IPS – Governments expressed the will at the seventh ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to finish the Doha Round of trade negotiations as soon as possible. But the Africa Group still deems development to be a more important priority than a speedy conclusion.

Despite the decision of the seventh ministerial meeting to aim for a close to the Doha Round by the end of 2010, Hicham Badr, the ambassador of Egypt and coordinator of the Africa group, stressed that the Africa Group will continue to push for a Doha Round based on a developmental mandate.

Read more – http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/index.asp

AfDB – A major delegation led by the AfDB President, Donald Kaberuka, will attend a Round Table meeting on the implementation of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, on 5 and 6 November.

The International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) is a mechanism for regional peace, security, stability and development in the eleven core countries of Africa’s Great Lakes region*, an area with a population of 282 million and an estimated 2009 GDP of USD 260 billion.

Read more – http://www.afdb.org/en/news-events/article/afdb-active-support-to-the-great-lakes-region-5271/

Emeritus Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson, Honorary President of Oxfam International and former UN commissioner for human rights, will hear testimony from people living on the climate front line at a special tribunal in Cape Town.

The climate witnesses from across Africa will testify about the impacts which climate change is already having on their lives. Tutu and Robinson will relay these messages to African and world leaders at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen at the end of the year. Over 125 hearings, involving more than half a million people, are being held in 17 countries ahead of the Summit which is set to agree a global deal to tackle climate change.

Climate change is a huge threat to development in Africa. Despite contributing less than 3 per cent of global emissions the continent will be hit hard. Scientists predict serious impacts on the production of many staple foods – with the average yields of maize in Southern Africa projected to decline by 30 percent. The number of people without adequate access to water on the continent is predicted to triple to 600 million by 2050.

Climate witnesses from Kenya, Mali, Malawi, Ethiopia and South Africa will be attending the hearing which is being organised by Oxfam International and South Africa’s Environmental Monitoring Group. Rachel Hesselman, a small-scale rooibos tea farmer from the Suid-Bokkeveld region in South Africa has worked hard to make the most of the opportunities which have opened up since the first democratic elections. She now sells organic fair trade certified rooibos tea to a growing local and foreign market. However her hard-won gains are being threatened by drought and rising temperatures.

International climate talks are now entering their second week in Bangkok. There are just 9 weeks to go till Copenhagen but many crucial issues – including how much new money is going to made available to help poor countries adapt to a changing climate – have yet to be resolved.

Read more – http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2009-10-05/africa-speaks-out-climate-change

A franchise is a “business strategy” designed to maximise market share and minimise risk for its participants.

African Development Bank research states “franchising contributes to poverty reduction and wealth creation”. Therefore franchising is a good model for enterprise as its an established business strategy that allows the person buying into it – the franchisee – to have a business that is tried and tested and able to trade from day one. There is the additional bonus of ongoing support from the owner of the franchise – the franchisor. Now what if the opportunity existed for this type of business model to be rolled out across the countries of sub-saharan Africa rapidly but instead of the traditional franchisor and franchisee financial relationship a whole new arrangement was attempted. This business model is called “social franchising”. This is where an NGO such as Geo-POD has a replicable, scaleable and workable model that it wants to rapidly expand in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. It identifies Social entrepreneurs in each area to approach and offer the opportunity to run a Geo-POD facility. There are no funds required by them to get the “social franchise” and the most important thing they need is the desire to develop their community and make a difference. They coordinate the establishment of a workers cooperative that converts the containers for not only the original Geo-POD facility but also all other layout designs and uses of a converted container. These will be leased to local micro enterprises. It creates an asset for the workers cooperative that creates not only a continous revenue stream but they own the containers and can use these assets to secure funds against for future development, if required. They will develop the relationship with the teacher who is managing the Edu-POD educational facility and the medical worker in charge of the Medi-POD facility. They will work to ensure the services of the Trade-POD – communications, PlayPump etc are fully available to them. International agencies and charities will be identified who are willing to support the Geo-POD facility as their own front line delivery point. This will ensure a steady stream of educational and medical programmes being started and funded through to completion. Sometimes its clear that the international support is there but where do they start when it comes to identifying suitable partners on the ground who are above corruption and outside the normal infrastructure. This truely makes the Geo-POD unique – its the facility that allows those who want to help, to actually ensure this help gets to the people its meant for ie. the Point Of Delivery – the “POD”.

With the price of oil at a record high, Africa needs alternative sources of energy. . As sunlight is readily available on the continent, solar energy should be a viable solution. So far just two African countries, Morocco and Algeria, have begun to explore the potential of solar power by building massive plants in the desert. Domestic solar panels can provide cheap and reliable electricity. Send your comments to: BBC News

Ewalin is a news agency that focuses on the development issues affecting Africa.

If the goals of economic development include:

- improved standards of living – removal of poverty – access to dignified employment – reduction in inequlaity then it is quite natural to start with women.

They constitute the majority of the poor, the under-employed and the economically and socially disadvantaged.

They are closer to the children and therefore the key to any countries future. Given any opportunity at all, a poor woman in any society wants to build up her security especially her financial security. Destitute women adapt quicker and better to the self-help process than men. Poor women have the vision to see further and are willing to work harder to get out of poverty because they suffer the most. Women pay more attention, prepare their children to have better lives and are more consistent in their performance than men. Money going through a woman in a household brings more benefits to the family as a whole than money entering the household through a man. Geo-PODs greatest opportunity exists when it engages fully with the women of any community and makes them realise that this facility with all its opportunities, products and services, will act as a true catalyst for helping them to not only improve but also change their communities for the better. These facilities will have long term effects when it comes to opportunities for women in their community but also for their children.

Only seven years now remain before the 2015 deadline by which world leaders have pledged to reduce hunger and extreme poverty by half and to make substantial gains in education, health, social equity, environmental sustainability and international solidarity. 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. 2. Achieve universal primary education. 3. Promote gender equality and empower women. 4. Reduce child mortality. 5. Improve maternal health. 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. 7. Ensure environmental sustainability. 8. Develop a global partnership for development.

Ewalin is a news agency that focuses on the development issues affecting Africa. It provides a news agency for the collection of ALL news relating to development issues generated by agencies, organisations, charities, government bodies etc. on both the African continent and internationally and presents the information in a way that is accessible by all and easy to understand. This includes providing useful hints and guidance as to where other linked information is available to further the persons research or knowledge base and presenting the information in a context so as to help the reader see the picture at all levels. There is plenty of information available on all aspects of Africa’s development but it is offered across many platforms by organisations working on tight budgets and Ewalin will aim to provide a platform that works to bring all these threads together.