ACP

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

By Viwanou Gnassounou

ACP Assistant Secretary General for Sustainable Economic Development and Trade.

Fisheries and aquaculture are critical for poverty eradication and sustainable development in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. With this in view, ministers and senior government officials from 79 countries that constitute the ACP Group of States will gather in Nassau, the capital city of the Bahamas – the coral-based archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean Bahamas with 700-plus islands – from September 18 to 21, 2017. "The focus will be on bolstering high level shared commitments, sharing national or regional best practices and seeking consensus on priority issues that need multilateral action," says Viwanou Gnassounou, ACP Assistant Secretary General for Sustainable Economic Development & Trade. – The Editor

OPINION

Photo: Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimaram (second from left), and Secretary General of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) (second from right), and other members of the ACP delegation after a high level meeting on the margins of the UN Ocean Conference in New York on June 6, 2017. Photo: DEPTFO New

By Dr Patrick I. Gomes, ACP Secretary-General

BRUSSELS (IDN) - Our Ocean, Our Future: Call for Action is the outcome document agreed by Heads of State and Government and High Level Representatives of the 193 member-states of the United Nations that met in New York from June 5 to 9 2017 at the first-ever Oceans and Seas Conference.

With the Republic of Fiji and the Kingdom of Sweden, as co-conveners, the Conference was a widely participatory event aimed at giving concrete support to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 of the 2030 Agenda that seeks to Conserve and sustainably Use the Oceans, Seas and Marine Resources.

OPINION

Photo: Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, who believes that the region “must equalise to grow and grow to equalise, fostering investment and gender equality”. Credit: ECLAC Public Information Unit

By Desmond Brown

KINGSTON | NEW YORK (ACP-IDN) – If they are to meet commitments agreed under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its sustainable development goals (SDGs), the countries of the Caribbean must focus on closing the structural gaps they still have – particularly with regard to gender equality and financial and fiscal sustainability (due to their high debt level) – and mitigating the effects of climate change, .

Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary for the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), spoke in this regard during the 'African-Caribbean Cross-Regional Exchange' at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) which ended July 19 at United Nations headquarters in New York.

NEWS

Photo: St Kitts and Nevis' Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris wants urgent action to reduce the economic burden on Caribbean countries posed by chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Credit: St Kitts and Nevis Government Information Service.

By Desmond Brown

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada (ACP-IDN) – Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) make a significant contribution to mortality and morbidity in the Caribbean and continue to represent an economic burden for most of the region's countries.

Addressing the latest meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) held here from July 4-6, St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris – who has responsibility for health in the organisation's Quasi-Cabinet – called for urgent action to reverse the situation.

NEWS

Photo: Returnees pose for the press at the Cameroon Diaspora Forum organised by the Cameroon government from June 26 to 30. Credit: Ngala Killian Chimtom | IDN-INPS

By Ngala Killian Chimtom

YAOUNDE (ACP-IDN) – “You are welcome back home”, said Cameroon Prime Minister Philemon Yang, setting the tone for a five-day event intended to woo the Cameroonian diaspora to invest in its country of origin.

With eyes set on 2035 as the year Cameroon should attain emergence status, public authorities are doing what they can to fast track the country’s economic growth, constrained as it is by a draining battle against terrorist group Boko Haram and falling oil prices on the international market.

As a result, Cameroon is now turning to its diaspora to help the troubled economy of the Central African country.

NEWS

African ministers call for using and sharing agriculture data to boost food production and contribute to making Africa food secure. Credit: Justus Wanjala | IDN-INPS

By Justus Wanjala

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – Despite possessing huge potential for agricultural growth due to the availability of vast land and water resources, Africa’s food production sector is seriously under-performing.

Steps are now being taken in the direction of using and sharing agriculture data to boost food production and contribute to making the continent food secure.

Participants at the Ministerial Conference on Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition and 4th Agritec Africa Exhibition, held in Nairobi from June 14-16, 2017, agreed that a new mechanism is needed to ensure rapid and sustained growth of food production and put Africa on the path of ending hunger and improving nutrition.

NEWS

Photo: In the rural areas of Kenya, the burden of collecting, carrying and managing water (often contaminated) has always rested on the shoulders of women. Credit: Robert Kibet | IDN-INPS Note: This report is part of a joint project of the Secretariat of the ACP Group of States and IDN, flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate. facebook.com/IDN.GoingDeeper - twitter.com/acp_idn Robert Kibet can be contacted at kibetesq@gmail.com and Twitter: @Kibet_88

By Robert Kibet

NAIROBI (ACP-IDN) – Braving a scorching temperature, 38-year-old Caroline Rono rambles barefoot along a tiny path that snakes in the direction of the reptile-infested salty seasonal Lake Solai in Kenya’s Rift Valley with the giggling baby on her back swaying to the movement of her mother’s hips.

In the rural areas of Kenya, as in virtually in all  African countries, the burden of collecting, carrying and managing water has always rested on the shoulders of women, and under the weight of recurrent droughts, this burden has almost become unbearable.

NEWS

Photo: Participants at the opening of the 33rd session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in St.Julian's, Malta. Credit: ACP

ST. JULIAN'S, Malta (ACP-IDN) – Member of the European Parliament and ACP members called for common causes behind terrorism, famine and impunity to be tackled: poverty, bad governance, corruption and armed conflict.

 During 33rd session of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and European Union (EU) Member States, members debated impunity on crimes against humanity with Sidiki Kaba, President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC. 

Sidiki Kaba recalled the importance of judging crimes against humanity to allow victims to be heard, and for the guilty, whomever they may be, to be sanctioned and to prevent such atrocities.

NEWS

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

  1. ACP Mobilises in Preparation of New Ties with EU
  2. ACP Co-organised WRC3 Addresses Post-Crisis Recovery
  3. Fiji Leader Underlines the Environment-Development Nexus
  4. Water Woes Rock Southern Africa
  5. The ACP Celebrates 42nd Birthday and Reflects on the Future

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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