[ad_1]
We are glad you are here Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.
Highlights this week: Latest IPCC ReportThe funding gap in climate research on the continent is highlighted when African countries start official evacuations for their citizens Russia’s war in Ukraine, Libya’s oil production Stalls are affected by a global price rise
Sign up to receive Africa Brief by email every Wednesday. Here.
Africa’s Climate Funding Shortfall
African countries have suffered some of the world’s heaviest burdensClimate crisis: heat waves, droughts and floods. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC), these effects will only get worse over the next decade. Report releasedLast week. However, Africa receives less funding than other regions for research to prepare for the future. Investments in climate resilience projects on Africa are not up to par by billions of dollar.
The IPCC predicts that people and species won’t be able to cope with the rising temperatures in some parts of Africa, and that glaciers on the continent’s most spectacular mountains, such as Mount Kilimanjaro, may disappear in the coming decades. “By 1.5° C global warming, you could be seeing up to around 50 days per year of potential lethal heat in West Africa,” said Christopher Trisos, a lead author of the report and a director of the African Climate and Development Initiative at the University of Cape Town.
According to the report, African countries are likely to face challenges in adapting to climate change because they lack sufficient data and financial resources. Since 1990, less than 4 percent of global climate change research funding has been directed at Africa. However, 78 percent of that funding has gone towards researchers in the United States or Europe. The funds were also less than 15% for African scientists.
Trisos explained that this funding gap is why non-African institutions are responsible for setting the research questions. These questions may not be as specific as local needs. Since the United Kingdom became its largest, Research funderFor climate adaptation, its grants to Africa have largely supported research in former British colonies. Research on North African countries is the most underfunded, despite the region’s particular vulnerability Drought.
The lack of funding for African-based scientists has broad-reaching consequences. It hinders the development of accurate climate models as well as early warning systems. For example, there are very few regularly reporting weather stations in Africa. “Without those weather stations, you have much less data to work with to develop the scientific models and algorithm that can provide you with early warning systems that people in Europe and North America are used to receiving,” Trisos told Foreign Policy.
Despite the fact that Africa is not funding its climate research, it is still a very small country. This means that critical information remains behind paywalls for many Africans. More research should be open access, since scientists in African institutions often don’t have the resources to access Africa-related studies within American and European journals, leading them to use Shadow websitesSci-Hub.
According to the IPCC report, climate change has hampered agricultural productivity growth in Africa more so than in any other region. Additional stresses will impact revenue exports like maize, coffee and tea. More than half of Africans live within dense forests. coastal citiesLike Alexandria, Maputo and Lagos. As the climate crisis worsens in Africa, the cost of sea-level rise to 12 African cities could exceed $86 billion. Trisos noted that climate funding has been diverted to research in urban living, health, and cities.
Africa will require $50 billion to adapt to a warmer climate. However, some estimates put that Africa will only need to spend $50 billion on cooling systems to combat extreme heat. Ethiopia, for example. Will spend$6 billion annually by 2030 to mitigate the impact of flooding, hailstorms, wildfires and other natural disasters. According to the IPCC authors, aligning sovereign credit relief with climate goals could increase finance through redirecting debt-servicing payment to climate resilience.
In the end, African countries need an integrated approach to resilience financing that includes clearly defining priorities. Defined goalsBut, even more important, the future plans and research data must be better aligned with the communities that are facing climate risks. This can only happen if you directly fund researchers in those communities.
Friday, March 11U.S. Secretaryof State Antony BlinkenMeets with Chairman of the African Union Commission Moussa FakiWashington
Tuesday, March 15, 2015The U.N. Security Council gives a briefing about the U.N. Mission in South SudanAs its mandate expires.
Wednesday, March 16: A briefing and consultation is held by the United Nations with the U.N. Support Mission to Libya regarding sanctions against Libya.
Students from Nigeria who fled Ukraine were allowed to disembark on a chartered plane at Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Nigeria, on March 4.KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images
Ukraine evacuations. Following reports of racism by Ukrainian border guards and denial of access to their territory, several African countries, including Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana and Nigeria, have begun chartered evacuations for their citizens fleeing Ukraine. bomb shelters. There were 76,000. foreign studentsNearly one-fourth of the Ukrainian population was African at the beginning of the invasion.
