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Photo: An EU-backed private equity fund plans to invest in renewable energy firms across sub-Saharan Africa. Credit: Brookhaven National Laboratory

By Jeffrey Moyo

MWENEZI (ACP-IDN) – Sixty-seven-year old Sarudzai Msipa heavily blows air in and out of her mouth, seated in the open-air on a goat skin mat outside her hut as she battles to revive a dying fire on her cooking place set up in the middle of her yard at her remote home in Mwenezi district in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo Province.

Just three sticks are in the fire to keep it alive and there is no sign of leftover firewood nearby. To Msipa, this means times are tough for her and many other villagers as the energy hunger takes a knock on them in this part of Southern Africa.

Even getting solar for lighting, is a non-starter for the Southern African region's many rural dwellers like Msipa who have to bear the brunt of the region’s deepening energy hunger.

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Image credit: ACP-EU

By Devendra Kamarajan

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – Members of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly from the East Africa Region of the ACP Group and their European Parliament counterparts have called for aiming at "stronger South-South and triangular cooperation and maintenance of the ACP Group’s unity and solidarity" in a successor treaty to the Cotonou Agreement that expires in 2020.

The communiqué emerging from the 15th Regional Meeting of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) from April 11-13, 2018 in the Kenyan capital Nairobi stressed agreement among JPA members from the East Africa region that "a future agreement should build upon the acquis of Cotonou and integrate new global realities and in particular regional specificities, including for small island developing states."

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Photo credit: Kenya Parliament

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – The co-presidents of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA) have welcomed the commitment of the 79-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the 28-nation European Union (EU) to negotiate a successor Agreement to the ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement. The 15th Regional Meeting of the JPA took place in Kenya's capital Nairobi from April 11-13, 2018.

The Agreement, signed in Cotonou on June 23, 2000, was concluded for a 20-year period from 2000 to 2020. It is the most comprehensive partnership agreement between developing countries and the EU. In 2010, ACP-EU cooperation was adapted to new challenges such as climate change, food security, regional integration, State fragility and aid effectiveness.

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Photo: The walkway of the UN Headquarters in Nairobi. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – African countries are faced with the huge challenge of funding climate change mitigation and adaptation programmes to ensure sustainable development. Hard hit by the impacts of climate change manifested in persistent droughts, floods, storms, rising sea levels and other forms of disasters, they are linking actions on tackling climate change as key to attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A joint project of the 79-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States is providing support for the purpose as part of a joint project with the Global Climate Change Alliance+ (GCCA) by way of offering technical assistance, promoting knowledge sharing, initiating regional dialogue, and facilitating regional partnership on climate change issues.

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Photo (left to right): ACP Secretary-General P. I. Gomes; President of Guyana, Brigadier David A. Granger addressing the ACP Committee of Ambassadors; and Ethiopian Ambassador Teshome Toga Chanaka, Chair of the ACP Committee of Ambassadors for the period 1 February 2017 - 31 July 2017.

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – While preparing for talks on future relations with the European Union (EU) after the Cotonou Agreement expires in February 2020, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) is engaged in concerted efforts to reshape itself into "an effective global player" serving as a catalyst and an advocate for defending, protecting and advancing multilateralism, within the overarching framework of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development including 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

An important factor for this objective to be achieved, as the ACP Secretary-General, Dr. Patrick I Gomes, told IDN's 'UN Insider', is the Revision of the Georgetown Agreement named after the capital of Guyana, where it was signed in 1975. The Revision would allow the ACP Group to deepen and widen its foundations.

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Photo: Flags of CARIFORUM Member States. Credit: SKNIS

By Reinhardt Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – As the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) girds up its loins for talks on future relations with the European Union (EU) after the Cotonou Agreement expires in February 2020, the Caribbean Forum of the ACP States (CARIFORUM) has resolved that a new pact must take into account "the inherent and exogenous vulnerabilities" of the Caribbean region as critical elements in the negotiations.

The ACP Group of 79 States, constitutes 48 countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 from the Caribbean region and 15 from the Pacific. Together they make up nearly 41 percent of 193 member countries of the United Nations. Besides, Africa with a population of 1.28 billion is home to 16.64 percent of the world population and accounts for more than 87 percent of 55 members of the African Union. Nearly 44 million people who live in the Caribbean countries make up 0.58 percent of the world population.

