In November 2011, a team from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) visited Zambia to produce a video on vaccination efforts -– their value, their implementation and the challenges they face. In the current global environment of austerity and ever-decreasing budgets, immunizations represent one of the pillars of global health that is a cost effective, proven intervention.
This piece was originally published on our Africa Blog.
The 2011 ONE Africa Award finalists continue with the announcement of our third finalist, a model for social entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector. If you are already familiar with ONE’s recent activities then you will know that we recently launched our campaign to address the famine in the Horn of Africa. Hunger and malnutrition continue to be important issues on the continent and that’s why the work that our next finalist, Sylva Food Solutions (SFS), is doing is so important.
Sylvia Banda, the founder of SFS, is a very well known personality in Zambia and speaks regularly on the most popular private radio station in the country, Radio Phoenix, about the importance of using local foods, nutrition, and maintaining a healthy life style. With 10 employees, Sylvia started SFS in 2005 building on her successful catering business that had been around for about 25 years.
Earlier this week I stopped into the International Trade Exhibition to check in on some of the vendors and exhibitors. I was struck by one in particular — Fallsway Timbers Ltd — because of its beautiful displays of finished hardwood furniture, doors and flooring. I have to admit — I hadn’t thought much about African-made finished furniture and goods. I’ve always seen the hand-crafted kind, but Fallsway’s products were as modern-made and produced as any in the US or Europe.
A worker makes furniture at the West African Trade Hub.
My colleague Nealon DeVore and I are in Lusaka attending the 10th AGOA Forum. Yesterday I participated on two panel discussions: the first was a private sector session on Financing Africa Industrial Development and the second was a civil society session titled The Next Generation. Nealon has already blogged about my participation on the Next Generation Panel, so my focus in this blog is on the first panel to which I happened to be drafted just shortly before it started.
My boss, Dr. Sipho Moyo, represented ONE earlier today on a panel here at the 2011 AGOA Forum.
The panel, titled The Next Generation, looked at ways that young people could be better engaged to participate in and benefit from the opportunities presented by AGOA. The panel was moderated by Lena Zamchiya, a vice-president at SIFE International, which works to improve the business sense of university students all over the world. In addition, Modesta Mahiga, an expert in human resource development from Tanzania, and Humphrey Mulemba, Director of Corporate Strategy at United Machining Works in Zambia, joined Sipho to offer their thoughts. We also heard from several audience members, including a few student leaders from the University of Zambia.
Sipho and I attended the opening reception of the 2011 African Growth and Opportunity Act Forum last evening. It coincided with the launch of the International Trade Exhibition, which intends to show off African-made goods and services in order to facilitate business opportunities, both within Africa and between the US.
The opening reception, which was attended and officiated by the Vice President of Zambia, Honorable George Kunda, was a fantastic opportunity to meet folks from a variety of businesses and sectors. I was quite impressed with the diversity of interests represented, from private sector to government to civil society organizations like ONE.
My colleague Nealon and I just arrived in Lusaka, Zambia this morning to attend the 10th African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum. This three-day marathon of workshops and ministerial meetings marks an important milestone in the US and Africa’s commercial relationship. Enacted in 2000 to reduce tariffs on select products from qualifying sub-Saharan countries, AGOA has been responsible for an estimated $300 billion in export earnings to Africa and created more than 300,000 jobs.
Right now, some of the world's biggest oil companies are fighting to keep some of their deals with foreign governments secret. Let's tell big oil we won't be bullied.
Cuts to poverty-fighting programs won't balance the budget, but they will set back progress on Canada's development priorities and risk jeopardizing existing investments.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
