Ethiopian Diaspora residing in the western United States have contributed over $600,000 for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) during the past nine months.
This was announced by Ambassador Mulugeta Kelil, Ethiopia’s Consul General in Los Angeles, during a discussion held with Ethiopian Diaspora in Los Angeles.
During the discussion, Selamawit Dawit, Director-General of the Ethiopian Diaspora Agency, lauded on-going efforts of the Diaspora community to support their country of origin.
After calling on them to strengthen their efforts, Selamawit said her agency will continue to work closely with the Diaspora community to enable the country get the maximum benefit it deserves from them.
Ethiopians in US contribute over $600,000 for GERD
Vaccine equity, inclusion, peace, and gender equality
Ambassador Valentine Rugwabiza from Rwanda is one of only a handful of African female Permanent Representatives of their countries to the UN in New York. In Africa Renewal’s series profiling the African women representing their countries at UN Headquarters, she spoke with Zipporah Musau about her priorities, the challenges so far and why she is advocating for more female Permanent representatives. Here are excerpts:
Africa Renewal: Let’s start with your journey to this role? How has that been and what would you say are your top three achievements so far?
Amb. Rugwabiza: Thank you, for the opportunity to have this conversation. We feel at home with Africa Renewal.
I’ve been working for a little bit more than 30 years now. That’s a long time but in Africa, people are proud of senior age and what it means in terms of experience and wisdom. Most of my career has been divided between private sector and civil service – both in my own country and as an international civil servant.
I started my professional career in the private sector where I spent about 10 years, and then moved on to set up a company in Rwanda, which I co-managed with a sister. I organized and started an association of women entrepreneurs in Rwanda. I’m also a founding member of the Federation of the Private Sector in Rwanda. However, the influence and the role of women was missing there. Women were active in business, even in our specific and challenging circumstances post-1994, but their role was not reflected in the management of the federation at all levels. So, we organized to have women represented.
Then I was offered the opportunity to represent Rwanda at the UN in Geneva as a Permanent Representative and Ambassador. I did this for three years and then I was appointed as Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), becoming the first woman in this position. So, you can just imagine how thrilled I am at this particular time, because we have the first female Director-General of the WTO – Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
From there, I went back to Rwanda where I was appointed the Cabinet Minister in charge of Investment, and later Minister for East African Regional Integration Affairs. It is from there that I was appointed to my current position where I have been for the last four years.
What would you say is the common thread in this journey?
In all the different spheres of my career – be it in the private sector, as an international civil servant, or at the national level – what has driven me all along has been to have more inclusion. I’m a strong believer in inclusion and I know that a system, or a country, that is exclusive, cannot be sustained. And I hope this is one of the lessons that we are learning from the global COVID-19 pandemic. One has to ask, why is it that rich countries that have so much in terms of resources have lost so many lives? It is because of only one reason – exclusion and inequalities. It has nothing to do with wealth, or limited resources, or limited capabilities, to take care of the people. The capabilities are there, but some people have been structurally and institutionally excluded. When you have a system that is built on exclusion, the moment you are hit by a global challenge, those inequalities become bare and are exposed.
So, for me, it has been inclusion, mainly of women and of Africans. It’s the inclusion of the priorities, the different concerns, and the different perspectives. If your own perspectives are not taken on board, then the global or regional outcome cannot work for you.
Inclusion must be from inception. It cannot be that we do everything – the planning, the strategies, and even agree on the different resources and ways to implement those strategies – and once all that is ready, we then invite some Africans around the table. That is not inclusion, it is cosmetic.
It is also the inclusion of youth. Now, I don’t mean that this comes at no cost. There is a not-so-smart way of excluding the youth everywhere in the world, such as requirements in terms of experience. Of course, it takes effort and time to invest in training them and grooming them. If we don’t include the youth, if we don’t train them and make sure that they are not only given the learning platforms, but they also understand how they can make their contribution count, then you are basically all about yourself. By the time you leave office, you may have had a great career, yes, but in terms of systemic change, there will be not much that you would have achieved.
