Press Statement (13.03.2015): ‘Muzzling of Press freedom at the Ugandan Parliament’

 

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SPLM supports the IGAD mediated peace process in Addis Ababa (09.03.2015)

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Press release: Uganda announces first Petroleum Exporation Liscensing Round (24.02.2015)

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MDC-T Press Statement on the Threat by Zanu-PF to Overthrow the New Constitution (10.03.2015)

 

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2015/327/AFR & 2015/335/AFR – World Bank Press releases on Kampala and Kenya

 

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2015/327/AFR – Managing Rapid Urbanization Can Help Uganda Achieve Sustainable and Inclusive Growth:

KAMPALA, March 03, 2015— Uganda’s urban population will increase from six million in 2013 to over 20 million in 2040. Policy makers need to act now to ensure that this rapid urbanization is managed well, so it can contribute to Uganda’s sustainable and inclusive growth, a report released today by the World Bank Group shows.

For the first time, the report compares data on urban areas and their populations in a consistent manner across Uganda, providing governments and local leaders with analyses to improve planning and coordination to deliver better services, jobs and opportunities, making cities more competitive.

“The typical Ugandan city has grown rapidly, but without sufficient policy coordination. As a result, urbanization has not necessarily resulted in increased productivity, with the majority of jobs created involving low productivity activities,” said Hon. Daudi Migereko, Minister of Lands, and Housing and Urban Development. “This report will help government get a better picture and take action on how to spur the economy from the lackluster growth performance experienced over the past half-decade, to a higher growth path that can catapult the country into middle income status.”

The Fifth Uganda Economic Update, titled: “The Growth Challenge: Can Ugandan Cities get to Work?” focusses on urbanization and notes that while the majority of the population is still concentrated in rural areas, non-agricultural economic growth and jobs are concentrated in urban areas. The report shows that while cities can help propel growth, the speed of urbanization is challenging and can lead to congestion and strain infrastructure, lowering productivity.

“By managing the urbanization process effectively, Uganda will be more likely to achieve middle income status by 2040. However, current patterns of growth pose a significant challenge,” said Philippe Dongier, the Country Director for the World Bank Group for Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi.Urban population growth multiplies the number of challenges already facing urban areas and hinders their ability to be the sources of growth, to create productive jobs and to provide decent housing to urban residents.”

The Update has been prepared to assist government in ensuring that its cities are ready to accommodate the increasing number of residents expected to settle in urban areas and able to facilitate the growth of business enterprises, thereby creating opportunities for productive employment for a greater proportion of city residents.

“Cities have the potential to propel growth, attracting capital, spurring innovation, providing higher productivity jobs. Services can be provided more cost-effectively, improving access for all,” said Somik Lall, Lead Urban Economist. “To reap these benefits, urban growth needs to be managed well by planning for land use and basic services, connecting to make a city’s markets accessible, and financing to meet infrastructure needs.”

“To ensure the development of functional cities, the public sector will require the coordination of a range of different types of investment, including investment in physical planning for buildings and the provision of transport, housing and social services,” said Rachel Sebudde, Senior Economist and Lead author of the report. “Each layer faces its own coordination challenges. It is better to anticipate and plan for this at the very early stages of the urbanization process, as it becomes very difficult to correct mistakes retrospectively.”

Policy makers at national and municipal levels have an important role to play in ensuring that urbanization is sustainable and inclusive by ensuring that land and property rights are conducive for increasing economic density of cities. They will also have to improve mobility through better transport infrastructure and systems, as well as improve living conditions through better housing policies. Furthermore, it will be critical to improve access to social services such health and education; and levelling access to, and quality of, public services such as water and sanitation services.

