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vickyfinecert · 2 years ago

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ISO 50001 Certification in Lebanon

What is the ISO 50001 Certification?

ISO 50001 is the worldwide preferred Energy Management system for all groups which affords a selected framework for small and big groups to control and decrease strength use and fees. ISO 50001 preferred is primarily based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act Management machine that is extra just like the opposite production groups that had carried out different ISO standards. This framework facilitates its non-stop development in strength performance, efficiency, usage, and consumption.

ISO 50001 preferred decreased strength expenses and improved competitiveness while lowering greenhouse fuel line emissions(GHG) and different environmental impacts. ISO 50001 was first posted using ISO in June 2011 and later revised and reissued in August 2018. Thus the 2018 model takes the strength control machine to the following degree with the aid of using permitting companies to supply a scientific framework to control strength with a focus on blended energy management inside business processes.

How to get ISO 50001 Certification in Lebanon?

ISO 50001 is an international energy management well-known standard this is meant to assist corporations in all sectors set up, putting into effect, and performing an Energy management system (EMS). The country's economy is a mixture of government regulation and intervention, and a free market economy based on private enterprise and foreign investment. The economy is service-oriented; the main growth sectors include banking and tourism. The country has been heavily dependent on remittances from Lebanese expatriates working mostly in the oil-rich countries of the Persian Gulf region and Western Europe. Lebanon's tertiary sector is the largest and most diversified in the economy, accounting for 85% of GDP. ISO 50001 Certification in Lebanon presents guidance on a way to set up and perform an energy management system. It is primarily based totally on the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle and provides a framework that an organization can comply with to systematically enhance its strong performance. The certification system is similar to other ISO management system standards, such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.

What are the benefits of ISO 50001 Certification in Lebanon?

ISO 50001 standardized method for energy management system changed into proposed to supply the subsequent advantages are,

Improve organizational recognition and company image among customers, clients, and stakeholders.

Reduce the environmental effect.

Increase organizational profitability.

We are decreasing power charges and growing savings.

We are growing stronger in overall performance and efficiency.

Continuous development of the energy management system for an organization.

We are preserving energy consumption.

Reduce greenhouse fuel line emissions and their carbon footprint.

Create sustainable organizational culture.

Helping businesses lessen dangerous emissions.

We are decreasing energy usage.

It is increasing strength consciousness among personnel in any respect levels.

Implement the motion plan to obtain strength goals and targets.

Why FINECERT?

Finecert is a top using ISO Certification coordinating and gaining knowledge of community areas, business organization improvement manages a huge series of ISO requirements like ISO 9001, ISO 50001, ISO 45001, ISO 22301, ISO 21001, ISO 37001, GMP, HACCP, and so forth. We are experts in giving ISO Certification exhorting and the association manages any outcomes with admiration for all connections from one component of the planet to the other. Our simple component is to collect a probable and high-quality date with clients. Finecert has a social event of a hit human beings and huge courting starting with one component of the planet and then onto the next. We have cooperated with 30+ licensed experts in all nations like India, Dubai, Iraq, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Romania, Jordan, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. Our sensitive representatives targeted a big kind of region like Schools, Banking, Education Organizations, the Food Industry, Software, IT affiliations, and so on. We are continuously devoted to supplying great reactions for all connections from one component of the planet to the other. Assuming you need any more data, generously skip ahead and connect to us.

#iso50001 #nature #green #EMS #Environment #forest #iso

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architectnews · 4 years ago

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Circular Economy in Africa: FBW Group

Circular Economy in Africa, UK Business Investment Building, Architecture, Architect

Circular Economy in Africa

18 Mar 2021

FBW Group African Development News

FBW And Fusion To Create Large-scale Affordable Housing Strategy

Leading East African planning, design, architecture and engineering team FBW Group is working with Fusion Capital, one of the region’s most successful real estate developers, to create a low-cost, affordable housing strategy in Kenya.

FBW has been appointed as consultant to help develop the plan. The group, which is celebrating 25 years in East Africa, has a strong track record in the planning, design and delivery of volume housing projects.

FBW’s ongoing development of affordable housing solutions in Kenya, East Africa:

Fusion Capital is a private firm which started life in 2006 and has grown to be one of the largest and most successful real estate developers and asset managers in East Africa.

Together, Fusion and FBW are putting together a large-scale, low-cost housing strategy to deliver affordable homes for people in Kenya earning less than US$500 a month. The ultimate aim is to roll the development plan out across the region.

Fusion is known for its success in funding, completing, and managing East African developments across various real estate sectors.

It has successfully planned, funded, and developed projects valued at more than US$200m over the past 14 years.

An experienced commercial real estate developer, with almost 1 million square feet of living and working spaces developed, it has now decided to build on its experience in residential development and asset management to focus on the affordable housing market. Housing remains a major challenge in Kenya and across East Africa.

Antje Eckoldt, FBW Group director and its Kenya country manager, said: “We are working with Fusion Group to create a large-scale, low-cost housing strategy that will deliver truly affordable homes and we look forward to unveiling it with them in 2021.

“It is a challenging task, but we believe that it will play a major role in the drive to close the housing gap in Kenya and other East African countries. “We are using all our experience in the planning, design and delivery of volume housing projects to create innovative solutions that will meet budget requirements, while delivering homes of real quality.”

She added: “As with all our work, the design and delivery of sustainable building solutions and green principles is an integral part of our thinking, along with the use of locally sourced materials and skills.”

FBW has operations in Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda, as well as an office in Manchester in the UK. It is a major player in the region’s construction and development sector.

James Maclean, director of real estate at Fusion Capital in Kenya, said FBW’s experience and innovation would play a key role in developing a successful strategy.

He said: “We are looking to build on our extensive experience in residential development and asset management to focus on the affordable housing market. Creating a workable strategy is key to this.

“We believe there is a real gap in the sector. Much of the housing currently described as being ‘low-cost‘ is actually only affordable to those in the middle-income bracket. That is something we are looking to change.”

He added: “We’re very excited by the strategy that we are developing and the design, architecture and engineering experience that FBW is bringing to the project.

“Our aim is to officially launch it in Kenya and we aim to roll it out across East Africa over several years.”

15 Jan 2021

FBW Group African Development News

UK Department for International Trade’s Africa Investment Conference

Private sector investment is key to solving East Africa’s mounting affordable housing challenges and the UK can play a leading role in turbo-charging the development drive needed.

That was the strong message from leading East African architecture and masterplanning firm FBW Group on the eve of the UK Department for International Trade’s Africa Investment Conference.

Antje Eckoldt FBW Group director & Kenya country manager:

The conference, on January 20, comes 12 months after the UK-Africa Investment Summit hosted in London by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, where 27 trade and investment deals, worth £6.5bn and commitments worth £8.9bn were announced.

It will explore how inclusive, sustainable and resilient investment can serve to help countries across the continent transition to a cleaner, greener economy and support recovery from the impact of coronavirus.

Speaking before the conference, the UK’s minister for investment Gerry Grimstone said: “Despite the current global economic context, the UK’s ambition to be Africa’s investment partner of choice has never been stronger.

“Growing investment relationships will be central in helping economies recover and build back better from the disruption caused by coronavirus. “Africa’s economic potential and investment opportunities are huge, and our partnership will help ensure UK and African businesses are able to capitalise on trade and investment opportunities, now and in the future.”

UK investment is already making a difference in the housing sector. Early last year UK Climate Investments announced a £30 million ($US39 million) commitment to support the construction of 10,000 green affordable homes in Kenya.

Managed by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, UK Climate Investments is a £200m pilot investment programme mandated to invest in India and sub-Saharan Africa.

FBW, which has operations in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, believes that commitment has the power to unlock more inward investment and give East Africa’s private sector confidence to commit to green, affordable development projects across the region.

The group, which is celebrating 25 years in East Africa, has a strong track record in the planning, design and delivery of volume housing projects and is currently working with a number of private investors on future affordable home projects.

Antje Eckoldt, FBW Group director and its Kenya country manager, said: “There are major opportunities for UK investors to make a real difference by supporting projects that will deliver real social and environmental change.

“The large-scale commitment by UK Climate Investments is a game-changer, embedding green standards into the market that will give local investors added confidence to put more of their money into the affordable housing sector.

“We’re also seeing other welcome investment moves from the UK, including a joint venture involving CDC Group, the UK’s publicly-owned impact investor. It is using 3D printing technology at scale to build affordable and low-carbon housing and schools in Africa, starting in Malawi.”

Housing remains a major challenge across East Africa. The World Bank has estimated that 200,000 housing units are needed annually in Kenya alone. Uganda and Tanzania also face a large-scale and growing housing shortage.

To try and close that gap the Kenyan government has launched a programme to build 500,000 new affordable homes by 2022.

Since 1969, the country’s population has grown at a compounded annual rate of three per cent and there are now more than 47.5m people living in Kenya. However, the country only had 26,504 active mortgages at the end of 2018, according to research.

The World Bank has also estimated that by 2050, 50 per cent of the Kenyan population will be living in urban centres.

Antje said: “This rapid urbanisation, which we are seeing across the region, will put even greater pressure on the availability of affordable housing. Closing the housing gap is really important if East Africa’s economic potential is to be fulfilled.

“There are major challenges, including meeting budget requirements while also delivering homes of real quality, but the drive to deliver affordable housing is gaining momentum.

“The delivery of sustainable building solutions and green principles is also coming to the fore in this drive. Locally sourced materials and skills are at the heart of this, along with meeting the challenges of climate change and its impact.”

Antje says effective urban planning will also have a big part to play in shaping future housing development. The UK Centre for Cities and Infrastructure has been set up to “turbo-charge investment” in fast growing cities across the developing world.

It will provide British expertise to African governments and city authorities to improve the way cities are planned, built and run, including making them more environmentally-friendly. The focus will be on improvements to infrastructure, including water and energy networks.

FBW, which also has a base in Manchester in the UK, has a strong-track record of working successfully with international organisations and businesses investing in transformational projects in Africa. It is a major player in the region’s construction and development sector.

