DAKAR, Senegal (PAMACC News) - Nearly 55 million people in West and Central Africa will struggle to feed themselves in the June-August 2024 lean season, according to the March 2024 Cadre Harmonisé food security analysis released by the Permanent Inter-State Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). This figure represents a four-million increase in the number of people who are food-insecure compared to the November 2023 forecast and highlights a fourfold increase over the last five years. The situation is particularly worrying in conflict-affected northern Mali, where an estimated 2,600 people are likely to experience catastrophic hunger (IPC/CH phase 5). The latest data also reveals a significant shift in the factors driving food insecurity in the region, beyond recurring conflicts. Economic challenges such as currency devaluations, soaring inflation, stagnating production, and trade barriers have worsened the food crisis, affecting ordinary people across the region with Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Mali being among the worst affected. Prices of major staple grains continue to rise across the region from 10 percent to more than 100 percent compared to the five-year average, driven by currency inflation, fuel and transport costs, ECOWAS sanctions, and restrictions on agropastoral product flows. Currency inflation is a major driver of price volatility in Ghana (23%), Nigeria (30%), Sierra Leone (54%), Liberia (10%), and The Gambia (16%). West and Central Africa remain heavily dependent on imports to meet the population's food needs. Still, import bills continue to rise due to currency depreciation and high inflation, even as countries struggle with major fiscal constraints and macroeconomic challenges. Cereal production for the 2023-2024 agricultural season shows a deficit of 12 million tons, while the per capita availability of cereals is down by two percent compared to the last agricultural season. “The time to act is now. We need all partners to step up, engage, adopt and implement innovative programs to prevent the situation from getting out of control, while ensuring no one is left behind,” said Margot Vandervelden, WFP’s Acting Regional Director for Western Africa. “We need to invest more in resilience-building and longer-term solutions for the future of West Africa,” she added. Malnutrition in West and Central Africa is alarmingly high, with 16.7 million children under five acutely malnourished and more than 2 out of 3 households unable to afford healthy diets. In addition, 8 out of 10 children aged 6-23 months do not consume the minimum number of foods required for optimal growth and development. High food prices, limited healthcare access, and inadequate diets primarily drive acute malnutrition in children under 5, adolescents, and pregnant women. In parts of northern Nigeria, the prevalence of acute malnutrition in women aged 15-49 years is as high as 31 percent. "For children in the region to reach their full potential, we need to ensure that each girl and boy receives good nutrition and care, lives in a healthy and safe environment, and is given the right learning opportunities," said UNICEF Regional Director Gilles Fagninou. "Good nutrition in early life and…

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - A new report by the United Nations shows that financing challenges are at the heart of the world’s sustainable development crisis – as staggering debt burdens and sky-high borrowing costs prevent developing countries from responding to the confluence of crises they face. Only a massive surge of financing, and a reform of the international financial architecture can rescue the Sustainable Development Goals. The 2024 Financing for Sustainable Development Report: Financing for Development at a Crossroads (FSDR 2024) says urgent steps are needed to mobilise financing at scale to close the development financing gap, now estimated at USD 4.2 trillion annually, up from USD 2.5 trillion before the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, rising geopolitical tensions, climate disasters and a global cost-of-living crisis have hit billions of people, battering progress on healthcare, education, and other development targets. “This report is yet another proof of how far we still need to go and how fast we need to act to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” said UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. “We are truly at a crossroads and time is running out. Leaders must go beyond mere rhetoric and deliver on their promises. Without adequate financing, the 2030 targets cannot be met.” With only six years remaining to achieve the SDGs, hard-won development gains are being reversed, particularly in the poorest countries. If current trends continue, the UN estimates that almost 600 million people will continue to live in extreme poverty in 2030 and beyond, more than half of them women. “We’re experiencing a sustainable development crisis, to which inequalities, inflation, debt, conflicts and climate disasters have all contributed,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Li Junhua. “Resources are needed to address this, and the money is there. Billions of dollars are lost annually from tax avoidance and evasion, and fossil fuel subsidies are in the trillions. Globally, there is no shortage of money; rather, a shortage of will and commitment.” According to the report debt burdens and rising borrowing costs are large contributors to the crisis. Estimates are that in the least developed countries debt service will be USD 40 billion annually between 2023 and 2025, up more than 50 per cent from USD 26 billion in 2022. Stronger and more frequent climate related disasters account for more than half of the debt upsurge in vulnerable countries. The poorest countries now spend 12 per cent of their revenues on interest payments -- four times more than they spent a decade ago. Roughly 40 per cent of the global population live in countries where governments spend more on interest payments than on education or health. While investment in SDG sectors had grown steadily in the early 2000s, major sources of development funding are now slowing down. For example, domestic revenue growth has stalled since 2010, especially in LDCs and other low-income countries, in part due to tax evasion and avoidance. Corporate income tax rates are falling, with global average tax rates down from 28.2…

