Day: October 21, 2023

Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed along with his delegation returned home successfully concluding his official visit to China where he attended the third Belt and Road Forum (BFR) for International Cooperation from October 17-20.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his ministerial delegation were accorded warm welcome in Beijing by Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also addressed the 3rd Belt and Road Forum during the opening session and shared the successes of the Belt and Road Initiative in Ethiopia and called for deepening of agriculture sector cooperation and intensifying industry centered development cooperation.

Prime Minister Abiy conferred with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister of China, Li Qiang.

Premier Abiy also discussed with President of the New Development Bank, Dilma Rousseff on the sidelines of the forum.

During his stay in China, he visited the Yangshan Port in Shanghai and the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Huawei Center in Shanghai city.

Abiy also visited the green city of Chengdu located in the Sichuan province of China.

Chengdu, being the third largest city after Beijing and Shanghai, established ties with Ethiopia including direct flights to and from Addis Ababa, eduction and medical cooperation as well as trade ties.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Addis Ababa, Countries of the Horn of Africa (HoF) should stand united in the fight against the terrorist Al Shabaab, which poses an imminent peace and security threat to the region and beyond, Defense War College (DWC) Dean, Colonel Tilahun Demssie, said.

In an exclusive interview with ENA, Colonel Tilahun said that terrorism is a global peace and security threat that should be dealt with concerted effort.

The prevalence of cross border organized crimes like drug trafficking, illegal human trafficking, and contraband activities coupled with poverty and security challenges are among the fertile ground for terrorists in the Horn of Africa, he said.

Lack of durable peace and security in the region draws terrorists to organize, create cells, and operate, the colonel stated, and added “terrorism is a common threat for everyone and we have to understand each other as a region; especially in the Horn of Africa.”

He underscored “the issue of terrorism requires cooperation and all the countries in the region have to understand that the threat is not only for a single country rather it is a threat for everybody.”

Thus, the countries can develop common strategy against the terrorist threat, he pointed out.

“Al Shabaab is not the threat only for Somalia; it is a threat for Ethiopia and for all the countries in the region. Ethiopia has contributing a lot since 2006 to fight against Al Shabaab and we are still doing,” he elaborated.

Speaking of the importance of support by the international community, the colonel said that they need to provide support in terms of finance and technology to combat the global threat posed by Al Shabaab.

The Ethiopian Defense Force is highly experienced and has full capability to conduct operations against terrorism, he said.

“Al Shabaab knows very well Ethiopia because since 2006 we are fighting against Al Shabaab. They know what we can do, of course they have their own objective and dream but when they try to attack Ethiopia, they never succeed. We are always successful in the operations against Al Shabab. So they have to think three, four and five times before they try to attack Ethiopia,” Colonel Tilahun stressed.

Today one country might be safe from terrorism but there is no guarantee for tomorrow, the Dean said, and noted “So we have to work together against the common threat.”

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Addis Ababa, The newly validated Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Refugee Protection and Management Policy is instrumental in galvanizing international support towards easing the pressure faced by refugees in the region, a UNHCR senior protection coordinator said.

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) member states convened a meeting to validate the IGAD Policy Framework on Protection of refugees last week.

The policy framework is expected to be presented to the ministers in charge of refugee affairs and heads of state at the 2023 Annual Stocktake for endorsement, it was learned.

Speaking to ENA, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Senior Protection Coordinator Senay Terefe said that the policy aims to ensure harmonized policies in terms of access to territorial asylum to refugees.

The refugee protection and management policy is also primarily ensuring collective approach among the IGAD member states towards a crisis that has faced the region.

According to the coordinator, the policy has components which look at consolidating an inclusive policy approach towards refugees, health, education and communication as well as social sectors.

Most importantly, the new policy seeks to mobilize and galvanize international support for a significant number of refugees in the region.

The alarming growing number of refugees has been creating pressure in many ways across the IGAD region.

The IGAD region is home to millions of forcibly displaced individuals due to complex interlinked factors compelling people to move.

The UN Refugee Agency revealed that the region hosted over 5 million registered refugees and asylum seekers as of August 2023. Furthermore, there were over 13.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the region as of July 2023.

The coordinator stated that the number of refugees in the IGAD region is the largest even in Africa.

Particularly, IGAD has been witnessing that refugee numbers are increasing at alarming points following the ongoing Sudan’s crisis.

“I think 5 million refugees is a very large number. I think it is the largest on the continent. We have seen that refugees are feeling destitute without basic survival means. This is also creating pressure in refugees hosting areas which are usually economically underserved in the countries where people receive them,” Senay noted.

