By.Thomas Ochieng, API|-Kenya

The Africa adaptation programme(AAP) with expectation of developing Dynamic, long-term planning mechanisms to manage the inherent uncertainties of climate change in Africa, has been developed with the support of the Japanese government and the united nation development programme(UNDP).Has developed models to enhance Leadership capacities and institutional frameworks to manage climate change risks and opportunities in an integrated manner at the local and national levels. The programme emphasizes the need to develop Climate-resilient policies and measures that are to be implemented in priority sectors in line with
financing options to meet national adaptation costs expanded at the local, national, sub-regional and regional levels; and the Knowledge on adjusting national development processes to fully incorporate climate  change risks and opportunities generated and shared across all levels.

The challenges of climate change are manifested in the rapid deforestation and desertification that has engulfed the continent at a very alarming rate, with a net effect of affecting the socio-economic foundation of many states in Africa today. Under this AAP initiative, UNDP will assist 20 African countries in implementing integrated and comprehensive adaptation actions and resilience plans. The projects will ensure that national development processes incorporate climate change risks and opportunities to secure development gains under a changing climate. UNDP and the Japanese government will help countries establish an enabling environment and develop the capacity required to design, finance, implement, and monitor long-term and cost-effective adaptation policies and plans that are custom-made for each state in the continent.

Africa will host the climate talk in Durban  as a follow-up of the Cancun Mexico meeting that concluded that, all countries commits to keeping temperature rise below 2C (3.6F) by reducing emissions. Rich countries also some how  agreed to consider an extension of the Kyoto Protocol while poor countries agreed to sign up to emission cuts for the first time. There are also a series of key decisions on setting up a green fund to help poor countries cope with climate change and halting deforestation. The resolution although supported with reservations particularly from rich countries, is welcome to the continent that is the less emitter of greenhouse  gases but the great casualty in the climate change perspective. It’s noteworthy to state that the Africa adaptation programme which recognizes the importance of grassroots’ participation and active involvement in
the planning and execution of adaptation agenda. This is a position that should be on top of Africa priority at the COP 17 Durban meeting.

ENDS.

Addressing the official opening of Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) conference in Abuja Tuesday, the President, who was represented by the Special Adviser to Government on Petroleum Resource, Mr Emmaunel Egbogha, said that the post-amnesty initiative was working.

He said the new level of oil production had fully justified the amnesty policy as initiated by the Federal Government.

Jonathan urged all the local and state governments to engage the youth in various capacities and rehabilitate them towards national development.

“I have advised the states and local government authorities to engage the youths and encourage them to use their initiatives so as to build on the success so far recorded on the amnesty programme. “It is my hope that the various policy initiatives of government will continue to keep Nigeria on the global map for oil and gas investment,” he said.

The President said that the focus of this year’s conference was on project financing and the impact of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) on the oil and gas industry.

He said that the oil and gas industry had not only propelled the Nigerian economy, but also accounted for about 90 per cent of our export earnings.

By Terence Sesay, Liberia

Imam Osman Madani Haidara had just delivered his sermon in honour of the birthday of Islamic prophet Mohammed when the crowd pushed towards him.

By Harrison  Mwirigi  Ikunda, API-contributing writer in Kenya

Unemployment remains anathema to many countries of the world. The Tunisian revolution 2011 and the ongoing one in Egypt and the embers for the same in the rest of the Arab world have their roots in the employment crisis and the concomitant economic woes afflicting their population. The social and economic circumstances in the Arab world which are near horrid in terms of progress make the political explosions inevitable.

None of the political leadership in the Arab world can be said to be progressive to inspire a better future. Unfortunately even the
opposition in most of those countries has deep roots in religious fundamentalism which has increasingly entrenched those regimes as none of the global partners has been willing to push the regimes for reforms with the fear that it might inspire the fundamentalists to
take over. But bad things don’t last forever or too long and so the regimes are now in political furnace. These poor economic conditions are not much different with those in sub-Saharan countries, Kenya inclusive. The solutions to these ills have not been forthcoming adequately. It has been feeble and at most failing.

The Kenyan youth enterprise programme propagated by the government has been quite a noble idea. But its reach is low and the strategic direction of the cause quite dismal compared to gargantuan of the problem that is ailing Kenya. Similarly, the Kenyan youth have been unable to create enough impetus in as far as entrepreneurship is concerned. Partly it lies with the small economy that is Kenya, which is quite inadequate to create requisite resources to address the grinding poverty and hopelessness.

Invariably, some of the issues pro-occupying a huge section of Kenyan youths is the job crisis, alcohol, drug abuse, sexually transmitted disease like HIV AIDS, crime and hopelessness. The future stability of Kenya hangs in the hands of this lot. If they are pushed to the economic precipice as it looks more likely, the revolutions happening in the Arab world will be chicken feed in comparison.

