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OSCE PCUz supports youth start-ups in the Khorezm province

OSCE - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 12:12
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On 5 December, the awarding ceremony for youth start-ups in the Khorezm province was held in Urgench. The event marked the conclusion of the capacity-building programme for youth start-ups in the Khorezm province, co-organized by the OSCE PCUz and IT-Park Uzbekistan and launched in September.

The programme aimed to unlock the entrepreneurial and ICT potential of young people through business workshops and ideathons to motivate and unlock their business ideas as well as an incubation programme to enhance capacities in core business disciplines to establish a start-up, and an ICT course to teach coding skills and programming languages for specialists to support the incubation programme graduates.

Business workshops were organized for at least 300 young people, with subsequent ideathons for at least 80 young people. Both activities were organized prior to the incubation programme, whereas the IT-course for at least 30 young people was organized in parallel to the incubation programme. IT Park Uzbekistan provided several premises free of charge at its branch in Urgench.

Abdulla Abdurasulov, a 4th year student of the Urgench Branch of the Tashkent Medical Academy presented his start-up idea ‘Avishifo’, an AI-powered virtual assistant which would help doctors make a faster and more accurate diagnosis, which he developed alongside his team during the incubation programme. Following the event, he stated: “It was a great experience. Coming from a medical background, it was interesting to learn about business and IT and definitely a new challenge for me to create a project that combines the three sectors.”

Within the framework of this programme, the PCUz aims to support small business development and increase employment opportunities for young people through digitalization.

Categories: Central Europe

Shiori Itō: Trump’s re-election makes me question why we vote for men who abuse their power

Euractiv.com - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 12:12

"I was trapped and disabled by the systems that were meant to protect me," writes award-winning filmmaker Shiori Itō.

The post Shiori Itō: Trump’s re-election makes me question why we vote for men who abuse their power appeared first on Euractiv.

Categories: European Union

La Syrie sous le feu : l’Algérie appelle à la mobilisation internationale

Algérie 360 - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 12:10

L’Algérie a exprimé, par le biais d’un communiqué officiel, sa condamnation catégorique des récentes violations de la souveraineté syrienne par l’armée israélienne. Cette prise de […]

L’article La Syrie sous le feu : l’Algérie appelle à la mobilisation internationale est apparu en premier sur .

Categories: Afrique

FAO Renews Its Commitment to Right to Food Guidelines

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 12:07

A family resides in a displacement shelter in the Gaza Strip with little access to food. War-torn regions such as Gaza are highly susceptible to widespread acute food insecurity. Credit: UNICEF/Abed Zagout

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11 2024 (IPS)

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched its newest report on the Right to Food Guidelines on December 10, which focuses on that focused on the urgency of food security as well as the measures that will be taken by the organization to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in the coming decade.

At the launch event for the report, titled “Realizing the Right to Food in a Changing World: The Right to Food Guidelines – 20 Years On and Beyond”, the importance of global cooperation in securing universal access to food was emphasized, for access to food is a fundamental human right.

“The right to adequate food stands as a cornerstone, essential for advancing food security, wellbeing and human dignity, leaving no one behind. Every woman, man, and child is entitled to these rights at all times,” said Maximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist, FAO.

In 2004, FAO adopted the Right to Food Guidelines, a document that laid the groundwork for states to implement the right to food for every citizen. Despite FAO making much progress in the years since, heightened challenges, such as the climate crisis and extended warfare, have made the implementation of these guidelines difficult in many parts of the world.

Todd Howland, the Representative of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Colombia, highlighted the urgency of the current global food situation and how conditions worsened following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Despite our efforts, a global review of agrifood systems today tells us we’re far from realizing the right to food. In 2023, approximately 757 million people experienced hunger, representing 9.1 percent of the global population, compared to 7.5 percent in 2019. Over a quarter of the global population also experienced moderate to severe food insecurity in 2023, accounting for 383 million more people than in 2019. As a result of this undernourishment and food insecurity, last year 148 million children under the age of five had stunted growth,” said Howland.

It is estimated by the Integrated Food Security Classification Phase (IPC) that approximately 1.9 million people are facing catastrophic levels of hunger. Due to escalating violence, frequent climate shocks, and economic downturns, millions of people around the world rely on humanitarian assistance for food.