The multi-disciplinary planning, design, architecture and engineering group currently has a workforce of more than 30 professionals involved in projects across the region.

For more information on FBW Group and its services please visit www.fbwgroup.com

22 Sep 2020

Circular Economy in Africa – FBW Group Development News

UK and Africa businesses urged to “seize the moment”

‘Circular Economy’ Will Unlock Africa’s Green Growth

The creation of a circular economy in construction is vital if Africa’s vision of green, sustainable urban growth is to become reality.

More recycling of material resources and the use of natural local materials in building projects is needed to achieve that aim. Leading East African architecture and engineering firm FBW Group is calling on the construction and property sectors to invest more in African manufacturing, cutting the reliance on imported materials for building components.

Despite recycling having a long tradition in Africa, FBW also wants to see a concerted drive towards circular principles in the building industry. FBW made its call for action in support of World Green Building Week.

Malawi Creator Centre building design by FBW Group:

It believes a strategy should be two-fold, promoting firstly an up scaled production of ‘hand-made’ products such as clay, stone and compressed earth.

Secondly, more international investment in the local manufacturing of specialised products serving large complex projects will stimulate innovation, activate supply chains and create jobs.

It is an approach that will also help deliver Africa’s green cities of the future, with the quality infrastructure and affordable homebuilding needed to meet the challenges of fast-growing urban centres and populations.

FBW has operations in Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania, as well as a base in Manchester in the UK. A major player in the region’s construction and development sector, it is celebrating operating in East Africa for 25 years.

Antje Eckoldt FBW Group director & Kenya country manager:

Antje Eckoldt is an FBW Group director and its Kenya country manager. She points towards the predicted growth of the Nairobi metropolitan area, already home to 10 million people, over the next three decades.

Antje says: “When you look at the pressure of land prices in the city it is little wonder that we’re seeing the construction of more and more tall buildings.

“The technologies required to construct these means that most of the materials and components needed, such as aluminium windows, are currently imported from Asia and Europe. There is hardly any local manufacturing.

“To create the circular economy that we need to achieve net zero we have to push the international players to look at innovative ways to manufacture in Africa.

“We also need to focus on a more local aspect to production, with more reliable, locally-sourced products created out of natural and traditional African materials. Apart from clay and stone products these could be bioplastics or natural fibre boards.

“Then there is the need to drive the industry towards recycling products on a larger scale, even including something as basic as using reclaimed products in concrete.

“Due to scale of projects in urban areas, the structural frame is usually concrete. For instance, we currently have limited steel recycling facilities in East Africa. This would also allow for by-products that can be used in production of lower carbon cement.

“There needs to be a major scale-up if we are looking to reduce construction carbon impacts, including reduction in the impact of transporting materials over long distances.

“Put all this together and we will be building towards the circular economy that will deliver a greener future for Africa’s urban areas.” World Green Building Week (21-25 September 2020) is the World Green Building Council’s annual campaign.

It is calling on the building sector, policymakers and governments to take urgent action to deliver net zero buildings.

As part of its continuing commitment to ‘build green’ and to advocate for green buildings FBW is also a member of the Kenyan Green Building Society, part of the World Green Building Council.

It is also a champion of the EDGE green building certification system. The Kenyan government has declared that all affordable housing development projects under the nation’s ‘Big Four’ agenda must meet the EDGE standard.

The government will provide developers with free land to build affordable housing projects that meet its commitment to resource-efficient structures.

Its ambition is to close the housing gap for Kenyan people in an environmentally-responsible way. The World Bank estimates that 200,000 housing units are needed annually in Kenya, but the supply is only 50,000 units.

Antje, who is also FBW’s EDGE expert, said: “The green certification system is making a difference in terms of savings in energy, water and embodied energy in materials.

“The initiative we are seeing in Kenya highlights just how important the green approach to building is becoming across Africa. It is high on the agenda as nations look to meet the challenges of increasing urbanisation and population growth.”

‘Circular Economy’ Will Unlock Africa’s Green Growth News information / images from received 220920

Previously on e-architect:

Building Green Cities across Africa image courtesy of architects Building Green Cities across Africa

£9.5m medical training centre plan is a game-changer in Malawi’s medical future Design: Cassidy + Ashton with structural engineering specialist TRP Consulting image courtesy of architects USA Africa Investment Advisor Programme

Location: across Africa, including Malawi

African Buildings

Africa Architectural Projects

African Architecture Designs – chronological list

Another Malawi building on e-architect:

The Legson Kayira Community Center & Primary School Malawi Design: Architecture for a change image courtesy of architects The Legson Kayira Community Center & Primary School Malawi

African Architecture News

African Buildings

Health Centre Buildings

New African Building Designs

Butaro Hospital, Burera District, Rwanda MASS Design Group, USA image courtesy of architects African Hospital Building

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt Design: Snohetta Architecture Alexandria Library Egypt

British High Commission Kampala, Uganda Design: Kilburn Nightingale Architects British High Commission Kampala

Hospital Buildings

Comments / photos for the Circular Economy in Africa: FBW Group News page welcome

Website: Africa

The post Circular Economy in Africa: FBW Group appeared first on e-architect.

#e-architect

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mrhenryharrell · 4 years ago

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July 29 Green Energy News

Headline News:

“1.4 Million Ugandans To Access Reliable And Affordable Energy Under New Initiative” • Millions of people in villages of Uganda are set to access reliable, cheap electricity for the first time under a new off-grid solar scheme that Fenix International, an ENGIE subsidiary, and the European Investment Bank have agreed on. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

Off-grid electricity charging a cell phone (Courtesy of Engie)

“Nearly 3 Billion Animals Killed Or Displaced In Australia’s Fires, Scientists Say” • Nearly 3 billion animals were killed or displaced by the catastrophic bushfire season that scorched tens of millions of acres across Australia in 2019 and 2020, according to experts. They hope the research will demonstrate the urgent need for action to prevent future disasters. [HuffPost]

“Study Finds Renewable Energy Has Created 6,300 Jobs In Rural Colorado” • The renewable energy industry has created 6,334 jobs and generates $388.6 million a year in economic activity in eastern Colorado, according to a study from The Western Way, a Denver-based conservative environmental group. [Colorado Springs Gazette]

“Hundreds Of Toxic Superfund Sites Imperiled By Sea-Level Rise, Study Warns” • A new study by the Union of Concerned Scientists concludes that more than 800 hazardous Superfund sites near the Atlantic and Gulf coasts are at risk of flooding in the next 20 years, distributing toxic chemicals, even with low rates of sea level rise. [InsideClimate News]

“Why America’s Schools Are Turning Into Solar Power Stations” • On the campus of Galesburg High School in Illinois, there is a football field, a track, eight tennis courts, two baseball and two softball diamonds, and an acre of PVs that can generate nearly 1,800 MWh of electricity per year. The array will knock $40,000 off the school’s energy bill. [HuffPost]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

July 29 Green Energy News posted first on Green Energy Times

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khalilhumam · 4 years ago

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The Economic Impact of COVID-19 around the World: Remittances, Updated Growth and Poverty Projections, and the Reintroduction of Barter in Fiji

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/the-economic-impact-of-covid-19-around-the-world-remittances-updated-growth-and-poverty-projections-and-the-reintroduction-of-barter-in-fiji/

The Economic Impact of COVID-19 around the World: Remittances, Updated Growth and Poverty Projections, and the Reintroduction of Barter in Fiji

As we reach 4.79 million cases of coronavirus infection and more than 318,000 deaths around the world, low- and middle-income countries continue to wrestle with the economic fallout from the pandemic and the responses to it. Food supply disruption, rising poverty, and deteriorating industries remain top concerns, as countries consider “exit strategies” for reopening business and lifting lockdowns in a bid to avoid the worsening economic crisis. Here is a roundup of the most recent analysis from Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean, divided into sections: growth and income analysis, sector and sub-population analysis, economic policy responses, and commentary.

Global

Growth, poverty, and food security analysis

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) “estimates that the global economic impact of COVID-19 could reach $5.8 trillion (6.4% of global GDP) under a 3-month containment scenario, and $8.8 trillion (9.7% of global GDP) under a 6-month containment scenario” in an updated report. “ADB’s new estimate is more than double the World Bank’s 16 April 2020 estimate of a 2%–4% decline in global GDP, and higher than the IMF’s April 2020 World Economic Outlook estimate of 6.3% decline in global GDP.” (ADB)

Mercy Corps reports on economic and food security impacts of the pandemic including rising prices of food staples, reduced purchasing power, unequal impact on businesses “with larger, more formal and better networked firms faring better than their informal counterparts,” liquidity challenges for financial service providers, and an expected drop in remittances. The data come from Mercy Corps’ 22 country offices. (Mercy Corps)

The World Food Programme reports on the economic and health impacts the pandemic may have on food and nutrition security: “Increased reprioritisation of national expenditure towards control of COVID19 will affect allocations to other sectors such as agriculture which would have long-term effects on food production and supply.” The decline in tourism, potential drop in remittances, and high dependence on commodity exports leave some countries particularly vulnerable. (WFP)

Sulser and Dunston model the potential effects export constraints have on prices of rice and wheat. “Some governments have responded to alarms about possible COVID-19-related food shortages much as consumers would: By trying to hoard food… [Sulser and Dunston] conclude that international rice markets are particularly sensitive to such restrictions by large exporters—modeling shows they could significantly boost global prices and push millions of poor rice consumers into hunger.” (IFPRI)

Pate and Van Nieuwkoop warn that “unhealthy diets are contributing to pre-existing conditions” that put people at risk. They provide three policy recommendations on “how nutrition can protect people’s health during COVID-19”: securing food at affordable prices, ensuring better nutrition through bio-fortified crops and improving supply chains, and realigning public spending to health and nutrition goals. (World Bank)