The entrepreneurial spirit is there but the nature of it and the strength of the Kenyan economy is making it harder for most of them to make ends meet. Speaking to them across the gender, social spectrum and communities, it shows that desperation is nigh. Moreover, some of the entrepreneurial activities the Kenyan youth are getting into are the traditional businesses already with plenty in precedents. Unlike the American youth who have come up with quite innovative ideas and enterprises like Google, Face book, Twitter and many such new ventures this is hardly the case in Kenya in a good measure. Not that it is bad to walk the already beaten path but a mixture of old types and new innovative businesses would make Kenya tick.

The problem can be traced in both the schooling system which hardly have to capacity to provide room for innovation and the weak Kenyan economy which hardly has capacity to provide room for great innovations no matter how rudimentary. Kenya look set to become a very great net importer of Chinese products.  Some of the products sourced from China can easily be, made here but the capacity and resources aren’t there. The challenging economic times only create room for more cheapness and no time for any mind taking time to innovate as it would be a waste time and sure road to poverty. Innovation is hardly rewarded in countries like Kenya, instead punishment into penury is more likely. After all supportive institutions for such innovative ventures is lacking.

However Kenya has one of the most well educated youthful population who can easily transform the nation into an economic powerhouse. Nonetheless without the requisite supportive institutions and funds, hardly would the creativity and innovation inherent in these young people be tapped. The level of entrepreneurial involvement of the young people is quite low and little inspiring, more need to be done.

End.

The writer is a Consultant and a Researcher working for a Not for Profit Organisation in Kenya.

KENYA: Education boost for girls in Muhuru Bay

Photo: Kenneth Odiwuor/IRIN

Marta Krajnik of the Women’s Institute for Secondary Education and Research with some of the girls who joined the institute on 4 February

MUHURU BAY, 18 February 2011 (IRIN) – Carol Gor, 36, thought her chances of obtaining a secondary education ended 11 years ago when her parents, who rely on fishing along Lake Victoria, failed to raise the fees. She stayed at home for a few years, got pregnant and was soon married.

“When I completed primary school at the age of 15, I hoped my parents would somehow find the money to take me to secondary school; but they did not,” Gor told IRIN. “With peer pressure, I soon found myself pregnant; I then got married and before too long I had had five children, but I didn’t give up, I persuaded my husband to allow me to return to primary school and try again.”

In 2009, Gor sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) alongside her second-eldest son. Her oldest son was completing secondary school then. She has since joined an NGO-sponsored, girls-only secondary school in Muhuru Bay, where students are on full scholarship.

“I know that my life will change for the better when I complete school; I hope to become a teacher so that I can serve as a role model for the many girls who give up on education as soon as they give birth or get married,” Gor said.

Like Gor, many girls in Muhuru Bay, with a population of about 25,000, have a slim chance of a secondary education as only four public schools in the area admit both genders. The few private schools are out of reach for many poor parents.

Local agricultural officials say poverty is high in Muhuru Bay, where the main economic activity, fishing, has been in decline following a decrease in fish due to climatic changes.

Slow improvements

The school dropout rate for girls was high, Enos Kebeya, the education officer for Muhuru Bay, told IRIN, mostly due to early marriage, teenage pregnancy, children being orphaned by HIV/Aids and others being lured into fishing activities.

However, he said: “In the past three years, we have seen great improvements in education, especially for girls in this division, as more and more have joined secondary school.”

The division had moved from a mean score of 218 (in examinations marked out of 500) in 2008 to 252 in 2010; “this has been due to a reduction in the number of girls dropping out of school as a result of sensitization and encouragement from the community.

“In the lower primary stages, the dropout rate is low but by the time they reach Class Eight, you will find just 230 boys and 200 girls sitting the national examination [out of 460 boys and 502 girls].

Photo: Kenneth Odiwuor/IRIN

Although a mother of five, Carol Gor is in Form II at the Women’s Institute for Secondary Education and Research in Muhuru Bay

“We are trying to reverse this trend by conducting frequent assessments of schools as well as holding education days where we inform parents and pupils on the importance of education. We welcome efforts by individuals and charitable organizations to sensitize the communities on keeping children in school.”

Being WISER

For Gor and 60 other girls, the establishment of the Women’s Institute for Secondary Education and Research (WISER) two years ago has helped them obtain an education that was otherwise only a dream.

Dorcas Oyugi, the school’s principal, said the institution would help bridge the gap between boys’ and girls’ education in the division.

WISER also offers several subjects that are not mandated in the Kenyan secondary school curriculum, including sign language, French, business and computer studies.

“We try to help the girls by teaching them how to think and reason for themselves, not what to think; the focus is to produce holistic Kenyans,” Oyugi said. “To the girls, I say: ‘whatever women do, they must do it twice as [hard as] a man to be thought they are half as good, they must work hard’.”

