Production is up in 2021 for the Italian agricultural machinery industry. Tractors “made in Italy” will close the year with a total of 59 thousand units produced, for a value of 2.1 billion euros and an increase of 18.7% compared to 2020, while equipment and other types of agricultural machinery will see the value of production rise to 6.2 billion euros (+19.9%). The production segment relating to “tractor parts” and “spare parts” also shows substantial growth (+21%) and exceeds 1.1 billion. If we add to these figures those relating to the broad sector components segment, which is estimated to have reached a value of 3.3 billion euros in the year, and those relating to gardening machinery and equipment (970 million), the overall value of production in the Italian agro-mechanical sector in 2021 will reach 13.7 billion euros.
Well-planned cities essential for a resilient future in Africa concludes the World Urban Forum
The World Urban Forum (WUF) concluded today with a high-level engagement of African Ministers of Housing, Urban Development and Local Government in collaboration with the African Union, ECA and UN-Habitat.
As Africa responds to the effects of multiple crises, Ministers stressed that the way in which cities and planned and managed will determine economic recovery and risk mitigation.
The role of local governments and effective decentralisation was considered central to addressing the vulnerability of households and communities in the current context of overlapping crises.
The urgent need to enhance financing and investment in African cities was underlined as essential to optimise their role in domestic resource mobilization and economic diversification.
In particular, the need to strengthen urban and spatial planning in policies for Africa’s regional trade integration was underscored.
Given the high risks for cities arising from climate-related disasters, the need for a clear urban track at COP27 was emphasized.
A roadmap was defined to elevate the urban agenda at the highest levels of decision-making and to advance concrete instruments to strengthen urban finance, housing delivery and climate action.
ECA facilitated the deliberations at the forum by organizing a number of events on cities and regional integration, the economic power of cities, and urban finance.
Luminos Fund’s catch-up education programs in Ethiopia recognized
The Luminos Fund has been named a top 10 finalist for the Klaus J. Jacobs Best Practice Prizes 2022, a set of three awards each worth CHF 200,000 ($208,000) that honor outstanding achievement and practice in advancing quality education.
Headquartered in the United States, Luminos Fund runs education programs for out-of-school children in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
The three recipients of this year’s Best Practice Prizes will be announced at a ceremony in Zurich on 30 September 2022. For the first time, the 10 finalists will convene for a co-creation event, taking place on 1 October 2022. They will exchange knowledge and ideas on advancing learning, and will have the opportunity to partner with other shortlisted applicants to develop proposals for new projects. Two concepts will receive follow-on funding of up to CHF 150,000 ($156,000) each.
Awarded every other year, the Klaus J. Jacobs Best Practice Prizes recognize non-profits, businesses, and social ventures that are bringing forth innovative solutions to some of education’s biggest challenges.
THE ROT
The 03 in modern societies is utterly disgusting. The heightened decay originates, not only from the heavy handedness of centralized states, but also from economically powerful private sector organizations. In recent years new and potent institutions leveraging automation and digitalization have emerged to muzzle opinions/views/proposals that are deemed subversive to the rotting system. Such collaborative efforts/actions between the two entities (state & market) are quite pronounced in nations whose states are captured by market operators. As a result, common sense principles, desiring sustainable livelihood for all, have become the hated ideology du jour! On the other hand, technology as a double-edged sword can also help shape humanity’s future away from current destructiveness!
The rotting global order in the core countries is already obvious. Nonetheless, these countries (at least for a while) had managed to temper the extreme brutalities of raw capitalism. Even though the so-called third world countries of the world system have internalized the current rot, they have not been able to deliver the very basics to their sheeple. Usually or it seems, ‘rot’ sets in after a given regime has reached its peak. In a way, ‘rot’ signals systemic degeneration. During this twilight phase, change, however progressive or necessary, is resisted by the status quo. When the likelihood of dethroning the old system, along with the old guards becomes palpable, entrenched interests tend to resort to violence (covert/overt) to salvage the dying order. What allows the prolongation of ‘rot’ is the fact that the old system tends to retains some lingering legitimacy, while its potential replacement is full of unknowns. ‘Dead man walking’ is a syndrome that best characterizes the state of play during the last phase of generalized decline. In this phase, systemic dysfunction, outwardly expressed as incompetence, mediocrity, corruption, lies, etc. tend to dominate public life, especially amongst the politicos and their paymasters!
The states in the peripheries, which are also (mostly) in the ‘rot’, with the added disadvantage of not having delivered the very basics to their suffering sheeple, are bound to have explosive chaotic futures. To start with, the leadership has not earned the legitimacy needed to help galvanize solidarity and cooperation amongst the sheeple, in times of crisis. In these countries the politicos’ motives are always in question. The deportment of the general political leadership tends to lack sincerity. Impostering and masquerading are used to camouflage ineptitude and insincerity. Moreover, their habitual deceits don’t inspire confidence amongst the governed. Their shallow policies are not homegrown/organic (unsustainable) and lack clear directions. Their level of corruption is truly astounding. Connections to the power that be are all that matter in the majority of the countries located in the periphery. Rules and regulations do not apply to the ruling entities and their cronies. Justice is pure farce, a caricature of the real thing, etc, etc! These countries (led by the copycats) expect to build their civilizations on imported ideas. Relying on what we do not have, just because our masters (who incidentally are aggressively moving to take charge of the African continent) are saying so, is the epitome of stupidity if not lunacy. Of course our highly indoctrinated learned idiots cannot see the whole dilemma, as they are blinded by externally generated phony knowledge. Here is one lunacy perpetuated by the dominant interests and faithfully followed by their useful idiots. How is it possible to have infinite growth on a finite planet?
A new way of thinking is urgently needed! Unless Africa allows its better sons/daughters to come to the fore and confidently deliberate, plan and execute viable trajectories, our fate will be back to the future! Basic questions such as; Why are we not allowed to carve a more sustainable livelihood on our own, rather than copy a destructive and wasteful global order in visible decline, etc., etc.? We admit; challenging the existing senile system will cost us dearly, but the alternatives are even worse! The ‘rot’ in our countries will not go away, unless we committedly try to pursue radical alternatives. The root causes of the current chaos (in many of the African countries) have their origins in the misguided policies of the world system, blindly executed by the useful, nay, useless idiots!
