Mauritania to benefit from US$21 million IFAD grant to boost food security, nutrition and reduce rural poverty

Michel Mordasini, Vice-President of IFAD

Rome, 12 January 2017 – A total of 285,600 farmers, particularly women and young people in six regions in southern Mauritania will benefit from a financial agreement signed today between the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Mauritania to improve their incomes, nutrition and food security.

The agreement for the Inclusive Value Chain Development Project (PRODEFI) was signed in Rome by Michel Mordasini, Vice-President of IFAD and Mariem Aouffa, Ambassador of Mauritania to Italy and Permanent Representative to Rome-based United Nations agencies.

The total cost of the project is US$45.2 million of which IFAD is providing a US$21 million grant including $6 million grant from the Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme (ASAP) Trust Fund. It is co-financed by the national private sector ($2 million), the Government of Mauritania ($5 million) and by the beneficiaries themselves ($2.2 million). The remaining $15 million will be covered by other financing sources or by the next IFAD financing cycle for Mauritania (2019-2021).

World Food Day is not a day for reflection; it is a day for action- FAO Boss

Dr. Perpetua Katepa-Kalala

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Country Representative in the Islamic Republic of The Gambia, Dr. Perpetua Katepa-Kalala  delivering a statement on World Food Day, has said that World Food Day 2016 is not a day for reflection; it is a day for action.

According to her, World Food Day 2016 is an opportunity to refocus our efforts and partnerships as we work towards mounting an immediate and comprehensive response to climate change.

Without concerted actions, millions more people could fall into  threatening to reverse hard-won gains and placing in jeopardy our ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Paris climate conference - failure is not an option

 Global Greens call for unity and resolve

The Global Greens call upon the governments of the world, assembled at Paris next week, to fulfil their collective responsibility for preventing dangerous climate change.

Unity and resolve are vital, not least as a counter to the fear and disunity that horrific terrorist attacks, like those recently in Mali, Paris and Beirut, aim to inspire. Failure is not an option.

We call on all the peoples of the world, marching this weekend, to demand this of their governments and hold them electorally to account.

Specifically, the Global Greens call on governments in Paris to negotiate a legally binding agreement that demonstrates

Climate change poses major threat to food security, warns UN expert

GENEVA (3 November 2015) – “Climate change poses severe and distinct threats to food security, and could subject an additional 600 million people to malnutrition by 2080,” warned today the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver.

“Increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather, rising temperatures and sea levels, as well as floods and droughts have a significant impact on the right to food,” said the expert. “All these climate incidents will negatively impact on crops, livestock, fisheries, aquaculture and on people’s livelihoods,” she added.

Now or Never: Acting on Climate Change in Nigeria

    

(Abuja-Nigeria, 29^th of May, 2015): Today Nigerians has been given a new opportunity for change and transformational leadership in the fight against climate change as President Muhammadu Buhari takes over as President of Federal Republic of Nigeria.

‘Climate change remain one of the biggest challenge facing the world today, from storms in America to heat waves in India and recalling the 2012 floods in Nigeria that eroded the small gains in development and democracy. We are reminded of need for leadership and the required but urgent and rigorous action on climate change’, Esther Agbarakwe.

The role of biological diversity in sustainable development

22 May 2015 – As the post-2015 development agenda emerges, this year's theme for International Day of Biological Diversity reflects the importance of biodiversity in achieving sustainable development. Smallholder farmers in rural areas of developing countries produce much of the food in the developing world, and given that food availability needs to increase by 60-70 per cent by 2050, in the future we will depend on them to produce even more. Biodiversity plays a vital role in smallholder farmer food production systems and contributes to increased crop yields and incomes, maintaining healthy ecosystems, mitigating climate change, and securing sustainable livelihoods and access to clean and safe water.

Climate change threatens food security, affects crop productivity

Gambian Women in the rice field

Author: Abdou Rahman SallahExecutive DirectorBAJ Gambia

The 2011 crop failure in The Gambia was mainly attributed to Climate Change and this has greatly affect the lives of local people particularly the women farmers whose survival, school fees, health bill, feeding depends on it.

