ACP

Photo (left to right): Ms. D. Walsweer-Sore, ACP Secretariat; Stefano Manservisi, European Commission's Director-General; Professor Robert Dussey, ACP Chief Negotiator; Rimnick Pato, Foreign Minister of Papua New Guinea.

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – 2019 will be a crucial year for relations between the European Union (EU) and 79 countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) – uniting more than half of all UN member countries and representing over 1.5 billion people.

The current partnership, governed by the Cotonou agreement, is one of the longest-standing and most comprehensive framework for cooperation between the EU and developing countries. The current agreement expires in 2020. Therefore, the new agreement needs to be both finalised and approved by then.

NEWS

Credit: ACP Press

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – The African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries are very concerned about the unilateral and discriminatory approach observed by the European Union in tax matters, as evidenced by its decision to publish a European list of so-called non-cooperative tax jurisdictions.

The importance of tax matters for ACP countries, in particular their political dimension which affects the sovereignty of States in areas such as economic regulation, resource mobilisation, has led to the creation of an ad-hoc ACP Ministerial Contact Group on Tax Matters to engage in a dialogue with the European Union in order to resolve in a harmonious manner the situation created by the inclusion of certain ACP countries on this EU list.

NEWS

Photo (from left to right: Viwanou Gnassounou, ACP Assistant Secretary General for Sustainable Economic Development and Trade; ACP Secretary General Dr. Patrick I. Gomes; Dr. Issa Doubragne Minister for the Economy and Development Planning of Chad and Chair of the ACP Council of Ministers; Mrs. Ammo Aziza Baroud Ambassador of Chad and Chair of the ACP Committee of Ambassador, during the opening of the 108th Session of the ACP Council of Ministers in Brussels. Credit: ACP Press.

By Robert Johnson

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – In his opening remarks at the108th Session of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Council of Ministers on December 13, 2018 in Brussels, Secretary General Dr Patrick I Gomes accentuated the significance of 79 developing countries from across three continents coming together.

The Council had brought the Group members "ever closer together in a shrinking globe of rapid technological changes" where "we face a world of rivalries on trade, regional conflicts and civil wars as new geopolitical alignments seek to control resources markets and the minds and hearts of the disenchanted."

NEWS

Photo credit: ACP

By ACP Press

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – The Directive establishing the audiovisual legal deposit in the eight Member States of the West African Monetary and Economic Union (UEMOA), which was published on 1 December in UEMOA's Official Journal, is the first of its kind in the world. This Directive, which is the only existing example of a common audiovisual legal deposit initiative, will facilitate the preservation of audiovisual heritage in an economic area with 112 million inhabitants, comprising Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.

NEWS

Photo from left to right: Dr Patrick Gomes ACP Secretary General; Joseph Owona Kono, ACP Co-President of the JPA; Patrice Talon, President of the Republic of Benin; Mrs. Michèle RIVASI, EU Co-President of the JPA and Adrien Houngbédji President of the National Assembly of Benin. Credit: ACP.

BRUSSELS | COTONOU (ACP-IDN) – The Joint Parliamentary Assembly (JPA), comprised of members of the European Parliament (EP) and their counterparts from 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states – EP's Michèle Rivasi and ACP's Joseph Owona KONO – have reiterated their desire to maintain "deep and unique partnership" between the two groups.

In a joint declaration, emerging from the JPA's 36th session from December 3 to 5, 2018 in Cotonou (Benin), the two co-presidents greeted the adoption of the negotiating directives by the EU and the negotiating mandate of the ACP Parties, and the launch of negotiations intended to conclude a successor Agreement to the ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement.

NEWS

IFAD President Gilbert Houngbo being interviewed by IDN-INPS Southern Africa correspondent Jeffrey Moyo in Harare, Zimbabwe, on December 3, 2018.

