Fatherland
The real-life story of Uncle Owusu, after living in the UK for 38 years and at the age of 71, finally relocated to Ghana this year—to live in his 6-bedroom mansion which took him nine years to complete.
A True Story
Uncle Owusu; the sad truth
A True Story
The real-life story of Uncle Owusu, after living in the UK for 38 years and at the age of 71, finally relocated to Ghana this year—to live in his 6-bedroom mansion which took him nine years to complete.
Now in Ghana and his mansion, Uncle Owusu lives in the living room of his house while his caretaker lives upstairs in his master bedroom. Because Uncle Owusu cannot climb the stairs without the help of another person —it will take him 15 minutes to make the climb.
As such, Uncle Owusu decided to stay downstairs of his mansion (in the living room) as all six bedrooms were upstairs. The house has a living room, toilet, and kitchen downstairs, three rooms on the first floor, and another 3 (including the master bedroom) on the second floor.
Not how Uncle Owusu anticipated his retirement. But that is the reality of his journey. Yet, this will be the life of so many of us.
The lives of many other Africans living abroad building mansions back home without caring about their old age.
If you are building a dream house for yourself to live in and by age fifty years and the house is not done might as well forget it.
Uncle Owusu almost wasted 38 years of his life doing menial jobs abroad, hoping for his retirement back home in his Mansion and enjoying life. Now, he has no life; to enjoy. Someone is enjoying his Mansion.
How is this life and the great retirement?
The solution is to take mini-retirements and enjoy your life and luxury now.
Like most aged persons, Uncle Owusu is unable to even enjoy a bottle of malt beverage at his age—because that will shoot his sugar level up. Yet, he said he was working hard all his life to enjoy his best life which included eating and drinking the finest when he retires. Now, he only eats salads—and even that, without dressing. He can't chew on any of the product lines of the finest meat out there without his cholesterol sending him warning signs.
So, how is this life and the great retirement?
African Development Bank COVID-19 Response
The COVID-19 pandemic is forecast to cause Africas' GDP to drop by between $22.1 billion and $88.3 billion.
African country's experience of having fought off Ebola is working to adapt this new threat and looking to the Bank for an effective multilateral response to the crisis.
Moving from a commitment to action
The African Development Bank has responded swiftly to the needs of its member countries during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The Bank’s operations have continued to run smoothly since the first cases appeared in early March, despite the widening range of lockdowns and measures imposed by governments to flatten the curve.
The COVID-19 pandemic is forecast to cause Africa’s GDP to drop by between $22.1 billion and $88.3 billion. African country's experience of having fought off Ebola is working to adapt this new threat and looking to the Bank for an effective multilateral response to the crisis.
As of June 12, the Bank’s COVID-19 emergency packages have reached the continent’s five geographic regions.
West Africa
Before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, West Africa was home to at least four of the continent’s fastest-growing economies, and it has felt the impact of the disease hard, as borders remain closed and economic and social distress deepens.
Gambia, Mali, and Niger will benefit from an ECOWAS support package to bolster national health systems in response to the pandemic. Much of the funds to this region will seek to address shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and other emergency equipment. The support will also enable governments to provide shortfall cash to the millions of people who have been affected by mass layoffs or are unable to work because of lockdowns.
Nigeria – 288.5 million euros
Senegal – 88 million euros
Côte d’Ivoire – 75 million euros
Cabo Verde – 30 million euros
ECOWAS – $22 million
North Africa
The North African region is the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 60,000 cases as of 12 June. The disease has already triggered a sharp drop in household incomes in North Africa, as export and tourism earnings suffer. The region will be assisted with a series of emergency operations to boost containment measures and help to ensure the supply and distribution of laboratory tests and reagents. The package will also support national and regional coordination mechanisms.
Morocco – 264 million euros
Tunisia – 180 million euros
Egypt – $500,000
East Africa
East Africa, the continent’s fastest-growing region economically, has been simultaneously struck by the coronavirus outbreak and an infestation of desert locusts, a double whammy for the region’s farmers and economies.
In a region of climate change and water scarcity, post-harvest losses and poorly developed agricultural markets could threaten the promise of economic reforms and investment.
Ethiopia, Kenya, and Rwanda are the top-performing countries, which have all seen a sharp fall in tourism revenue.
Kenya – 188 million euros
Southern Africa
A decisive lockdown has been effective in stemming the spread of COVID-19 in the region’s economic powerhouse, South Africa. The spreading of the virus is by no means curtailed. Measures taken across the region to contain the pandemic have affected millions of people, many of whom work in the informal economy.
Assistance in this region comes in the form of preventive and protective measures.
Mauritius – 188 million euros
Zimbabwe – $13.7 million
Central Africa
In Central Africa, Cameroon has reported over 8,000 cases as of 12 June and significant community transmission.
The package approved for this region, $13.5 million, will target the provision of PPEs, testing kits, and healthcare and laboratory facilities, for Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, which is among the countries with the least number of ventilators on the continent.