Urbanization in Numbers

  • 6.4 million Ugandans live in urban areas
  • 70 percent of non-agricultural GDP in Uganda is generated in urban areas
  • 54 percent of people living in Central region are residing in urban areas
  • Central region has the highest number of people living in urban areas, but the Eastern region is the fastest urbanizing region during the first decade of 2000s
  • Kampala is home to 31 percent of Uganda’s urban population
  • 69 percent of Uganda’s urban population live in small cities with less than 500,000 people
  • 21 million people will live in urban areas in Uganda by 2040
  • By 2013, 38 percent of the urban population was connected to the electricity grid
  • The number of firms engaged in real estate and business services in Kampala is 11 times the overall average across districts
  • Over the first decade of the 2000s, cities accounted for 36 percent of overall job growth
  • Walking is the main mode of transport in Kampala, and 70 percent of the residents of Kampala walk to work
  • 80 percent of the global economic activity is generated in cities

2015/335/AFR – Kenya Among the Fastest Growing Economies in Africa:

Nairobi, March 5, 2015—Buoyed by falling oil prices, Kenya’s growth is projected to rise from 5.4 percent in 2014 to 6-7 percent over the next three years (2015-2017), making it one of the fastest-growing economies in Sub-Saharan Africa according to the latest Kenya Economic Update (KEU) published by the World Bank.

The eleventh edition of the KEU notes that external and internal balances are expected to improve significantly, thanks to falling oil prices. In addition public investment in infrastructure, mainly in energy and standard gauge railways, will strengthen growth in the medium term.

“Kenya is emerging as one of Africa’s key growth centers with sound economic policies in place for future improvement” said Diarietou Gaye, the World Bank’s Country Director for Kenya. “To sustain momentum, Kenya needs to continue investing in infrastructure and jobs, improve its business climate, and boost it exports.”

The report says that the country’s expansive fiscal policy allowed it to finance major infrastructure projects without putting excessive pressure on domestic financing. “Kenya’s accommodative monetary policy stance has supported economic activities without triggering inflation or putting pressure on the exchange rate.” said John Randa, World Bank Group’s Senior Economist for Kenya and lead author of the report.

Challenges remain

Sluggish demand for exports and their declining production is widening the country’s current account deficit. The report suggests that in order to anchor and sustain growth, Kenya needs to boost productivity and improve the business environment to regain and increase its competitiveness.

In recent years the manufacturing’s contribution to Kenyan exports and growth has fallen behind and performance has been less than optimal. “Kenya needs to increase the competitiveness of its manufacturing sector so that the country can grow, export, and create much-needed jobs, said Maria Paulina Mogollon, World Bank Group’s Private Sector Development Specialist and a co-author of the report.       

A strong manufacturing sector will create more employment, especially for young people in Kenya. The report suggests that this will also increase exports and reduce the country’s external vulnerability from a widening account deficit.

The report highlights key steps for Kenya to take including  implementing the business reform agenda, completing reforms at the port of Mombasa, improving the efficiency of its massive infrastructural projects, strengthening governance, improving productivity, and continuing to maintain macroeconomic stability.

The KEU is prepared by the World Bank in collaboration with stakeholders from the government especially the members of the Economic Roundtable who include the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, Ministry of Industrialization and Enterprise Development, Central Bank of Kenya, Kenya School of Monetary Studies, Kenya Vision 20130 Secretariat, Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and the International Monetary Fund.

AMISOM – Somali Fire-Fighters undergo training in Nairobi (2nd March 2015)

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Farmers in Nigeria refuse to give up lands for massive rice plantation backed by the G8

Monday, February 02, 2015

Farmers in Nigeria’s north eastern state of Taraba are being forced off lands they have farmed for generations to make way for US company Dominion Farms to establish a 30,000 ha rice plantation.

The Dominion Farms project forms part of the G8′s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa and the Nigerian government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda, which are both intended to enhance food security and livelihoods for small farmers in Nigeria. A new report, however, finds that the Dominion Farms project is having the opposite effect. The report was produced by two Nigerian NGOs, Environmental Rights Action (ERA)/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (FoEN) and Center for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), with the support of Global Justice Now and GRAIN. It is based on field investigations and interviews conducted with local farmers, community leaders and government officials.

The report shows how the lands provided to Dominion Farms are part of a public irrigation scheme that thousands of families depend on for their food needs and livelihoods. The local people were not consulted about the Dominion Farms project and, although the company has already started to occupy the lands, they are still completely in the dark about any plans for compensation or resettlement. Dominion Farms is involved in a similar land grab for a rice farm in Kenya that has generated conflicts with local communities.

“The only story we hear is that our land is taken away and will be given out. We were not involved at any level,” says Rebecca Sule, one of the affected woman farmers from the Gassol Community in Taraba State. “For the sake of the future and our children, we are requesting governmental authorities to ask Dominion Farms to stay away from our land.”