IDN interviews IFAD President Gilbert Houngbo

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (ACP-IDN) – Smallholder rural farmers in Zimbabwe are set to benefit from international funding intended to improve access to inputs, irrigation and the adoption of smart farming practices in the face of predicted El Nino-induced drought.

On the first visit to Zimbabwe of a president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) at the beginning of December, it was made known that the Rome-based specialised agency of the United Nations is making 51 million dollars available for development of the agricultural sector in remote areas of the country.

According to IFAD, the immediate aim is to support the revitalisation of over 6000 hectares in 152 existing smallholder irrigation schemes in various parts of the country.

NEWS

Photo: The 35th plenary session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels from June18-20, 2018, in the presence of MEPs and their counterparts from the national parliaments of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Credit: multimedia.europarl.europa.eu

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – As negotiators inch towards updating the most comprehensive but 20-year old partnership agreement between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, they have a broad array of issues on their plate.

These include the name change to the 'Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACP)', ensuring the consistency of participation in parliamentary assemblies, establishment of the ACP Information Centre for South-South and Triangular Cooperation, and enhancing ACP's financial stability.

The current Cotonou Partnership Agreement, signed in the capital city of Benin in June 2000 between the EU and the ACP involving relations with 79 countries, including 48 from Sub-Saharan Africa, covers one in five people in the world. It will expire in February 2020.

NEWS

Photo: Lesotho has had its fair share of the climate change impacts owing to the El Nino crisis in the past years. Credit: Lesotho: Agence Kaolin

By Jeffrey Moyo

MASERU (ACP-IDN) – Three years ago, Lesotho, Southern Africa’s small mountain kingdom surrounded by South Africa, was hit hard by the drought that led to the driest season in the region in 35 years. In the tiny dynastic nation, the El Niño driven-phenomenon resulted in a fall in maize production, the country's staple food.

But now thanks to ACP, the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, a group that was created by the Georgetown Agreement in 1975, climate change impacts in African countries like Lesotho have met their match.

The Georgetown Agreement of June 6, 1975 created the ACP, an organization, which aims to ensure sustainable development within its member states, and strives for their greater integration into the world economy. All ACP member states, except Cuba, are signatories to the Cotonou Agreement with the EU.

NEWS

Photo: A boy watches the shore from a boat near Sirajganj, a community affected by severe erosion that has left many displaced. Sirajganj, Bangladesh. October 2016. Credit: IOM/Amanda Nero.

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – A new study finds that the 79-nation African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) Group of States can boost climate action with technical and financial support amounting to a minimum of USD 2,317 billion. Capacity building, an important aspect of efforts to halt climate catastrophe, is expected to draw considerable attention at the forthcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24) in Katowice, Poland.

The urgency of climate action is underlined also by the new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It shows that global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rose again during 2017 after a three-year break, highlighting the imperative for countries to deliver on the historic Paris Agreement to keep global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

NEWS

Photo: The picture shows two women from Lesotho trafficked in South Africa. Credit: Sunday Times.

By Jeffrey Moyo

BEITBRIDGE (ACP-IDN) – At the age of 39, Ndikonyaga Muleya hailing from Beitbridge, Zimbabwe’s border town with South Africa, has found illegal crossing into South Africa convenient.

Over the years he became experienced crossing into the neighboring country looking for casual jobs in Musina, also a South African border town with Zimbabwe, which he now frequents as an illegal transporter of undocumented Zimbabweans itching to cross into South Africa fleeing from this country’s mounting economic woes.

“I earn money from transporting people through unmanned crossing points into South Africa. I was also helped before when I started crossing to SA,” Muleya told IDN.

NEWS

  1. EU-ACP Initiative Leads to Natural Disaster Risk Reduction
  2. Slum Dwellers in 79 ACP Countries Draw the Focus
  3. 79 ACP Countries Get Ready for UN Climate Change Conference
  4. Migration a Major Issue in EU's Relations with 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific States
  5. Island Nation Seychelles Praised for Launching World's First Sovereign Blue Bond

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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