The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has put the 47 least developed countries (LDCs) – 33 of which are in sub-Saharan Africa – at the heart of its agenda for inclusive and sustainable industrial development.

“Building global partnerships: Enhancing growth and inclusiveness in LDCs” was the theme discussed by public and private stakeholders in Vienna on 23 and 24 November 2017 at the 7th LDC Ministerial Conference. UNIDOdirector general Li Yong talked to African Business about the work of his organisation in partnership building and resource mobilisation for sustainable industrial development in LDCs.

The least developed countries face many challenges. How can UNIDO contribute?

In the process of development, each challenge is an opportunity. But opportunities are not guarantees of sustainable wealth creation. Converting challenges into opportunities and opportunities into sustainable sources of wealth and the creation of decent jobs is an ongoing process. UNIDO remains committed to being an effective and efficient development partner to support the process which enables LDCs to graduate and continue to grow beyond that point.

What has prevented more countries graduating from the LDC category since the Istanbul Conference in 2011?

The Istanbul Conference was dedicated to assessing the results of the 10-year action plan for LDCs adopted at the 3rd United Nations Conference on LDCs in Brussels, Belgium, in 2001 and to adopting new measures and strategies for the sustainable development of the LDCs into the next decade. The resulting Istanbul Programme of Action (IPoA) prioritised productive capacity, agriculture, food security and rural development, trade, commodities, human and social development, multiple crises and other emerging challenges, mobilising financial resources for development and capacity-building, and good governance at all levels.

UNIDO continues to support these priorities through a range of technical assistance interventions from strengthening agro industries to supporting productive work for young people and entrepreneurship development. Nevertheless, since then, only two LDCs have graduated: Samoa and Equatorial Guinea, with Angola and Vanuatu expected to graduate by 2021.

A range of factors have prevented countries from graduating the LDC category, including the cost of energy, political instability, and unfavourable business climates. The absence of accreditation frameworks, slow regional integration, and weak cross-border infrastructure are all at stake.

Furthermore, weak logistics and trade facilitation systems and a pervading lack of competitiveness add to the challenges that LDCs face in graduating. UNIDO is committed to working on these issues with global partners to support LDCs in their inclusive and sustainable industrial development efforts. For example, in a country like Gambia, UNIDO, with the help of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has trained young women to design, install and maintain stand-alone power systems. From supporting banana processing in Uganda by ensuring that processed banana products meet international quality and safety standards for consumption and market competitiveness, to supporting urban micro economic activities in Senegal, UNIDO actively supports LDCs in sub-Saharan Africa in a wide range of ways.

What benefits can the least developed countries expect from global partnerships?

The scale of the challenge facing LDCs means that multi-stakeholder partnerships and investment promotion, as well as innovative financing solutions for industrial development, are needed. Global partnerships are integral to the graduation of LDCs from their category. Through combining efforts and learning from one another on both national and regional levels, the scope for upscaling and maximising the effectiveness of efforts is significantly enhanced. By focusing on that specific theme, UNIDO’s recent LDC Ministerial Conference was able to gather public and private sector stakeholders from the 47 LDCs. Innovative schemes and mechanisms were identified by enabling partnership building and resource mobilisation for sustainable industrial development.

African countries form the largest number of LDCs in terms of regional representation in this category. Among these, African countries also dominate the 10 least developed. Overcoming the many challenges they face requires a multi-pronged approach, with partnerships at the heart. Lower foreign investment in leading commodity-rich LDCs persists, with risk perceptions ensuring that many potential investors continue to feel nervous about investing in many African LDCs (as well as other LDCs). Coordinated, strategic efforts are required to overcome such challenges.

The cost of energy is one of the main hindrances in industrialising LDCs. How does UNIDO support those countries in overcoming this major obstacle?