FAO has stated that the immediate future for these areas is “deeply concerning”, with no indication that conditions will improve anytime soon. Roughly two-thirds of the world relies on agriculture for their livelihoods. Due to agricultural systems facing severe disruptions, humanitarian assistance is needed to supplement economic failures and food insecurity.

“Emergency agriculture assistance is a lifeline and offers a pathway out of hunger, even in the midst of violence and climate shocks. It has life-saving impacts on vulnerable populations enabling them to continue producing food locally to feed themselves, their families and their communities,” says FAO Deputy-Director General Beth Bechdol. However, due to significant gaps in funding, emergency agriculture assistance fails to offer substantial increases in nationwide food security.

During the event, FAO emphasized their upcoming initiatives that aim to ensure universal access to food. Torero Cullen stated that FAO must take systemic issues such as poverty and inequality into account while also scaling up investments in food security and nutrition. Transparency will be crucial moving forward as better access to justice and streamlined monitoring systems are essential in tracking progress and maximizing accountability.

Additionally, FAO confirmed that their agenda moving forward will be to further implement international humanitarian law in their work. In the past two years, the use of starvation as a weapon of war has become prevalent in areas such as Gaza, Sudan, and Haiti.

Sofia Monsalve Suarez, the Secretary-General of FIAN International, a human rights organization that focuses on global food access, stated that it is imperative for human rights organizations, like FIAN and FAO, to condemn such actions.

“The challenge ahead would be to further compliment international humanitarian law with the normative development of the rights to food and nutrition in the past few years,” Monsalve Suarez said. “We could improve the monitoring of food crisis situations using human rights basic principles, connecting the monitoring mechanisms to political or decision-making bodies.”

Another priority for FAO and its partners would be to address the detrimental impacts of corporate concentration when it comes to food production and distribution. Monsalve Suarez remarked that the distribution of land among corporations is currently very unbalanced in terms of concentration. “I don’t think that we will be able to face the challenges of climate change and biodiversity recovery without tackling the inequality of land access,” she said.

For 2025, FAO has launched an appeal for 1.9 billion dollars to provide “life-saving, emergency agriculture assistance” to over 49 million people. If this goal is met, tens of millions of people around the world would be able to produce their own food and make it out of acute food insecurity. With global food insecurity deepening across the globe, FAO urges donor contributions.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 


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Categories: Africa

Renault, Geely, FIAT… L’industrie automobile algérienne redémarre en trombe en 2025

Algérie 360 - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 12:04

La Bourse Algérienne de Sous-Traitance et de Partenariat (BASTP) a dévoilé des projets prometteurs dans le domaine de la fabrication automobile. Parmi les plus marquants, […]

L’article Renault, Geely, FIAT… L’industrie automobile algérienne redémarre en trombe en 2025 est apparu en premier sur .

Categories: Afrique

Dozens of Ghana president-elect's supporters arrested in post-poll chaos

BBC Africa - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 12:01
Supporters of John Mahama allegedly attacked some state institutions and looted properties.
Categories: Africa

Italien im Verzug bei europäischen Investitionsausgaben 

Euractiv.de - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 12:01
Italien gerate bei den Investitionsausgaben in Rückstand, sagte der italienische Abgeordnete Antonio Misiani von der Partito Democratico. Hierbei verwies er auf die Arbeit von Raffaele Fitto, dem neuen Vizepräsidenten der Kommission für Kohäsion und Wiederaufbau, während seiner Amtszeit.
Categories: Europäische Union

Reconciling Privacy and Innovation: The Path Forward on AI in the EU [Promoted content]

Euractiv.com - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 12:00

In an era defined by rapid technological advancement, Europe finds itself at the epicenter of a critical debate: how to protect fundamental rights while fostering the innovation that drives our digital society?

The post Reconciling Privacy and Innovation: The Path Forward on AI in the EU appeared first on Euractiv.

Categories: European Union

Escroquerie-achats en ligne : la gendarmerie démantèle un réseau criminel d’agresseurs

Algérie 360 - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 11:54

À l’ère du numérique, de plus en plus de personnes préfèrent effectuer leurs achats sur Internet. Cependant, certains y voient une opportunité pour perpétrer des […]

L’article Escroquerie-achats en ligne : la gendarmerie démantèle un réseau criminel d’agresseurs est apparu en premier sur .