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reports that “world food prices fell for a third consecutive month in April, hit by the economic and logistical impact of the coronavirus pandemic… Sugar price index fell to a 13-year low… The vegetable oil price index fell 5.2%... [and] the meat index shed 2.7%.” (Reuters)

Policy responses

Pangestu provides three policy priorities in reducing the impact of the pandemic on the most vulnerable and most insecure: ensuring access and financing for farm inputs, prioritizing transportation of food to ensure produce reach markets, and ensuring social safety nets are in place so people have the money to purchase food items. (World Bank)

Perakis, Khosla, and Bari document how education organizations are providing relief packages (Luminos in Liberia) and cash transfers (The Citizens Foundation in Pakistan) to poor communities. (CGD)

Commentary

Clemens discusses the World Bank’s estimates that remittances will fall by nearly a quarter this year and what that means for global development: Big impacts on poverty, limited impacts on growth. He proposes three policy actions to mitigate the impacts. “This global lifeline for poor families will remain. But it will be more vulnerable now than ever in our lifetimes.” (CGD)

Africa

Growth and income analysis

The World Food Programme warns that over 40 million people in West Africa will face “desperate food shortages” in the coming months, especially in the lean season in June and August. (UN News)

Thurlow reports findings from country studies showing that “the current crisis is leading to much larger and more rapid contractions of economic activity than seen in previous crises, including the global food crisis of 2007-2008 and the 2009 recession. In addition, unlike in previous crises, it is domestic policies, rather than global shocks, such as trade disruptions and reduced remittances, that are imposing most of the economic costs, at least for now.” (IFPRI)

Sector and sub-population analysis

Cocoa planters in Côte d'Ivoire fear a drop in income due to restrictions imposed by mitigation efforts against the pandemic. Border closures and traffic disruptions could “reduce the workforce available at the start of the mid-crop harvest of cocoa beans… [introduce] delays or a slowdown in bean purchases…[and] affect the delivery of beans to the country's ports.” (Market Screener)

The Tanzanian government warns that tourism revenue will shrink by 77 percent, with 477,000 jobs at stake. “The Natural Resources and Tourism minister…said the number of people who will lose jobs accounts for 76 percent of the total direct employment in the sub-sector…The number of tourists anticipated visiting Tanzania during that period will decline from 1.9 million to 437,000.” (Ventures Africa)

Madagascar lost “half a billion dollars in much-needed tourism revenue since the start of 2020 because of the COVID-19 crisis...There is uncertainty around future funding for conservation in Madagascar, which leans heavily on foreign financing. At the same time protecting natural resources will become more challenging if economic hardship intensifies in one of the poorest countries in the world.” (Mongabay)

The “South African gambling industry sees major impact due to Covid-19 outbreak and restrictions…. Horse racing and sports events have been cancelled or postponed indefinitely since the coronavirus outbreak, and … casinos, bingo halls and other gambling establishments have been closed until further notice.” (Intrado)

Kenya, the world’s second largest tea exporter after China, sees no disruption to its tea export so far. “Due to its designation as an essential service, the tea industry is excluded from the nationwide dawn-to-dusk curfew and the ban on all movement into the four areas worst hit by coronavirus.” (African Business)

Economic policy responses

Malawi’s National Planning Commission released a rapid cost-benefit analysis enumerating the costs of a moderate lockdown strategy such as “less health outreach and more malnutrition, causing more deaths from malaria, from TB and from child mortality along with… extra maternal deaths” against reduced Covid-19 death toll, and ”the social cost of closing schools for Malawi will be around $5.2 billion – the present value of income loss for 6 million children over the next 50 years.” The report concludes that “the costs vastly outweigh the benefits from moderate lockdown that promotes social restrictions.” (NPC)

The IMF approves $411 million in emergency assistance for Ethiopia. “It also approved Ethiopia’s request for a suspension of debt service payments of about $12 million to the IMF under the IMF's Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust for poor countries.” (IMF News)

Zimbabwe and Uganda call on international creditors for debt relief “to ease the economic distress caused by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.” (VOA, Reuters)

South Africa seeks $5 billion in financing from multilateral banks to support the country’s $26 billion stimulus package. (Moguldom Nation)

Zambia also seeks additional funding from the IMF, as it struggles “with a growing public debt even before the new coronavirus outbreak forced lockdowns across the globe, delivering a big blow to demand for raw materials. Zambia is Africa's second biggest copper producer.” (Nasdaq)

Commentary

Bouët and Laborde echo a previous warning that “border policies create problems for African trade and economic pain for communities…Stricter sanitary border controls on the transport of products should slow down intra-African trade. In addition, prohibiting people from crossing the border stops one means of informal trade, widely practiced in Africa and often the main source of income for a family.” (IFPRI)

The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa released lockdown exit strategies for Africa. The report highlights “excruciating trade-offs”—“lockdowns impose extremely high costs on business and people…[but] lockdowns forestall severe vulnerabilities” in healthcare—and provides four strategies in reopening economies. (UNECA)

Copley, Decker, and Delavelle encourage support for African women considering the gendered consequences of the pandemic. They suggest research-based policy options “to build women’s economic resilience” such as cash transfers targeted to women and providing competition and business skills training to the self-employed. (World Bank)

Asia and the Pacific

Growth and income analysis

The Asian Development Bank’s new report projects an estimated 4.6 to 7.2 percent GDP decline in the region from a non-COVID-19 baseline. (ADB)

The Japan Center for Economic Research reports that Japan’s inflation-adjusted GDP contracted 3.5 percent in March compared to the previous month. (Nikkei Asian Review)

India’s Chief Economic Adviser estimates the country’s GDP growth in April-June this year to be between 1 and 2 percent. He says, “the economy could pick up [in the next quarter] as industries restart their operations with the streamlining of supply chains and migrant workers getting back to their jobs.” (livemint)

Sector and sub-population analysis

CARE and UN Women released an analysis of the impact of the pandemic on women in Asia Pacific, including the challenges of “exacerbated burdens of unpaid care work on women and girls,” unmet needs of healthcare workers who are overwhelmingly women, and “increased risks of gender-based violence,” among other issues (CARE, UN Women)

Thailand reports suicides due to pandemic-related economic hardships. “Thailand is well known for having one of the highest wealth inequalities in the world and one of the highest suicide rates in Southeast Asia.” (The Diplomat)

Indonesia’s small seaweeds processors are hit by the crisis: “demand for raw materials has decreased and prices have fallen… by almost 50% since trade with China, the biggest export market, has been disrupted since February.” (Modern Diplomacy)

In India, “the country has entered into the third and a more relaxed phase of lockdown” but only 3,500 auto dealers, 20 percent of the country’s car shops, have opened up. (Times of India)

Shell Petroleum Corp will shut down one of the Philippines’ two oil refineries “in response to the drastic decline in local product demand and the significant deterioration of regional refining margins brought about the COVID-19 pandemic.” (Reuters)

Some Fiji residents return to a barter system through a Facebook group “in response to sharp falls in employment due to coronavirus” and the accompanying scarcity of cash. Some residents of Tonga, Samoa, and Vanuatu have started to do the same, mostly trading for groceries and food items. (The Guardian)

Economic policy responses

The Asian Development Bank has approved a $300 million loan for Pakistan and allocated a $1.36 million grant for Uzbekistan to support pubic health care capacity and help meet the needs of the poor segments of the population.

The ADB approved a $500 million loan to Bangladesh to support efforts to manage the pandemic’s impact. “The loan is expected to benefit over 15 million poor and vulnerable people in Bangladesh.” (Big News Network)

Myanmar will receive around $2 billion from international development organizations to assist in the country’s relief plan. (The Irrawaddy)

Bangladesh reopens an estimated 1,000 garment factories. “More than four million people, many of them women, work in the $34 billion apparel export sector in Bangladesh — the second-largest garment exporter in the world after China.” (WWD)

Bangladesh exempts personal protective equipment and surgical masks from value-added tax. (Prothomalo)

Malaysia’s central bank cuts key interest rate to 2 percent, lowest since 2009. (Reuters)

Indonesia prepares “exit strategies to reopen parts of the economy…from as early as June 1… There is mounting concern about the deepening economic impact of restrictions with at least 2 million people losing their jobs in the past six weeks and poverty increasing.” (Reuters)

Commentary

Kuriakose identify policy priorities as Malaysia reopens businesses to a “new normal.” (World Bank)

Fruman and Zhang identify seven research studies in South Asia aimed at ensuring food security in the midst of the pandemic, including research identifying drivers of malnutrition (such as gender) in the region, and impacts of a conditional cash transfer in Bangladesh, a dairy program in India, and a national nutrition assessment in Bhutan. (World Bank)

Indonesia might be facing a looming food crisis: “Indonesia’s food security has long been a source of concern due to the country’s reliance on staple food imports to meet domestic demand for commodities such as sugar, rice, corn, and beef.” (The Diplomat)

Middle East and North Africa

Growth and income analysis

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development forecasts negative growth in Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia, with Lebanon the hardest hit: an economic contraction of 11 percent in that country. Only Egypt retains slight positive growth of 0.5 percent for 2020. (EBRD)

This is older, but since we haven’t included the Middle East and North Africa before, the World Bank’s April report on the region suggested a reduction in economic output for 2020, in contrast to the 2.6 percent growth forecast from late last year. (World Bank)

Likewise, the IMF provides an overview of the dual shock hitting the region—COVID-19 and falling oil prices, along with country responses: “The pandemic crisis has manifested itself in severe trade disruption and losses, hurting job-rich sectors and business confidence.” (IMF)

Sector and sub-population analysis

Morocco’s flag carrier airline, Royal Air Maroc, is losing $5 million per day. “The COVID-19 crisis will see airline passenger revenues drop by $314 billion in 2020, a 55% decline compared to 2019.” (Morocco World News)

The United Arab Emirates announced a “four month ban on exports of ferrous scrap and recovered paper” to support demand for “supplies of raw materials which are required by the economic operators for their manufacturing activities due to the coronavirus outbreak.” “The impact will be felt in India, which relies on the UAE for about one-fifth of ferrous scrap imports.” (Recycling International)