The renewable energy industry presents opportunities to improve energy access by lowering the cost of bringing power to rural areas. In spite of the initial investment costs, the long-term economic benefits from higher productivity of green and clean technologies, greater markets for green and clean technologies, and the economic incentives for further skill upgrading, innovation and job creation are significant. UNIDO promotes resource efficiency and renewable energy, as well as supporting countries in executing internationally agreed environmental agreements, including those on climate change.

Strengthening institutional and enterprise capacities lies at the heart of this area of work, as well as supporting LDCs at the upstream level of policy and institutional frameworks to mobilise greater investment and increased transparency in management for energy infrastructure. UNIDO coordinates the Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centres in cooperation with various regional economic communities and organisations. Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda are just some of the countries that currently benefit from these centres.

PPP does not seem to be a one-size-fits-all solution to entering the process of industrialisation. What could be a good balance between the private and public sector in order to maximise the positive impact on LDCs?

There is undoubtedly no one-size-fits-all solution to industrialising. Public-private partnerships and blending public and private financing are just one option. A wide range of broad-based, multi-stakeholder partnerships involving governments, the private sector, development partners, development finance institutions, multilateral/ bilateral development agencies, civil society and others can be leveraged for greater development impact. UNIDO’s innovative Programme for Country Partnership (PCP) approach provides a platform for multi-stakeholder partnership for the promotion of inclusive and sustainable industrial development and encourages a scaling-up of efforts through a country-wide programme

It is a country-owned process that builds on partnerships with various stakeholders, including development finance institutions and the private sector, to mobilise large-scale resources and achieve a greater development impact. There are clear guidelines in place for having a PCP though, and again this approach might not be the best fit for all countries. Nevertheless, we strongly believe that only through global partnerships will the scale of impact needed across LDCs and beyond be achieved.

China plays a major role in supporting Africa on its path to inclusive and sustainable industrialisation. What can other countries learn from China’s approach?

Manufacturing and industrial development were core to the “miracle” of the southeast Asian countries – countries like Japan and the Republic of Korea, who moved very fast after the Second World War. Those “tigers” and “dragons” moved quickly up to the middle and high-income country level. China learned from them in the 1980s, and we opened up a very, very poor country, with a big population, to the world.  China transformed from an agricultural-based to a more industrialised country in 30 years.

I would say that African countries can learn a lot from China’s experience. Africa can draw inspiration from China but must not aim to be China. Each continent should bear in mind its own local context when industrialising and look to international partners for inspiration. Ultimately though, they must take ownership of their industrial development efforts. For the same reason, the PCP model is a country-owned process, with a strong focus on the host country and ensuring that efforts are aligned with existing and emerging national and regional priorities.

A country’s business climate and political stability are detrimental to mobilising investment. Many LDCs are constrained by these aspects. What can be done to ensure that they overcome this impediment?

As far as possible, UNIDO seeks to support capacity-building in the LDCs aimed at improving their abilities to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). A targeted programme is being developed with contributions from a range of partners, including the World Bank, which is aimed at actively assisting the LDC Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) by designing and implementing tailored capacity-building activities, taking into account the diverse needs of the various LDCs.

This programme represents a vital milestone in creating a positive investment promotion environment and contributing to the structural transformation and sustainable economic growth of LDCs. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work for LDCs, and therefore a tailored approach to supporting these countries is adopted, in order to maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of our interventions. In light of reduced FDI flows to LDCs – following a high of $44bn in 2015, FDI inflows to the LDCs contracted by 13% to $38bn in 2016 – a range of strategic approaches have been developed for IPAs. These include adopting a spatial approach to investment promotion – providing information about specific regions, industrial corridors, more elaborate investment promotion programmes to increase the benefits of FDI, as well as IPAs becoming focal points for broader regulatory reforms and investment facilitation activities. 

Source: African Business Magazine

PRESS RELEASE

African Union Commission gears up to launch highly-anticipated Single African Sky

The African Union Commission is set to launch the first AU Agenda 2063 Flagship project, the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 28th January 2018 as a historic event at the African Union Summit, nearly two decades after the adoption of the 1999 Yamoussoukro Decision.

