Browsing: AU

China strengthening its diplomacy in Africa’s health sector

Countries

China actively honours its commitment to making vaccines a global public good. At the time when Chinese vaccines had just reached the market and domestic supply was tight, China began to supply vaccines to Africa in support of its battle against the pandemic.
By November 2021, China had provided over 1.7 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccine to more than 110 countries and organizations, including 50 African countries and the AU Commission, and is striving to provide an aggregate total of two billion doses by the end of 2021.
In addition, it donated US$100 million to COVAX, which aims at ensuring all countries have access to a safe, effective vaccine.…

Beyond tension: The Promise of GERD for Africa

Business

In 1991, Ethiopia was among the poorest in the world having endured a devastating famine and civil war in the 1980s and by 2020 it was one of the fastest-growing economies in the world averaging 9.9 per cent of broad-based growth per year.
The GERD will help secure the future water supply not only in the Nile Basin but in the entire region, thereby curbing the occurrence of severe drought and famine.
The flow of the River Nile has been nothing but winding, peacefully meandering its way downstream, oblivious of the decade-old tension that besieges its much-needed waters.
Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia are neighbours that have been embroiled in a row over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) by Ethiopia on the Blue Nile causing a diplomatic standoff among the countries.
Being the longest river in Africa, the Nile bears paramount significance across several African nations that …

COP 26: Charting green energy pathways to secure Africa’s sustainable future

Africa's Development

As part of the requirements under the Kenyan Act, the government additionally established an Integrated Monitoring Reporting and Verification (Integrated MRV) system and published Kenya's National Climate Change Action Plan 2018-2022 (NCCAP). The five year plan requires the government to develop “action plans”, providing mechanisms to assist stakeholders in bringing about low-carbon climate-resilient development. 

Angola boasts some of the most ambitious targets for transition to low carbon development in Africa, albeit having ratified the Paris Agreement in November 2020. Since then the country has launched a national development plan, established a climate observatory and implemented a continuous national emissions monitoring system.

In addition, Gambia is committed to reducing its GHG emissions unconditionally, by 2.4 per cent by 2025 having implemented the Sustainable Energy Action Plan in 2015, which sets out the country’s renewable energy targets and corresponding measures necessary for their achievement. It has also committed to terminating oil importation…

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2021 Africa Industrialization Day: Bracing for a Green Industrial Revolution

Industry and Trade

Albeit marred with difficulties, green manufacturing in Africa is possible and the continent stands to greatly benefit from the transition. It will promote inclusive economic transformation through domestic manufacturing and a commodity-based industrialization process, capitalizing on the continent’s resources and opportunities presented by the dynamic nature of the global structure of production.

Green industrialization has been identified as the holy grail of Africa’s socio-economic transformation; infusing green initiatives into value chain activities for instance, during sourcing and processing of raw materials to the marketing and selling of finished products. The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) economic report on Greening Africa’s Industrialization, deduces that it is imperative for African countries to identify green industrialization entry points, set policies that support green industrialization and mobilize resources from the public and private sectors, as it is a precondition for sustainable and inclusive growth.…

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Oil Rig in Nigeria

African NGOs call to stop growth of coal, oil and gas at African Union summit  

Industry and Trade

Ahead of this week’s African Union meeting (Feb 9-10), more than 25 organisations, networks and community resistance groups from Africa and around the world have called on African governments to prevent the proliferation of coal, oil and gas in Africa and to ensure efforts to address fossil fuels match those which have helped reduce the danger from nuclear weapons, Power Shift statement reveals.

According to the statement, the communique signed by the group criticized the deliberate proliferation of coal, oil, and gas in Africa, contrary to scientific evidence and highlighted the contradiction between planned fossil fuel expansion and globally agreed climate targets.

They also condemned the way some African governments were avoiding scrutiny from civil society groups and even violently targeting environmental activists and human rights defenders in some places.

Representatives from the different NGO groups who attended an Africa Energy Leaders Summit on Climate Change, Energy, and Energy Finance …