Survey shows “Egypt’s non-oil private sector activity collapsed in April, hit by a shutdown in the tourism industry, weakening demand and the imposition of a curfew as the government battled the coronavirus pandemic.” (Middle East Eye)

Economic policy responses

Morocco will distribute $440 million to about 4.3 million households “to help them cope with the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak.” “The 2.3 million households registered in the Moroccan Medical Assistance Regime and 2 million families working in the informal sector and not enrolled in RAMED [the Moroccan Medical Assistance Regime] will benefit.” (Xinhua Net)

Morocco’s net international reserves up almost 20 percent despite COVID-19 shocks. “Morocco’s central bank, Bank Al-Maghrib, announced it injected MAD 91 billion ($9.25 billion) from May 7 to 13. During the same period, the Dirham appreciated by 0.23% against the Euro and by 0.89% against the Dollar.” (Morocco World News)

“The International Monetary Fund approved a $2.77 billion loan to Egypt in an attempt to prevent economic collapse in the Middle East’s most populous nation amid the coronavirus pandemic.” (Wall Street Journal)

Algeria cuts down the 2020 state budget by 50 percent. “The country is facing a combined shock from halving oil prices, a public health crisis and the consequences of global economic disruptions following the covid-19 outbreak.” (North Africa Post)

Commentary

Dridi writes that “Tunisia’s economic fallout from a coronavirus outbreak and the rise of unemployment claims will further compound social and regional inequalities across the country.” The lockdown hits the informal, tourism, and industrial sectors, “worsening the economic woes Tunisia has faced since the Arab Spring.” (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

Latin America and the Caribbean

Growth and income analysis

Estimates for Latin America and the Caribbean project poverty rising from 30.3 percent in 2019 to between 33.7 and 35.8 percent in 2020, depending on the scenario. For extreme poverty, the numbers go from 11.0 percent in 2019 to between 13.0 and 14.2 percent in 2020. CEPAL provides country-specific estimates and a roundup of policy responses. (CEPAL)

Estimates for Mexico specifically put between 6.1 and 10.7 million additional people in poverty. (Coneval)

“New York rating agency Standard and Poor’s estimated that Mexico will be the Latin American country with the weakest economic recovery after the coronavirus health crisis passes.” (infobae)

Díaz Cassou and others put out detailed economic impact analysis—including measures countries are taking to mitigate those impacts—for the Andean countries: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. (IDB)

In Chile, residents of a poor neighborhood rioted: “This isn’t against the quarantine. It’s against hunger,” said one protestor. (BBC)

Growth projections for Chile were reduced to -3.9 percent by the agency Fitch, currently lower than the projection of -2 percent from the Central Bank of Chile. (La Tercera)

Debt from Chilean businesses rose to 131 percent of gross national product at the close of the first trimester of the year, largely due to the depreciation of the peso relative to the dollar, according to the Central Bank of Chile. (notimérica)

International ratings agencies are wary of the rise in public debt in Brazil when gauging the future of the country’s economy. (Quintino)

The Central Bank of Honduras has predicted that gross national product will fall between 2.9 and 3.9 percent this year. (el diario)

The President of Peru announced that the economic impact of the virus may be comparable to the economic impact of Peru’s war with Chile in the 1880s. (El Comercio)

Sector and sub-population analysis

The economic impact on electricity distributors in Brazil rose to 5,411 billion reais ($950 million) between mid-March and last week, most of it due to delinquency in payments by users, according to a bulletin from the Ministry of Mines and Energy. (O Liberal)

Crude steel production fell 8 percent in the region in the first trimester. Refined steel fell 3 percent. Consumption in the region and the world are down. (Milenio)

The Colombian airline Avianca declared bankruptcy due to COVID-19. (El País)

Latin America’s coffee industry has been suffering from labor shortages during the harvest, but prices have also risen because of increased coffee consumption in homes. The president of the Council of Coffee Exporters of Brazil, Nelson Carvarlhaes, says that “Coffee has always been a great companion in times of crisis.” (El Economista)

The nongovernment organization Action Against Hunger “has drawn attention to the situation of the 900,000 Venezuelan migrants in Peru, since ‘one in three has been left unemployed during the quarantine.’” (notimérica)

Remittances to Venezuela have seen a large downturn as Venezuelan migrants have lost work and many have returned home. “Some 20,000 Venezuelans have returned home since early March, according to the Colombian government, which has paid about 396 bus tickets to take them to the Venezuelan border.” (Telemundo51)

The telecom sector in Latin America could see a loss of $4.3 billion in 2020 due to COVID-19, largely due to business closures. (Convergência Digital)

Economic policy responses

Peru is allowing participants in the private pension system to withdraw up to 25 percent of their accumulated funds. (El Universo)

A new bulletin proposes four phases of response to the livelihood and food security impacts of COVID-19, with best practice examples from Latin America and the Caribbean for each. (FAO and CEPAL)

The President of Mexico proposed a plan last week to transition to a “new normal,” with phased re-opening of the economy, starting with the 269 municipalities least affected by the virus. (DW)

Commentary

An editorial in the Financial Times is broadly critical of Latin America’s COVID-19 response, with positive exceptions for Colombia, Costa Rica, and Uruguay. Still, “what no country in the region will escape is the devastating economic impact. Latin America was the world’s slowest growing region even before the coronavirus crisis. Now, Covid-19’s impact on commodity prices, tourism and remittances is hurting the region particularly hard. Fragile public finances and massive capital flight limit governments’ room for fiscal responses.” (Financial Times)

Cordero raises the concern of large internal displacement of informal workers in Peru in the context of the crisis and calls for action. (nodal)

Fiorito sums up the biggest economic risks and challenges for Latin America, three policy actions that countries can take, and the role of credit agencies and the IMF. (CGD)

The order of names on this post was, as usual, determined randomly.

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safracatz · 5 years ago

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The Use of Artificial Intelligence in Android Development

Innovative technology has affected all aspects of people's lives over the years, and mobile apps development companies are no exception. Developers come up with innovative concepts when combining engineering into applications. In this sense, artificial intelligence is one of the most commonly used innovations. In terms of AI, the Android platform was particularly progressive. By announcing the Android Platform, developers can build the most unusual experiences with AI, ML, AR. Also, Google has developed tools for Google AI that confirm its aim of developing AI as the prime technology condition for Android applications.

This probably occurred when every Android app developer will experience rising demand for AI-powered applications. Businesses of all sizes are made to spend further investment on this innovation to present their consumers with unique experiences. For Android apps, when using AI, it is possible to integrate different forms into it. Let's see the many AI technologies used to revolutionize Android apps for businesses.

Chatbots

Chatbots is one of Android's most innovative AI ideas. Such intelligent digital aids can experience and communicate intelligently with the human language. You can even collect data and support customers seamlessly 24 hours a day. Yes, they should suit human-supported experiences in such a way that organizations can even find them a replacement for future people. Chatbot development or integration is growing energy and most companies tend to hire Android application developers to take up this trend. The most generally used chatbots are banking, education, and e-commerce.

Speech recognition

Special recognition of Android apps is another AI feature that is rapidly growing commonplace. This software, as its name implies, decodes the speech of people into a language that a machine simply understands. Because voice is the keystone of mobile searches, businesses must introduce this in their apps. Speech recognition can support different activities, such as product/service search, voice business, instruction for smart devices like home automation and self-driving cars, account registration, form fill out the information, and more. Speech recognition can support.

Know More -

AI and IoT are transforming mobile app development

Face detection

As safety is key attention for app users, companies rely on face detection as a security measure. Face detection related to the AI-facing method which identifies the face of the user as a digital image. Active face identification is used essentially for the identification of people and things and the tracking of movement. Android uses this software concurrently with the camera to recognize faces in different images. For the detection of the user faces in its photos, Facebook uses the face recognition feature in its algorithm.

Personalization

The secret to success is a personal experience, which enables companies to achieve customer loyalty. Based on user choice and expectations, aI collects user data and gives true predictive analytics, which allows the systems to implement the application users with advice on their own. It can improve customer experience and improve the user recognition rate. It is also a smart move if you need to step outside of rivals and connect it with your project.

Text recognition

Text recognition is another AI feature that performs it big in the Android app. In general, it consists of two processes: text identification and recognition of the recognized text in media files such as images and video formats. To recognize the message, AI does the job of dividing it into various segments. Developers can either exploit or present an additional feature in the mobile app for developing a standalone application. For word-based Android game apps, text recognition is essentially used to support tasks relating to word selection.

Landmark detection

The mark detection function uses AI technology to detect landmarks in an image, as its name implies. With this feature, all the landmarks in the picture, be it a presentation or a business logo, can be scanned. The identification of landmarks is typically a basic component of complex research procedures. For example, Facial Landmark Detection works as an enhanced security mechanism for secure payments and transactions through an Android app.

Know More -

Impact of AI and its Implementation in Mobile App Development

Image labeling

Photo labeling is another big AI feature that Android app developers support. Used by AI, marking is utilized to the objects stored in the device. Based on these labels joined by the image labeling feature, the users can easily find the images later. This functionality is great because it increases the interactivity of your software and improves the user experience.

Smart reply

GMAIL users Artificial Intelligences and Machine Language technology to construct meaningful answers based on the content of the mail. This allows the app to present users with a rich and personalized experience. It also speeds up communication because they do not need to be key to the responses anymore, but have access to the relevant ones within the app.

Conclusion

Presently, you're all informed of the different features of AI that your Android app can allow, it's time you use them. These features allow your app to experience the most amazing and perform it stand out in a competitive environment. You offer opportunities you can't afford to miss. Thus, a provider that is an authority on the Android platform and has a stronghold on AI technology is the best way to benefit from mobile app development. You may get in touch with us at mobile Apps Development Company in Nigeria for a free quote to develop a mobile app for your business. And helps Business owners to reach more customers who want to change their business towards app development, Blockchain, and Machine Learning Development software. The Company has a very good working environment. To know more about my company, Visit Fusion Informatics. For more queries please send an mail to get a free quote [email protected].