CEMAC/RDC – $13.5 million
Timeline of COVID-19 support:
The Bank’s rollout of emergency response support to assist African countries began in March and has provided a package of financial relief and preparedness and response assistance.
March 27: The Bank raised $3 billion from the Fight COVID-19 Social Bond, the Largest dollar-denominated social bond ever launched in international capital markets. Proceeds from the Bond, with a three-year maturity, will help alleviate the impact of the pandemic on livelihoods and Africa’s economies.
April 2: The Bank provided $2 million in emergency assistance to the World Health Organization (WHO) to bolster the capacity of member countries on infection prevention, testing, and case management. WHO Africa will also boost surveillance systems, procure and distribute laboratory test kits, and support coordination at national and regional levels.
April 8: The Bank announced a COVID-19 Response Facility that will provide up to $10 billion to African governments and the private sector to tackle the disease and mitigate the suffering that results from the economic downturn and job losses.
Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting
Ninety-two countries where evidence of women and girls live with or at risk of undergoing FGM, fifty-one have laws against FGM.
Equality Now in partnership with End FGM European Network and End FGM/C U.S. Network, has produced a new report “Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Call for a Global Response,” about the global prevalence of FGM/C substantially been underestimated, and present in over 90 countries.
A Call for a Global Response
Equality Now in partnership with End FGM European Network and End FGM/C U.S. Network, has produced a new report “Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A Call for a Global Response,” about the global prevalence of FGM/C substantially been underestimated, and present in over 90 countries.
Ninety-two countries where evidence of women and girls live with or at risk of undergoing FGM, fifty-one have laws against FGM.
Countries with specific anti-FGM laws include Kenya, Benin, Eritrea, Guinea Bissau, and Uganda. Some countries do not specifically address FGM within their laws. These include; Indonesia, Mali, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, The Maldives, and Yemen.
According to official UNICEF figures (2020), FGM/C affects at least 200 million women and girls in 31 countries worldwide. This figure only includes countries where there is available data from large-scale representative surveys, which consist of 27 countries from the African continent, as well as Iraq, Yemen, The Maldives, and Indonesia.
Equality Now Program Officer, End Harmful Practices, Felister Gitonga notes that the report is timely. It comes at a crucial time when the United Nations is reviewing the next decade of implementation of the SDGs. The report demonstrates that 5.3 is a global target because FGM is not an African issue but a global issue.
FGM/C in the African Region
The practice is present in every continent except Antarctica, and it’s time for leaders to take action and eradicate FGM globally by 2030. Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: A call for a global response report comes at a crucial time when the United Nations is reviewing the next decade of implementation of the SDGs. The report demonstrates that 5.3 is a global target because of FGM not only an African issue but a global one.
There are at least 60 other countries where the practice of FGM/C has been documented either through indirect estimates, small-scale studies, anecdotal evidence, and media reports.
Our new FGM report highlight the growing body of evidence that FGM/C takes place in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, and North America. Amongst indigenous and diaspora communities. It also highlights gaps in data availability and anti-FGM legislation.
Better statistical information is invaluable because it helps to put pressure on the government to take action and provides the baseline from which the scale and effectiveness of interventions can be measured. It can assist grassroots organizations and researchers to attract more funding as a lack of financial backing is a major problem affecting the women's rights activists we have interviewed for this research.
Eradicating FGM by 2030, now is the time to take stock and accelerate action.
Equality Now Global Call:
The need to strengthen global and political commitment to eliminate FGM
Urgently increase resources and investment to end FGM and support survivors
Strengthen base through research
Enact and enforce comprehensive laws and national policies; and
Improve the wellbeing of survivors by providing necessary and critical support and services
About Equality Now
Equality Now is an international human rights organization that works to protect and promote the rights of women and girls around the world by combining grassroots activism with national, regional, and international legal advocacy. Our vast network of activists, supporters, and lawyers achieve legal and systemic change by holding the government responsible for enacting and enforcing laws and policies that end legal inequality, sexual trafficking, sexual violence, and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child marriage.
While working with different partner organizations at the community level, Equality Now uses legal frameworks to address sexual violence by advocating for the enforcement of strong laws and policies that protect women and girls from continued sexual violations to keep them safe at home, schools, and their communities.
Eliminating Hunger And Malnutrition, A Race Against Time
It should be worrisome to note that the number undernourished people has been increasing steadily in Africa over the last few years, where it reached 256.1 million people in 2018 with a staggering 93 percent of those living in sub-Sahara Africa.
Undernourishment has reached levels of 22.8 percent in sub-Sahara Africa
The task of eliminating hunger and malnutrition as set out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the SDGs, as well as in the African Union 2025 Malabo Commitments is a race against times towards delivering the targets, Abebe Haile-Gabriel, Regional Representative for Africa, FAO has said. There should be a sense of urgency for concerted actions by all,” he added.
The latest statistics show that in Africa, over a quarter of a million people go to bed hungry. He quoted the 2019 report on the state of Food Security and Nutrition published by the FAO, which confirms that hunger has been on the rise in almost all sub-Sahara Africa where the prevalence of undernourishment has reached levels of 22.8 percent.