Marta Krajnik, the country director of the NGO running the girls’ facility, said: “Bright orphaned girls and those in difficult financial situations are given a priority” in selecting the girls joining Form One.

Of the 30 girls who joined the institution in January 2011, one left an eight-day-old child at home; another is 16 and fled a forced marriage with her three-year-old child.

Lack of motivation

According to a 2010 report by the Nyanza Education Women’s Initiative, girls in the province have in recent years fared badly compared with boys in national examinations.

The report says poverty, sexual abuse, lack of motivation and the absence of role models were some of the factors affecting girls’ performance in school.

Eve Obara, the initiative’s head, said parents should provide basic needs for their daughters to avoid them being lured out of school by men who promised to provide for them.

“Find sanitary pads for your daughters, don’t let them be enticed by soda and other basic stuff into early marriage,” she said.

js/mw

source http://www.irinnews.org

EAST AFRICA: La Niña-induced drought “to affect millions”

Photo: Anthony Morland/IRIN

The La Niña phenomenon is keeping East Africa drier than usual and has sparked food-security concerns in areas lacking irrigation, including parts of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania

NAIROBI, 18 February 2011 (IRIN) – Since November, East African countries have registered serious drought conditions that are likely to worsen in coming months. According to data recently released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the La Niña weather effect is largely responsible.

WMO said the phenomenon might last up to four more months and emphasized that it was already possible to notice “some very dry parts of eastern Africa” amid harsher weather conditions than normal for this time of year.

La Niña is the name given to the cooling of the surface of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean that occurs every two to five years. It keeps East Africa drier than usual and sparks food-security concerns in areas lacking irrigation, including parts of Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Kenya and Somalia are among the countries already affected. “Some areas in the North are a disaster right now,” said Mohamoud Duale, director of the NGO Rural Agency for Community Development and Assistance (RACIDA). In northern Isiolo, Marsabit, Moyale and Samburu districts, at least 150,000 people urgently need food aid, most of them women, children and the elderly.

Duale was in Nairobi for the media briefing, Drought in Kenya: When will it ever end?, sponsored by Oxfam, Cordaid, Care International, Save the Children, VSF-Belgium and Reconcile.

The assistant minister in the Kenyan Ministry of State for Special Programmes, Mahmoud Ali, was also at the event and stressed that the government was providing food assistance to one million Kenyans while the World Food Programme (WFP) was distributing food to another 1.6 million people.

“The total population affected by the La Niña phenomenon is about five million people, hence the need to provide food to an additional 2.4 million persons,” he added. Ali also pointed out that to minimize the drought effects the government had reallocated KSh9.5 billion (US$118 million) to the affected areas, mainly in northern Kenya.

Photo: Anthony Morland/IRIN

Officials says at least 150,000 drought-affected people urgently need food aid in Isiolo, Marsabit, Moyale and Samburu districts in northern Kenya

Among the new measures are 57 trucks to assist in the delivery of relief commodities to affected areas, livestock vaccinations, construction of scale pans and dams and distribution of aqua tabs to purify water.

Emergency aid

But, on the ground, people are dealing every day with the drought effects without much change to their situation. “Two deaths from starvation were registered in the North of Kenya recently. People are migrating to Ethiopia or Uganda to survive. It is already a crisis,” said Duale.

Despite being considered one of Africa’s leading agricultural nations, drought is not new to Kenya. A drought from 2007 to 2009 led to a spike in food prices and threatened the economy.

In Somalia, water resources and pasture conditions have deteriorated further, triggering more livestock migration and increasing competition among pastoralists. “River levels are currently below-normal for this time of the year and are expected to further decrease until the next rainy season in April,” according to the Somalia Drought Watch Bulletin January 2011, published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

An estimated 2.4 million Somalis require emergency humanitarian assistance because of civil unrest and food insecurity, according to the UN. Another drought is also likely to increase the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs); Somalia already has an estimated 1.4 million IDPs.

“We have to act first, instead of reacting. There will be more droughts in the future, but they do not have to bring disaster. We need to tackle drought before it starts, not wait until it is too late and people are already suffering,” said Safia Abdi, programme officer at Cordaid.

In Ethiopia, the National Meteorology Agency reported that a “moderate to strong” La Niña phenomenon was likely to continue, potentially until June, resulting in below-normal rains in many areas, except in the west and southwest, where they are expected to be normal.

Tanzania, the second-largest economy in East Africa, is also starting to feel the effects. This week, the government extended nationwide power rationing. The Energy and Minerals Minister William Ngeleja told parliament that rationing was expected to end in January, but falling water levels at hydropower stations had increased the power deficit. Most of Tanzania’s electricity is hydropower-generated. Some lawmakers considered the shortfall a “national crisis”.

cm/mw

source http://www.irinnews.org