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Photo: Boy stands in front of debris as hurricane Irma moves off from the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. Credit: UNICEF

By J C Suresh

TORONTO (ACP-IDN) – Ahead of the next hurricane season in the Caribbean, faith leaders are calling for action from government leaders, the United Nations system, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and regional development institutions.

A statement signed and endorsed by 22 religious leaders from Grenada to Saint Lucia is urging the establishment of debt relief as an instrument for emergency support and reconstruction.

"Across the Caribbean, we still see immense suffering from the hurricanes that landed last year," said Jubilee USA Executive Director Eric LeCompte who endorsed the statement. "Islands that are struggling to recover after natural disasters and meet basic needs of their people should not be making debt payments."

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Photo: As infrastructural boom spreads across Southern Africa, in Zimbabwe, workmen are busy on highways giving an upgrade to the country's major roads. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo | IDN-INPS

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (ACP-IDN) – Waving a red cloth tied to a stick while signalling vehicles to stop, 35-year old Denford Muzvidziwa who dons blue overalls and a white helmet, joyfully busies himself on the Harare-Mutare high way which is still being upgraded.

For over a decade after he completed a degree in Social Work at the University of Zimbabwe, Muzvidziwa has never found a formal job that suits his qualification, but he is happy with his new found job in the construction sector, saying the job nevertheless earns him some bit of money to caution him in the face of this country’s fledgling economy.

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SDGs

Photo credit: UN

By Dr Patrick I. Gomes, ACP Secretary-General

The following is a slightly modified version of remarks by the ACP Secretary General to the High-Level Forum of Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) and the European Union in Brussels on 23 February 2018 on 'Engaging the OCTs and SDGs and the Post-Cotonou Process'. – The Editor

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Together the ACP Group of States and the European Union constitute a unique partnership grounded in the task of making lives of all humanity meaningful, secure, peaceful and prosperous.

It is for this reason that my remarks wish to express a commitment of the ACP Group of States to build on and strengthen the provisions in the Cotonou Agreement for relations of the ACP with OCTs.

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Photo: Slum upgrading. Credit: UN-Habitat.

By Dr Patrick I. Gomes, ACP Secretary-General

The following is a slightly modified abridged version of the text of the video message by ACP Secretary General to the 9th World Urban Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 8-9 February 2018 at the launch of Phase III of the Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP). Launched in 2008, the PSUP is a joint effort of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, the European Commission (EC) and UN-Habitat. – The Editor

BRUSSELS (IDN) – The Secretariat of the ACP Group highly values the PSUP and the work that has already been accomplished in respective countries. This is as a result of the commitment at national, city and community levels to see the end of urban poverty and improve living conditions of the urban poor.

NEWS

  1. EU and 79 ACP Countries Plan a 'Modernised Partnership'
  2. Investment Boosts Protected Areas Across 79 ACP States
  3. ACP Greets EU-UN Action To Combat Wildlife Trafficking
  4. 107 Countries Call for Tangible Progress in Implementing the Paris Climate Accord
  5. 79 ACP Countries Keen to Remove 'Imbalances' in Ties with EU

SDGs

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ACP-IDN

This website is a joint project of the Secretariat of the ACP Group of States and IDN, a flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate (INPS) and its partner, the Global Cooperation Council. It serves as a source for development news and monitoring Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.

The ACP Group comprises: Sub-Saharan Africa (48), The Caribbean (16), The Pacific (15).

The ACP Group´s main objectives are:

Sustainable development of its Member-States and their gradual integration into the global economy, which entails making poverty reduction a matter of priority and establishing a new, fairer, and more equitable world order;

Coordination of the activities of the ACP Group in the framework of the implementation of ACP-EC Partnership Agreements;

Consolidation of unity and solidarity among ACP States, as well as understanding among their peoples;

Establishment and consolidation of peace and stability in a free and democratic society.

 

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This website – launched on July 1, 2016 – is a joint project of the Secretariat of the ACP Group of States and IDN, a flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate (INPS) and its partner, the Global Cooperation Council. It serves as a source for development news and monitoring Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.

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