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Best Mobile App Development Companies in Tanzania

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Mobile App Development Companies in South Africa

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weeklyreviewer · 5 years ago

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China is slowly expanding its power in Africa, one TV set at a time

His small home in Limuru village doesn’t have running water and its walls are made from corrugated metal. Yet outside, where chickens roam the yard, the father-of-two, who repairs shoes for a living, has a large Chinese-built satellite dish that connects his old television set to hundreds of channels — many of which are being beamed from Beijing.

“It’s advantageous to have many TV channels,” said Nganga, who was limited to a few local Kenyan stations before the Chinese dish. “Because you can know how the world is changing every day.”

Nganga’s connection to the wider world is directly thanks to Xi Jinping, the president of China.

In 2015, Xi announced the 10,000 Villages Project, a lofty plan to take digital television to impoverished parts of Africa, such as the village where Nganga lives. Previously, television access in many parts of the continent was a privilege of the elite, and those who were connected relied on old-fashioned, snowy analog reception.

Xi’s dream was to upgrade huge swathes of Africa to modern, digital satellite TV networks, that could broadcast a constellation of channels over long distances — so long, in fact, that a TV channel from Beijing could be beamed to African homes.

This was more than just a philanthropic gesture.

It was a stroke of soft-power genius that would raise China’s profile among Africans, while giving Beijing a tighter grip on the continent’s communications infrastructure and control over how it is portrayed there in the media.

And it would boost the fortunes and power of one important Chinese company that otherwise keeps a low profile.

StarTimes has been the Chinese government’s primary contractor to carry out the 10,000 Villages Project, paving the way for the Beijing-based firm — not any of its American or European media competitors — to dominate the African market of 1.2 billion people. A spokesperson for StarTimes said it was “important” for Beijing to work with “an experienced and cost-conscious enterprise for the assignment.”

Today, the company beams Chinese TV shows into the homes of 10 million subscribers in 30 African countries, pushes China’s state-owned propaganda news network into households over Western news networks, and controls television networks to such an extent in Zambia and Kenya there have been fears the company could black out TVs in those countries, if it wanted to.

While channels like the BBC reach more people and South African distributor MultiChoice has more subscribers, StarTimes’ breadth of reach has some critics worrying: Does the company, with its close ties to Beijing, now have too much power over African television networks?

In many ways, StarTimes’ situation runs parallel to better-known communications giant Huawei, which is battling global criticism for its control over 5G internet networks and ties to Beijing. But unlike Huawei, StarTimes has become one of Beijing’s most powerful soft power tools in Africa — without much of the world even knowing its name.

Here’s how it got that way.

The African opportunity

In 2000, the Economist ran a cover story about Africa titled “The Hopeless Continent.” The headline aptly captured the pity through which much of the Western world viewed the African continent at the time: $1 trillion in development aid hadn’t prevented famine from taking one million lives in Ethiopia in the 1980s, stemmed the scourge of AIDS, or stopped a brutal genocide from slaughtering roughly the same number in Rwanda in the 1990s.

Aid dollars served to ease Western guilt over what then British Prime Minister Tony Blair called a “scar on the conscience of the world,” but aside from drilling for oil and establishing military bases, little energy went into doing real business in Africa.

Meanwhile, China took an entirely different approach.

In the same year as that Economist cover, Chinese President Jiang Zemin invited heads of state across Africa to attend the inaugural Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Beijing, to discuss how the two regions could better work together.

By the mid-2000s, the Chinese government, under its “Going Out” strategy, was encouraging entrepreneurs to head abroad and forge stronger ties with African nations.

Chinese entrepreneurs looking to make early inroads in nascent markets started moving to Africa. George Zhu, for example, went to Nigeria and launched Transsion, which sells cheap multi-SIM handsets and now has the biggest smartphone share on the continent. Ren Zhengfei took Huawei into Kenya, a country that today remains unfazed by the West’s concerns about the company’s ties to Beijing. And not long after that, TV enthusiast Pang Xinxing decided to pivot his telecommunications company StarTimes away from China, where the TV market was quickly becoming saturated, and into Africa.

Pang reported seeing a largely underdeveloped market where many families either did not have a TV or were sharing one with several households. “Even if there is a TV, they can only watch two or three channels, digital TV is beyond their imagination,” he said back in 2002. Furthermore, there was normally only one strong company in each country and users were being charged about $70 a month for a subscription — a huge fee on a continent where GDP per capita was around $700 a year at the time.

Pang saw an opportunity for a low-cost TV provider. Today, StarTimes has some of the world’s most affordable digital TV packages, which can cost as little as $4 a month.

His arrival was also perfect timing in another way.

A 2006 United Nations treaty had tasked African countries with making the switch from snowy, unreliable analog signals to digital by 2015. It was a deadline that nearly all African governments missed but the pressure was on to invest — and to find a company that could help them do it.

That gave StarTimes another revenue stream — building and operating the digital TV infrastructure of nations.

In 2007, Pang landed the company’s first digital TV license in Rwanda. The next year, StarTimes launched the Rwanda Digital TV Platform, offering Rwandans more than 30 channels for $3 to $5 a month, including four Chinese channels from the main state-owned broadcaster in mainland China.

When contracts came up to turn off governments’ analog networks and take them digital, at first “StarTimes was the only company competing,” said Dani Madrid-Morales, an assistant communications professor at the University of Houston, who researched the company while studying as a PhD student at City University of Hong Kong. “Then [Pang] was able to provide evidence that StarTimes had experience in African countries and offer very low prices.”

Other competitors started to join the market, said Madrid-Morales.

But StarTimes almost always won.

Control of a continent’s airwaves?

Nearly two decades later, the China-Africa summit President Zemin had hosted in 2000 has become one of the most important diplomatic events in many African nations’ calendars.

In 2018, virtually every African head of state descended on Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation to secure a slice of the $60 billion in development loans and business deals on offer.

While in the capital, heads of state and top ministers from Sierra Leone, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, Central African Republic, Malawi, Ghana and Uganda all had an important appointment.

They visited Pang at the StarTimes’ huge mothership on the outskirts of the capital. “I don’t think any head of the BBC has had one-on-one meetings with so many African heads of state,” Madrid-Morales said.

Befriending governments has been crucial to the StarTimes’ business, as it bids to win state contracts to help countries make the leap from analog to digital TV.

Angela Lewis, a PhD candidate in the international communications department of Nottingham University in Ningbo, China, who has been researching the company for years, said the company has had full backing Beijing in doing this.

StarTimes is the only private Chinese company with authorization from the Ministry of Commerce to operate in foreign countries’ radio and TV industries. Furthermore, China’s state-owned EXIM bank has provided the company with hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to enter the African market. StarTimes claims to be a private enterprise pursuing business goals while maintaining “cordial relations with its parent state.”

The idea that a company with such close ties to Beijing has control over many African nations’ TV networks has sparked headlines such as “StarTimes plots to take over Africa public broadcasters” — echoing concerns that internet security experts have expressed over 5G giant Huawei and how its ties to the Chinese state could compromise other nations’ communications infrastructure.

In Zambia, for example, StarTimes entered into a joint venture called TopStar with state broadcaster ZNBC to help the country make the switch to digital TV. The deal gave the Chinese player a 60% share in the state broadcaster for 25 years. That split in the Chinese partner’s favor has caused critics to fear that StarTimes has effectively taken control of the country’s television network.

Josephat Nchungo, an international trade analyst at the University of Zambia, said: “The primary objective of this partnership is providing the infrastructure for digital TV. The secondary objective is also to exchange culture and knowledge between the two countries. StarTimes has been so controversial because people interpreted it as a sale of the state broadcast to the Chinese and hence the loss of sovereignty.”

Similar concerns have been raised about deals in Ghana, by the Independent Broadcasters’ Association, and Kenya, where StarTimes has also partnered with state broadcasters to operate the new digital network.

“If the StarTimes pulled out of some countries,” said Madrid-Morales, “the country’s TV stations would stop working. Essentially, StarTimes has the power to black out some countries’ TV networks, if it wants.” That’s a claim that StarTimes pushes back on, saying that the company “does not control any country’s TV network and does not have the capacity to spark media black outs.”

That matters because satellite television is the preferred and more affordable option for many Africans.

While viewers in the West increasingly consume content through online streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu, the prevalence of pay-as-you-go data contracts in Africa makes watching shows on these type of services expensive.

George Mbuthia, research analyst for East and West Africa, at IDC, said: “Although video streaming services are on the rise in Africa, for the majority of the population, mobile video streaming remains out of reach. This is due to poor connectivity and high cost associated with live streaming. Few users use mobile phones for streaming while majority prefer pay-TV.”

There are also economic concerns in the deals that StarTimes has made.

To pay for the $271 million contract, for example, Zambia took out loans from China’s Export-Import Bank. “In order for partnerships to happen, the African country must usually take money from Exim bank,” said Lewis. That raises fears that countries will be saddled with debt to China.

It’s just one example of how Beijing benefits when StarTimes prospers.

Haggai Kanenga, from the department of development studies at the University of Zambia, said: “The loan shows the money for this project is coming from the Chinese government itself, so these two — the StarTimes and the Chinese government — cannot be separated. In Zambia, they are widely viewed as one.”

A hard play for soft power

While StarTimes chased big government contracts to operate digital TV infrastructure, it also wooed consumers with cheap TV packages they could buy on digital networks, which often severely undercut local competitors.

From the beginning, the Chinese startup was regularly offering more channels than MultiChoice, the South African market leader in Anglophone Africa, and Canal+ in French-speaking countries — and for half the price. Consumers could get StarTimes cable and satellite TV packages for as little as $4 per month.

Competitors often complained they were facing unfair competition because StarTimes was so cheap, Madrid-Morales said. But there was little they could do.