What would you say are your top three achievements as Rwanda’s Permanent Representative to the UN here in New York?
Rwanda is one of the major troop-contributing countries of UN peacekeepers. We are actually among the top three troop contributing countries, with around 6,000 of our women and men in uniform deployed in different peacekeeping missions.
This clearly shows that peacekeeping, peace and security are very important to us, because it has to do with our own history. At our hour of most need [during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda], we were abandoned by the international community, the peacekeeping mission that was in Rwanda at that time was instructed by the UN Security Council to leave.
I should mention here that, despite those instructions, one contingent decided to stay – the Ghanaians. We will never forget that, no matter after how many generations. For them, our lives mattered. They didn’t prevent the genocide, but they saved a few thousands of lives.
Also, the late Captain Mbaye Diagne, a Senegalese peacekeeper, decided not to leave and lost his life saving lives. We didn’t see humanity from those who were responsible for the maintenance of peace and security. No, we saw humanity from fellow Africans, at their own lives’ risk. So, now we know – in our in our hearts, in our minds, all of us – it is Africa that we really have to protect. We have to be there for one another. So, for us, making sure that there is peace and security in Africa is what we have invested in and make our own contribution to, no matter how small.
We have also contributed to strengthening the concept of protection of civilians. We have even made it a little bit more normative through what we call the Kigali Principles on Protection of Civilians – providing clear protection guidelines in situations that are not necessarily as extreme as the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, and also how to prevent [such situations], and more importantly, how to protect instead of abandoning people.
Also, I have personally co-chaired successfully a Resolution on the reform of the peace and security pillar at the UN, which emphasizes, among others, prevention, and delegation of authority to the Commandant, to those on the ground, and making sure that we are nimble and can act in an effective way.
It was also during this time that, for the very first time, it was codified at the UN General Assembly that what took place in Rwanda in 1994 was a ‘genocide against the Tutsi’ – initially in 2018 and again last year in 2020. This is of great significance to us because we know what the distortion of history, or denial of history, can lead to. It is the very minimum we owe, first, to the survivors after having lost so much to protect the dignity of those we have lost, and to all of the Rwandan society.
What would you consider the most challenging part of your job so far?
Oh! The most challenging part of this job is not unique to Rwanda. It is a challenge that is common to most African delegations. We have very, very, small teams in our missions, and yet we cannot afford to be absent because that is the nature of diplomacy – you influence through engagement. This problem is common in about 80 per cent of African missions here in New York. If you compare the Mission of Rwanda with any of the European missions, they have five or six times the number of diplomats, yet the member states’ responsibilities are the same. However, even though we have very small teams, we have high ambitions and are making major contributions.
Is there another challenge you like to highlight?
For me, I also look at the challenges faced by African countries. It is very important to have effective coordination with what is happening on the continent, we need an institutionalized mechanism of coordination. As you know, the AU Heads of State Summit takes place twice a year. We cannot depend on this summit to get our decisions and then integrate them in the African Group’s priorities. We have to have a system that works on a more permanent basis.
Moving forward, what would you say are your top three priorities for this 2021?
Health equity and inclusion remain the top priority. On health equity, we are all seeing what is happening with the COVID-19 vaccine, so vaccine equity is a top priority. What has happened with the COVID-19 vaccine is a barometer of whether international cooperation functions or not. And so far, the verdict is that it is dysfunctional. This means that we need to make sure that the so-called ‘common good’ is really acted on as common good. But more specifically on health, it will be to make sure there is mobilizing for health resilience, to build resilient systems.
Also, gender equality and women empowerment will continue to be an important issue for us. We have consistently remained among the top 10 champions of the ‘He for She’ campaign [a UN campaign on gender equality].
