By Jerry Omondi
World Economic Forum Founder and Executive Chairman, Klaus Schwab, on Tuesday stressed the urgency to develop new mechanisms that strengthen international cooperation in today’s multipower world.
Schwab made the call in his speech in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, where he joined heads of state, business leaders and other delegates for the World Government Summit (WGS) 2023.
“A few weeks ago, during the Davos conference, we discussed our ability to adapt to these global challenges, in light of various crises that require new mechanisms and innovative methods to help us reach a better future and serve the aspirations of humanity,” he said.
Acknowledging that technological transformation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution will impact the world for years to come, the WEF chief pointed out that “governments in different parts of the world should play leading roles in keeping pace with changes.”
Regarding structural transformations to be witnessed in various vital economic sectors, Schwab said there will be about 10 billion people in need of energy by 2050. He stressed on the need to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement and reach zero carbon emissions.
Schwab also pointed to the political changes taking place in the world, which he said are transforming the world from a unipolar one to a multipolar globe.
“This requires us to strengthen cooperation and enhance coordination at the level of governments, countries and institutions to maintain the frameworks of international cooperation, which in turn is reflected in the paths of development comprehensively,” he said.
Zimbabwean president on three-day state visit to Equatorial Guinea
By Jerry Omondi
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrived Tuesday afternoon in Equatorial Guinea, for a three-day state visit.
Mnangagwa, accompanied by several government ministers and business leaders, is expected to hold bilateral talks with Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the president of Equatorial Guinea, on various issues of mutual interest.
This is Mnangagwa’s second visit to the central African nation two months after he attended Mbasogo’s inauguration in December last year.
Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea enjoy strong bilateral relations after Zimbabwe played a crucial role in foiling a coup attempt on Mbasogo’s government in 2004.
Blinken discusses Mideast tensions with Egypt’s Sisi on first leg of tour
CAIRO, Jan 30 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed efforts to de-escalate tensions between Israel and the Palestinians in talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday during a three-day visit to the Middle East.
After arriving in Egypt on Sunday, Blinken said he wanted to strengthen Washington’s “strategic partnership” with Egypt, a major recipient of U.S. military aid that has helped mediate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Blinken meets Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and heads later on Monday to Jerusalem, where he will hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid concern at home and abroad over the policies of Netanyahu’s new right-wing government.
Blinken will then travel to Ramallah to meet Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The meeting with Sisi also addressed regional issues including attempts to relaunch a political transition in Sudan and to break the deadlock between rival factions in Libya, according to a statement from U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price.
After arriving in Cairo on Sunday, Blinken met four activists to discuss the human rights situation in Egypt, said Hossam Bahgat, one of those who took part in the meeting.
Under Sisi, who as army chief led the 2013 ouster of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, there has been a long crackdown on political dissent that has swept up liberal critics as well as Islamists.
Rights groups say tens of thousands have been detained. U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has withheld some military aid, citing a failure to meet human rights conditions, though advocacy groups have pushed for more to be held back.
In recent months, Egypt has released some prominent political prisoners amid steps to address international criticism, though many others remain behind bars.
“He was already well aware of the magnitude of Egypt’s human rights crisis and that many more new political prisoners are detained than those the regime claims to be pardoning,” Bahgat told Reuters after meeting Blinken.
“I think the Biden administration now accepts that two years of engaging Sisi on human rights have not led to much improvement.”
U.S. officials did not immediately comment on the meeting with activists.
Sisi has argued that security measures over the past decade were needed to stabilise Egypt and that authorities are protecting rights, including by working to provide basic needs such as housing and jobs.
Reporting by Simon Lewis and Aidan Lewis; Editing by Toby Chopra and Nick Macfie
Egypt to participate in Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership in Jordan Tuesday
BY Egypt Today staff Mon, 19 Dec 2022 – 06:19 GMT
CAIRO – 19 December 2022: Egypt will participate in the second Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership on Tuesday in Jordan, according to the Jordanian news agency Petra.
Leaders and representatives of regional organizations and countries, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Turkey, and Iran.
Also, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Nayef Al-Hajraf as well as representatives from the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the European Union will participate in the conference.
The conference is held to confirm support to the Iraqi security and sovereignty in a way that contributes to the development process in the region.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi participated in the first edition of the conference held in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad in August 2021, where he expressed Egypt’s keenness to provide full support for the Iraqi people in all fields.
