Charles Michel, President of the European council visits Ramsay Shoe Factory on February 10, 2020, one of the partners to the project of stemming irregular migration in northern and central Ethiopia /SINCE/ implemented under the European trust fund for Africa, on the sidelines of the African Union Summit.
The main focuses of SINCE is to enhance the employment skill of potential migrants and returnees focusing on women and youth in the target regions managed by the Italian ministry of foreign affairs, embassy of Italy in Addis Ababa and implemented in the four most migration prone regions of Ethiopia and in the city of Addis Ababa by five NGOs led partnership together with private sector, technical vocational training centers, regional bureau and CSOs.
SINCE project in Addis Ababa works on training and enhancing employment opportunities for youths on leather products, metal work and construction sector.
Ramsay shoe factory is one of the partners working on the project by actively hosting trainees under the SINCE apprenticeship.
“I have visited the Ramsay Shoe factory, I met with many women workers who look to the future” said the President.
The 25 years locally owned company currently hosts more than 19 trainees and previously Ramsay has provide employment opportunities for about 13 trainees of SINCE.
The European emergency trust fund for Africa established at the Valletta summit on migration in November 2015, to address the root causes of instability forced displacement and irregular migration and to contribute to better migration management. The first program signed under the trust fund was SINCE an action that aims at contributing to the reduction of irregular migration from the northern and central Ethiopia by improving the living conditions of the vulnerable population through decent job opportunities by financing 20 million Euros for the four years and nine month project.
Starting from 2016 SINCE has planned to responses to facilitate wage employment to 8,200 people through the provision of training courses relevant to private sectors needs until the end of 2020, the program works to create employment opportunities in six labor intensive value chains such as leather products, construction, metal work, textile and garment, agribusiness and hospitality.
Currently, beneficiaries from the project reach more than 3,000 youth, women and returnees, 28 small and medium enterprises have been created and supported within the last four year.
“We are not only benefiting the trainers rather this project is working to mutual benefit for both of us, since we are getting trained work force it minimize the time it took to train the employees” said Zelalem Habte, Managing Director of Ramsay.
Beside his visit to Ramsay, the president has also visited Addis Ababa University and Sunday Market of Shiromeda.
The president travel to meet with the African leaders on the 33rd summit of the African union held in Addis Ababa and had series of bilateral meetings with African leaders.
“Europe is Africa’s main partner for trade, investment, cooperation and development” said President Michel.
President of the European council visits Ramsay shoe factory
IATA expects cargo transportation to be doubled
Ethiopian Airlines Group hosted the International Airlines Transport Association’s (IATA). More than 23 countries and different stakeholders have been participating on the workshop. According to IATA in the coming years the development of air cargo transportation is expected to be doubled.
Since the demand continues to boost, service givers should also strength their services, improve the system handling, packaging and transporting the goods.
High staff turnover, low retention, shift in compilation has been raised as organizational challenges for the development of cargo transport.
IATA provide different kinds of technical knowledge, products, services and training solutions, to the industry needs on the definition of standards for documentation, handling and training, as well as their promotion and use, contributed to achieving a very high degree of safety in the transportation of dangerous goods by air.
“Development of new products powered by these dangerous goods is driving the demand,” said Fistum Abadi, managing director of Ethiopian cargo, since these goods are dangerous to the environment and human, Ethiopian airlines is working based on the international standards.
Ethiopian cargo and logistic service gives General Cargo services and also provide Special Cargo services like Perishable, Valuable Cargo, Pharmaceuticals, Live Animals, Human Remains, Dangerous Goods and Mail and Courier.
Experts of IATA also cautions airlines, cargo handlers and freight forwarders on the transportation of dangerous cargo by air. Hosted by Ethiopian Airlines at the Ethiopian Aviation Academy, the IATA Cargo Workshop on Dangerous Cargo attracted 60 delegates from 23 countries representing airlines, cargo handlers and freight forwarders.
The growth of cargo globally impacts everyone. IATA sees a global growth of 100 percent in the next 15 years. The cargo industry in Africa, too, is growing. African carriers like Ethiopian Airlines are investing heavily on cargo fleet, cargo terminal and technologies.
In related development Ethiopian Airlines Group secure 800 million dollar from cargo transportation in the last fiscal year of 2018/19 which is 88 percent of its target. The airline was planning to secure 906 million dollar.
Ethiopian is one of the largest cargo network operator and one of the major global cargo players, serving 57 global freighter destinations and over 103 destinations on both freighter and belly hold services.
Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services gives airport-to-airport services with 12 dedicated freighters, including 10 Boeing B777-200LRF with capacity to transport 103 tons each and two Boeing B737-260F with capacities of 22 tons each.
Ethiopian operates in major trade lanes between Africa and Europe, Middle-east and Asia providing a convenient and reliable cargo service to and from the continent. Currently, Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services operates a warehouse with over 450,000 tons annual capacity in which the air line has the capacity to transport around 1.6million kilograms of goods per day.
