Day: August 26, 2021

President Cyril Ramaphosa has arrived in Berlin, Germany, on Thursday, 26 August 2021, to attend a G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) meeting in Berlin on 26 and 27 August.

The G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) was initiated under the G20 German Presidency in 2017 to promote private investment into the African continent.

Currently, 12 African countries have joined the initiative: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Morocco, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia.

South Africa, which is a member of the G20, co-chairs the initiative alongside Germany.

The Berlin meetings will include a G20 Investment Summit, as well as a separate meeting of Heads of State and Heads of Government, where discussions will take place on ways in which to improve the business environment and increase investment in Africa.

The conference will also discuss vaccine production in Africa, which is key to enabling African countries to build back stronger, faster and more inclusively, and ensuring that the post-pandemic African economies become more resilient and equitable.

President Ramaphosa is scheduled to have a meeting with Chancellor Merkel to discuss bilateral and regional issues.

President Ramaphosa will be accompanied by Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Dr Naledi Pandor.

Media can virtually access and cover parts of the programme which will be livestreamed on PresidencyZA digital platforms as follows:

• Session 1: G20 Investment Summit of the CwA

Date: Friday, 27 August 2021

Time: 16:00

• Media briefing by Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Felix Tshisekedi

Date: Friday, 27 August 2021

Time: 19:30

Source: The Presidency Republic of South Africa

A World Health Organization official said Thursday that the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic on the continent appeared to be stabilizing, but numbers of infections are still very high, with almost 248,000 new cases reported in the past week alone.

During a virtual briefing on the status of the pandemic in Africa, WHO Africa Regional Director Matshidiso Moeti said that 24 countries were seeing a resurgence of infections and that deaths were rising in eight countries.

She said, “This is a preventable tragedy if African countries can get fair access to the vaccines.”

Moeti said the good news was that 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the past week, triple that of the previous week. She said many of the doses came from donations and sharing arrangements through the WHO-administered COVAX vaccine cooperative.

She said 117 million doses were due to arrive in Africa in the coming month. But to meet the goal of having at least 10 percent of the continent vaccinated by the end of September, she said, another 34 million doses will be needed.

The WHO Africa director urged nations with ample supplies to keep sharing doses. She said, “With international solidarity we can protect those at highest risk of COVID-19 in all countries in the world.”

She also encouraged African governments to ensure that staffing and financial resources were available when shots arrived “to get vaccines into the arms of our populations. No precious doses should be wasted.”

Source: Voice of America

UN has verified and reported 266,000 cases of grave rights violations against children in conflict zones since 2005

“Twenty-five years ago, Graça Machel released her report to the United Nations, ‘The impact of war on children’, which urged the international community to take concrete action to protect children from the scourge of war and called on the United Nations and the global community to act to protect children.

The international community heeded the call and took action based on Machel’s recommendations, with the General Assembly establishing the Office of the SRSG on Children and Armed Conflict, and the Security Council establishing a coordinated UN monitoring and reporting mechanism to continue to track the impact of war on children.

“Since then, The United Nations (UN) has verified 266,000 cases of grave violations against children in more than 30 conflict situations across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America over the past 16 years. This includes more than 104,100 children killed and maimed, 93,000 children recruited and used in fighting and support roles, 25,700 children abducted, and another 14,200 child victims of sexual violence.

“In 2020, the UN verified a total of 26,425 violations against children in conflict situations. This corresponds to 72 violations occurring every single day or three violations every hour. It also marked the seventh year in a row with at least 20,000 verified violations.

“These are only the cases that can be verified through the UN-led Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism, established in 2005 to systematically document the most egregious violations against children in conflict zones. The true figures are undoubtedly much higher.

“But these are not mere statistics. Rather, they represent young lives that have been lost or otherwise devastated by horrifying trauma and suffering. Indeed, many children suffer from more than one grave violation. In 2020, the UN verified that about 10 per cent of the nearly 20,000 affected children were victims of two or more grave violations.

“Despite these continuing impacts on children, significant progress has been made since the report was released, to protect children from conflict. This includes the implementation of global measures and strategies to help keep children safe. Notable examples are the Paris Principles which aim to prevent the recruitment and use of children in armed forces and groups and the Safe School Declaration to strengthen the protection of education from attack and restrict use of schools and universities for military purposes.

