African Development Institute to rally African policy planning for macroeconomic resilience against COVID-19 pandemic

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Published on Wednesday, 29 April 2020 09:57

The Executive Director of the African Programme for the Economic and Social Development (PADES) ,invited by the African Development Institute from the African Development Bank (AFDB) has attended the seminar on the COVID-19 Macro-Economic Policy Responses for Africa.

In fact, The African Development Institute of the African Development Bank hosted a virtual seminar on Wednesday, 29 April 2020 to develop responses to macroeconomic policy challenges facing Africa nations in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Like elsewhere, African countries are not spared the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on their national health systems, economies, trade, cultures, societies and livelihoods. The public and private sectors, individuals and communities are struggling to respond to the pandemic amid commercial lockdowns and disruption of income sources.

The seminar, titled “Enhancing Resilience in African Economies: Macro-Economic Policy Responses to COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa,” seeks to address the macroeconomic implications for African economies as many nations struggle to roll out fiscal stimulus packages to avoid a total collapse and save livelihoods.

Among the participants, was development partners as PADES, including colleagues from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the African Union Commission; United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the United Nations Development Program and representatives of academic institutions. Key speakers include former finance ministers, central bank governors, global experts and Bank Group executives.

The seminar also address ed the ways in which COVID-19 has highlighted inequality in the global economy and the vast disparities in the responses by industrialized countries as against those of African countries, which have had to rely on development institutions to implement contingencies.

The African Development Bank has played a lead role in responding to the crisis by rolling out a series of financial and technical measures to cushion African economies and livelihoods. Its primary channel for the interventions is a Response Facility announced 7 April that provides up to $10 billion to governments and the private sector.

The facility comprises $5.5 billion for sovereign operations in African Development Bank countries, $3.1 billion for sovereign and regional operations for countries under the African Development Fund, the Bank Group's concessional arm that caters to fragile countries and $1.35 billion for private sector operations.     

The Bank also raised $3 billion from a three-year Fight COVID-19 bond in late March, and extended $2 million in grants to the World Health Organization to bolster the capacity of 41 African countries on infection prevention, testing and case management. 

The IMF and the World Bank have also announced COVID-19 response packages that target African economies and health systems.

The Seminar was the first of a series being organized under the auspices of the Global Community of Practice (G-CoP) on COVID-19 Response Strategies, established by ADI to stimulate policy dialogue that will inform Regional Member Countries’ short, medium and long-term policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

ADI, a department of the Bank, is the focal point for the institution’s Capacity Development initiatives. In that role, ADI contributes to efforts at building sustainable capacity for development effectiveness in the institution’s regional member countries.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

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Published on Sunday, 24 November 2019 23:27

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating human rights violations in our world today remains largely unreported due to the impunity, silence, stigma and shame surrounding it.

In general terms, it manifests itself in physical, sexual and psychological forms, encompassing:

• intimate partner violence (battering, psychological abuse, marital rape, femicide);
• sexual violence and harassment (rape, forced sexual acts, unwanted sexual advances, child sexual abuse, forced marriage, street harassment, stalking, cyber- harassment);
• human trafficking (slavery, sexual exploitation);
• female genital mutilation; and
• child marriage.

further clarify, the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women issued by the UN General Assembly in 1993, defines violence against women as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.”

The adverse psychological, sexual and reproductive health consequences of VAWG affect women at all stages of their life. For example, early-set educational disadvantages not only represent the primary obstacle to universal schooling and the right to education for girls; down the line they are also to blame for restricting access to higher education and even translate into limited opportunities for women in the labour market.

While gender-based violence can happen to anyone, anywhere, some women and girls are particularly vulnerable - for instance, young girls and older women, women who identify as lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex, migrants and refugees, indigenous women and ethnic minorities, or women and girls living with HIV and disabilities, and those living through humanitarian crises.

Violence against women continues to be an obstacle to achieving equality, development, peace as well as to the fulfillment of women and girls’ human rights. All in all, the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - to leave no one behind - cannot be fulfilled without putting an end to violence against women and girls.

Alarming Figures

• 1 in 3 women and girls experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, most frequently by an intimate partner
• Only 52% of women married or in a union freely make their own decisions about sexual relations, contraceptive use and health care
• Worldwide, almost 750 million women and girls alive today were married before their 18th birthday; while 200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM)
• 1 in 2 women killed worldwide were killed by their partners or family in 2017; while only 1 out of 20 men were killed under similar circumstances
• 71% of all human trafficking victims worldwide are women and girls, and 3 out of 4 of these women and girls are sexually exploited
• Violence against women is as serious a cause of death and incapacity among women of reproductive age as cancer, and a greater cause of ill health than traffic accidents and malaria combined.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020

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Published on Saturday, 04 January 2020 08:43

HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY

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Published on Friday, 08 March 2019 08:53

HAPPY WOMEN's DAY