Speaking ahead of the launch event, Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy at the African Union Commission said “With preparations continuing on schedule, the launch of the Single African Air Transport Market will spur more opportunities to promote trade, cross-border investments in the production and service industries, including tourism resulting in the creation of an additional 300,000 direct and two million indirect jobs contributing immensely to the integration and socio-economic growth of the continent.”

The Commissioner stated that the aviation industry currently supports eight million jobs in Africa and hence SAATM was created with the aim of enhancing connectivity, facilitating trade and tourism, creating employment, and ensuring that the industry plays a more prominent role in the global economy and significantly contributing to the AU’s Agenda 2063.

“The AU Summit will also see the adoption of the regulatory text of the Yamoussoukro Decision, that is, the competition and consumer protection regulations that safeguards the efficient operation of the market,” the Commissioner added.

An exhibition billed “Flying the AU Agenda 2063 for an integrated, peaceful and prosperous Africa” will be unveiled to mark the launch, as well as ribbon cutting and the inauguration of the commemorative plaque.

So far, 23 African countries out of 55 have subscribed to the Single African Air Transport Market whereas 44 African countries signed the Yamoussoukro Decision.

“The African Union Commission, under the leadership and personal commitment of H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, has been playing a key coordinating role in the establishment of the Single African Air Transport Market and advocacy to AU Member States, who have not yet committed to the solemn commitment, to do so,” the Commissioner intimated.

The African Union Commission (AUC), the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) are also advising African countries to open their skies for enhancement of connectivity and efficiency of air services in the continent.

“As the first of the 12 African Union’s Agenda 2063 flagship projects to be launched, the implementation of SAATM will pave the way for other flagship projects as the African Passport and enabling the Free Movement of People, the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA),” Commissioner Abou-Zeid stressed.

The Declaration on the establishment of a Single African Air Transport Market, as a flagship project of the AU Agenda 2063, was adopted by the African Union (AU) Assembly in January 2015. Immediately thereafter, eleven (11) AU Member States declared their Solemn Commitment to establish a Single African Air Transport Market through full implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision of 1999 that provides for full liberalization of market access between African States, free exercise of traffic rights, elimination of restrictions on ownership and full liberalization of frequencies, fares and capacities.

To date, the number of Member States that have adhered to the Solemn Commitment has reached twenty-three (23), namely: Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo and Zimbabwe.

Business leaders have welcomed the appointment of Eskom’s new board as a sign that there is political will to restore confidence in state-owned enterprises.

Government announced on Saturday that Telkom Chairperson Jabu Mabuza will chair Eskom’s board as part of a host of measures to “stabilise management” at the power utility, Fin24 reported.

It also recommended that former Land Bank CEO and Absa Capital executive Phakamani Hadebe be appointed as Eskom’s acting group CEO, with immediate effect.

“This is a clear display of commitment by government to the transformation of our state-owned corporations,” said Business Leadership SA (BLSA) CEO Bonang Mohale.

He said the composition of the board brought a mix of diverse but specialist skills that were needed to quickly restore stability to Eskom’s operations and finances.

It also showed what was possible “when there is political will”.

Mohale said Mabuza brought with him “unimpeachable integrity – a trait that is so badly needed right now in our country”.

Business Unity SA (BUSA) CEO Tanya Cohen said the announcement was a significant step by government to “finally” rid Eskom of escalating maladministration and corruption.

‘Complex challenges’

Mabuza’s office released some of his comments and/or reaction on his appointment, cautioning it should not be construed as an official statement.

He said he was honoured to heed the call to work together to reform South Africa’s economy through a display of ethical and inspirational leadership.

“The stabilisation of Eskom is of critical importance but is not a task that should be taken lightly. However, I believe that with the right people and support structures in place, we will find credible solutions to the complex challenges that need to be addressed to achieve sustained financial stability at Eskom, and by extension, alleviate the swelling debt burden on the fiscus.”