Also, I took over at the end of last year [2020] the co-chairing with the Permanent Representative of Qatar, of the Group of Friends on Gender Parity, that brings together more than 150 countries. We want to ensure that the gender parity we are seeing in the UN Secretariat is not only limited to senior-level positions. Yes, Secretary-General António Guterres has done an excellent job in achieving gender parity at the senior levels. However, real gender parity and real integration happen at the middle management level. So, this needs to be continued and be part and parcel of performance of managers.
You’re also probably aware that Rwanda is often referred to as a ‘digital country’. So digital inclusion will continue to be a top priority for me and for our country.
I will also mention one more area – sustainable development. I am co-leading with a few other friends, work on recovering better and sustainably from the COVID-19 pandemic, as it has brought so much suffering. We have to make sure we change the way we do things and that we really work on inclusion, sustainability and resilience in a more solid way.
And then of course and even if I’m mentioning it last, it is certainly not the least. Peace and security are the foundation of everything, and we have to make sure that we make our own contribution in solving the conflicts on the continent.
There are a few female African Permanent Representatives to the UN. Currently of African countries, only Angola, Chad, Eritrea, Rwanda and South Africa have women serving as their country’s Permanent Representatives. Madagascar also has a woman serving as the Chargée d’affaires a.i. What do you think needs to be done to increase that number?
Well, we need to continue at different levels to sensitize our own leadership about the importance of achieving, if not parity, then much better representation in our diplomacy, not just in the largest multilateral platform, which is New York, but also in other multilateral platforms, such as Geneva and Addis Ababa.
Sometimes it’s important also, to expose the numbers, to share the data on female representation. And by the way it is not just a problem with Africa only. A few months ago, I met with my colleague from the Netherlands. And although the Netherlands has been a strong advocate of gender equality, the current ambassador of Netherlands is the very first female Ambassador to the UN. And, this is not an isolated case. So, of course, we look more at the African continent, but you will be surprised that we actually fare better than other regions. I would say with the only exception being the Caribbean, which is doing very well when it comes to real representation of women in senior positions.
Yemi Alade joins African Changemakers behind the ‘Draw The Line’ against malaria campaign
Grammy Award-winning Nigerian Afropop singer, songwriter, actress and activist, Yemi Alade, joins African superstars supporting the Draw The Line Against Malaria campaign to inspire and empower young people from across the African continent and the globe to call on their leaders at zeromalaria.org and push for political action to end malaria within a generation.
The ground-breaking campaign, first launched across Africa in February 2021, is a unifying global platform designed to capture youth, community and public imagination, and will be rolled out globally on World Malaria Day. The campaign aims to generate mass awareness and high visibility for the Zero Malaria Starts with Me movement across malaria-affected countries and beyond, and reflects the huge energy, talent, and cultural influence emanating from the African continent with references to art, fashion, music, sport, and entertainment.
As the voice of a new Draw The Line animation, Yemi Alade joins other African changemakers from across the continent lending their talents to fight the disease: Eliud Kipchoge, Olympic Gold-medallist and marathon world record-holder; Siya Kolisi, Captain of the Springboks; Dr Omotola J Ekeinde, Nigerian actress and philanthropist; Sherrie Silver, award-winning Rwandan British choreographer; Osas Ighodaro, Nigerian American actress and producer; Saray Khumalo, South African explorer; and Láolú Senbanjo, global artist from Nigeria and Art Director for the campaign.
With narration from Yemi Alade and in partnership with dentsu International, the Draw The Line animation explores the story behind ‘Muundo’ – a fresh new universal visual language created by Láolú Senbanjo, made up of eye-catching lines, symbols, and patterns. The language is a beautiful, visual representation of the actions that are needed to end malaria within a generation, from cutting-edge technology and innovations to increased investment and bold political actions.
