ACP

Photo: At the opening of the 46th session of the ACP Parliamentary Assembly from left to right - ACP Secretary General H.E. Dr. Patrick I. Gomes, ACP Assistant Secretary General in charge of Political Affairs and Human Development Amb. Léonard Emile Ognimba, Acting Co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and 2nd Vice President of the National Assembly of Togo Mémounatou Ibrahima and the Chairman of the ACP Committee of Ambassadors, the Ambassador of Ethiopia Teshome Toga Chanaka. Credit: ACP

By Dr. Patrick I Gomes

The author is Secretary-General of the ACP Group of States. Following are extensive excerpts from his address to the 46th Session pf the ACP Parliamentary Assembly in St Julians, Malta, on June 16, 2017. – The Editor.

ST JULIANS, Malta (ACP-IDN) – In the last two sessions, you have had discussions with the ACP Group and the EU on the ACP-EU relations Post 2020. Today I come to you not only to update you but to also reach out to you as key players of the ACP-EU Partnership.

The Secretariat has just concluded intensive meetings of the ACP Council and ACP-EU Council of Ministers that took place in Brussels from May 3 to 5, 2017. The ACP Council approved a policy framework document entitled the “ACP We Want” that will guide its Members with the preparations of post 2020 negotiations.

OPINION

Photo: To kick-start the ambitious next phase of Hub and Spokes, an aid for trade initiative, 40 of the programme’s main stakeholders including 16 trade advisers met in Bridgetown, Barbados, between May 22 and 23, 2017. Credit: Desmond Brown | IDN-INPS.

By Desmond Brown

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (ACP-IDN) – The Hubs and Spokes Programme, an innovative trade initiative for expanding opportunities for business, employment and prosperity in African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, is to be extended until February 2019.

Through the Programme, which is a joint initiative of the European Union (EU), ACP Group Secretariat, Commonwealth Secretariat and Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), trade advisers are placed in government ministries and regional organisations to provide support and build local capacity to develop trade policies.

NEWS

Photos: ACP Secretary-General P. I. Gomes, among others with with President of Senegal, Macky Sall; and President of Guyana, Brigadier David A. Granger. Credit: ACP

By ACP Press

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) - The Heads of State of Senegal and Guyana have lent a boost to ongoing efforts to rally African, Caribbean and Pacific countries together to ensure they speak in one coherent voice, as they prepare to negotiate a future partnership agreement with the European Union.

Macky Sall, the President of Senegal, was the first to address the ACP Committee of Ambassadors on June 7 on the relations between the 79-member ACP Group of States and the EU post-2020. The current partnership framework, known as the Cotonou Agreement, is a legally-binding treaty that lays out parameters for trade, development cooperation, and political dialogue between the two blocs. The Agreement expires in February 2020, and talks for a follow-up accord are set to begin in 2018.

NEWS

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) - The African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) joined the European Commission, the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from June 6-8 in Brussels to address the role of post-crisis recovery and reconstruction for resilience building and disaster risk reduction at the Third Edition of the World Reconstruction Conference (WRC3).

More than 800 participants from civil society, national and local governments, academia, the private sector and international organisations from around the world shared experience with a view to advancing the implementation of the 2015 Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.

NEWS

Photo: ACP Secretary General Dr. Patrick Gomes welcomes participants to high level breakfast meeting on SIDS and the blue economy, hosted by the ACP Secretariat in the margins of the UN Ocean Conference. On his right is the Fiji PM Voreqe Bainimarama

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (ACP-IDN) – Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama of Fiji is firmly putting environmental protection over short-term economic gains, while calling on the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the international community to introduce the necessary changes to save the world’s seas and oceans.

Fiji presides over both the Oceans Conference and the upcoming COP23 Climate Change Conference in November in Bonn, Germany.

NEWS

Photo: A river in Mozambique. Shortage of water is set to hit Maputo. Credit: Construction Review Online

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (ACP-IDN) – Evelyn Mbiza struggles with a wheelbarrow laden with multiple five litre containers filled with water while her eight-year-old child follows behind carrying another container as the two head home after spending several hours queuing for the precious liquid at a local borehole in Malbereign, a medium-income suburb in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital.

For 26-year-old Mbiza, despite the heavy rains that have pounded this Southern African nation, tap water has become a scarce commodity as local authorities constantly cut water supplies in the capital claiming to be doing maintenance work.

NEWS
SDGs

Photo (from left to right): Ambassador Samuel Outlule of Botswana; Professor Adekeye Adebajo of the University of Johannesburg, South Africa; Anna Knoll, Head of the ECDPM Migration Programme; ACP Secretary General Dr. Patrick I. Gomes; Klaus Rudischhauser, Deputy Director General of European Commission’s DG DEVCO; Ambassador Edwin Laurent, Head of the Ramphal Institute; Ambassador Dr Kaire Mbuende of Namibia; Ambassador Baso Sangqu of South Africa. Credit: ACP

By Klara Smits

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – The African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States commemorated 'ACP Day 2017' on June 2, reflecting on "development partnership" with the European Union (EU), which it described as "a multi-dimensional and transformative experience".

These issues were discussed in two panels. But in greater detail in the book – The ACP Group and the EU Development Partnership: Beyond the North-South Debate – launched on the occasion. The book constitutes a systematic and critical assessment of the nature, evolution, and prospects of the development partnership between the 79-member African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) group of states and the 28-member European Union (EU).

NEWS

Image credit: ACP

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – The European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) developing countries, have reaffirmed their commitment to full implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change and called on the global community to maintain the momentum for ambitious action.

The 28 EU and 79 ACP developing countries, which together comprise more than half of the signatories to the Paris Agreement on climate change, reaffirmed on June 2 their commitment to full implementation of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and called on the global community to maintain the momentum for ambitious action.

NEWS

Photo: The ACP Secretary-General Dr. Patrick I. Gomes and the Prime Minister of Estonia Jüri Ratas signed a Memorandum of Understanding on May 31 in the margins of the 2017 Tallinn Conference on E-Governance, on behalf of the ACP Group of States and the Government of Estonia.

By Dr Patrick I. Gomes, ACP Secretary-General

Following are extensive excerpts from the opening remarks by the Secretary-General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) at the high-level E-Governance Conference on 30 May 2017 in Tallinn, Estonia.

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – Many institutions and organizations (public and private) in developing countries, such as ACP (the African, Caribbean and Pacific) countries, have embraced the utilization of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to address the various opportunities and challenges in the context of their respective development strategies.

OPINION

Photo: Hermine Tomaino Ndam Njoya (right) is out to educate Cameroonians on the whole range of activities that can be developed along the coffee value chain. Credit: N.K. Chimtom | IDN-INPS,

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

YAOUNDE (ACP-IDN) – Hermine Tomaino Ndam Njoya is arguably Cameroon’s largest coffee farmer. Her farm spans some 150 hectares, and she depends on the labour of a whole village to keep the farm alive.

But what sets her apart is not just the size of her farm. What makes her different is that she is a woman excelling in a venture generally reserved for men.

Growing up in her native Noun commune in Cameroon’s West Region, she saw her parents tend their coffee farm with great care. “So I fell in love with coffee,” she says, smacking her lips after a sip of the aromatic drink.

NEWS

  1. ECLAC Promotes Caribbean Implementation of SDGs
  2. The World's Poorest and Most Vulnerable Want Climate Action
  3. EU and ACP Countries Push to Implement Global Climate Deal
  4. 79 ACP States Reflect on Future Ties with EU and the World
  5. Putting Heads Together For ACP-EU-Partnership Beyond 2020

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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