NAIROBI, Kenya (PAMACC News) - When Dr Leah Tsuma, the founder Asticom Limited succumbed to cancer in August 2021, her idea of converting municipal waste from Kibera slum into some 10 mega watts of electricity seemed to have died too. But, three years down the line, the dream has become a global topic, with scientists calling on the world to start turning rubbish into resources. During the 2024 United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) released a report offering assessment of global waste management and an analysis of data concerning municipal solid waste management worldwide. “Waste generation is intrinsically tied to GDP, and many fast-growing economies are struggling under the burden of rapid waste growth,” observed Inger Andersen, the Executive Director at UNEP. Generally, municipal waste is generated wherever there are human settlements. It is influenced by each person in the world, with every purchasing decision, through daily practices and in the choices made about managing waste in the home. According to the report, the world generates two billion tonnes of municipal solid waste every year. One study shows that between 400,000 and one million people, most of them in developing countries die every year as a result of diseases related to mismanaged waste that includes diarrhoea, malaria, heart disease and different types of cancer. On biodiversity, scientists have pointed out that indiscriminate waste disposal practices can introduce hazardous chemicals into soil, water bodies and the air, causing long-term, potentially irreversible damage to local flora and fauna, negatively impacting biodiversity, harming entire ecosystems, and entering the human food chain. On the climate change front, a different report by UNEP shows that methane, which is a greenhouse gas is released from the decomposition of organic waste in landfills and dumpsites thereby directly contributing global warming. And now, the new report finds that getting waste under control by taking waste prevention and management measures could limit net annual costs by 2050 to USD 270.2 billion. However, projections, according to the report show that a circular economy model, where waste generation and economic growth are decoupled by adopting waste avoidance, sustainable business practices, and full waste management, could in fact lead to a full net gain of USD 108.5 billion per year. “By identifying actionable steps to a more resourceful future and emphasizing the pivotal role of decision-makers in the public and private sectors to move towards zero waste, this (report) can support governments seeking to prevent missed opportunities to create more sustainable societies and to secure a liveable planet for future generations,” said Andersen. According to Zoë Lenkiewicz, the lead author of the report, the findings demonstrate that the world urgently needs to shift to a zero waste approach, while improving waste management to prevent significant pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and negative impacts to human health. “Pollution from waste knows no borders, so it is in everyone’s interests to commit to waste prevention and invest in waste management…

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (PAMACC News) - Environment experts are touting the REDD+process as one of the most promising opportunities to address the most compelling challenges of climate change in Africa. However the question by stakeholders on the accessibility of REDD+ finance at scale if countries deliver on their promises and how capacity building will be supported to address expectations from it, lingers on. It is against this backdrop that the African Forest Forum (AFF) and the UN-REDD Programme are co-organizing an innovative four-week long Community of Practice (CoP) approach, “to catalyze a good understanding of REDD+ finance types and sources, as well enhance knowledge of the result-based financing architecture including carbon markets and associated standards, Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, other financial instruments supporting the REDD+ process in Africa,” says a press statement from AFF. The CoP approach that will run from 15 April to 10May, 2024 accordingly, will integrating both web-based discussion and a series of webinars on the theme “Unlocking sustainable solutions for effective REDD+ Result Based finance in Africa.” The discussions are expected to bring to fruition the exigencies of designing REDD+ Strategies with a wide national lens and efforts to acquire financing, according to the release. “It will help to explore opportunities to support countries in deepening their engagement with forest carbon markets, that could contribute to harnessing carbon finance as part of their National climate Action strategy.It aims to ensure a comprehensive and insightful exploration of the critical dimension of REDD+ process and finance, stimulate experience sharing among community members, invited guest speakers and experts. The sharing of country and experiences and learning from other members of the community will better improve understanding of the REDD+ process” the release stated. According to UN REDD+, many countries in the Africa have made tireless efforts to integrate REDD+ into their National planning policy and financing processes. Cote d’Ivoire, DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Zambia, among others, recognize investments in key sectors of the economy and the need to realign investments in these sectors to REDD+. Through an analytical mapping exercise related to land-use investments, Cote d’Ivoire has been able to re-align investments to REDD+. Ethiopia has positioned REDD+ in its Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Strategy and Zambia has integrated REDD+ into the implementation matrix of its 7th National Development Plan. The CoP discussions on REDD+ process accordingly will provide unprecedented opportunity to engage in dialogues at continental and national scale to weigh into what type of policies and measures based on the discussions around the drivers of forest changes, are needed within REDD+ Strategies and how these can be achieved. Among other expectations, the discussions the release notes “will, enhance knowledge of the REDD+ process and the implementation status in Africa,improve understanding of the importance of REDD+ finance within the framework of the financial instruments for nature-based solutions to climate change,improve understanding of the REDD+ finance types and sources including public upfront finance and results-based finance,equip participants with knowledge of available forest carbon markets (compliance…