Nigerian Afropop singer, songwriter, actress and activist Yemi Alade says: “Living in Nigeria I have suffered from malaria many times in my life, and it’s devastating. It’s outrageous that this preventable and treatable disease is still stealing young futures and limiting life choices indiscriminately. But we can work together to find our voices, break down boundaries, and stop malaria in its tracks. I love to see people pushing themselves to find out what they are really capable of – getting up and fighting for what’s right is our collective superpower, and we can all change course of history together.”
The animation shows the different ways that malaria impacts young people, as well at the ways that it can be reduced and ultimately eliminated. As part of their partnership to support the Draw The Line Against Malaria campaign, ViacomCBS Networks Africa (VCNA) will broadcast the animation on Nickelodeon’s global platforms. It will also be shown on other regional television channels and digital networks.
To bring the animation to life, dentsu worked with award-winning animation studio LOBO. The team animated Láolú Sebanjo’s patchworks and applied them as textures into 3D models. To blend together multiple styles, the studio created a layer of upbeat animation with their talented team of 2D artists. In contrast to the fast-paced graphics, the camera moves with a slower rhythm, addressing the seriousness of the subject matter. The result is a fresh mix of different techniques and rhythms all packed by the beautiful energy of Yemi Alade’s voice.
Kika Douglas, Executive Creative Director at dentsuAchtung! says: “Malaria is the world’s oldest and deadliest disease but we can eradicate it within our generation. What has been missing to date is a campaign that can inspire and unite a generation. Draw The Line is not only a call to action to this generation to claim their future; it’s a stage that shows the world the incredible array of talent, power and creativity of African youth.”
Felipe Machado, Creative Director for Alton/ LOBO Design & Animation adds: “We constantly seek out meaningful work that can have a positive impact on the world and we are thrilled to contribute. Everyone involved in the process was open to trying new things that it was easy for our animation team to bring forth fresh ideas and watch them grow into the final film. We couldn’t be prouder of the end result.”
The Draw The Line campaign asks people everywhere to visit zeromalaria.org and add a personal line of Muundo art to a growing piece of crowdsourced artwork which represents a visual call to action to world leaders.
The artwork will be shared with leaders at the Kigali Summit on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, being held on the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Rwanda on 24th June. The Summit is a milestone moment in the malaria fight and enabler of game changing political decisions including delivering the commitment to halve malaria across the Commonwealth by 2023.
The Draw The Line Against Malaria campaign was created by dentsu International, who led the creative strategy, concept, production, and media, and developed by a coalition of agencies, including the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), the African Union Commission, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Impact Santé Afrique, Malaria No More UK, RBM Partnership to End Malaria and Speak Up Africa.
Easter festivity
Local instability has dragged down the holiday market which was recovering from the pandemic hit after a year. Being a holiday season in the form of Easter and Ramadan the market is expected to increase because of perceived increase in demand against shortage in commodity.
In Ethiopia, where more than half of the population is assumed to be following the orthodox faith, Easter is welcomed after an eight week of fast for most. Moreover, Easter is one of the major holidays that Ethiopians celebrate. On Easter eve, Christian-Ethiopians participate in hours-long church service that ends around 3 a.m. on Sunday, after which they break their fast.
It is always a familiar sight to see the markets full to the brim during the last days of the holiday. However this time round most of the consumers seem to be complaining about the prices of commodities. Furthermore, the traders themselves are complaining that the market condition has escalated above proportion.
The food items price spike continues to be a headache to majority of the population. In most of the huge markets in the city as Capital has observed the market is showing no signs of price decrease. Both food items and non-food items are shooting in price as supply of the commodity is showing shortage. Also there are instances of high shake over in terms of the Price of vegetables and grains including Teff, and other necessities which has lasted over a month which has financial burdened the population.
When consumers’ on one end complain about the price in the market, traders on the other end reply that the country’s situation and instability has resulted in the hike of commodities.
Mostly cattle, butter, eggs and chicken come to the city from various parts of the country, mainly from Harar, Gojjam, Arbaminch and Jimma. However, as result of uprising conflicts in the country have made traders to fear to move from place to place thus the price of some products are increasing with double and some showing some significant increment.