Abay announces success of its promotion
Abay Bank announced that the bank has benefited from its one month long campaign of promotion. The bank is also working to promote itself through different mechanisms. Starting from January 20, 2020, the bank is campaigning to promote the different services it gives to its customers.
To enhance its growth the bank is involved in various ground breaking activities according to Belete Dagnachew Vice President of Corporate Services at the bank. “The one month promotion has resulted in good feedbacks on promoting the services of the bank and increase the number of customers and deposit account,” the Vice president stated.
According to Belete, developing and providing customer centric products to enhance the quality is crucial for the sustainable growth of the bank. “The bank is also working to start bill payment and e-payment,” added Belete.
Chirstian Kassa, Business Development and Communication Director of the bank said that Abay is under the process of negotiation with the government to start bill payment, which the service is being given only at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.
The one month campaign of promoting Abay was all over the country by using different promotion methods including media, small sheds in different sides of the county, brochures and using incentives for those who came with foreign currency.
Abay Bank also managed to mobilize a deposit of 1.9 billion birr in the last six month of the current fiscal year.
Abay Bank was established nine years ago, since 2010 until now Abay has been providing five basic products giving 17 different financial services within them. Currently the bank has around 220 branches all over the country. In the last fiscal year 2018/19 Abay has reported a 63 percent rise in its net profit to 683 million birr. The total asset of the bank has also increased to 17 billion birr.
Gates Foundation release 12th annual letter
By Ruth Brook
Twenty years and $53.8 billion dollars in, Bill and Melinda Gates are reflecting on the last two decades of the work done through their foundation – The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation – in their 12th annual letter, released Monday.
The 2020 letter celebrated the last twenty years of the foundation’s existence and the significant progress it has made to alleviate poverty and tackle health issues around the world. This year’s edition, penned by the couple, focused on global health, education, climate change and gender inequality.
The letter gave a breakdown of the titanic sum, revealing that of the $53.8 billion, 45% was allocated to global development, 29% to global health, 16% to US programs and 10% to other charities.
“At the core of our foundation’s work is the idea that every person deserves the chance to live a healthy and productive life,” wrote Bill and Melinda Gates. “Twenty years later, despite how much things have changed, that is still our most important driving principle.”
The letter, titled “Why we swing for the fences”, touches on the last two decades of the foundations work and achievements as well as the setbacks, disappointments and surprises. The title was inspired by billionaire Warren Buffet’s advice to the couple to ‘swing for the fences’ and put their all their efforts and resources behind large scale endeavors to improve lives worldwide.
“When you swing for the fences, you’re putting every ounce of strength into hitting the ball as far as possible,” the couple wrote in their letter. “You know that your bat might miss the ball entirely–but that if you succeed in making contact, the rewards can be huge.”
This is the approach the foundation is taking moving forward, they wrote.
The Gates foundation first made their footprint in Ethiopia in 2000 with grants to support partners’ efforts to improve health and education in Ethiopia. The foundation has more than $265 million in grants to benefit the country. In 2012, the foundation appointed a representative in Addis Ababa to facilitate partnerships with key stakeholders in government, NGO’s and the private sector.
Ethiopia has made great strides in alleviating poverty in the country with a decrease of 46% in poverty rates since 2000. Child stunting rates from malnutrition have also decreased by 25% since 1990. While the country has witnessed improvements, there is still work to be done. Roughly four in ten Ethiopian children are at risk of never fulfilling their potential due to malnutrition. The under-five mortality rate has decreased by two-thirds since 1990 and estimates of maternal mortality are 191 per 100,000.
Melinda wrote “We’ll fund new advances in family planning and maternal and newborn health, and we’ll explore new ways of preventing the scourge of malnutrition. That’s because improvements in health are key to lifting people out of poverty.”
Advancements in agriculture are one of the driving forces behind Ethiopia’s developments. The sector is the cornerstone of Ethiopia’s economy and accounts for 65% of employment and 31 % of the country’s GDP.
However the downturn in climate change coupled with the perpetual increase of Ethiopia’s population means farmers are being pushed to drier areas where crops are harder to grow. This predicament leaves food supplies at risk and puts an obstacle in the way of the country’s progress.
“I’m also hopeful that our foundation’s work on agriculture will play a key role in helping farmers withstand climate change. Over a decade ago, we began funding research into drought- and flood-tolerant varieties of staple crops like maize and rice. These new varieties are already helping farmers grow more food in some parts of Africa and India, and more climate-smart crop options will become available in more places in the years to come,” Bill wrote.
The letter concluded on a positive note with the couple signing off optimistic for the future of their foundation.
“When we first started this work, we were optimistic about the power of innovation to drive progress—and excited about the role we could play by taking risks to unlock it. Twenty years later, we’re just as optimistic—and we’re still swinging for the fences.”