Categories: Afrique

Réduction des émissions de CO2 : le PPE cherche un compromis mais appelle à s’en tenir aux objectifs pour 2025

Euractiv.fr - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 11:44
Le Parti populaire européen (PPE) de centre droit adoptera un document de position mercredi 11 décembre sur la sécurisation de l’industrie automobile européenne, sans toutefois appeler à un report de deux ans des objectifs en matière de CO2, comme cela avait été initialement proposé.
Categories: Union européenne

Brexit-Abkommen übersteht Abstimmung des nordirischen Parlaments

Euractiv.de - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 11:40
Das nordirische Parlament hat in einer kontroversen Abstimmung einen wichtigen Bestandteil des Brexit-Abkommens mit der EU bestätigt. Das Windsor-Rahmenabkommen regelt die Sonderstellung Nordirlands zum britischen und europäischen Binnenmarkt.
Categories: Europäische Union

L'Ukraine a renoncé à ses armes nucléaires en 1994. Était-ce une bonne idée ?

BBC Afrique - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 11:25
Cela fait 30 ans que l'Ukraine a accepté de renoncer à son arsenal nucléaire. Certains s'interrogent aujourd'hui sur les raisons de cette décision.
Categories: Afrique

L'Ukraine a renoncé à ses armes nucléaires en 1994. Était-ce une bonne idée ?

BBC Afrique - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 11:25
Cela fait 30 ans que l'Ukraine a accepté de renoncer à son arsenal nucléaire. Certains s'interrogent aujourd'hui sur les raisons de cette décision.
Categories: Afrique

Des hôpitaux modernes pour désengorger Alger : le wali visite les chantiers

Algérie 360 - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 11:23

Dans le cadre de son engagement à améliorer la qualité des services de santé dans la capitale, M. Mohamed Abdennour Rabhi, wali d’Alger, a effectué […]

L’article Des hôpitaux modernes pour désengorger Alger : le wali visite les chantiers est apparu en premier sur .

Categories: Afrique

Bulgarien stoppt möglicherweise russischen Gastransit

Euractiv.de - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 10:52
Bulgarien wird den Transit von russischem Gas durch die Balkan-Stream-Pipeline einstellen, wenn Gazprom keine neue Zahlungsmethode findet, sagte Bulgariens Energieminister Vladimir Malinov. Zuvor hatte die USA Sanktionen gegen die Gazprombank verhängt.
Categories: Europäische Union

Joint efforts to combat corruption in focus at first OSCE conference to mark International Anti-Corruption Day

OSCE - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 10:48
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The Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities jointly with the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) hosted the first OSCE conference aimed at commemorating International Anti-Corruption Day, marked annually on 9 December. The conference brought together representatives of academia, civil society, international partners and governments from across the OSCE region, and sought to create a forum of dialogue among these stakeholders on their distinct yet complementary roles in the fight against corruption.

“International Anti-Corruption Day is a call to action – rallying governments, civil society and international partners to engage in meaningful actions and reforms to prevent and combat corruption. This conference should also serve as a call to action,” said Catherine Fearon, Deputy Head of the OSCE Secretariat and Director of the Conflict Prevention Centre.

The conference featured a short presentation of the OSCE’s progress report titled “From Commitment to Action: OSCE’s Anti-Corruption and Good Governance Progress Report 2023-2024”, alongside panel discussions on the importance of political will in the fight against corruption and on ODIHR’s public integrity work with democratic institutions.

“Today on International Anti-Corruption Day, we join the global rally against corruption to amplify our voice and to take a united stand against this scourge,” said Ambassador Bakyt Dzhusupov, Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities. “But we gather also to acknowledge the work we have done across the OSCE region and to celebrate the progress we have achieved,” he added.

At the conference, speakers from various OSCE field operations and institutions had the opportunity to present success stories and the impact of their work on the ground, including their work with youth in the prevention of corruption, on civic engagement for policy development and implementation, and on supporting a more effective administration of justice regarding serious corruption and organized crime cases through trial monitoring.

