Summary of Key African News:
Nigeria Overtaking South Africa Masks Poverty Trap: Economy
As Nigeria gets richer, more Nigerians live in poverty. That's the paradox of growth in Africa's biggest oil producer, its most populous nation and which, as of March 31, may be its top-ranked economy.
The National Bureau of Statistics is recalculating the value of gross domestic product based on production patterns in 2010, the first time it's overhauled the data in two decades. That may boost the size of the economy by as much as 60 percent to between $384 billion and $424 billion, according to London-based Renaissance Capital Ltd., putting Nigeria ahead of South Africa and close to Austria and Thailand in the World Bank's global league table.
Yet the most recent poverty survey by the Nigerian statistics agency, published in 2012, shows that 61 percent of Nigerians were living on less than a dollar a day in 2010, up from 52 percent in 2004. In the desert north, where Amnesty International estimates more than 600 people have been killed this year as the government struggles to quell a violent Islamist insurgency, poverty is even more stark.
Uganda and the African Standby Force
Since 2003, The African Union Peace and Security Council has sought to establish an African Standby Force, whose purpose would be to rapidly respond to conflicts and emergency situations in Africa. Since then the Council has proposed several structural versions of a standby force to fill this rapid reaction role, none of which have yet yielded results. In the meantime it appears that the Ugandan government is using its own military to fill this role. EXCLUSIVE: Nigeria, France, Cameroon, three other countries sign deal on massive, joint offensive against Boko Haram
Following the upsurge in the Boko Haram insurgency the North-East geopolitical zone, Nigeria has entered into agreement with France and four of its neighbours to increase the level of coordination and exchange of intelligence as well as hold regular meetings of experts with a view to containing the menace.
The Republic of Benin, Cameroon, France, Chad and Niger also agreed with Nigeria to ensure effective policing of common borders to avoid the infiltration of terrorists and other criminals as well as the repatriation of suspects in conformity with existing protocols.
Engaging SMEs in EU-Africa Science, Technology and Innovation Research Cooperation
Location: Avenue de Cortenbergh 80, Brussels
UniPID (The Finnish University Partnership for International Development) is organizing a stakeholder's workshop on EU-Africa STI Research Partnerships, in cooperation with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, ESASTAP Plus, PAEPARD (Platform for African-European partnership on Agricultural Research for Development) and CAAST-Net Plus at the occasion of the 5th EABF and 4th EU-Africa Summit. The Workshop is targeting Researchers, Private Sector and Policy Makers working with themes related to EU-Africa STI Research.
NGOs Recommend Land Ownership Rights For Liberian Women
VENTURES AFRICA – The Network of African Women for Community Management of Forests (REFACOF) and the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI) have recommended the extension of land ownership rights to women as Liberia finalizes its new land laws.
The recommendation is an offshoot of deliberations from the Third Regional Workshop on Gender, Climate Change, Land and Forest Tenures in Africa organized by both bodies in conjunction with Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), and was passed to President Ellen Johnson- Sirleaf at Liberia's International Women's Day Celebrations in Monrovia.
$70m research programme has been announced for seven years to come up with ways to tackle climate change
A $70m research programme has been announced for seven years to come up with ways to tackle climate change in Africa and Asia. The UK's department for International development and Canada's international development research centre have jointly announced the programme.
The collaborative adaptation research initiative in Africa and Asia (CARIAA) said the programme will be able to come up with fresh approach to understand climate change taking place in high risk areas in Africa and Asia.
Education summit to focus on infrastructure
In furtherance of its commitment to the development of connectivity-enabled research and education networks in Africa, MainOne is a proud sponsor of the premier West Africa conference on educational research, the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) conference 2014, taking place in Lome, Togo, from March 12 to 14, 2014. The conference, which is themed 'Building a State of the Art Network Infrastructure for Research and Education', forms part of WACREN's mission to build and operate a world class network infrastructure, develop state of the art services, promote collaboration among national, regional, international research and education communities and build the capacity of the REN community. MainOne's Country Manager, Ghana, Joseph Odoi, who will represent the company will shed perspectives on "Regional connectivity solutions platform for HEIs i
Global warming may increase malaria incidence
Researchers found that malaria moves to higher elevations during warmer years, which suggests future climate warming will lead to an increase in malaria cases, according to a study soon to be published inScience.
Scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the University of Michigan used records from the highland regions of Ethiopia and Cambodia to produce the first hard evidence that malaria goes to higher elevations during warmer years. The study found that when temperatures cool, the disease creeps back down to lower altitudes.
The study suggests that global warming will result in significant gains in the number of malaria cases in densely populated regions of South America and Africa, unless disease control and monitoring efforts are increased and sustained.
"Traditionally, we think of malaria as a disease with limited prevalence in highland regions, but we are now seeing a shift due to climate change," Menno Bouma, one of the study's authors, said. "Our latest research suggests that with progressive global warming, malaria will creep up the mountains and spread to new high-altitude areas. And because these populations lack protective immunity, they will be particularly vulnerable for severe morbidity and mortality."
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