The content offering by StarTimes included the sort of Filipino and Turkish soap operas that audiences in places like Kenya had been watching for years. But it added Chinese dramas and Kung Fu films to the mix — the latter proved so popular that StarTimes launched the StarTimes Kung Fu TV channel dedicated to them.

While not overtly political, the Chinese dramas were carefully curated to portray China as a modern, urban place, said Madrid-Morales — despite the fact that about half of China’s population still lives in the countryside. The idea, he says, was to portray China as a wealthy, modernizing country.

That aspirational narrative worked. One Chinese drama “A Beautiful Daughter-in-law Era” — about the intermarriage of a countryside migrant woman to an urban man — proved wildly popular in Africa in the early days after being translated into Swahili, Madrid-Morales said.

In 2011, the company established a huge translation campus on the outskirts of Beijing, where it hired mostly foreign staff to voice Chinese dramas into English and African languages including Swahili and Yoruba. The StarTimes Dubbing Contest scoured African countries seeking out voice actors to be whisked to China to narrate new content.

There was also another key component to StarTimes’ programming: pro-Chinese news.

The cheapest TV packages only gave viewers access to Al Jazeera and China Global Television Network (CGTN) — a state-owned news broadcaster that is part of Xi’s soft power mission to “tell the China story well.” That has often translated into reporting the news with a pro-China slant, to such an extent that in the United States, CGTN recently had to register as a foreign agent under anti-propaganda laws. One analysis of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa, for example, found that 17% of stories by CGTN (then operating under a different name) mentioned China, emphasized the role its doctors played in the relief efforts. In reality, China had spent far less than the US, United Kingdom and Germany fighting the disease.

Western news channels, such as the BBC, whose broadcasts in many African nations are not subject to the kind of government censorship that they are in China, were available only on more expensive packages.

A huge turning point

In a flashy business district in downtown Nairobi, Japhet Akhulia is celebrating at the StarTimes’ new glass headquarters.

After another round of price slashing, StarTimes has hit 1.5 million subscribers in Kenya, putting it just behind the established player MultiChoice, says Akhulia, brand marketing director for the company in the East African country.

StarTimes has been in Kenya since 2012, but its recent growth has been driven, at least in part, by the support of President Xi.

In 2018, Beijing gave Akhulia’s team 800 million Kenyan shillings (roughly $7.8 million) to roll out the 10,000 Villages project in Kenya. That money would take StarTimes to an additional 16,000 households and 2,400 public institutions, such as schools and hospitals, across the country for free. Half that money was for equipment, and the half was for implementation costs including travel of StarTimes’ staff.

In most villages where the StarTimes installs TV for free, a mural is painted with the flags of Kenya and China side by side. That StarTimes enjoys a mutually beneficial relationship with Beijing is clear: the company is paid to execute the 10,000 Villages Project, and gains more customers from doing so. Xi gets to put Chinese content into households across Africa.

That symbiotic relationship caused onlookers like Lewis to question how private StarTimes really is.

“It’s obviously a proxy for the Chinese state,” she said.

Pang has never given an interview to Western media, enabling him to answer such allegations. As the StarTimes’ founder’s fortunes have amassed, he has kept an assiduously low profile even on matters such as whether or not he is a Communist Party member.

When asked about the government’s relationship with StarTimes, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing said via fax: “The Chinese government is always encouraging quality and reputable Chinese enterprises to develop in Africa.”

“It’s not easy to carry out the 10,000 villages project. Many foreign countries have neither the capability nor willingness to do this. In fact, the project has earned extensive recognition from local governments and people,” the spokesperson continued. “Last year, elementary students in remote Zambia watched the World Cup thanks to this project. Zambian president Edgar Lungu said publicly several times that the China-Zambia relations are mutually beneficial, and any distorted publicity can’t stop us from advancing our friendship for mutual principles and benefits.”

Localized content

Sande Bush is a comedian known as Dr. Ofweneke. But recently he’s been wondering if his stage name should be Dr. Love. That’s because Bush is the co-presenter of hit dating TV show “Hello, Mr. Right,” which pairs Kenyans with potential love matches.

“Actually, men have proposed on air,” says Bush. “These guys were literally just falling in love at first sight. It was beautiful.”

“Hello, Mr. Right” is important because it was StarTimes’ first foray into producing African-made content in Kenya, having already successfully tested the waters in Nigeria. The project shows how the Chinese company is evolving in local markets to maintain its foothold.

While conceived and directed by Chinese executives, the format of the show was shaped by its African co-hosts Bush and Vera Sadika. “It was easy to communicate. We gave them fresh ideas. We’re very modern and we know what’s trendy,” Sadika said.

As StarTimes secured its stronghold in Africa, creating localized content was key to growing its position in the market — and warding off Western competitors, who having seen the success of Chinese companies like StarTimes and Transsion on the continent. Meanwhile Netflix has been painfully slow to the continent. It finally entered Africa in 2016 — but even then it encountered criticism for demanding too much bandwidth for many slow internet connections in the region, where many people still have pay-as-you-go data contracts. Good internet speeds can be prohibitively expensive.

StarTimes’ localization has benefited local African creative industries, which have received investment from the Chinese firm.

“Africa is a scientific experiment for the creative industries of China,” Lewis said, noting that the underdeveloped market in Africa often gives entrepreneurs a blank slate to play with.

The more Chinese firms invest and experiment in Africa, the deeper their marketplace dominance is entrenched on the continent — and the more Beijing’s soft power grows. While Spotify and Apple Music target users mostly in developed markets, for example, Boomplay, which is owned by two Chinese companies, has become the largest streaming music service in Africa; it has 46 million users on the continent with a catalog of five million videos and songs, according to the company’s figures.

That early adoption advantage is what StarTimes has been banking on for decades, as it hoovers up government contracts and customers, from poor to elite, sewing up television markets across the continent. As the African continent continues to migrate to digital TV, StarTimes’ subscriber base is predicted to jump to 14.85 million by 2024, according to Digital TV Research — putting it ahead of MultiChoice.

That will only deepen China’s influence in a region that the West once saw as “the Hopeless Continent.” But should African nations be worried about StarTimes’ influence and relationship with Beijing, in the same way the West is about Huawei?

Madrid-Morales doesn’t think so. The potential negative consequences of having StarTimes dominate Africa’s television networks are still just possibilities, he said. Secondly, the costs associated with building these networks are enormous.

Many countries couldn’t have done it without Beijing.

“In the tradeoff between letting go of some sovereignty and building a state-of-the-art telecommunications network, most African countries have chosen the latter,” he said.

CNN’s Serenitie Wang also contributed to this report.

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peakwealth · 5 years ago

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A TRILLION HERE, A TRILLION THERE...

China's colonial ambitions are not as recent as some people might think, certainly not in Africa. They did not start with Xi Jinping's Belt and Road Initiative, the increasingly controversial remake of the ancient silk road (more prosaic: the global extension of Chinese trade routes and influence). The People's Republic has been pushing its geopolitical interests in Africa for decades. It used to be about undercutting Taiwan's attempt to gain diplomatic recognition from impoverished countries. But that was old-style politics, Third-World thinking. Today it hardly matters what happens at the United Nations General Assembly. It’s all about big business now, about economic clout. (*)

As early as the 1970s, when China itself was still piss poor, it funded a railway between Dar es Salaam and Zambia's copper mines. Those were the days when Mao Zedong supported the anti-apartheid politics of Tanzania's first president, Julius Nyerere. I know this because I remember taking a passenger train on that route many years ago, in 1989. What made it memorable was that the train broke down in the middle of a field and we walked to the road to continue the trip by bus. It was all predictably chaotic and on arrival in the town of Mbeya my luggage was stolen, including recording gear and notebooks. I wasn't amused.

The same Tazara railway is still in use and might even gain in importance if a Chinese megaport-cum-trade-zone-cum-highrise-city is built on the coast in Bagamoyo. As the Chinese see the future, Bagamoyo would become a gateway to eastern and central Africa. Back then, in 1989, it was a sleepy fishing village, something of a ghost town where ruins of the German colonial occupation still stood. It was a slow bus ride two hundred kilometers north of Dar. The seafood was wonderful.

In a later notebook I re-drew from (approximate) memory an old swahili house I had noticed in the town and which still served as a Government office. Although my drawing skills were no greater then than now, I include it here as a personal curiosity. So much for Bagamoyo.

Swahili house (with octagonal front columns and decorative latticework). Notebook. Bagamoyo, Tanzania 1989.

Earlier this year I mentioned in passing that Uganda's debt burden was weighing on the country's economic progress. A chunk of the growing national debt is made up of Chinese construction loans, a situation that is typical across much of Africa. (**)

Chinese banks have lent vast amounts of money for basic infrastructure projects in Africa and elsewhere, as far west as eastern Europe: roads, railways, harbours, bridges, airports, power plants (yes, coal powered), the sort of things that China has become expert in as it built up its own economic miracle. Since infrastructure was badly needed all over Africa, it was, at first, welcomed with open arms. Chinese investment filled a vacuum, particularly where western or multilateral funding was lacking. The fact that the projects also served Chinese interests was to be expected. You didn't have to be a genius to figure out that China was spreading its wings, doing a bit of empire building and trying to secure its future. Neglected by their former colonial masters, African leaders were willing to play ball with the Chinese, all the more so since Beijing was notoriously relaxed about accountability. One eye open, one eye closed.

When China started to run into resistance, the headwind came not immediately from Africa, but from Asia, specifically from Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Pakistan, countries saddled with grandiose Chinese projects which, on closer inspection, they could not afford or did not need.

Thus Sri Lanka got a deep-sea port in the distant south-east of he country, in Hambantota, plus a nearby international airport built in the middle of nowhere (actually in a wildlife area where elephants roamed). China ended up repossessing the harbour. As for the airport, it is operational but unused, hemorrhaging cash. The latest news is that Sri Lanka was trying to unload it to Indian interests.