Ghana was the First countryTo begin evacuations. Its deputy foreign Minister Held talksFriday, the Hungarian ambassador in Budapest met with some Ghanaian medical students who were left behind in Hungary.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari Has been approvedAn $8.5 million fund will be used to help evacuate at least 5,000 Nigerians out of Europe. According to the foreign ministry more than 800 Nigerians arrived in Abuja’s capital over the weekend. Officials hope to broker a deal to allow Nigerians to exit via the Russian border, a move also announced by Tanzania’s government.
According to the Tanzanian government, it claimed that it had secured safe passage for students studying near Kharkiv with the Russian army. Local reports.
Libya oil production. U.N. Special Assistant on Libya Stephanie Williams called Monday for the lifting by an armied group of a production blockade in Libyan oil fields. This was due to the possibility of an embargo affecting Russian oil. energy pricesto soar. “Blocking oil production deprives all Libyans from their major source of revenue,” She wroteFollow us on Twitter. The ninth-largest known country is Libya Oil reservesIt is subject to numerous blockades, which often hamper its output.
The latest suspension saw an armed group headed by Mohamed Bashir al Garj close down the valves that deliver crude oil. Williams has also offered to mediate in Libya’s ongoing parliamentary schism. Last week, Libya’s eastern-based parliament swore in a new parallel government to replace Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s administration. Dbeibah, who is based in Tripoli has refused to give power to any other than an elected government.
Burkina Faso interim government. Paul-Henri Damiba announced his appointment as interim president of Burkina Faso. New governmentlasting three years, 25 ministers on Saturday after a Military coupOn January 23, Barthelemy Simpore, Defense Minister, is still in the group. He held this position under his previous leadership. In a statement issued on Thursday, the military junta declared Albert Ouedraogo prime minister.
Simpore’s appointment comes as a surprise because one key reason given for the coup was the poor performance of the armed forces under ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. Simpore guided the army under Kaboré, which was poorly equipped against jihadist groups.
Vaccine drive. Nigerian pop star Yemi Alade is now the ambassador for the continent’s coronavirus vaccine drive, led by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A New videoThe campaign targets can be found here 60 percent of Africa’s population who are under the age of 25. Alade rose to international fame as the first female Afropop singer to reach more than 100 million YouTube views. She also won multiple music awards.
Fewer than 13 percentDue to lack of access, many Africans are fully vaccinated. infrastructure challenges. But African countries are now overcoming this obstacle. These constraints. Seven of them have been fully vaccinated. 40%The Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau have vaccinated a greater percentage of their populations than the rest. 15%of citizens.
Most of Africa’s climate research funding comes from outside Africa. It goes to non African institutions. International funders should listen to African scientists and “empower them to set the research agenda,” a lead author of a U.N. climate report told Foreign Policy.
Frozen accounts.Dozens of African startups were able to launch their businesses. Bank accountsSuspended on March 1, Rest of the World reports. All were clients Mercury, an American online bank. Mercury informed those affected that the accounts had been flagged by its compliance team for suspicious behavior. Although the cause is unknown, sources at both international and Nigerian banking institutions told the outlet that banks have begun to look into accounts in high risk jurisdictions around the world due to sanctions imposed on Russian financial institutions. This is often what happens to African companies.
Zuma backs Putin. In a Long statement released by his foundation, former South African President Jacob Zuma backed Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s war in Ukraine. “Ukraine is being used basically as a front, so that Russia can be brought to its knees through unjustifiable sanctions,” he said. Zuma added that Putin’s decision was “justifiable,” accusing Western powers of leaving Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya in ruins
“We all need peace in this world. Therefore, we would like to urge those involved to bring peace as swiftly as possible so that lives can be saved,” the statement said.
Facebook failings.In a deep diveThe Bureau of Investigative Journalism reports that victims of violence in northern Ethiopia’s Amhara region accuse Facebook of allowing activists to incite ethnic killings. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported, “The company knew for years that it was fueling tensions within Ethiopia.”
Thousands of people have died and more than 2 million people have been forced from their homes since fighting broke out between government forces and armed rebels from the country’s Tigray region in November 2020.
[ad_2]
