The 7th Tana High-Level Forum on peace and security in Africa is set to be held in Bahir Dar from April 21 to 22, 2018. The Forum that will bring together 250 participants including incumbent and former African leaders, stakeholder groups, peace and security experts from around the continent will have the theme: “Ownership of Africa’s peace and Security Provision: Financing and Reforming the African Union”.
During a press briefing held on Thursday at the Sheraton Hotel, Chairperson of Tana Forum and Former President of Nigeria Olesegun Obasanjo stated that the event will deliberate strong solutions on how to finance and reform the AU in peace and security agendas.
“The Forum will generate ideas and views on promoting African-led solutions on peace and security provisions in the continent by Africans. The main agenda of the event is aligned with the African Union’s ambition to reform itself,” said Obasanjo.
According to the Chairman, the AU reform includes institutional improvements at both the political and operation level, especially making a provision for a more sustainable funding for peace building in Africa.
Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda and Current AU Chairperson, is expected to deliver the keynote address at the Forum.
To understand ownership it helps to strategically examine the roles and functions of external actors in the goals of peace-building and state-building, a participant said. They further underlined that ownership has acute political significance when presented in the context of relationships between power-holders and others; between developed countries and developing countries; and between Western states and non-Western states.
Tana Forum Secretariat, Communications Coordinator and Profile Manager, Michelle Mendi Muita said that the forum will enable leaders to explore options for innovative and joint action in peace and security.
She further stated that the forum will set aside African leaders to develop and implement adequate and pro-active initiatives in peace and security on the continent and it is designed to share views, experiences and ideas in an informal and independent manner.
The Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa is a platform for African leaders, stakeholders and pro-active strategists to collaboratively engage in exploring and exchanging ideas on African-led solutions to security challenges and its secretariat is based at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) of Addis Ababa University.

Last week the second African Climate talks were held to identify new ways to alleviate the climate and development crises facing the continent.
Debasu Bayleyegn, the Director of Climate Change Implementation Coordination at the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry, opened the meeting and facilitated discussions on  climate governance, Africa’s participation in global climate negotiations, as well as weather and climate information services, among other topics.
“As we all know the reality of climate change is starting to bite. More extreme weather conditions are no longer a prediction – they are real and they are happening today. Particularly we the African people are facing the sharp end of climate change and it hampers our stability to achieve the development needs of our population,” said Debasu.
The Director further stated that the 2015 Paris Agreement, although a huge success for the planet, is not an end by itself, nations need to work together to see its implementation. .
“We need all countries to take urgent ambitious climate actions,” he said, adding Ethiopia was on the way to develop long-term NDCs,” he added.
According to James Murombedzi, Officer in Charge of the Economic Commission for Africa’s African Climate Policy Center (ACPC), the recently signed three accords which are the African Continental Free Trade Area, the Kigali Declaration and the Protocol on the Free Movement of People, will lead to a more integrated continent.
He further underlined that climate change representsa massive challenge for Africa, given the reliance of the continent’s economies and societies on climate sensitive natural resource-based activities, its limited capacity to adapt to climate disruption, and its relatively limited influence in the global political economy.
He said the Africa Climate Talks, an initiative of the ACPC and the ClimDev-Africa Initiative, aim to stimulate a wide-ranging discourse informed by the emerging African common positions on a range of pertinent issues, and also to create platforms for the discussions of African perspectives on key issues in the linkages between climate change and Africa’s transformative development trajectories.
“ The initiatives will enhance public awareness of climate change; its implications, challenges and opportunities for Africa and facilitate critical reflection on the global dynamics of climate governance and the possible implications of these on Agenda 2063 and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development,” said Murombedzi.

A recent report from the Addis Ababa Labor and Social Affairs indicates that there are over 100,000 unemployed people living in Addis Ababa. This is in spite of the fact that many have graduated from colleges and universities or technical and vocational schools.
Sixty thousand of the unemployed are men while 43,148 women are jobless. These figures do not include people who migrate to Addis looking for work.
Among the ten sub-cities Ledeta has the highest number of unemployed at 31,673, Kolefe and Yeka come in second and third at 22,342 and 19,782 people respectively. Kirkos has the lowest number at 10,756.
The report says 43,148 people told the Bureau they got a job recently of whom 21,117 are women. When the registration occurred around 30,000 people were unaccounted for so it is not known if they obtained employment.
Recent research indicated that there is a mismatch of education and training so that many do not have the skills needed to meet the needs of the labor market. Other problems include an unparalleled population growth and availability of jobs, and the high level of migration from rural to urban areas which increase the number of unemployed people in Addis Ababa. Albeit to a lesser extent recently, recruitment culture has also its own share of the blame. Employers’ tendency of ignoring young graduates and their obsession with five plus years of work experience appears for many young graduates terrifyingly intimidating. According to World Bank’s Africa Development Indicators, 81.4% of youths and 43% of adults in Ethiopia worked in the informal sector of which 12.5% of the youth and 49.6% of the adults were self-employed.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) currently urban youth unemployment in Ethiopia stands at an appalling 40%. Terrifyingly many of these young Ethiopians who are out of the job market are not only unemployed, but also unemployable due mostly to the poor level of education they have received.
Last year the government approved 10 billion birr in revolving funds to curb unemployment in Ethiopia but the budget faces criticism due to poor utilization.
An estimated half a million recent graduates are unemployed in Ethiopia.

A detailed regulation is being prepared by Develoment Bank of Ethiopia (DBE)to help farmers access agricultural financing in affordable interest rates.
The lease  financing which will incorporate farmers and agricultural equipment  retailers will provide loans for the purchase of  tractors, trailers, harvesters, seeders, fertilizer, sprayers, generators, and other equipment which are needed  to produce agricultural products.
The finance which is expected to begin by the end of this fiscal year is studying the role, and the responsibility of borrowers lenders and government offices in order to ensure that the correct people get the loan.
Esayas Lemma, Crop Development Director at Ministry Of  Agricultural and Natural Resources Capital that the farmers will not be asked for any collateral to obtain the loan.
“The main target of the loan is to reduce unemployment by helping people who work in agriculture. The bank will give the loan to the beneficiaries when they need agricultural equipment for their work and when they buy the machine from here or abroad. The bank will hold the machine’s ownership certificate until the borrower pays off their debt, we think this system will benefit them.”
It is expected that Agri lease financing will be applicable in all regions of the country.
When leasing farm machinery, ownership is retained by the finance lender. Periodic payments are made in the form of lease rentals, which are generally tax deductible. Lease terms vary, but 3-4 years is a common timeframe with a residual value at the end of the term usually 30-50 percent of the purchase price. Responsibility for the sale of machinery at the end of the lease will depend on the lease agreement.
According to Amalia Johnson, co-author of Nathan Associate’s Agricultural Leasing Market Scoping Study for Sub-Saharan Africa, supply, demand and regulatory conditions for agri-leasing in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia offers recommendations aimed at stimulating market growth.
The report highlights that the supply of agri-leasing is constrained by banks’ difficulty pricing the risk of lending to farmers, partly due to poor understanding of their needs and behaviour. Lenders are also concerned that equipment, which acts as collateral for the lease, may not be well maintained. The lack of a developed market for used agricultural equipment also makes it hard to resell equipment after a default. And, while banks and leasing companies are starting to eye agriculture, they make enough profit elsewhere for the sector to be low priority.
In terms of demand, even though agriculture is key to the economy in all countries studied, most smallholder farmers lack knowledge of agri-leasing, or do not work enough land to justify the expense and may not have the skills or motivation to maintain equipment. Typically, only mid- to large-sized farmers or cooperatives can realistically be leased to.