“While we understand that parliaments across the OSCE region are facing various challenges, we believe it is of the utmost importance to continue improving parliamentary integrity. Parliamentarians are the gatekeepers of democracy, and to regain the trust of citizens in our institutions and ensure that politicians and political institutions are accountable for their actions, we need to put integrity at the top of the agenda,” said Tea Jaliashvili, ODIHR Director’s Alternate and First Deputy Director.

By facilitating open exchange among diverse actors, the conference provided an opportunity to showcase the OSCE’s important work and progress achieved in the fight against corruption, and to reaffirm the organization’s commitment to building societies where integrity prevails and trust is restored.
Categories: Central Europe

Les principaux groupes du Parlement européen s’accordent sur les compétences des nouvelles commissions Défense et Santé

Euractiv.fr - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 10:37
Le Parti populaire européen, les Socialistes et Démocrates et Renew ont convenu, mardi 10 décembre, de transformer les sous-commissions de la Défense et de la Santé du Parlement européen en commissions permanentes à part entière.
Categories: Union européenne

Water Shortages Hit Zimbabwe Towns as Country Struggles To Overcome Impact of El Niño

Africa - INTER PRESS SERVICE - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 10:21

Water woes hit Zimbabwean cities as the country battles to overcome the impact of drought attributed to the El Niño climate pattern. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS

By Jeffrey Moyo
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Dec 11 2024 (IPS)

At a borehole not far from Mpopoma High School in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city, 48-year-old Sakhile Mulawuzi balances a white 25-liter bucket of water on her head as she holds another 10-liter blue bucket filled with water. She trudges these back home along a narrow pathway leading to her house in Mpopoma, one of the high-density areas here.

Similarly, in Masvingo, Zimbabwe’s oldest town, 30-year-old Ruramai Chinoda stands at her neighbor’s house in Rujeko high-density suburb, where she fetches water from a tap because her neighbor has a borehole and shares the precious liquid with the community.

Nearly 300 kilometers north of Masvingo, 43-year-old Nevias Chaurura, a pushcart operator in Mabvuku high-density suburb in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, struggles with a load of eight 20-liter buckets. He delivers them from door-to-door for a minimal fee as many city dwellers battle to find water.

These ongoing water shortages are blamed on a lack of planning and the ongoing El Niño drought. If the residents were hoping for a change in weather conditions, a report released today (Wednesday, December 11, 2024) by the World Meteorological Organization suggests that while the cooling La Niña climate pattern may develop in the next three months, it is expected to be relatively weak and short-lived.

Latest forecasts from WMO Global Producing Centres of Long-Range Forecasts indicate a 55 percent likelihood of a transition from the current neutral conditions (neither El Niño nor La Niña) to La Nina conditions during December 2024 to February 2025, the WMO explains.

Infographic credit: WMO

The return of the ENSO-neutral conditions is then favored during February-April 2025, with about a 55 percent chance.

La Niña refers to the large-scale cooling of the ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, coupled with changes in the tropical atmospheric circulation, such as winds, pressure and rainfall. Generally, La Niña produces the opposite large-scale climate impacts to El Niño, especially in tropical regions.

“However, naturally occurring climate events such as La Nina and El Nino events are taking place in the broader context of human-induced climate change, which is increasing global temperatures, exacerbating extreme weather and climate, and impacting seasonal rainfall and temperature patterns,” the WMO warns.

WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said 2024, which started out with El Niño, is on track to be the hottest year on record.

“Even if a La Niña event does emerge, its short-term cooling impact will be insufficient to counterbalance the warming effect of record heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” said Saulo. “Even in the absence of El Niño or La Niña conditions since May, we have witnessed an extraordinary series of extreme weather events, including record-breaking rainfall and flooding, which have unfortunately become the new norm in our changing climate.”

Zimbabwe is one of six countries that declared a state of emergency over the El Niño-induced drought, which resulted in the lowest mid-season rainfall in 40 years. The weather phenomenon also resulted in intense rain in other regions.

“These severe weather shocks have led to the displacement of thousands of people, disease outbreaks, food shortages, water scarcity and significant impacts on agriculture,” according to the organization OCHA.

Zimbabwean residents blame the water shortages on both the weather and bad planning.

