Ethiopian and Indian technology entrepreneurs showcased their innovative work at the Ministry of Innovation and Technology in a bid to commercialize their groundbreaking work.
There were 31 validated Indian and 62 Ethiopian technological and innovative projects in agriculture, food processing, green energy, waste management, education, information technology, and health were displayed during a week-long exhibition and side line conference which remained open from December 9-14, 2019.
“Partnership in validated innovation work is pertinent to foster our move to digitize our economy,” said Getahun Mekuria, Minister of Innovation and Technology. Adding that Ethiopia is undertaking major economic reforms which will enable Indian and other companies to participate in the move towards privatization.
The exhibition is part of the agreement between the two countries to deploy over 50 Indian innovation and technology entrepreneurs with Ethiopian counterparts over a period of five years in order to stimulate economic impact development in the country.
For this program, qualified and validated Indian innovations & technological work was selected through a unique and rigorous evaluation process to create sustainable joint ventures in Ethiopia to build an ecosystem wherein Indian innovations and technology enterprises drive B2B/B2G business ventures with Ethiopia, propelling growth in India and Ethiopia.
According to Getahun, Ethiopia is aspiring to follow the footsteps of India in science, innovation and technology and Ethiopia has a lot to learn from India’s entrepreneurship.
India is one of the big Asian digital economies in terms of science and technology mobilization as well as incubation for the creation of wealth and employment.
Indian Ambassador to Ethiopia, Anurag Srivastava said the expo and conference on science, innovation and technology create interaction and engagement between Indian and Ethiopian companies and stressed India’s commitment to further deepen its partnership with Ethiopia to support its development in innovation and technology.
From the showcase the Ministry of Innovation will select close to 100 innovative projects to team up with Indian technological innovators. On top of this the exhibition will capacitated Ethiopian innovators to add values in the local products and create more jobs in the field.
“That means that the best way to really create wealth in the world is through technology-based and knowledge-based industries,” Getahun adds.
The contribution of technolo0gy to GDP is insignificant though Ethiopia has an advantage as the large number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educated graduates who are beginning to enter the job market following the government’s investments in higher education. However the ministry’s plan to raise the Ethiopian tech sector to 2 percent of GDP or 2billion USD in the next two years – up from what he calls its “insignificant” contribution today.
Indian, Ethiopian tech investors team up
‘Africa’s future depends on solidarity’ Leaders and development partners rally around climate change goals
There was standing room only as ministers, diplomats, activists and journalists gathered at the IFEMA conference centre in Madrid to mark Africa Day at the COP 25 climate meeting.
Speakers called for a united front to tackle the challenges of climate change in Africa.
In the opening statement for Africa Day on Tuesday, Yasmin Fouad, Egypt’s Minister of Environmental Affairs, on behalf of the African Union, said: “We have, and will continue to engage and to seek landing grounds on the outstanding issues. But we must flag our concern at the apparent reluctance by our interlocutors to engage on issues of priority to developing countries, as evidenced by the large number of such issues which have simply been pushed from session to session without any progress.”
Africa contributes the least to global warming emissions yet is the continent most vulnerable to climate change, as witnessed by devastating natural disasters recently. Africa Day has been held at the conference every year since COP 17 in 2011 to rally support for the continent’s cause.
“The climate disaster issues confronting the continent demand a predictable and unified response,” said UN ASG Mohamed Beavogui, Director General of African Risk Capacity, an agency of the African Union that helps governments respond to natural disasters.
“Africa needs to move towards market-based innovative financing models to achieve a strong, united, resilient and globally influential continent. The future of Africa depends on solidarity.”
Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said the ECA would support African countries to revise their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to attract private sector investments in clean energy.
“The lack of concerted and meaningful global ambition and action to tackle climate change poses an existential threat to African populations,” Songwe said.
The Paris Agreement is the guiding force of current climate negotiations. It calls on nations to curb temperature increases at 2°C by the end of this century, while attempting to contain rises within 1.5°C. The next step is to implement NDCs, which set out national targets under the Paris Agreement.
While African countries outlined bold aspirations to build climate resilient and low-carbon economies in their NDCs, the continent’s position is that it should not be treated the same as developed nations as its carbon emissions constitute a fraction of the world’s big economies.
“The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) remains committed to partnering with other institutions in providing the requisite support to AU member states in reviewing and updating their NDCs,” said Estherine Fotabong, Director of Programmes at AUDA-NEPAD.
Barbara Creecy, South Africa’s Environment Minister and current chair of the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment, said the Africa Day event should come up with new ideas to enhance the implementation of NDCs in Africa.
Africa is already responding positively to the challenge of climate change, said Anthony Nyong, Director for Climate Change and Green Growth at the African Development Bank, citing huge investment interest in renewables at the Bank’s Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg.
“Clearly, we are a continent that has what it takes to create the Africa that we want to see happen. I believe what has been the missing link is the ability to brand right and to act on the market signals,” Nyong said. “We continue to present Africa as a vulnerable case and not as a business case with opportunities. In fact, where we have attempted the latter, the results have been spot-on.”
Niger Seed, the 10th commodity in the ECX platform
In addition to the nine agricultural commodities Niger Seed has been attracting the modern marketing system, as the 10th agricultural product.
The Ethiopia Commodity Exchange; branches which are ready to receive Niger seed are Addis Ababa, Saris, Bure, Nekemte, Gondar, Kombolcha, Assosa and Pawi. The addition of Nigger Seed in the modern trading system can help to reduce the illegal transactions, and foster the country’s export trade.
In another news, in the month of November 2019, trade at the ECX trading platforms had been conducted for 21 days during which 21,704 tons of coffee, 3,310 tons of white Pea bean, 29,300 tons of sesame, 1,083 tons of Soya Bean and 5,428 tons of Green Mung Beans have been transacted for a total of 2.8 billion birr. Coffee took a market lion’s share contributing 36% in trade volume and 50% in trade value.
During the month export coffee trade dominated the market by controlling market attention with 63 % of the volume the value, followed by Local and Specialty coffees in row. 13,557 tons of unwashed export coffee had been transacted for 862 million birr. Unwashed coffee origins, Illuababour shined with 29% of the volume of the category followed by Gimbi with 23% market share.
High Level Advocacy event celebrates role of women in protecting and advancing rights of women and girls
A High Level advocacy event co-organized by the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, took place on Tuesday December 10. The event was held under the theme “Celebrating the Role of Women in Protecting and Advancing the Rights of Women and Girls,” bringing together all relevant stakeholders to dwell on the critical contribution of women in the protection and advancement of the rights of women and girls. The event was organized in connection with the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence. The High Level event formed part of a series of advocacy events aimed at stepping-up efforts at influencing public policy and eliminating discrimination and biases with the purpose of contributing to efforts at enabling women and girls to realize their full potential. The event highlighted the need to redouble efforts on realizing gender equality and human rights for women and girls, underlining the urgency to place issues of gender equality, women’s empowerment and human rights high on the public and policy agendas as well as programming.
