NEPAD WEEKLY. Top stories this week

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1 NEPAD WEEKLY 26 APRIL 2018 Top stories this week 14th CAADP Partnership Platform Multi-pronged approach for food and nutrition security Africa power pools and utilities support NEPAD Continental Transmission Masterplan Enhancing TB screening among healthcare workers 14th CAADP Partnership Platform Libreville, Gabon April 25, Every day that passes, we are learning and getting more convinced on the inevitability of ensuring our agricultural systems are investment worthy and accelerating the Implementation of National Agricultural Investment Plans to Achieve the Malabo goals and targets. This was the sentiment at the 14th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform, currently convened in Libreville, Gabon. The 2018 Partnership Platform provides space and platform for all CAADP partners for results-oriented dialogue on strengthening accountability mechanisms within the context of agricultural transformation and development. In his opening remarks, H.E Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet the Prime Minister of Gabon said, Malabo Biennial Review is pertinent as it gives indicators for countries to follow for agriculture transformation. The 14th CAADP Partnership Platform meeting is happening after an interesting experience in investing in mutual accountability. The lessons learned from the past three years in articulating an African home-grown model to track performance and report on progress is definitely an important milestone for Africa, in its quest to hold the various parties interested and involved in driving transformation in the agriculture sector in a sustainable manner. Use the Malabo Biennial Review Report outcomes to mobilise Resources to invest in our agriculture sector and accelerate transformation on our continent, said H.E Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, AUC Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture. The 14th CAADP PP also recognises and seek to bring out, in practical implementation terms, the connections between CAADP, African Agriculture (Malabo Declaration and CAADP Results Framework) and the Africa Union Agenda 2063, as well as the work on the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. The Partnership Platform is an annual continental forum which brings together stakeholders in African agriculture and food security. The mobilisation of efforts on agriculture will be key to the success of the Malabo Declaration and its commitments. Malabo is the way forward and all stakeholders should come on board, the Director of Programmes at the NEPAD Agency, Mrs Estherine Fotabong said. The 14th CAADPP was led by a policy learning pre-event focusing on Malabo Biennial Review success, challenges and lessons. The event was attended by 350 participants from 54 different African states, 11 regional economic communities, 60 development partner organisations, 15 private sector, media and civil society organisations. 1

2 Multi-pronged approach for food and nutrition security Dakar, April 25, Nutrition is a pre-requisite for development, especially as Africa seeks to meet the goals of Agenda 2063, the continent s framework for socioeconomic development, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. To this end, selected focus countries and other stakeholders convened in Dakar, Senegal, between 25 and 27 April, to elaborate on translating country priority nutrition policies, strategies and implementation modalities; focusing on specific multi-sectoral interventions, especially the integration of agriculture as one of the key components. The first meeting of the Initiative for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa (IFNA) on Country Strategy for Action (ICSA) in Dakar, provided strategic guidance in a government-led, participatory and multi-sectoral manner towards actions on the ground to improve nutrition. IFNA aims to assist countries in Africa to accelerate nutrition-related policies on the ground through: Identifying priority areas for action; generating multi-sectoral synergy of collaboration; integrating agriculture sector into nutrition interventions, and; utilising good practices and to strengthen capacity of stakeholders. NEPAD Agency s commitment to ending hunger and malnutrition in Africa was underscored by the Agency s CEO, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki. It is my conviction that for IFNA s mission and goals to be achieved, we need to build relevant communities of practice for action, and change management; ensure alignment through multisector platforms for policy and programme coherence, and; pursue knowledge co-creation and application thereof, Dr Mayaki said. IFNA s ICSA also serves as an instrument for advocacy and resource mobilisation for participating countries in a more effective manner to avoid diffusion of the limited resources and allowing concentration to the highest priorities. Currently there are ten African countries (Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar) that have been participating in this initiative to reduce malnutrition levels. Many more countries are expected to join the initiative. About IFNA: The Initiative for Food and Nutrition Security in Africa (IFNA) is an international initiative that was launched at an international conference that Japanese government hosted, called 6 th Tokyo International Conference on Africa Development (TICAD VI) in Nairobi, Kenya. This initiative aims to contribute to a comprehensive improvement in the nutrition status of Africa in line with the Second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2) and the Malabo Declaration. NEPAD Agency and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are co-chairs of the initiative. It is governed by a Steering Committee, whose members include FAO, WFP, UNICEF, WHO, IFAD, World Bank, African Development Bank and JIRCAS. The objective of IFNA is to establish a framework for collaboration with African governments in order to accelerate the implementation of their food and nutrition security policies on the ground. 2