It should be worrisome to note that the number undernourished people has been increasing steadily in Africa over the last few years, where it reached 256.1 million people in 2018 with a staggering 93 percent of those living in sub-Sahara Africa.
This year, the FAO Regional Office for Africa and the FAO Ghana jointly organized three events in Accra under the theme “Our actions are our future. A healthy diet for a Zero Hunger World” to mark World Food Day celebrated on October 16.
Abebe Haile-Gabriel noted that the hardest hits are family and subsistence farmers in rural areas. The worsening food security situation was due to climate change, conflict, and economic slowdowns. These factors continue to be the main drivers of food and nutrition insecurity in the Africa region. He said malnutrition is three-pronged; it encompasses under-nutrition, over-nutrition, and micronutrient deficiencies. Africa faced with both over-nourishment and under-nourishment. A quarter of the world’s children under five that are overweight live in Africa.
Eliminating all forms of hunger and nutrition is at the heart of the FAO’s mandate.
390 Million Africans Living In Extreme Poverty
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has lamented that, with an estimated 390 million people living in extreme poverty, hunger and food insecurity, Africa is in a race against time to deliver on its regional and global development goals. According to a press release issued on behalf of the Bank stated also that, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Sunday 22nd September, 2019, African heads of states and governments met to emphasize urgent collective action and the need for greater collaboration between the United Nations and the African Development Bank to fast-track Africa’s development.ly
The clock is ticking
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has lamented that, with an estimated 390 million people living in extreme poverty, hunger and food insecurity, Africa is in a race against time to deliver on its regional and global development goals. According to a press release issued on behalf of the Bank stated also that, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Sunday 22nd September, 2019, African heads of states and governments met to emphasize urgent collective action and the need for greater collaboration between the United Nations and the African Development Bank to fast-track Africa’s development.
The release noted that the meeting convened by the African Development and the United Nations is "the first of its kind" between the two institutions taking place at the UN Headquarters, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said.
The 2030 Agenda for the continent Sustainable Development - United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and the African Development Bank’s High 5s, the time for action is now. Mohammed said it was time to join forces to deliver. Africa’s premier institution needs much more support. The clock is ticking. I am convinced that with a change of pace, driven by a greater sense of urgency, and global collective responsibility, Africa can still achieve the SDGs.
The two-hour meeting, moderated by the African Development Bank, was attended by seven African presidents – from Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Ethiopia, and Lesotho, in addition to representatives of some 30 governments.
The leaders, the release noted spoke of what had worked in their countries - including mainstreaming development goals into national plans, scaling up initiatives, and the implications of harmonizing policies and strategic entry points for the implementation of development goals at national, regional and global levels.
Ambitious development initiatives undertaken by the Bank with regional collaboration are already showing success, such as Desert to Power, which aims to provide access to electricity for 250 million people across the 11 countries of the Sahel, 90 million of them through off-grid systems.
Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa called the SDGs Africa’s “highest challenge.” Stemming the tide of illicit financial flows, public debt, and tax evasion would be urgent measures to be taken by leaders if they meant to stay on track.
Areas for potential collaboration include climate change in Africa, gender mainstreaming, promoting private sector investment, measures to utilize risk insurance to mitigate the impact of natural disasters in Africa, and, appropriate security arrangements to support the Bank’s operations in fragile states in the continent; The African Continental Free Trade Area, which came into force this year, and creates the world’s largest free-trade zone, another major area for collaboration under the partnership. The United Nations Development Program assessment shows achieving the Bank’s High 5s' allow Africa to achieve about 90% of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Donors Funding Africa’s Agric Digitalization
The digitalization of Africa’s agricultural sector has been left in the hands of donors alone, while private investment is lagging, the 2019 Digitalization of African Agriculture report has said.
With annual flows of €175 million
The digitalization of Africa’s agricultural sector has been left in the hands of donors alone, while private investment is lagging, the 2019 Digitalization of African Agriculture report has said.
It said private sector investment is even more limited; for instance, in 2018 there was an investment of approximately €47 million into Africa-focused digitalization enterprises, including both start-ups and larger stage enterprises. This investment represented 3 to 6 percent of all Africa tech start-up investment.
Africa economies are improving, and a handful of players are beginning to develop viable businesses with attractive financial models. We estimate that 70 percent of enterprises generate some revenue and 80 percent of those revenue-generating enterprises maintain several revenue streams, the report said.
Efforts of digital agricultural services to become sustainable and scalable continue to face challenges, urging for collaborations between enterprises, donors, investors and governments must create an environment in which digital agricultural solutions can thrive and produce impact.
The report, however, recommended to governments to build partnerships between investors, private actors, and technology providers to reduce technology and operational cost. It also urged various African governments to increase funding for a more diverse set of business models rather than just for those models that have already attracted funding. Meanwhile, the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) has committed US$500 million to develop agriculture opportunities for young Africans and also to support digital infrastructure crucial for powering innovative farmer services.
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