“In addition, the UN continues to work directly with families and communities to reduce children’s vulnerabilities and provide them with the support they need to recover from war. Over the years, the UN and its partners have worked relentlessly to secure the release of thousands of children associated with armed forces and armed groups, including 12,643 children in 2020, and provide them with appropriate care and reintegration services.

“Across conflict situations, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG CAAC) supports the engagement of the UN with all parties to conflict to enter into written timebound commitments to end and prevent violations. UNICEF, through its programmatic presence, together with the co-chairs of the country task forces on monitoring and reporting and UN child protection monitors and experts, assists in identifying entry points for engagement with commanders from armed forces and groups to negotiate concrete measures to protect children. Since 2005, 35 Action Plans and an increasing number of unilateral commitments have been signed by parties to conflict in 17 conflict situations, and have put in place measures to:

• Protect children from the impact of war,

• Prevent grave violations from occurring,

• Release children associated with armed forces and armed groups and reintegrate them in their communities,

• Protect children from sexual violence,

• Protect schools and hospitals and

• Hold perpetrators accountable.

“Nevertheless, grave rights violations continue, pointing to a widespread and appalling disregard for the rights and wellbeing of children by parties to conflict. At this time, just 18 of the 61 parties to conflict listed in the annexes of the 2021 Secretary-General’s annual report on children and armed conflict have a joint Action Plan or similar commitments with the UN to prevent grave rights violations against children. This is unacceptable. All parties listed should agree and adhere to an Action Plan to protect children and to put in place measures to prevent violations against children from occurring in the first place.

“As Graça Machel said 25 years ago, ‘The impact of conflict on children is everyone’s responsibility, and it must be everyone’s concern’. Parties to conflict and those with influence over them, as well as the international community, should heed this call to action and redouble efforts to end grave violations of children’s rights. All children have the right to be protected from harm and to live in peace.”

Source: UN Office of the SRSG for Children and Armed Conflict

The period coincides with Land cultivation and planting of long cycle crops. The current response to support the vulnerable farming communities with adequate agricultural inputs remained below the expected target for most regions due to low funding, delayed procurement and logistical challenges during this period. In total 12.9 million people (24% of the analysed population of about 54 million) are expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity ( IPC Phase 3 or above) despite planned humanitarian food assistance and other development interventions.

Source: World Food Programme

Deputy President David Mabuza during a virtual sitting of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), called on the country to rethink and recommit to the project of nation building, social cohesion and the role that an inclusive economy would play in achieving these ideals.

This was in response to a question from a member of the African National Congress on how the Moral Regeneration contributed to quelling racial tensions following the recent public violence in Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal. The killings necessitates us to follow through on our interventions to address racial tensions in the country.

In response to the question, Deputy President Mabuza, who is the patron of the Moral Regeneration Movement informed the NCOP that in order to propel South Africa into a type of society envisioned in the National Development Plan, the case for moral regeneration became a collective responsibility of government, civil society, business and non-governmental organisations.

In this regard, the Moral Regeneration Movement continues to advocate for campaigns around the Charter of Positive Values, aimed at ensuring that we realise our goal of social cohesion and of building safer communities so that we progress as a country.

Deputy President Mabuza stressed that the initiatives can only succeed if they involve community-based organisations, faith-based organisations, traditional leaders, the business community, labour organisations, law enforcement agencies, including research and academic institutions.

This calls on all of society and government to find shared and sustainable solutions towards nation building and social cohesion and approach the challenges of economic exclusion, systemic poverty with vigour.

“South Africa still has mounting challenges ahead to overcome in fulfilling the hopes and dreams we had at the fall of apartheid. It is therefore incumbent upon all of us, working across political lines to lead and address decisively the root causes of these unrests and find shared sustainable solutions to ensure this dark period in our history is never repeated” said Deputy President David Mabuza.

The Deputy President has previously appealed that all leaders, no matter their positions in society, have an obligation to promote the Constitutional values of non-racialism and non-sexism, human dignity and the rule of law, and not allow South Africa to regress to past divisions.

Above this, the Deputy President recommitted government to work towards economic inclusivity and improving socio-economic conditions of poverty unemployment and inequality, which are paramount to the achievement of social cohesion.

Source: The Presidency Republic of South Africa