Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is to head a new organization intended to boost agricultural production in Africa and curb mounting hunger, soil erosion and lack of water.
Annan said Thursday that he has agreed to be chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, set up last year by a grant of 150 million US dollar from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.
The alliance says its most pressing priorities are to improve seed varieties; help women, who form the backbone of the continent’s farmers; and improve water management.
The situation is likely to worsen with climate change, expected to wreak havoc with crop yields that already are well below the global average, he said.
Aid agencies are sounding the alarm that drought is expected to devastate this years maize harvest in southern Africa, leaving millions of people in countries like Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho dependent on foreign handouts.
Meanwhile, Britain Wednesday announced to provide 20 million dollar over three years to the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF).
The AECF will provide match-funding for business innovations and support businesses to help people in Africa become economically active. Britain became one of the first donors to get behind the new fund.
Other donors include the African Development Bank, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The AECF will become operational in early 2008. It will offer grants of up to 1,5 million dollar to businesses that provide innovative proposals for improving peoples chances to take part in economic activity, particularly in the areas of finance and agriculture.
The new fund seeks to encourage private businesses, complementing the efforts of aid organizations to address poverty. One example of the projects it may help fund is a cell phone (mobiltelefon) system in Kenya that enables people without bank accounts to transfer money.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
