About the SEED Awards

vendredi 17 mai 2013

Do you have an entrepreneurial and innovative idea that is locally-driven and has great potential to contribute to sustainable development in countries with developing or transition economies ? Does your enterprise also advance gender equality and/or women’s empowerment within your enterprise or in the community ? Does your enterprise make significant contributions to mitigating and/or adapting to climate change ?

If you meet SEED’s eligibility criteria, you can apply for the 2013 SEED Awards for entrepreneurs in sustainable development, including the 2013 SEED Gender Equality Awards and the 2013 SEED Low Carbon

meeting of the Ministerial Monitoring Committee of the EPA

mercredi 24 avril 2013

The meeting of the Ministerial Monitoring Committee of the EPA was held on 21 and 22 March 2013 in Praia, Cape Verde, to assess the negotiations process and provide further guidance following the work of experts of the regions done in Accra in late February.

Meeting on EPAs was preceded by a meeting of Finance Ministers of ECOWAS. The Ministers of Finance have adopted the Common External Tariff regional (TEC).

South Africa exports ‘unapproved’ GM maize to Zimbabwe, continues to export to Mexico, contaminating both the region and centre of origin

mercredi 17 avril 2013

The ACB is deeply concerned by the news that the South African GMO authorities have permitted over 25,000 tons of GM maize to be exported to Zimbabwe. This is the first time that South African GM maize grains have been commercially exported to our neighbour north of the Limpopo, and adds to a growing list of African countries that have received bulk shipments of live GM grains from South Africa, including Swaziland, Mozambique, Kenya and Somalia.

Ghana’s Position-National Level consultation on on Agreements of economic partnership ahead of Ministerial Meeting in Cape Verde

Tuesday 19 March 2013

A national stakeholders consultation was convened in Accra on 13th March, 2013 to review the status of the EPAs with the view to making inputs towards the ECOWAS EPA Ministerial meeting which takes place in Cape Verde from the 18-22nd March 2013; and to enhance engagement and national consensus among stakeholders in national level EPA and trade policy processes, particularly in respect of Ghana’s Interim EPA (IEPA) that has provided a stop-gap operational framework for trade with EU since December 2007.

The Death of Chavez, a huge loss for the suffering peoples

Thursday 7 March 2013

With great sorrow and sadness we heard about the passing away of the friend of the vast majority of Venezuelans and of the peoples from the South, President Hugo Chávez Frías, and President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Poverty reduction initiatives continue questionable

Thursday 28 February 2013

Since early 2000s, the United Republic of Tanzania signed and therefore committed itself to implement the eight MDGs. Implementation of these Millennium Development Goals has been made at different levels by formulating and adopting initiatives and strategies aimed at reducing poverty and to improve living standards. These initiatives include the adoption of the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) popularly known as “Mpango wa Kukuza Uchumi na Kupunguza Umasikini Tanzania (‘MKUKUTA’)”, this is mainly for Mainland Tanzania and Poverty Reduction Strategy for Zanzibar popularly known as “Mpango wa Kupunguza Umaskini Zanzibar (‘MKUZA’. Other initiatives for poverty reduction in Tanzania includes Development Vision 2025 (for Mainland Tanzania), Vision 2020 (for Zanzibar), Kilimo Kwanza (Agriculture first) and The Five Years Development Plan 2011/2012-2015/2016. These strategies were mainly adopted to promote growth and reduce income poverty among Tanzanians, also to enhance social wellbeing, the quality of life, governance and accountability.

BRICS countries seek "virtual secretariat"

Monday 25 February 2013

The BRICS leaders plan to discuss the creation of a single bank and a "virtual secretariat" at the forthcoming summit in South Africa

Global Trade War over Local Content Requirements

Thursday 21 February 2013Type: Research Paper Date: 15 February 2013 Author/s: Burghard Ilge and Kavaljit Singh Keyword/s: trade wars, World Trade Organization, power industry Global trade wars are looming over the establishment of local content requirements in national law. Nearly two months after Canada lost a case at the World Trade Organization, the US has approached the WTO to challenge the local content requirements in India’s solar power program. This growing trend could have serious implications for (...) Read more >>

The 20th AU Summit

Monday 11 February 2013

The the 20th AU Summit was held from the 21st -28th of January, 2013 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The theme of the Summit was Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance. This Summit is the first major high level activity by the AUC since the new leadership started their tenure on October 15, 2012. You can find the major activities and decisions of the Summit in the attached document plus in the link provided below.

Fact Sheets: African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) Program

Monday 11 February 2013

ACOTA is a program within the Office of Regional and Security Affairs, Bureau of African Affairs at the Department of State. It began as the Africa Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI) in 1997 with the mission of enhancing the capacity of African partner nations to participate in worldwide multinational peace operations. ACRI was restructured as ACOTA in 2002 and incorporated into the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI) when GPOI was initiated in 2004 (http://www.state.gov/t/pm/ppa/gpoi/)