The new board had yet to convent and charter a way forward, and Mabuza said it should be given the space to do so.

“That said, I believe that part of any credible solution to stabilise Eskom centres around transparent and effective governance starting with the Board, supported by a competent and strong management team to formulate and execute on a strategy that supports the Board’s mandate.”

With the right governance structures, the priority would be to restore the credibility and integrity of the utility with financial markets.

Source: Fin24 , allafrica.com

By Babajide Komolafe

Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun and finance ministers from West and Central African countries have called for additional capital injection into African Development Bank (AfDB) to enable it meets its mandate for Africa.

This was one of the highlights of the Regional Consultative Meeting between the AfDB President, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina and the bank’s Governors and Ministers of Finance from West Africa and Central Africa held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The meeting was the first consultations of its kind since the creation of the Bank in 1963.

Making the case for a general capital increase for the AfDB, the Governors recalled that the sixth capital increase, ratified in 2010, made it possible for the bank to take the volume of loans to unprecedented levels, noting that aid to countries receiving African Development Fund financing has increased seventeen-fold.

According to Adeosun there is need for a strong and well capitalized AfDB that is capable of fulfilling its commitments to member-countries.

She stated, “At the height of the crisis that shook our economy due to the fall in oil prices, the AfDB provided us with substantial budget support, while other partners were very reluctant.”

“At the height of the crisis that shook our economy due to the fall in oil prices, the African Development Bank provided us with substantial budget support, while other partners were very reluctant.

“We need a strong bank capable of fulfilling its commitments to assist us in mobilizing our internal resources”, Adeosun said.

Also speaking, Régis Immongault, the Minister of Economy and Finance and African Development Bank Governor for Gabon, said: “We are fully behind the bank’s general capital increase”.

“We are convinced that this will provide the bank with the resources it needs to support us even more in our development efforts than it has up to now. We are faced with the new challenges of population growth, climate change and security threats.”

Emphasized the urgency of providing the bank with sufficient resources to continuing providing development leadership in Africa, Guinean Minister of Development, Mama Kanny Diallo said: “The AfDB is the premier bank on the ground. It has helped a country like mine engage in policies to improve governance and mobilize internal resources. It has also helped us renegotiate mining contracts that are in our best interests and to explore innovative solutions”. .

Kanny Diallo went on to say, “Looking beyond the case of Guinea alone, a general capital increase is about giving the bank the means to keep the young people of the continent here. The destiny of our young people is not to go and die at sea or crossing the desert.”

Source: allafrica.com

By Isaiah Esipisu

Maseno, Kenya — Armed with a solar-powered water pump for irrigation and a quarter-acre piece of borrowed land, widow Hakima Mohammed has become a Western Kenya tree tycoon.

Since 2013, she has sold at least 1.5 million seedling trees, mainly to local small-scale farmers, who are planting them as a way to boost their incomes from wood and fruit sales, particularly in the face of recurring droughts that have shriveled crops.

In the process, the 57-year-old has found a way to support herself and her family – and Kenya is getting a hand in its efforts to see at least 10 percent of the country’s land covered in trees by 2030, as part of efforts to rein in drought and meet climate change goals.

“This is a very good example of entrepreneurship which I would really encourage young men and women to take up, and do the same in other parts of the country,” said Eston Mutitu, a senior research scientist at the Kenya Forest Research Institute.

Mohammed, who lives in Mwiyekhe, a village near Western Kenya’s Maseno township, started her tree nursery in 2013, soon after her husband’s death following a short illness.

Officials at the forest institute, where she has been working for nearly 30 years in a low-level position, arranged for her to borrow a plot of land for the sapling nursery, a project she and her husband had talked about trying before his death.

With little experience beyond having watered tree nursery beds at the institute, Mohammed went to work planting an initial 20,000 seedling trees, hiring local young men to help her carry water from a nearby stream to irrigate the young plants.

