Category: Africa

Justus Wanzala interviews UN Resident Coordinator Siddharth Chatterjee

NAIROBI (IDN) – Kenya held a national official launch of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on September 14 in an event presided over by President Uhuru Kenyatta. A day to the launch, the government and partners in the private sector and civil society finalised a national road map to guide implementation of the SDGs.

This happened just a month after the appointment of Siddharth Chatterjee as the United Nations Resident Coordinator to the East African Nation. Chatterjee coordinates 25 UN agencies in the country and at the same time serves as the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Before his appointment, Chatterjee was the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative in Kenya.

By Justus Wanzala

STOCKHOLM (IDN) – Rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa is leading to increased urbanisation resulting in high volumes of both solid and water waste, and making compliance with sanitation regulations and standards a major issue.

To face up to the challenge, participants in a session on sustainable urban sanitation during the World Water Week conference held in Stockholm, Sweden, from August 28 – September 2 called for a multi-pronged approach involving all stakeholders to achieve the goal of sustainable urban sanitation.

By Sechaba Mokhethi

QACHA’S NEK, Lesotho (IDN) – Mampiti Mohapi, a local chief of very remote Ha Nkoko village, travels ten kilometres every month to receive her antiretroviral therapy (ART) medication to counter human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

She was diagnosed with HIV in 2006 at the age of 62 but was not started on ART treatment immediately because at the time such treatment was not administered to people unless they had a CD4 count of 500 or less, which was not her case.

A CD4 count reports the number of cells in a cubic millimetre of blood, and a normal CD4 count ranges from 500 to 1,500 cells per cubic millimetre.

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE (IDN) – Carrying a gigantic sack full of plastics debris picked up from rubbish pits, 33-year-old Herbert Mbedzi trudges around downtown Harare, the Zimbabwean capital rummaging dustbins for some more plastic waste for resale to recyclers.

Mbedzi claims that he has never been employed in his life and has now found a reliable source of income in dumped plastic junk, which has become “like gold” to him. “I have realised that my earnings each week from selling the plastics that I collect come to around 80 dollars because I have found reliable and constant customers like local firms involved in recycling plastics products,” Mbedzi told IDN.

By Jeffrey Moyo

MWENEZI, Zimbabwe (IDN) – Deep in Vesera village in Mwenezi district in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo Province, 34-year-old Albert Chindiro emerges from his pole and dagga thatched hut holding a medium size solar panel which he positions on the roof to recharge solar batteries for lighting when night falls.

The house of neighbour Alphios Mhike is linked to power lines from the state energy utility, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), but has long been disconnected from the after Mhike failed to keep up payments for prepaid electricity supplies. He too has now turned to solar energy.

By Kizito Makoye

DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) – Resting on her bed, Maimuna Saguti recalls the harrowing suffering she went through two months ago when she had to give birth under a mango tree while on her way to hospital.

“I don’t want to remember that day. The waters had broken hours before we reached the hospital,” she told IDN.

The 35-year-old food vendor from the village of Lukanga in Tanzania’s coastal Pwani Region suffered childbirth-related complications that not only caused an obstetric fistula, she also lost her child a few hours after giving birth.

NEW YORK (IDN | GIN) – Using every fibre of his being, track star Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia made a dash across the finish line at the just-ended Olympic Games in Rio but it wasn’t to be the end of his run.

Lilesa used his high profile silver medal victory to make a sign of solidarity with the Oromo people who are locked in a decades-long struggle with the government of Ethiopia. In a photograph seen worldwide, 26-year-old Lilesa stands with his arms crossed over his head – a gesture of defiance used by Oromos in recent months.

NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN | GIN) – Prayers have been said this week for 34 men, employees of the UK mining company Lonmin, who were fatally shot on August 16, 2012 during a strike and protest action over pay and conditions at the British Marikana platinum mine.

The shootings, by the South African Police Service, unleashed a national crisis. A Commission, appointed by President Jacob Zuma, found that the “decisive cause” of events on four years ago was an unlawful and reckless decision by senior police officials to disarm and disperse the strikers, by force if necessary.

NEW YORK | FREETOWN (IDN | GIN) – At their next meeting in Geneva, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child will review reports detailing the obstacles, risks and challenges imposed by governments that limit the prospects for children to succeed.

Among the countries to be reviewed is Sierra Leone whose ban on admitting pregnant girls to mainstream schools was the subject of a briefing paper called “Shamed and Blamed”. Submitted by Amnesty International, it faults the policy expressed by Minister Minkailu Bah that “visibly pregnant girls would be a negative influence to other innocent girls”.

NEW YORK | PRETORIA (IDN | GIN) – Luvo Manyonga was overjoyed with the silver long jump medal awarded him at the Rio Olympic Games on August 14. But the track and field star from Mbekweni township in South Africa has soared over obstacles more than once.

Manyongo grew up in a single parent household in a township still struggling to provide regular services of water, sanitation and electricity. Drugs, guns and violence are never far from the world of young people without jobs or prospects. A few years ago, Manyonga was on the verge of becoming another statistic of this cycle of life.