated structural transformation, creating formal jobs at scale and inclusive growth.
However, Africa’s share of global manufacturing has declined to the current level of less than 2%.
More proactive industrial policies are seen as critical to reversing the trend, but these are knowledge-intensive and require a detailed understanding of the constraints and opportunities that each country faces.
Manufacturing value-added more important than size of economy
Among the report’s other key findings:
During the coverage period, Djibouti, Benin, Mozambique, Senegal, Ethiopia, Guinea Rwanda, Tanzania, Ghana, and Uganda all improved by five or more places in the rankings.
The top performers are not necessarily those with the biggest economies, but those countries that generate high manufacturing value-added per capita, with a substantial proportion of manufacturing goods bound for export;
North Africa remains the most advanced African region in industrial development, followed by Southern Africa, Central Africa, West Africa and East Africa.
Synergies with the African Industry Observatory
The Africa Industrialization Index was one of two new tools presented during the event.
The second—and complementary— African Industry Observatory, unveiled by UNIDO and the African Union, will serve as a central online knowledge platform to collect, analyze and consolidate the quantitative data needed for qualitative analyses of national, regional and pan-continental industry trends, forecasts and comparisons.
Chiza Charles Chiumya, the African Union Commission’s Acting Director for Industry, Minerals, Entrepreneurship & Tourism, said, “These tools are going to greatly enhance our industrial policymaking as well as help to bring in the required focus that industrialization needs both from policymakers as well as the private sector, who will now clearly see where the continent has opportunities.” Chiumya was representing AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry Albert Muchanga.
“The African Industry Observatory and the Africa Industrialization Index will help consolidate cross-institutional cooperation, strengthen each institution’s policy dialogue influence for accelerating industrial development and an enhanced knowledge of industrial development dynamics,” said Victor Djemba, Chief of UNIDO’s Africa division.
The African Union Extraordinary Summit on Industrialization and Economic Diversification and African Union Extraordinary Session on the African Continental Free Trade Area are currently taking place in Niamey, Niger, through 25 November 2022.
The Summit’s theme is: Industrializing Africa: Renewed Commitment towards Inclusive and Sustainable Industrialization and Economic Diversification.
Download the report in English (http://bit.ly/3OywD5M) or French (http://bit.ly/3gAropK)
Chinese demand for agricultural products from Africa continues to grow, such as for coffee, nuts, vegetables, processed food and beverages.
The International Trade Centre report, Enhancing Africa’s Agricultural Exports to China, outlines export potential for eight countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia.
‘Using ITC’s trade tools and data, this report is a blueprint for success for African businesses, setting out in detail which products have the best chance of competing in China,’ said Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director of ITC.
African farm exports to China are still somewhat restricted because sanitary and phytosanitary agreements are not yet in place for many products, according to the report.
Formalizing relevant agreements and improving use of appropriate farming technologies offers these countries the opportunity to benefit from almost $150 billion of unrealized farm export potential.
With input from the Partnership for Enhancing Export Capacity of Africa to China, the report details the opportunities for China-Africa cooperation, as China’s consumer base becomes more sophisticated and seeks higher quality products.