“Our land is very rich and good. We produce a lot of different crops here, and we farm fish and rear goats, sheep and cattle,” says Mallam Danladi K Jallo, another local farmer from Gassol. “But since the Dominion Farms people arrived with their machine and some of their working equipment, we were asked to stop our farm work and even leave our lands as the land is completely given to the Dominion Farms project.

“The local people are united in their opposition to the Dominion Farms project,” says Raymond Enoch, one of the authors of the report and director of CEED. “They want their lands back so that they can continue to produce food for their families and the people of Nigeria.”

Nigeria is already suffering from violent conflicts and insecurity, especially in the North. Land grabs for agribusiness projects will only make the situation worse.

The report can be accessed here.

For more information please contact:

Mariann Bassey Orovwuje (Abuja, Nigeria)
Environmental Rights Action (ERA)/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (FoEN)
mariann@eraction.org
+234 70 34 49 59 40

Raymond Enoch (Jalingo, Nigeria)
Center for Environmental Education and Development (CEED)
ceednigeria@yahoo.com
+234 70 65 55 02 17

Heidi Chow (London, UK)
Global Justice Now
Heidi.Chow@globaljustice.org.uk
+44 20 7820 4900

Ange David Baimey (Accra, Ghana)
GRAIN
ange@grain.org
+233 269 089 432

PSC/PR/COMM.(CDLXXXVIII) – African Union – Peace and Security Council 488th Meeting 23. February 2015 – Communique

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2015/320/AFR: World Bank Boosts Fisheries in South West Indian Ocean African Countries

WASHINGTON, February 27, 2015 – The World Bank Group’s (WBG) Board of Executive Directors today approved a total of US$75.5 million to improve the management of fisheries and increase the economic benefits from fishing-related activities for families living in the coastal communities of the South West Indian Ocean region.

The First South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Governance and Shared Growth Project(SWIOFish1) will help improve regional cooperation for the nine African countries that border the waters of the South West Indian Ocean.

“Fisheries are a key contributor to food security, nutrition and job creation for rural coastal populations of the South West Indian Ocean, who are among the poorest and most vulnerable in the region,” said Colin Bruce, World Bank Director of Regional Integration for the Africa Region“Promoting sustainable use of fisheries, linking smaller operators to new value chains and improving regional cooperation over shared resources will boost shared prosperity in these countries and the entire region.”

The coastal populations of the South West Indian Ocean region suffer from challenges such as too little economic growth, hunger, poverty and exposure to climate change impacts. Fish stocks in the region are increasingly facing risks of overexploitation or depletion from overfishing by industrial vessels and artisanal fishers.

The project will initiate regional discussions and cooperation to develop a regional fisheries management program focusing on reducing pressure on the fishing ecosystems and helping countries address shared challenges. Safeguarding fish resource productivity and developing the value chain for fish production will expand the fishers’ livelihoods as a step towards reducing poverty.

Financed by $75.5 million from the International Development Association (IDA)*, the WBG’s fund for the poorest, and $15.5 in co-financing trust funds form the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the project will support regional coordination and cooperation to improve the management and sustainable development of fisheries in the South West Indian Ocean and will benefit the countries in the South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Commission: Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Yemen and Maldives.

Three countries in the region, Comoros, Mozambique, and Tanzania have already taken steps to develop strategies and institutions to improve fisheries management and marine health through other World Bank projects. To leverage these previous investments Comoros will receive $13 million, Mozambique will receive $37 million and Tanzania will receive $36 million to strengthen country-wide institutions and activities, improve fishers’ livelihoods, expand the regional business climate and increase private sector investment in the fishing industry.

“Overfishing, including from uncontrolled small-scale fishing, progressively undermines the resource base upon which coastal communities depend, said World Bank Task Team Leader Xavier F. P. Vincent. “The South West Indian Ocean marine fisheries are part of a larger marine ecosystem shared by all countries of the region. Today’s project will support regional coordination among the countries that border the South West Indian Ocean, improve the health and sustainability of the fisheries.”

#OpenToSyria – Amnesty International’s Chart of World Action towards the refugees of the conflict in Syria

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