Beijing has had to deal with second thoughts from other countries as well. Following a historic regime change in Malaysia last year, the government in Kuala Lumpur managed to renegotiate a major railway project. India looks on warily, reluctant to have anything to do with China's expansionist push to make the world that much more Sinocentric.

African countries such as Kenya, which got a lovely new railway between Nairobi and Mombassa, have found themselves in debt distress, the so-called Chinese debt trap. The roads are fantastic, the rail and airport terminals are grandiose, but the revenue and growth they generate are not enough to pay back the Chinese loans.

The question then arises how visionary the Belt and Road master plan really is, how many of the gargantuan projects were properly thought through, how much due diligence was actually performed.

The New York based Rhodium Group, a commercial provider of economic research, has reviewed forty cases of Chinese debt renegotiations, many of them in Africa. Their study suggests that China has not been very smart with its lending. It also turns out that China has had limited leverage in dealing with some of its shaggy-dog debtor states. Large amounts of money have in fact been forgiven, written off, deferred or renegotiated. Other loans appear to be in limbo.(***)

In other words, China's revival of the old silk road is not a walk-over. It is costing a lot of money while failing to yield the kind of economic and political servitude the strategists is Beijing may have been looking for.

It also takes for granted unimpeded global growth on an indefinite time horizon, backed and guaranteed by authoritarian rule, which is to say the Chinese model of state capitalism. Not only does it seem blind to the serious security problems across Africa and the Muslim world, it essentially ignores climate change and dramatically contradicts the awareness that our planet is in deep environmental trouble. Such awareness may now be growing in the West but apparently is still taboo in Beijing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (*) As of last year, only a single African nation, Swaziland, grants formal diplomatic recognition to the Republic of China (ROC = Taiwan). Several Central-American, Caribbean and South-Pacific countries still do, as does the Holy See. Over the years, both the ROC and the People's Republic of China have used dollar diplomacy to try and win over recalcitrant states. Predictably, the PRC has won this unequal contest. It may not matter much any more now that has China become a global superpower no one seriously wants to mess with. (**) https://peakwealth.tumblr.com/post/184705262502 (***) https://rhg.com/research/new-data-on-the-debt-trap-question/

See also for Belt and Road Initiative's environmental impact: https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-chinas-big-overseas-initiative-threatens-climate-progress

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madstars-festival · 6 years ago

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HOW YOLK’S SUNG UN CHANG IS “CHALLENGING INNOVATION”

Sung Un Chang is a Korean designer who is changing the way people think about solar energy. She established YOLK in South Korea in 2012 after studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and working in New York and Italy.

YOLK is behind two Innovation Award winners at CES: Solar Paper, a paper-thin solar charger that raised over US$1 million on Kickstarter, and the Solar Cow Project, which incentivises parents in Africa to send their children to school. In the morning, children plug their power sources into a bovine inspired ‘Solar Cow’ and attend classes while they charge. They return home with a fully charged power source that serves the entire household.

In August 2019, Chung will travel to AD STARS to discuss “The Power of Innovation.” Her message to other creative professionals is one of cross-pollination: if creatives connect with other sectors – such as science, politics and anthropology – they have an important role to play in solving “borderless” issues.

You’re going to speak about “The Power of Innovation” at AD STARS 2019. What will people take away from your talk?

Over 20% of children in Africa suffer from child labor. With poverty being its most probable cause, it remains a difficult task: until the parents are actually out of poverty, they cannot afford to educate their children. Our team understands that eradicating child labor, improving quality of life, and making education more affordable are strongly correlated to the extent that they are deeply intertwined. The World Bank’s conditional cash transfers have proven to be one of the most effective solutions for treating social issues – especially those caused by poverty such as child labor. However, the huge and consistent financial costs involved in running the program significantly limit the numbers of students that it can sponsor.

Solar Cow suggests an innovative approach that can easily solve this problem at a fraction of the cost by linking communities to natural solar energy.

You have studied and worked in Chicago, New York and Italy. What did you learn from studying abroad, and from working in design hubs like Milan?

Talking about how experiences abroad have contributed to the formation of me as a designer seems to be just as difficult as recognizing and explaining how the food we eat has shaped us. However, the experiences of meeting people from different countries, environments, and backgrounds has allowed me to be open-minded to the differences and to be more curious at the same time.

Why did you decide to return to Korea to open your own company, YOLK, in 2012?

I thought it would be a good place to make something :)

Can you explain YOLK’s mission to combine technology and design to create social value. Why is social value so important to you?

YOLK's keyword is innovation. Through Solar Paper, we challenged innovation through the fusion of design and technology, and through Solar Cow we are challenging innovation through social values.

YOLK wanted to prove that by pursuing social values creatively, more profitable and innovative business models can be created.

Korea obviously leads the world when it comes to innovation: How does living in Seoul inspire you as a designer/entrepreneur?

By looking at the activities of other start-ups and doing activities together, it can be both a fresh stimulus and an opportunity to get ideas to envision bigger pictures. If you are only concentrating on the tasks at hand, the scope of your activities will become narrower.

How did you get the idea to create paper-thin solar chargers?

As people became more aware of environmental issues, there were many who wanted to use solar energy in everyday life even though they were not outdoor people. I realized there was no product that fits these people’s lifestyle. I think Solar Paper received great attention and a great response because it fulfils these needs in ways other companies didn’t recognize.

The Solar Cow project also won a CES Innovation award this year. What’s next for Solar Cow? Do you have plans to expand the program beyond Pokot in Kenya?

In the next three years, we plan to send 10,000 Solar Cows to bring 2.5 million children to school. We will start from East Africa and Kenya to Uganda and Tanzania, and spread to all over Africa. In addition to bringing children to school, the remaining electricity from Solar Cow can be used to power ICT devices, which will enable children to access educational materials and provide them with a quality education.

We believe that education is one of the most significant investments that countries can make in their people and future: education can provide an opportunity to break the cycles of poverty on its own. We look forward to collaborating with governments in African countries.

The theme of AD STARS 2019 is ‘Influence”. Who or what influences your own work as a designer?

The Solar Cow project that we are doing now is very different from my existing design process. For example, if I design a shopping cart as I know other designers have designed it, I will have to try abandoning the existing stereotypes of its usage and design to look at it with different perspectives to bring a new creative outcome. However, for the Solar Cow project, the user environment and cultural mindsets were not what I have experienced before. I am actively trying to understand, accept and incorporate these into my design.

Can you tell me more about the positive impacts of that project: how did it impact the people of the village?

In July 2018, the YOLK team visited Pokot, Kenya to set up the first pilot Solar Cow. When we talked to the parents at the school and explained that the Solar Cow could be used for electricity, the parents were very enthusiastic, welcoming and promised to send their children to school. It meant that the parents don’t have to pay for expensive electricity to charge their cellphone and walk back and forth to the charging shop located several kilometers away.

In fact, children who had never been to school could start going to school, and the attendance rate of children who were frequently absent due to housework was improved. At that time, one Solar Cow was available to be in use by 32 students and families, but each upgraded Solar Cow will be able to benefit about 250 families.

YOLK shows that technology and design can change the world for the better. Do you have any advice for designers who are hoping to help solve global problems?

I believe that designers should expand their field of activity to collaborate in more diverse fields. The synergy of diverse fields such as science, politics, and anthropology when confronted with intuition and creative perspectives of designers will be very surprising.

The plastic problem, which has emerged as a hot topic in recent years, is a borderless issue: meaning international cooperation is required to solve the problem. I think designers can also play a crucial part in finding solutions creatively.

‘The Power of Innovation’ will take place on Friday 23rd August at AD STARS 2019.

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energysolutions · 6 years ago

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Detailed guide: International Climate Finance has been published on Energy Solutions

New Post has been published on https://source.energybrokers.co.uk/news/beis/detailed-guide-international-climate-finance-2

Detailed guide: International Climate Finance

There is a clear moral imperative for developed economies such as the UK to help those around the world who stand to lose most from the consequences of manmade climate change.

Prime Minister Theresa May, December 2017

Climate change is a global challenge that affects us all. No country is projected to be spared from the impacts of further global temperature increases and we are already facing serious challenges to the natural environment; to food production; and to water resources. Without concerted global action to limit and manage the impact of climate change, we could reverse the huge gains in global poverty reduction which the UK has helped achieve over the last 3 decades.

UK International Climate Finance (ICF) plays a crucial role in addressing this global challenge. Three government Departments (DFID, BEIS and Defra) have responsibility for investing the UK’s £5.8bn of ICF between 2016 and 2021.

Our ICF delivers in the national interest, delivering all 4 aims of the UK aid strategy:

strengthening global peace, security and governance

strengthening resilience and response to crises

promoting global prosperity

tackling extreme poverty and helping the world’s most vulnerable

If we do not tackle climate change, it will undo the progress made globally to meet the Sustainable Development Goals. We directly support the goals on climate action and affordable and clean energy, as well as indirectly supporting many others.

PDF, 23.1MB, 32 pages

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology. Request an accessible format.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email [email protected]. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.

Overview

Domestically and internationally the UK is a leader on climate change. We played a pivotal role in securing the Paris Agreement in 2015, where the world came together to agree a plan to limit temperature rises to below 2 degrees. We have reduced our emissions quicker than any other country in the G20, drawing on the depth and breadth of UK low carbon knowledge and expertise and creating new economic opportunities. Since 1990 the UK economy has grown by two thirds while emissions have fallen by over 40%. We have ended UK support for unabated coal power generation and, across the world, UK businesses are helping to make the global low carbon transition a reality.

The UK honours its international obligations. Alongside other developed countries, we have committed to jointly mobilise $100bn per year in climate finance to developing countries from public and private sources. This was instrumental in securing the landmark Paris Agreement. As part of this commitment, we pledged to provide at least £5.8bn of International Climate Finance (ICF) between 2016 and 2020. This is official development assistance from DFID, BEIS and Defra. It aims for an even split between mitigation and adaptation and places us amongst the world’s leading providers of climate finance. We have also committed up to $5bn with Germany and Norway for countries who bring forward ambitious projects to halt deforestation.