He added that these areas where the refugees have been sheltered are poorer than other parts of the country, and that means the pressure is at the sub-national level as well as the national level.

Many argue that the magnitude and complex nature of the displacement situation is one of the most pressing challenges in the east African region.

Therefore, the coordinator said IGAD needs to take collective action through its political mandate to address the alarming refugee trend in the region.

UNHCR is working with governments in the IGAD region to ensure that they receive the lifesaving supplies, address the humanitarian funding gap and the technical challenges, Senay stated.

However, long term solutions are necessitated in partnership with government, private sector and multisectoral stakeholders.

Speaking on Ethiopia’s role in which the country is hosting close to one million refugees, the coordinator pointed out that it has also piloted a number of initiatives and solutions for refugees.

“Ethiopia is a key country for the stability of the IGAD region. Ethiopia hosts close to one million refugees. The country has also piloted a number of initiatives and solutions notably through the global refugee forum commitments it has made in giving access to livelihood opportunities to refugees, the initiative around industrial parks where refugees are allowed enable to become self-reliant.”

For him, in many ways Ethiopia offers a lot of examples for the region and can serve as a better example in exchanging good practices for other IGAD member states in terms of protection and solutions for refugees.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Addis Ababa, The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) said that it is expanding access to mechanization for small holder farmers with the aim to boost production and productivity.

The Government of Ethiopia has embarked on a ten-year economic development plan (2021-2030) where agriculture is the priority sector.

The agriculture sector is projected to grow at 6.2 percent per annum, and agricultural export revenue to increase.

To achieve these, the government seeks to leverage on developing the huge unutilized arable land, modernize production systems, and improve uptake of technology.

With respect to modernizing production systems, Agricultural Transformation Institute Deputy Chief Executive Officer Yifru Tafesse said access to mechanization has been one of the critical bottlenecks that have been affecting production and productivity.

This is because the land holding system is very much fragmented and the average land size less than one hectare per farmer, which has been quite difficult to really provide mechanization service for small holder farmers.

In this regard, ATI has introduced in 2019 agricultural commercialization cluster that has brought at least a minimum of 30 farmers together with minimum of half hectare land so that they can have at least 15 hectares per cluster, the deputy CEO added.

That way they can afford to rent or buy mechanization services to plough and use in their farming system. This is the kind of initiative introduced to expand access to mechanization to small holder farmers.

Duty free privilege has also been provided for import mechanization services, so that farmers can get it relatively at a lower price. These are some of the initiatives we have taken to improve access to mechanization, Yifru elaborated.

In addition, ATI also established 10 standardized mechanization service centers that provide mechanization maintenance services in four regions of the country.

If there is a maintenance issue, farmers can take their agricultural machineries for maintenance in those centers.These are some of the initiatives to increase mechanization in agriculture.

“Access to mechanization was below five percent, but it has now increased to ten percent and very soon that will increase to 15 percent. So I think this is a significant. In addition to that, regional governments are really providing priorities to support farmers to have access to mechanization through cooperative system. These are big initiatives that really foster mechanization,” the deputy CEO elaborated.

Data show that more than 3.5 million household farmers are benefiting from the agricultural commercialization cluster which will pave the way to transform the agriculture sector from subsistence to commercial.

Yifru noted that ATI has a number of initiatives that will make food self-sufficiency; and we have for example harvested 104 million quintals wheat last Ethiopian year.

In the highlands only, we used to produce only 55 million of quintals. Now that has been doubled because of the initiative of the Prime Minister Abiy, the deputy CEO stated, adding that as a result the country was able to become not only wheat self-sufficient but export wheat.

Similarly, ATI is aggressively moving into rice production in Amhara and Oromia regions. Therefore, Yifru revealed that the country will very soon be rice self-sufficient.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Over 1,000 journalists and communication experts from the last five batches of the Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC/ESSTIC), are now in possession of their certificates.

The documents were handed out on Friday, October 20, at the Yaounde Conference Center, as part of the official ceremony which marked the 50th anniversary of the institution.

The former ASMAC students expressed excitement, highlighting the need for media professionals to adapt to technological development.

“ASMAC has a big responsibility in adapting the training to the realities of today. The social media has complicated the media landscape and today we have citizen journalism. The Advanced School of Mass Communication has to remain relevant in the face of the current challenges. Journalists have to be encouraged to go online, work online because people don’t have time today as much as in the past to sit down to listen to the radio or to read newspapers” – Joseph Chebongkeng Kalabubse, President of the National Communication Council (NCC) and graduate of the 17th batch of ASMAC.

Source: Cameroon News Agency