Kera, Akaki, Shegole, Bercheko are the largest cattle markets receiving cattle from different parts of the country, mainly from Harar, Wellega, Bahirdar, Jimma, Gonder and Wolayita among others. Usually, sale of livestock inside the center reflects significant seasonal variations on demand and supply. 
In Kera, the largest cattle market in the city, traders informed Capital that the price of Cattle is showing a 4000 up to 8000 birr price increase compare to the last year, The supply of cattle comes from far and wide from the likes of Harar, Wellega, Bahirdar, Jimma, Gonder and Wolayita mostly used for the celebration. According to the traders, usually, the price is based on the type, size and origin of the cattle. “Recent unrest in some parts of the country has made it difficult to receive cattle from parts of the country. And on the last two days of the holiday the price is expected to be raised even more,” expressed one trader in an interview.
In other parts of the city at the shola market traders are selling an egg for 5.50 to 6.00 birr which was 3.50 to 5.00 birr last year, whereas a chicken would set consumers back between 470-650 birr based on their size which was between 300 birr to 500 birr last year. “Last year COVID had decreased the demand of chicken since people did not show much interest to buy cattle like they used to buy,” said on cattle seller at Kera and Shola. The other necessary commodity which is butter is ranging from 450-580, which was 250 birr and 320 birr last Easter.
According to the central statics agency, Headline inflation in the month of March, 2021 has recorded 20.2 percent increase. Most of the components of Food index showed increase as compared to similar months last year where food items recorded 22.6 percent increase in March 2021 as compared to the one observed in December 2020 whereas non-food items stood at 17.1 percent.
Bread and Cereals by 29.7 percent, Meat 11.9 percent, Fish and Seafood by 41 percent, Milk, Cheese and Eggs 32.8 percent, Oil and Fats 22.1 percent, Fruits by 6.4 percent, Vegetables and Pulses, Potatoes and Tubers by 16.1 percent, Sugar, Honey and Chocolate declined by 14.5 percent, Other Food Products and spices by 16.8 percent and Non-Alcoholic beverages and Coffee by 19.6 percent, were recorded.
This means that during the coming festive season, consumers will have to dig a bit deeper than before to have a wholesome festive season.
With regards to overall inflation, Cereal prices have continued to increase in the current month which has been a great contributor for the rise of food inflation. In addition, Vegetables and Pulses types have registered an increase in their price in the current month.
On the other hand, the continued surge in the prices of edible Oil, Spices (Pepper), Fruits, Vegetables, Potatoes, and coffee during the current month has similarly played a pivotal role in increasing the rate of inflation.
The annual inflation rate showed an increase in the current month since prices were relatively lower in the same month last year. The Non-Food inflation showed rapid growth rate of 18.9 percent in March 2021 as compared to the one observed in March 2020. The rise in Non-food Inflation is mainly due to rise in the prices of Alcohol and Tobacco, Stimulants (Chat), Clothing and Footwear, Housing Repair and Maintenance (Cement and Corrugated Iron sheets), and Energy (Firewood and Charcoal), Medical care, Transport (fuel) and Jewelry (Gold). Inflation based on comparison of Current vs. Last month at Country Level (month-on-month) in general CPI for March 2021 has showed an increase of 2.9 Percent as compared to the preceding month. The monthly inflation rate measures the price change between the two latest months. Although up to date, it can be affected by seasonal and other short term effects.
Addis Ababa City Trade Bureau announced that distribution activities are underway to make basic consumer products accessible to the public through Easter and Eid Al-Fitr holidays. Addis Ababa City Trade Bureau Head, Abdulfatah Youssef, toured the sub-cities where consumer cooperatives are preparing for the upcoming Eid and Eid Al-Fitr festivities. Consumer cooperatives in various sub-cities have also provided oil, sugar, teff, wheat flour, eggs, butter and various agricultural and industrial products.