3 Africa power pools and utilities support NEPAD Continental Transmission Masterplan Addis Ababa, April 26, NEPAD Agency s proposal for the establishment of a Continental Transmission Network was well received at the meeting held in Addis Ababa from April, by the 11 Africa Power Pools Forum and the Association of Africa Power Utilities. The Continental Transmission Network will link all the African utilities and create a huge energy market that will enable any utility to source energy from the most competitive sources within Africa or beyond. The Africa Power Pools Forum and the Association of Africa Power Utilities gave their support to NEPAD Agency to realise the visionary proposal that will lead to an integrated and prosperous Africa in its best form, remarked Prof Mosad Elmissiry, Senior Energy Advisor to the NEPAD Agency s CEO. The meeting further undertook to work with NEPAD Agency and develop the terms of reference for a team to develop the masterplan for the Continental Transmission Network. Furthermore, both the power pools and utilities requested NEPAD Agency to expand the transmission network to become a continental power system network that includes both generation and transmission. The NEPAD plan was welcomed as instrumental to the continental network for energy sufficiency in Africa. The plan is anchored first on the development and the realisation of each power pool masterplan, where all the utilities within each power pool are first connected and then all the regional networks linked using the most optimum links, thereby forming the continental transmission network. The continental transmission network will be connected with Europe through the existing link between Morocco and Spain and the planed links between Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria with Italy. In addition, the continental transmission network will be connected with Asia via the existing link between Egypt and Jordon. It will be also connected to the Gulf States via the existing link between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, thus creating a huge intercontinental energy market where energy is not only traded within Africa but between Africa and Europe, Asia and the Gulf States. In addition to presenting the continental transmission network, the NEPAD Regional Integration, Infrastructure and Trade programme team (represented by Prof Elmissiry, Tichakunda Simbini and Ephrem Getahun), also presented the useful information provided by the Virtual PIDA Information Centre and the data information systems developed at NEPAD Agency. 3

4 Enhancing TB screening among healthcare workers Johannesburg, April 26, TB remains an occupational risk for healthcare workers in low and middle-income countries, with latent TB infection rate ranging from 33% to 79% routine data from Malawi and Mozambique indicate that TB in healthcare workers stands at 3,7% and 4,5% respectively, and these figures could increase if targeted data collection methods are used. This challenge spreads across many countries in Africa and a lack of specific policies for TB infection control and TB screening among healthcare workers, inadequate mechanisms to ensure compliance to existing policies, passive and non systematic TB screening in health facilities have compounded this problem. East Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) in collaboration with NEPAD Agency organised a regional workshop on TB screening among HCW from April 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The aim of the workshop was conduct an in-depth situational analysis of the status of countries on implementation of TB infection control and TB care for healthcare workers in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia the Southern Africa Tuberculosis and Health Systems (SATBHSS) project participating countries. During the SATBHSS project Regional Advisory Committee held in January 2018 in Maseru, Lesotho, it was recommended that ECSA-HC and NEPAD Agency should provide technical assistance for capacity building to scale up TB infection control and TB screening among healthcare workers in project countries. Furthermore, it was recommended that a thorough review of country policies and guidelines on TB infection control and TB screening as well as to develop the necessary infrastructure to address this problem. It is against this backdrop that this regional gathering was organised and through this platform, the countries are expected to agree and develop national and regional level activities to scale-up TB screening among healthcare workers. In an effort to enhance knowledge exchange, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia made presentations on the current status of TB infection control and TB screening among healthcare workers at national level, outlining programmes that highlight lessons learnt and best practices. A representative from International Labour Organization, Simphiwe Mabhele highlighted the importance of improving working conditions, work policy safety and performance. He also presented an overview of the HealthWISE package that ILO has developed in collaboration with World Health Organization. This package has since been demonstrated and applied at selected health facilities from Lesotho, Mozambique and Zambia. The HealthWISE package is meant to serve all health workers at health facilities and not just a selected few. The HealthWISE package approach is not a separate process from the in-country TB infection control programmes currently being implemented. It is an integrated process built on local and existing programmes to strengthen activities in a systematic way. In attendance at the meeting were representatives from Zimbabwe Biomedical Research for Training institute, brought in specifically to present best practices for learning purposes for the other countries. Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in Africa that has managed to integrate TB infection control and TB screening under the Ministry of Health structures to ensure coordination of different activities. The approach used in Zimbabwe was highly recommend by the Centre for Disease Control and World Bank as the best practice for other countries to learn and is very relevant in as it operates in connection with the Infection Control Africa Network. The workshop led to building consensus on minimum standards for TB screening and TB Care in healthcare work that the countries can be expected to implement at the national level. This contributes to the goals and priority areas associated with the aspiration to achieve a prosperous Africa, based on inclusive growth and sustainable development stipulated in Agenda

5 25 April: World Malaria Day by Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, NEPAD Agency s CEO Malaria is still a real threat to global health. Specialists say mortality related to the disease has dropped by 60% since 2000, but there is still much to be done. In 2016, 445,000 people died. 91% of those deaths occurred in Africa. I would like to share with you this series of articles from Le Monde Afrique that highlights the difficult access to treatments and resistance of mosquitoes to insecticides. Photo: Un volontaire teste le «Faso Soap», un savon anti-paludisme, le 4 novembre 2016 à Ouagadougou au Burkina Faso. CRÉDITS : NABILA EL HADAD / AFP To read more visit: Disclaimer: Material contained in the NEPAD Weekly digest is mainly based on internal content - as it is intended for informational purposes only. However, from time to time, the digest includes external content that would be useful if shared both internally and externally. Whilst every effort is made to ascertain the validity of this content, readers are advised to note that the content irrespective of its source, may on some occasions not be accurate and/or up-to-date. 5