In a speech during the conference, Sisi called for putting an end to the foreign interference in the affairs of the countries in the region.
President Sisi also affirmed Egypt’s full support for Iraq, within the framework of the tripartite cooperation mechanism with Jordan.
Iraq currently enjoys some political stability as the new government of Prime Minister Mohamed Al-Sudani and new President Abdul Latif Rashid have taken the reigns.
However, the Arab country still faces multiple challenges, including security and economic challenges as well as challenges related to the reconstruction file.
US announces $2.5 billion in food assistance to Africa
AFP , Friday 16 Dec 2022
The United States on Thursday committed another $2.5 billion in food assistance to Africa, pledging to help the continent cope with rising prices blamed in part on Russia’s invasion of breadbasket Ukraine.
President Joe Biden laid out the new commitment at the close of a three-day summit that brought nearly 50 African leaders to Washington.
Biden told leaders that the United States was concerned about rising hunger triggered “in part due to Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine.”
“Today, famine once more stalks the Horn of Africa,” Biden said.
“Food security is an essential foundation for peace and prosperity. Simply put, if a parent can’t feed their child, nothing else really matters.”
He said the United States also wanted to work with Africa on developing arable land.
“Africa has the potential to feed its people but also to help feed the world,” Biden said.
The White House said the $2.5 billion would provide emergency aid as well as medium- and long-term assistance to stabilize the African food supply.
The United States said it would also pursue a partnership with the African Union to bring together the public and private sectors and international financial institutions to address food needs.
The United States has already provided $11 billion in food assistance for the continent this year, the White House said.
The Horn of Africa has been especially hard hit after successive failed rainy seasons, with the United Nations saying that aid has staved off full-fledged famine in Somalia.
Biden tries to reboot US brand in Africa amid China, Russia inroads
AFP , Sunday 11 Dec 2022
When Barack Obama welcomed African leaders to Washington in 2014, many viewed the summit as historic, not just due to the US president’s background but for the pledges to make the partnership deeper and such events routine.
The sequel took eight years , the equivalent of two presidential terms but on Tuesday, Joe Biden will host a second US-Africa summit.
Since 2014, China viewed by Washington as its main long-term challenger has consistently outpaced the United States as the largest investor in Africa and Russia has increasingly flexed its muscle, sending mercenaries to hotspots and trying to rally opinion to blunt Western pressure over Ukraine.
Biden’s three-day summit will feature announcements of new US investment and highlight food security — worsened by the invasion of Ukraine — but, unlike China, also focus on values such as democracy and good governance, as well as fighting climate change.
But the biggest message from Biden, a lover of backslapping face-to-face diplomacy, will be that the United States cares.
Since defeating Donald Trump, who made no secret of his lack of interest in Africa, Biden has thrown his support behind an African seat on the Security Council and at the Washington, summit will call for the African Union to formally join the Group of 20 major economies, an aide said.
“We believe that this is a decisive decade. The way in which the world will be ordered will be determined in the coming years,” said Biden’s top Africa advisor, Judd Devermont.
Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken “believe strongly that African voices are going to be critical in this conversation,” he said.
African leaders have already been holding summits every three years with China and also have regular meetings with several US allies, France, Britain, Japan and the European Union.
All, almost, welcome
After a row over invitations distracted attention from his Western Hemisphere summit in Los Angeles in June, Biden has been open with the guest list from Africa.
The United States is inviting all African Union members in good standing meaning not Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali or Sudan — and with which Washington has full relations, which excludes authoritarian Eritrea.
One of the most closely watched leaders expected in Washington will be Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a one-time US ally whom the Biden administration has accused of backing widespread abuses in the Tigray conflict, which has subsided with a breakthrough November 2 agreement signed in South Africa.
Also in Washington will be the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo as Blinken leads international pressure on Rwanda over alleged support to rebels advancing in its giant neighbor.
“We’ve taken some criticism, I think it’s fair to say, from some who wonder why we invited this government or that government about which there are some concerns,” said Molly Phee, the top State Department official for Africa.
“But that reflects the commitment of President Biden and Secretary Blinken to having respectful conversations even where there are areas of difference.”
Robust’ debate on trade
One key topic will be the fate of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, the 2000 deal that granted duty-free access to the US market for most products from sub-Saharan nations that meet standards on rights and democracy.