Mulawuzi said for nearly two decades, she has lived with the crisis in the country’s second-largest city and as residents, they have only learnt to live with the challenge and ignore the promises from politicians to end the city’s perennial water crisis over the years.

Each election time, politicians from the governing Zimbabwe Africa National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) have pledged to end Bulawayo’s water woes by working on the Zambezi water pipeline project meant to end the city’s water challenges.

However, since the country’s colonial government laid out the plan more than a century ago, the project has not been implemented.

A 450-kilometer pipeline to bring water from the Zambezi River to Bulawayo was first proposed in 1912 by this country’s colonial government.

Then, like now, the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP) aimed to address the region’s chronic water shortages and to promote socio-economic growth.

Now, water-starved residents of Bulawayo, like Mulawuzi, are forced to endure the accelerated water rationing that has hit the city, lasting at times for nearly a week.

“I have no choice for as long as there is no running water on our taps but to go around some boreholes here in search of the water for my family,” Mulawuzi, a mother of four, told IPS.

When Bulawayo residents, like Mulawuzi, are lucky to have access to water, people in high-density suburbs are now limited to 350 litres of water per day, reduced from 450 liters.

In Bulawayo’s low-density areas, the affluent residents are restricted to 550 liters, down from 650 litres of water when supplied by the council.

In Harare, life has become a gamble for many urbanites like Chaurura, who has now turned the drought into a money-making venture.

“People have no water in their houses and I made a plan to fetch it from boreholes and wells far from the residents and sell it to them. I get a dollar for each 40 liters of water I sell and I make sure I get busy throughout the day,” Chaurura told IPS.

The El Niño drought has resulted in major lakes and dams supplying water in urban areas running low across Zimbabwe, triggering an acute water crisis in towns and cities.

According to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority, most of the dams supplying water to Bulawayo are dangerously low—the Inyakuni is at 9 percent, the Insiza at 36.5 percent, the Lower Ncema at 5.9 percent and the Upper Ncema at 1.7 percent.

The city is currently under a 120-hour water shedding program due to the reduced inflows from the 2023/24 rainy season.

In Harare, where many like Chaurura now thrive making money from the crisis, urban residents commonly move around carrying buckets in search of water. They form long and winding queues at the few water points erected by Good Samaritans.

Some, like 37-year-old Jimson Beta working in the Central Business District, where he fixes mobile phones, now carry empty five-liter containers to work.

“After work, I always fetch water to carry with me back home because there is often no running water where I live with my family. It only comes once a week. We have become used to this problem, which is not normal at all,” Beta told IPS.

For people like Beta, the water situation in the capital Harare has not improved either, even as authorities in government have drilled boreholes to address the crisis.

Just last year, in October, the Zimbabwean government appointed a 19-member technical committee to manage the City of Harare’s water affairs as part of efforts to improve the availability of the precious liquid across the city.

Despite that move, water deficits have continued to pound Harare rather mercilessly and many, like Beta, have had to bear the pain of finding the precious liquid almost every day on their own.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 


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Excerpt:

“Cooling” La Niña conditions may develop in the next three months but are expected to be relatively weak and short-lived, according to the latest update from the World Meteorological Organization. However, the WMO warns that while La Niña tends to have a short-lived cooling effect, it will not reverse long-term human-induced global warming and 2024 remains on track to be the hottest year on record.
Categories: Africa

Demande de visa pour la France : un nouveau prestataire remplacera VFS et TLS dès avril 2025

Algérie 360 - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 10:19

À partir d’avril 2025, les démarches pour obtenir un visa pour la France seront davantage simplifiées. Les Algériens souhaitant se rendre en France devront désormais […]

L’article Demande de visa pour la France : un nouveau prestataire remplacera VFS et TLS dès avril 2025 est apparu en premier sur .

Categories: Afrique

Polen: Human Rights Watch fordert EU-Maßnahmen gegen illegale Pushbacks 

Euractiv.de - Wed, 12/11/2024 - 10:18
Human Rights Watch hat die EU-Kommission aufgefordert, Maßnahmen gegen Polen wegen der rechtswidrigen und gewaltsamen Pushbacks von Asylsuchenden nach Belarus zu ergreifen. Betroffene berichteten über Muster von Misshandlungen durch polnische Grenzbeamte.
Categories: Europäische Union

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