ACP

Photo: ACP Secretary General Dr. Patrick I. Gomes.

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN | BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) - Seventy-nine countries from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) are determined to speak with one voice as they prepare to negotiate a major partnership framework with the 27-nation European Union (EU).

The new accord will follow on the current ACP-EU Partnership Agreement (also known as the Cotonou Agreement), which covers trade, development cooperation and political dialogue between the two parties until 2020.

Leading up to the launch of negotiations for the post-Cotonou period in 2018, there is a clear common interest in aligning future ACP-EU cooperation to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

NEWS

Photo: Viwanou Gnassounou, Assistant Secretary General of the ACP Group. Credit: IISD

By Ronald Joshua

BRUSSELS | MAPUTO, Mozambique (ACP-IDN) - Once neglected minerals and materials may hold the key to millions of jobs across Southern Africa at a time when oil and metal exporting countries are grappling with low commodity prices.

Mega infrastructure projects agreed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State are projected to draw in 986 billion dollars in investments over the next ten years, ramping up the demand for construction materials exponentially. Estimates from the African Development Bank indicate that for each billion invested in African infrastructure, between 3-7 million jobs are created.

NEWS

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) - The first ever joint prize for film by the European Union and the ACP Group of States was awarded to three African works at the Pan African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso (Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou or FESPACO).

The prize, valued at 15,000 € (nearly 9,850,000 FCFA) is intended for the promotion and distribution of the awarded films as well as promoting their directors. The award will cover the costs of subtitling and/or dubbing of the films in several European and African languages, and the invitation of the directors to a European festival.

NEWS

Image credit: ACP

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) - Representatives from the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and the European Union have agreed on several major issues to discuss at the upcoming joint ministerial council meetings, scheduled for May 4-5, 2017 in Brussels.

Ambassadors and officials from both sides met in Brussels in March to elaborate on a common agenda that would guide the highest joint decision-making body in the ACP-EU partnership, during its 42nd session. The Joint Council is expected to take decisions on the following items:

NEWS

Photo: Ambassador Johnson Weru of Kenya chaired the special session of the ACP Sub-Committee on Sustainable Development. Credit: ACP

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) - Climate change remains a major collective concern for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, which are particularly vulnerable to its negative effects. A special meeting organised by the ACP Sub-Committee for Sustainable Development laid the groundwork for an enhanced ACP role at the COP23 global climate talks in Bonn, Germany, November 6-17, 2017.

The Special Meeting on the UN Climate Change Conference COP23 held at the ACP House on March 14-15 sought to assess the outcomes of the previous climate conference (COP 22), and identify follow-up actions, with an emphasis on key issues for the ACP Group including mitigation, adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer, capacity building and REDD+.

NEWS

Photo: Members of the Tambourine Army during their March 11 protest. The radical social-justice movement is fighting gender violence and rape culture in Jamaica.

By Desmond Brown

KINGSTON, Jamaica (ACP-IDN) – In the wake of an alarming upsurge in domestic violence and abuse of women and girls, a new group has emerged here with the promise of a revolution for social change, combating gender-based violence in particular – the “Tambourine Army”.

On its Facebook page, the Tambourine Army describes itself as a radical social-justice movement committed to uprooting the scourge of sexual violence and safeguarding the rights of women and girls.

The group first came to public attention on Sunday, February 8, when 14 women staged a peaceful protest at the Nazareth Moravian Church in the central parish of Manchester, rallying support for a 15-year-old St Elizabeth school girl allegedly abused by the pastor of the congregation.

NEWS

Photo: Dr Richard Munang, Africa Climate Change and Development Policy expert with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Credit: Ngala Killian Chimtom

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – Africa’s present is defined by its vast but unexploited potential but the picture could be changed by leveraging catalytic sectors in which the continent holds comparative advantage, through dedicating available resources.

Dr Richard Munang, Africa Climate Change and Development Policy expert with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) believes that these resources – both physical (technological, institutional, financial and demographical, the dividend to be derived from having most of its population under the age of 25) and non-physical (including intellectual, partnerships, policies and networks) – could be utilised for a comparative advantage with a global competitive edge through what he calls “innovative volunteerism”.

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SDGs

Photo: EPAs are trade and development partnerships being negotiated between the EU and the 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and regions. Credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT

By Samantha Sen

LONDON (ACP-IDN) - The Brexit question as seen by the small and poor group of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries is far simpler – and potentially far more lethal – than those the more usual Brexit debate engages with. It belongs less to debate on knock-on effects rolling into the future than to questions of physical survival here and now. When a fifth of Fiji exports head for the UK, when a Caribbean island lives off bananas sold to Britain, new spokes in buying and selling can hit the people, and even all of the people, of a small nation.

NEWS

Photo: Representatives of the CARICOM Secretariat and senior environment officials of the Caribbean Community at the CARICOM Regional Workshop on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity beyond Areas of National Jurisdiction

By Desmond Brown

BELMOPAN, Belize (ACP-IDN) – The countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have been fine-tuning their positions ahead of the next United Nations preparatory meeting to establish an international legally-binding agreement on sustainable use of marine resources.

The UN meeting is scheduled for March 27 to April 7 and senior environment experts from CARICOM held a two-day workshop here from February 20-22 to discuss the issue.

United Nations negotiations for the new treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological resources in the world’s oceans – nearly 64 percent of which lie beyond national jurisdictions – began in 2016.

NEWS

Photo: 67-year old Meleli Sibanda, a member of the Khoisan tribe in Zimbabwe's Tsholotsho district sits outside her home with her one year old granddaughter who is leaning on the granny's shoulder. The tribe has fallen prey to the blame of fuelling climate change impacts here. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo | IDN-INPS

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (ACP-IDN) – Ndliso-Ndliso Sibanda, a descendant of Southern Africa’s ancient Khoisan tribe, still practises a semi-nomadic life style in Zimbabwe despite his 75 years, and is constantly on the move looking for wood to construct shelter, and wild fruits and tubers when they are in season.

Ndliso-Ndliso, who lives with his family in Tsholotsho, a district in Matabeleland North Province, has continued his life style despite the stringent rules enacted by the government country to protect the environment as it wages war against the impact of climate change.

NEWS
SDGs

  1. Securing ACP Economic Interests After BREXIT
  2. Caribbean Faith Leaders United to End HIV-AIDS
  3. Blood-Delivering Drones to Save Mothers, Babies in Tanzania
  4. Caribbean Countries Strive For Energy Security
  5. Southern Africa’s Women Wrestle Climate Change On Their Own

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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