The pact expires in 2025, leading African leaders to seek clarity at a time when the United States has soured on trade deals.
“We regret that AGOA trade preferences have not been utilized to the maximum,” Phee said.
She expected a “robust discussion” and said the United States may look after 2025 to engage instead with a nascent continental free trade area.
Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the United States was entering the summit with a “trust deficit” from Africans due to the long wait since 2014.
“The summit presents great opportunities but it also poses some risks,” he said.
“This is an opportunity to show Africa that the US really wants to listen to them,” he added.
“But now that we have high expectations, the question will be, what will be different now?”
Africa CDC convenes public health officials and experts to prepare the continent to respond to future outbreaks
Public health officials, experts, researchers, and scientists around Africa will gather at a major conference at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this week to take stock of how ready, in a post-COVID-19 world, African countries are to face up to the next disease threat.
‘Beyond COVID-19: Pathogen Genomics and Bioinformatics for Health Security in Africa’ will be hosted by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the autonomous health institution of the African Union (AU). The meeting will be held at the AU’s Headquarters in Addis Ababa from 29 November to 1 December 2022.
The event will draw around 120 public health officials, researchers, and scientists from 49 AU Member States, as well as local and international partners.
The symposium will, in particular, focus on the existing capacity along the full value chain of pathogen genomics and bioinformatics. This entails everything from the sequencing and analysing of disease-causing pathogens, to issues of supply chain, the generation and sharing of data, as well as international policies and agreements that govern how these processes should unfold.
Participants will review the progress, challenges and lessons from the rapid expansion of pathogen genomics in Africa, through the Africa CDC’s Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Africa PGI) and the work of other stakeholders over the past two years.
These endeavours all form part of the mission of the Africa CDC, which was launched in 2017, to coordinate continent-wide responses to emerging, re-emerging and other diseases in African countries, explains Dr Sofonias Tessema, programme lead for pathogen genomics at Africa CDC. The capacity in pathogen genomics, which is key to effective emergency response, was sorely lacking, he notes.
“Africa bears a disproportionate disease burden, and we face many deadly outbreaks every year, from Ebola and Cholera to Yellow Fever and polio,” says Dr Tessema. “Therefore, one of the foundational flagship projects of Africa CDC has been the setting up of capacity for pathogen sequencing around the continent. The project was initiated well before emergence of COVID-19, but it has certainly gained momentum because of the pandemic.”
“COVID-19 is a painful reminder of how ill prepared the continent was,” points out Dr Yenew Kebede, Head of the Division of Laboratory Systems and Network and Acting Head of Division of Surveillance and Disease Intelligence at Africa CDC.
In 2019, only seven of the 55 African Union Member States had public health laboratories or affiliates with next-generation sequencing (NGS) capacity. When COVID-19 hit the world in 2020, Africa CDC – working closely with the World Health Organisation’s Africa Regional Office (WHO AFRO) and other partners – was very quickly able to roll out sequencing technologies and training as countries and international agencies struggled to monitor the pandemic and keep track of emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 disease.
Today, public health laboratories in at least 37 African countries have NGS capacity, with training and equipment planned to be rolled out to even more African countries.
“No one would have asked for a global pandemic with its tragic human, social and economic costs,” says Dr Kebede. “But in exposing our shortcomings, COVID-19 also allowed us to do within a year or two what may have taken much longer under different circumstances.”
Efforts are now also under way to build on that momentum.
“We are now ready for the next phase, as the Africa PGI moves beyond COVID-19 and as attention shifts back to more local and regional disease outbreaks,” says Prof Alan Christoffels, Director of the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI) at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, and Senior Advisor to Africa CDC. “It has now become more urgent that we capacitate individual countries.
SANBI is one of three specialist genomics and bioinformatics centres that initially served as the backbone of Africa CDC’s genomic sequencing programme, lending support to nine regional hubs around the continent.”
These hubs are public health laboratories able to sequence SARS-CoV-2 pathogens, services that each extended to its neighbouring countries.
“We are keen that all countries in Africa develop the capacity for sequencing pathogens themselves, so that they know what they are dealing with during each outbreak,” says Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, Acting Director of Africa CDC. “We therefore must support individual countries to have the technology, the skills and the protocols in place to do so, as this new tool informs their response to outbreaks,
epidemics and even pandemics.”
The Addis Ababa meeting, he adds, is a critical part of ongoing work to realise this vision.