Investing our climate finance today helps reduce costs tomorrow. Every £1 invested well in climate-related risk reduction saves more than £3 (and up to £50) in avoided disaster impacts. Similarly, every pound spent cutting CO2 pays for itself between five- and twenty-fold by offsetting the future costs of climate change. Our ICF does this by:

building the resilience of the poorest people and communities. It supports countries to prepare for and adapt to climate change, improving how disasters are managed and reducing the harm they cause and the costs of responding

BRACED Programme, DFID

working to ensure that the vast expansion in infrastructure in developing countries is low carbon and climate resilient – using our finance to build capacity and unlock greater flows of private finance towards clean growth, bringing down the costs of a global low carbon transition in the process;

Carbon Initiative for Development, World Bank Group

supporting work to halt deforestation and create new supply chains that are both profitable and sustainable. We help communities to use land in ways that reduce emissions and improve productivity whilst protecting and restoring forests that support important biodiversity and fragile eco-systems.

Capacity building to spot early signs of deforestation in Colombia

Our Results

We are committed to understanding and measuring the impact of our investments, and annually publish a set of key results.

PDF, 513KB, 14 pages

Impact of our investments, key result

Previous ICF results documents, and KPI methodologies

Case Studies

Celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs)

The Noor solar power complex in Ouarzazate supplies clean power to 1.1 million Moroccans.

Climate finance practitioners from around the globe are gathering in January 2019 in Morocco to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) – one of the world’s largest and most ambitious climate finance mechanisms.

Co-founded by the UK in 2008, the CIFs are designed to help developing countries transition towards low-carbon and climate-resilient development. The UK is the largest contributor, having invested £2 billion (almost $3 billion) of the $8 billion disbursed to projects that reduce emissions, support clean growth, build climate resilience and protect forests.

The event is being held at the world’s largest solar farm in Ouarzazate on the edge of the Sahara Desert. This groundbreaking 500 MW Concentrated Solar Power complex, which UK funding helped establish, supplies clean power to 1.1 million Moroccans. Its sheer scale has driven down the costs of this cutting-edge technology by 50%, enabling the Moroccan government to raise its renewables energy target to 42% by 2020. 

Over the past 10 years, the CIFs have funded over 300 projects in more than 70 countries and are expected to:

deliver 26.5 GW of new clean power - more than the total power capacity of the Netherlands

provide 8.5 million people with improved access to energy - equivalent to the population of Sierra Leone

place 36 million hectares of forests under improved management - equivalent to the area of Germany

support 45 million people to cope with the effects of climate change - more than the population of Sudan.

UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions)

The Technical Assistance Programme; market engagement event

UK PACT (Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions) sits within the International Climate Finance Team (ICF) in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). UK PACT aims to support a series of high-impact activities which will provide low-carbon related technical assistance to a number of ODA-eligible countries. Our goals are to:

contribute to the reduction of the country’s emissions and poverty, by improving the capacity and capability of key institutions (public, private, and civil society)

support demand-led technical assistance that prioritises implementation and helps raise climate ambition, by addressing barriers, constraints and areas of opportunity at different levels of government based on the country’s political and economic context and sectorial priorities

Calls for proposals

Active Calls for Proposals Currently, there are no active Calls for Proposals – please check back soon

Market Engagement

On 27 November 2018, UK PACT held a Market Engagement event in London at Central Hall Westminster – the event consisted of a half day conference in the morning and a limited number of 1-2-1 meetings in the afternoon, which were filled on a first come, first serve basis.

On 20 July 2018 UK PACT held a Market Engagement event welcoming over 80 participants to half a day of content at the Conference Centre in BEIS.

Sustainable Energy for Women and Girls (SEWG) programme

Powering Health Care: Phoebe’s Story

The Sustainable Energy for Women and Girls (SEWG) programme aims to support a shift in the way clean energy markets operate, with a focus on improving access to and awareness of clean energy options, supporting health, safety and economic opportunities for women and girls in developing countries. One of the strands of this work, a health facility electrification project managed by the United Nations Foundation, is powering primary health clinics with solar energy solutions, where there is no electricity access or where it is unreliable. Funded by SEWG using the UK’s International Climate Finance, it is delivering power to 62 clinics across Uganda and Ghana.

By installing a reliable, renewable energy source in these clinics, women can more safely give birth at night in well-lit delivery rooms, whereas previously mid-wives used mobile phone torch light to deliver babies and administer care to patients. Medical equipment can also be more effectively sterilised, and clinics can preserve vaccines and other medicines.

Phoebe, the Assistant Nurse in charge of one of the health centres with the new solar panels said:

I chose to become a midwife because my mother was saved by doctors and I felt like I owed a debt to help. I came to this clinic 4 years ago, but for a long time, many women didn’t come here. We didn’t have any electricity. Mothers would die while giving birth at night. All of us were afraid. The electricity has really helped us. We’re now able to carry out all main operations. The community knows about the electricity and they are coming here now. The power provides access anytime.

Improving Resilience in South Sudan (IRISS), BRACED

According to the Climate Change Vulnerability Index, South Sudan is amongst the most vulnerable countries in the world and projections indicate that the impact of global warming there will be felt 2.5 times more than the global average. Over 90% of the people in South Sudan are reliant on climate sensitive sectors for their livelihoods and climate change could have a major negative impact on their income.

The Improving Resilience in South Sudan programme (IRISS), funded by ICF, builds community resilience to floods and droughts in South Sudan. It works with communities to develop knowledge and skills so that they can produce long lasting sources of food and reduce their dependence on aid. Through a combination of new farming techniques, vegetable gardening and village savings and loan associations, IRISS helps community members to build climate-resilient agriculture skills to take back to their villages and farms.

The training and provision of tools and seeds funded by this programme has expanded the availability of food, from the traditional harvest of just one major cereal crop, to an almost continuous harvest of vegetables throughout the year. So far, it has trained over 2,900 people in climate resilient agriculture techniques.

Read more about this, and other resilience programmes – Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters.

The Clean Technology Fund (CTF)

Empowering a Greener Future through Clean Technologies

Climate-friendly energy can reduce poverty and build economic growth in developing countries. That’s why the UK works with the CTF to finance large-scale renewable energy technologies like solar power, and to promote energy efficiency. The success of the Fund’s programmes shows others, including the private sector, that climate smart technology is worth investing in.

Photo credit: World Bank Group/ Abengoas Solar

South Africa’s KaXu Solar One Concentrated Solar Power project, with funding from the CTF, recently won an award from the United Nations for it’s approach to tackling climate change. The plant works by using around 330,000 mirrors to reflect and concentrate the sun’s rays, generating enough renewable energy to power 80,000 South African households. It is expected to save around 315,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, equivalent to taking 66,000 cars off the road. Not only this, KaXu is also helping stimulate the local economy. Since 2012, the plant has generated over 1,700 jobs in the Northern Cape, a province with a high rate of youth unemployment.

The local community also benefit through a 20% equity stake. Dividends from this support local education, health and housing initiatives that will benefit the livelihoods of some of South Africa’s most vulnerable citizens.

Clean Technology Fund

Blue Forests Programme

Blue Forests video

Mangrove forests are some of the most effective habitats on earth at storing carbon which could otherwise be released as carbon dioxide and so contribute to global warming. As well as supporting endangered species and absorbing carbon dioxide, they perform a range of other ecosystem services such as storm protection, prevention of coastal erosion and climate change adaption and resilience for the hundreds of millions of people that rely on them.

Still, they are one of the world’s most threatened tropical ecosystems. Less than 1% of the remaining mangrove forests are adequately protected. Their loss erodes coastlines and reduces the ability of poor communities on these coastlines to cope with the impacts of climate change.

Madagascar houses Africa’s third largest expanse of mangrove forests. Secure management and legal barriers are needed to stop unregulated and unsustainable exploitation of the mangroves.

The Blue Forests project, supported by UK ICF, will reduce mangrove loss by working with local communities, the private sector and the government. It will explore green business opportunities based on sustainable mangrove forestry and fisheries management. Coastal communities then benefit through increased resilience to climate change and the conservation of threatened marine biodiversity.

The project is expected to protect 20,000 ha of mangroves through community forest management and benefit over 100,000 forest dependent people with the development of multiple sustainable livelihoods.

The Renewable Energy Performance Platform (REPP)

Virunga Power, an African developer, investor, and operator of renewable power projects and rural distribution grids, wanted to develop two river-based mini hydro-power plants in the Murang’a and Bungoma counties of Kenya. To get these projects off the ground they needed to show private investors that the projects would be sound and successful.

The UK is the sole funder of REPP, an organisation focused on providing access to financial and technical assistance. Partnering with REPP allowed Virunga Power to carry out activities like environmental impact assessments and feasibility studies. This addressed concerns of potential investors and the project is now expected to attract significant private and public finance. At the same time, it demonstrates that small scale renewable energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa are a viable investment.

These 2 power plants will provide improved access to clean electricity to around 340,000 people in rural communities, helping to stimulate rural economic growth. REPP is now working with partners to develop more hydro, biomass and solar power projects in Kenya which could power 18,000 homes.

For more information visit: REPP Africa

Further information on ICF projects can be found on Development Tracker.

For further details about the ICF, get in touch with DFID, BEIS or Defra using the contact details below.

[email protected] / 0300 200 3343

Defra Contact Form / 03459 33 55 77

[email protected] / 020 7215 5000

Further Information

Access to funding

There is currently no direct route through which an organisation outside of the UK Government can independently develop a project to be considered for ICF funding. We recommend that in-country projects apply to the delivery partners that we invest in for funding.

External review

The work of ICF was last reviewed by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact in 2014. You can read details of the review below -

UK Reporting of ICF Spend

Government Departments

ICF is a cross-government collaboration led by 3 different departments. For more information on the wider work of each, please click on the links below:

#BEIS