Development News
Compiled by Kunle
Idowu- Media
Coordinator- NNNGO
UNIDO pledges aid to
Nigeria's industrial
initiative
To help Nigeria achieve
its targets under the
recently introduced
industrial cluster
strategy, the United
Nations Industrial
Development Organisation
(UNIDO) has promised to
provide the country with
the necessary technical
expertise.
Visiting Director
General of the world
body, Dr. Kandel
Yumkella, at a meeting
with the officials of
the Commerce and
Industry Ministry in
Abuja, assured that
UNIDO would bring its
many years of experience
in the industrial
cluster concept to bear
on the Nigerian
situation.
He said: "The cluster
concept is something
that UNIDO has been
working on many years in
India and other
countries. We will help
Nigeria develop the
strategy and help it
learn from other regions
that have done it well.
What we need now is
drive, the political
support as well as input
from the private sector
and necessary finance."
UN Secretary General
doubts eradication of
poverty in Africa by
2015
Worried by the ongoing
global food crisis, the
United Nations chief,
Ban Ki-moon, has cast
doubt on whether
sub-Sahara Africa will
meet a 2015 deadline for
eradicating extreme
poverty despite an
economic boom linked to
higher commodity prices.
"Many countries are
falling behind," Ban
told the ongoing UN
Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) in
Accra which opened on
Sunday.
"This region,
sub-Saharan Africa, is
most at risk here. Not a
single country is on
track to meet all the
MDGs by 2015," he said,
referring to the MDGs
agreed by all UN member
states in 2000. Soaring
food prices world-wide
are making it harder to
meet development goals,
he added.
"High prices threaten to
undo the gains achieved
so far in fighting
hunger and
malnutrition," Ban said.
The UN secretary general
urged African states
benefiting from a boom
in commodity prices to
increase their
development spending,
and he called on
international donors to
make good on their own
foreign aid commitments.
NDE to embark on
youth, women empowerment
programmes
To further ensure that
women and youth are
uplifted out of extreme
poverty, the National
Directorate of
Employment (NDE) plans
to train beneficiaries
of the Women and Youth
Empowerment Foundation (WAYEF)
in skills acquisition
and other income
generating trades.
This was made known by
the Director General of
NDE, Mallam Abubakar
Mohammed, when the
National Coordinator of
WAYEF, Alhaji Muttaka
Rabe, paid him a
courtesy visit in Abuja.
WAYEF, a pet project of
the First Lady, Hajia
Turai Yar'Adua, is
established to address
the empowerment of women
and youths through
health improvement,
education and
socio-economic
development, including
poverty alleviation at
the grassroots level
Climate change:
"Women, children face
more risk."
Nigeria's Minister of
Environment, Mrs. Halima
Tayo Alao, has stated
that the impact of
climate change would be
mostly faced by women
and children in
developing countries who
depend on rain-fed
activities for survival.
Alao who said this
during a media briefing
on the occasion of the
2008 Earth Day
celebration in Abuja,
noted that climate
change was currently the
most serious threat to
the survival and
sustainable development
of humanity and the
planet.
She said, "It is the
calamity mankind must
confront today and not
in the future for the
sake of our unborn
generations. He
potential adverse
impacts expected on the
environment, human
health, food security,
economic activities,
natural resources and
physical infrastructures
are very great indeed."
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