In Central River Region a provincial region in The Gambia, there are six hundred and sixty-nine villages and these communities are farming communities who were hard hit by the effects of climate change, thus warranting the government of The Gambia to declare crop failure and called on international communities for support according to a statement from the presidency.

Climate Change is one of the major challenges hampering agricultural development in Africa, especially in the West and Gambia in particular. This change in long-term weather conditions is threatening food security and according to reports local people are hungry and more people will go hungry according to media reports.

Gender and Climate Change –Challenges and way forward

Author: Abdou Rahman Sallah

            Executive Director BAJ Gambia

Gender inequalities substantially limit women’s access to control over and use of services and productive resources. As a result, natural hazards have different impact on men and women. These inequalities make the effect more devastating for women. With equal gender opportunities, a new environmentally friendly perspective needs to be developed that makes men and women equally accountable for their personal consumption and renders them responsible for the impact they have on the environment.

Urgent actions are needed to combat climate change but lack of information on gender and climate change has slowed our reactions. Today, there is inadequate information on gender issues relating to climate change. Further research is therefore needed in several aspects to establish the linkages between gender and climate change.

One key challenge is the small proportion of women in relevant professions and position of authority. International climate change process would be achieve sustainably we need to espouse the principles of gender in all stages of the process from research, through analysis, agenda formation, negotiation and decision making, regime implementation etc.

A united call for action on climate change

Kofi Annan is chair of The Elders, a group of independent leaders who work for peace, justice and human rights worldwide.

 

Kofi Annan

When Nelson Mandela formed the Elders in 2007 to promote peace and human rights across the world, he challenged us to be bold and to give a voice to those who have none. No issue demands these qualities more than our collective failure to tackle climate change.

Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time. It threatens the well-being of hundreds of millions of people today and many billions more in the future. It undermines the human rights to food, water, health and shelter — causes for which we, as Elders, have fought all our lives.
 

No one and no country will escape the impact of climate change. But those with no voice — because they are already marginalized or are not yet born — are at greatest risk. The Elders have an urgent moral duty to speak out on their behalf.

Climate change increasing vulnerabilities in rural communities,

may threaten people’s jobs and livelihoods- says Earth Hour Champions 2014 #WalktoMali

Author: Mamadou Edrisa Njie reporting from Gusua, Nigeria

Earth Hour Team in Gutsura village, Zamfara State, Nigeria

 

The most vulnerable groups in Nigerian society that are clashing with climate change are the rural poor as they often depend on natural resources for their livelihoods, for instance from agriculture, fisheries and forestry.
 Now man-made climate change poses an additional challenge, increasing the vulnerability of rural communities; the impacts of climate change currently predicted for rural communities in Nigeria is in the rise and rain-fed grain crops, and a rising number of extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods and desertification is the uppermost of climate vulnerability.

These impacts will vary strongly in their extent and form around the country. To cope with the risks, therefore, interventions will have to be specially tailored to suit the different states and regions especially the villagers of Gutsura located in Zamfara State, North-West of Nigeria.

Children for Children Organisation Changes Name

Ibrahim Ceesay CAID Executive Director

Children for Children Organisation-CFCO has from 12 March, 2012 changed its name to be now called Children  and Community Initiative for Development-CAID.

This information was disclosed to youth leaders,including our reporter, through an email sent by  its Executive Director, Mr. Ibrahim Ceesay.

 In the said Ceesay stated that they have from 12 March, 2012 “changed the name of our organisation (CFCO) to CAID.  We wish to inform all youth leaders and to introduce you (youth leaders) that the new official identity of change explain the reasons for this positive change.

“We kindly ask that you update your records to reflect this name change effective from 12th March 2012, we become Children and Community Initiative for Development (CAID), a name that better encapsulates our vision, mission, primary objective and more accurate reflection of what we do: empowering children and marginalized communities.”

He added that the timing of this transition is deliberate, noting that there has been no change in management and they would continue to do their best to which, “we have built our reputation”.