That hard work became easier starting in 2016, when she acquired a solar-powered water pump from Futurepump, a company in Kenya that makes pumps available on credit. The bit of technological help has let her dramatically step up the number of seedlings she can raise and sell.

“This helped me increase productivity and now I have at least 250,000 tree seedlings on my nursery at any given time all round the year, given that I no longer rely on rainfall or manual fetching of the water to sprinkle on the crops,” said the mother of three, who was not educated beyond primary school level.

PLENTIFUL BUYERS

Mohammed’s trees have found a ready market among local farmers who, like her, are less concerned about the environmental impact of planting trees and more interested in the profits they generate.

On his three-acre piece of land in Muhanda, a village in Siaya County, farmer Moris Otieno has planted a thousand trees from Mohammed’s nursery, mainly eucalyptus but also grevillea – another Australian native – and cypress.

Unlike many other tree nurseries in the area, which offer smaller numbers of seedlings of just a few types, Mohammed’s nursery has 30 species of trees that grow well in the region – and farmers can take home as few as 10 or as many as 20,000 seedlings in a single order, she said.

Apart from fruit trees – including grafted avocadoes, mangoes, oranges, pawpaws and loquats – she sees the highest demand for three kinds of eucalyptus trees, as well as grevillea, casuarina (also from Australia) and cypress.

“We prefer eucalyptus because they grow fast and uniformly, and have high demand in the timber industry,” Otieno said.

Tom Joseph Olumasai Nyangweso, another farmer who lives in Ebunyiri, a village in the heart of Kakamega County, has planted eucalyptus on two of his three acres of land, and grevillea trees throughout the property, many used as a living fence posts.

Both men say their move into tree planting is driven by a desire to boost their incomes.

“In the next three years, I will sell all these trees either to the Kenya Power and Lighting Company to be used as electricity poles, or locally as timber – and that will definitely help me buy another piece of land,” said Otieno, of his three-year-old eucalyptus woodlot.

In Western Kenya, a six-year-old eucalyptus tree can fetch up to 6,000 Kenyan shillings ($60) in the local market. For 750 trees – assuming that 50 of them may have structural flaws by then – Otieno could earn up to 4.5 million shillings ($45,000).

If he had planted maize each year – the most commonly grown crop in the area – he would likely earn about $8,100 over the same six-year period, based on average harvests and prevailing market prices, he said.

Apart from more expensive grafted fruit trees, all other trees at Hakima’s nursery retail at 10 Kenyan shillings per seedling. She sells not less than 200,000 each rainy season, which earns her at least 2 million shillings ($20,000) – and she cannot meet all the demand, she said.

“This has helped me take my children to school, where one of them has just finished her undergraduate degree and the other a diploma course. This nursery is also going to be my main source of livelihood when I finally retire sometime next year,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

 Source: allafrica.com

If I told you there was a cancer-causing poison that 4.5bn people are chronically exposed to you’d think I was making it up. But I’m deadly serious.

Most of you won’t even have heard of its name before. That needs to change and we need to eradicate it. And the incredible thing is that the very people who could do this aren’t scientists – they’re computer gamers.

The poison is called aflatoxin. It’s an invisible substance produced by fungus that contaminates staple food and cash crops, mainly in the developing world. Staple foods that billions of people need to survive – maize, tree nuts, cassava, millet, peanuts, wheat – are affected, as are animal feeds too. Billions of people around the world are eating foods contaminated by aflatoxin as you read this.

Aflatoxin B1 is the most potent naturally occurring liver carcinogen that we know. It’s considered a Class 1 carcinogen by the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer. As a result, it is thought that aflatoxins may play a role in up to 28% of all liver cancer cases globally. Climate change will only make this worse. Rising temperatures allow the aflatoxin-causing fungi to flourish.

Worryingly, the impact doesn’t stop at increased cancer rates. Eating aflatoxin-contaminated food is also associated with stunting in children, as well as increased rates of maternal anaemia and mortality. Stunted children suffer from poor cognitive skills, leading to low educational performance and even lower wages in adulthood. There is no reason why there can’t be many more brilliant African scientists in the world, but aflatoxins make that much less likely. We have an urgent moral imperative to change this.

