Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Gambia have its first home grown social job portal


Ebrima Dem
Gamjobs.com is a new job website for Gambia co-created by Ebrima Dem and Modou N.S Njie. The website which is one of the first of kind in the country is dedicated to publishing job vacancies and supporting job seekers in their job search online. According to Mr, Modou N.S Njie, the Chief Technical Officer ( CTO) of gamjobs.com, this job portal will allows employers to  easily place ads of their job openings and access online resumes of registers professionals.

The website he went on, will also enables employers to reach target audience of qualified candidates in the Gambia, for their advertise vacancies at the quickest possible time.

Mr Njie added that through the Gamjobs.com, job seekers can also browse for jobs based on their sectors of interest and post their CVs online where it can only be accessed, viewed and downloaded by registered employers.

Improving incomes and building resilience of rural population in Morocco to adapt to climate change

IFAD invests in developing value chains in rural mountain areas

Rome, 10 November 2014 – The government of the Kingdom of Morocco and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) signed a US$25.5 million loan and grant agreement to finance the first phase of the Rural Development Programme in the Mountain Zones. This project aims to reduce poverty by 30 per cent by 2030 and improve living conditions for rural people in the mountain areas of Morocco.

With a total cost of $50.0 million, the project is co-financed with a $13.5 million contribution from the Government of Morocco, a $6.51 million contribution from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), a contribution of $2.0 million from the beneficiaries themselves and a $2.0 million grant financed by IFAD's Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP).

The financing agreement was signed today in Rome by Hassan Abouyoub, Ambassador and Permanent Representative for the Royal Kingdom of Morocco to IFAD, and Michel Mordasini, Vice-President of IFAD.

BAJ Gambia director of Programmes off to France

Njie BAJ Gambia Director of Programmes

Mamadou Edrisa Njie, the director of Programmes at Biodiversity Action Journalists The Gambia (BAJ Gambia), a professional media advocacy and research organisation on Monday left Banjul for France, at the invitation of the organising committee of the 3rd International Conference on Biodiversity and United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

 This conference is the third in a series, organised by the French CNRS Institut Ecologie et Environment (InEE) and the German Leibniz Association (WGL) and will take place from 29th to 31st October, 2014 in Aix-en-Provence in France. 

The conference will focus on the theme “Biodiversity and Food Security, from trade-offs synergies.” 

The conference will be officially opened with a keynote presentation, to be delivered by Professor José Sarukhán, UNAM, México, while Professor Jacqueline McGlade, UNEP, Nairobi, Kenya will officially close the event.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

The Gambia: UN human rights team prevented from completing torture and killing investigations


  BANJUL (7 November 2014) – The United Nations Special Rapporteurs Christof Heyns and Juan Méndez have been prevented from completing a torture and killing investigation during the first visit ever to The Gambia by experts of the independent fact-finding mechanism of the Human Rights Council Special Procedures.

The two UN human rights experts carried out an official mission* to the country to examine the current level of protection of the right to life in law and in practice, and assess the situation and identify challenges regarding torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in The Gambia, among other things. 

In a remarkable and encouraging step, the Gambian Government invited the two UN Special Rapporteurs earlier this year to conduct a joint visit from 3 to 7 November 2014.

Unfortunately, and despite a written agreement accepting the Terms of Reference of the two mandates, once the investigators arrived, the Government denied them access to certain sections of the first prison the two mandate holders attempted to visit. They offered instead a guided tour to parts of the prison, informing that under no circumstances would they be allowed to visit the Security Wing, where inter alia the death row prisoners are held.