COP27 agrees ‘loss and damage’ deal to support vulnerable nations
By Philip Andrew Churm with AFP
AFP
The United Nations COP27 climate summit has approved the creation of a special fund to cover the damages suffered by vulnerable nations affected by global warming.
The two-week talks have switched from fears the whole process could collapse, to hopes of a major breakthrough on a fund for climate “loss and damage”.
Delegates applauded after the fund was adopted early on Sunday 20 November following days of marathon negotiations over the proposal.
Senior Coordinator of the African Group on Loss and Damage, Alpha Kaloga, said it was an important step.
“Today is a symbolic day, it is a symbolic day in terms of the impact that this decision will have on the future.
“Developing countries have been fighting for 30 years to have a fund, to have recognition of the losses and damages associated with climate change.
“Today, in the morning, when I left [the hotel] at 2am, I didn’t think we were going to get this deal. And there was understanding from everyone. The deal we have is a deal that reflects the collective will of all the countries.”
An informal coalition of “high ambition” countries called for strong language on cutting emissions, moving away from planet-heating fossil fuels and to reaffirm the 1.5C goal.
The European Union even threatened Saturday to walk out rather than having a “bad” decision.
The talks still need to approve a range of decisions and a final COP27 statement including a call for a “rapid” reduction of emissions in order to meet the ambitious goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels.
Tasneem Essop from the Climate Action Network said: “It is a huge achievement to get an agreement to establish loss and damage fund after 30 years of small island states vulnerable countries, developing countries, trying to get this on the agenda. Now, sitting here at the COP27 to get this agreed to, is the result of a collective struggle.”
Zambia’s Minister of Green Economy and Environment, Collins Nzovu: “Collins Nzovu, added: “Excited. Very, very excited. This is a very positive result from 1.3 billion Africans. Very exciting because for us, success in Egypt was going to be based on what we get from loss and damage.”
The deal on loss and damage originally struggled to make it onto the negotiation agenda.
Attention now turns to whether the summit will agree on a final statement.
Scientists say limiting warming to 1.5C is a far safer guardrail against catastrophic climate impacts, with the world currently far off track and heading for around 2.5C under current commitments and plans.
China-Africa media seminar focuses on cooperation
By CGTN Africa
A China-Africa media seminar has gathered dozens of scholars and media professionals from across Africa to explore new avenues for media cooperation on Wednesday in Nairobi, Kenya.
It’s part of the annual CMG Africa event “Our Media Partners: CMG Media Corporation Forum”.
Participants also shared their insights on how to build a China-Africa community with a shared future at the event titled “China and the World Embarking on a New journey”.
COP27 leaders urged to fight climate disinfo
Staff Writer, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Sharm el Sheikh – Campaigners on Tuesday urged leaders at the COP27 summit and big tech companies to formally crack down on climate disinformation that undermines efforts to limit the deadly impacts of global warming.
In an open letter, they called on COP27 delegates to adopt a common definition of climate disinformation and misinformation and work to prevent it.
They called on the bosses of seven digital giants, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, to implement tough polices to stop false climate information spreading on their platforms as they did for Covid-19.
“We cannot beat climate change without tackling climate misinformation and disinformation,” they wrote.
“While emissions continue to rise, humanity faces climate catastrophe, yet vested economic and political interests continue to organise and finance climate misinformation and disinformation to hold back action.”
They demanded “swift and robust global action from COP decision-makers and tech platforms to mitigate these threats”.
The letter was signed by 550 groups and individuals, including former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and diplomat Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which is the current basis for global targets to curb climate change.
Misinformation is false information that may be shared in good faith. Disinformation is spread with intent to deceive.
The letter accompanied a survey released Tuesday of how widely false climate information is believed in six big countries.
It found that large shares of the population in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Germany, India and the United States believed false claims about human-caused climate change.
It said at least 20 percent of those surveyed in each country believed that current global warming is natural and not caused by humans.
The human causes of global warming are unequivocally documented in reports by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“There is a big gap in public perception and the science on issues as basic as whether climate change exists or whether it is mainly caused by humans,” Tuesday’s survey said.
“This perception gap weakens the public mandate for climate action and undermines the negotiations to achieve the goals of the Paris climate agreement.”
The survey was carried out using YouGov panels of respondents and published by two climate content watchdogs, Climate Action Against Disinformation and the Conscious Advertising Network.