This burden falls primarily on the developing world. In developed countries, laws limit the parts-per-billion (ppb) of aflatoxins allowed in food for humans, livestock and pets. These laws are enforced by extensive – and expensive – monitoring processes and technology. The developing world, on the other hand, has low healthcare budgets, subsistence agriculture and small-scale, under-regulated food production businesses. And in that context limits are set, but often not enforced.

At Mars, we test raw materials for aflatoxin to ensure that our products are safe. But consistently over the past 50 years, most food and feed samples in the developing world have been found to be well above legal aflatoxin limits.

In Nigeria, aflatoxin is now the single largest cause of liver cancer. Kenya has been particularly badly affected by aflatoxins. In 2004, Kenya was beset by the largest recorded aflatoxicosis outbreak in which 319 people who had consumed aflatoxin-contaminated maize were hospitalised. Scientists have been working hard to address aflatoxin for years, but no current strategies to remove aflatoxin infestation have been successful.

The harm isn’t just to human health either. It’s also a massive trade and economic issue. In the 1960s, before the effects of aflatoxin were understood, Africa had 77% of the global peanut export market. Its current share is about 4%. African countries now find it very difficult to meet aflatoxin standards in the developed world, and this hits exports hard. This is costing it $1bn per year in lost peanut revenue alone. If you include other indigenous crops to this, the number will increase dramatically.

Computer gamers seek solution

But the solution to this growing public health crisis may come from an unlikely source: an army of global computer gamers. On World Food Day 2017, we launched a series of aflatoxin puzzles on the Foldit platform led by computer scientists from Northeastern University and the University of Washington.

Foldit is a revolutionary crowd-sourcing computer game that allows anyone in the world with a computer and imagination – but not necessarily any scientific training – to help solve scientific puzzles. Foldit has already had great success by solving a riddle involving an HIV enzyme that had troubled scientists for decades.

The gamers cracked the structure within three weeks and helped identify targets for drugs to neutralise HIV. In this case, the puzzle is to figure out how amino acids are folded together to create proteins, the workhorses of our bodies. Gamers don’t need to know how the science works, they just need to create an increasingly perfect folded form that might mimic the one that exists in nature.

At the start of the gaming session, Foldit players are provided with the form of an enzyme that has the potential to degrade aflatoxin. Gamers can then put their skills to the test to see if it can be redesigned and improved by twisting and turning the enzyme’s structure. In the month that the puzzles have been active, gamers have generated over 400,000 designs.

The important thing is this – humans have an innate skill in coming up with solutions to 3-D puzzles, more so, at the moment, than computers. Science has not been able to provide a solution to aflatoxin yet. This initiative means this challenge is now open to hundreds of thousands of gamers around the world.

The gamers’ best designs are currently in development using the latest synthetic biology techniques and materials donated by Thermo Fisher Scientific. The souped-up enzymes will then be tested in real life by the Siegel Lab at the University of California, Davis to see how they can recognise and neutralise aflatoxins. And all of the players’ discoveries will be kept in the public domain, free of patents. The Siegel Lab is optimistic that we can expect the first results later this month.

We’ve brought together a diverse set of partners to make this happen, including the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa, led by the African Union Commission. And on World Food Day 2017, we brought together some of the world’s best Foldit players to bring the search for a way to eradicate aflatoxin that bit closer.

Over my lifetime, computer technology has transformed the potential for finding solutions to complex scientific problems. I never thought that computer technology and science could work hand in hand one day to solve some of the world’s most terrible health issues. It’s a dream that will hopefully come true when we say game over to aflatoxin, the silent killer in our food.

Dr Howard-Yana Shapiro is chief agricultural officer of Mars, Incorporated.

Source: African Business Magazine

By Office of Congressmember Karen Bass (CA -37)