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Africa Weekly
Sustainable Development Guidance Document
Edition 1:5 - Monday, 20 July 2009
Editors Note: Welcome to the fifth issue of IISD's Africa Weekly Sustainable Development Guidance Document. The Guidance Document replaces our Linkages Africa newsletter, and we aim to provide this service on a weekly basis. If you should come across a news article or have a submission for the next issue, please send it directly to richards@iisd.org. The Africa Weekly Sustainable Development Guidance Document is an exclusive publication of IISD for the AFRICASD-L list and should not be reposted or republished to other lists/websites without the permission of IISD (you can write to Kimo Goree for permission.) If you have been forwarded this issue and would like to subscribe to AFRICASD-L, please visit: http://enb.iisd.org/email/#africasd-l
Events in Review: 10–17 July 2009
10 July: World Customs Organization: Hazardous Waste: A joint global customs initiative across Europe, the Asia/Pacific region and Africa netted more than 30000 tons and 1 500 pieces of illegal hazardous waste in 57 seizures, ranging from household waste and scrap metal to discarded electronic goods and used vehicle parts. Between March and May 2009, customs administrations from 64 countries launched Operation Demeter targeting the illicit cross-border shipment of hazardous and other waste en route from Europe to countries in the Asia/Pacific region and Africa. [Press release]
13 July: World Bank: Developing Countries’ Remittance Flows: According to the World Bank, remittance flows to developing countries are expected to be US$304 billion in 2009, down from an estimated US$328 billion in 2008. The Bank released a new migration and remittances brief to coincide with an International Diaspora and Development Conference held from 13-14 July. The predicted decline in remittances by -7.3% this year is far smaller than that for private flows to developing countries. [Press release]
13 July: AU: The African Union Department of Political Affairs organized a retreat with members of the Permanent Representatives Committee, in Mombasa, Kenya from 13-15 July 2009. Participants at the retreat also included representatives of the NEPAD, and other Departments of the African Union Commission. [Download press release from this page]
13 July: World Bank/Guinea-Bissau: The World Bank’s State-and-Peace Building Fund granted Guinea-Bissau US$ 1.74 million to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Finance in critical areas of public financial management where consensus for reform has already been built and political support is considered strong, but where technical assistance and capacity building needs are acute. [Press release]
14 July: UNEP: The heads of five international organizations have joined the international campaign to galvanize public support for a successful outcome to UN-sponsored climate change negotiations by signing a global petition addressed to world leaders. WHO's Margaret Chan, WIPO's Francis Gurry, WMO's Michel Jarraud, WTO's Pascal Lamy, IFAD's Kanayo F. Nwanze, as well as Britain's Minister for Higher Education and Intellectual Property, David Lammy, dipped the "People's Seal" in ink and added their stamp to the global petition. [Press release]
14 July: UNEP: Greening Investments: In a new report, a powerful group of asset managers, representing around US$2 trillion in assets  are arguing that integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into investment decisions is no longer just a luxury, but a legal responsibility. The report states that professional investment advisors and service providers -such as investment consultants and asset managers -to institutional investors may have a far greater legal obligation to incorporate ESG issues into their investment services or face a very real risk that they will be sued for negligence” if they do not. [Press release]
15 July; UN/Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): In his speech to the fifteenth NAM Summit in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, Ban Ki-moon said that although conditions have changed over the last 50 years, the world again faces complex crises threatening development and security. “At this critical time, we need to look to the Non-Aligned Movement's founding principles to address today's challenges.” [Speech]
15 July: UN-HABITAT: New homes built by UN-HABITAT for teachers in the district of Lira in northern Uganda will attract female teachers in a community recovering from two decades of war and in need of strong female role models, say local school inspectors. [Press release]
16 July: AfDB: Meeting on Finance and Education: Africa’s tertiary and scientific education capabilities have to be rebuilt, because no nation can advance without that capability, the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group President, Donald Kaberuka, said at the opening of the African finance and education ministers’ conference in Tunis which is being held on the theme: “Sustaining the Education and Economic Momentum in Africa amidst the Current Global Financial Crisis”. [Press release]
16 July: CBD: South-South Exchange meeting on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Forest Biodiversity: The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), in collaboration with the German Development Cooperation (GTZ), and with generous support from the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), facilitated a meeting from 8-10 July on South-South Cooperation and sustainable forest management, with a focus on forest biodiversity, between the three major regional organizations of the world’s tropical forest regions: the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC). [Communiqué]
16 July: IMF/Ghana: Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility: The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a three-year arrangement under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) for Ghana in an amount equivalent to SDR 387.45 million (about US$602.6 million) to support the government's economic programme to tackle macroeconomic instability. The approval will enable an initial disbursement of SDR 67.65 million (about US$105.2 million) immediately. [Press release]

REPORTS
July: UNEP Finance Initiative: Fiduciary Responsibility: Legal and practical aspects of integrating environmental, social and governance issues into institutional investment [Report]
July: AU: Africa-South America Cooperation Forum (ASACOF): Partnership in Energy under the ASA Cooperation Framework: Concept and Strategy [Document]


UPCOMING MEETINGS
20-22 July: Sub-regional workshop for trainers in integrated environmental assessment and reporting, Cairo, Egypt.
[More information]
20-24 July: Drafting Committee Meeting for the Report of the Second Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Biodiversity and Climate Change, Cape Town, South Africa. [More information]
20-24 July: Regional Preparatory Meeting to UNCCD COP 9 for Africa, Tunis, Tunisia. [More information]
25-31 July: Sub-regional workshop for trainers in integrated environmental assessment and reporting, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
[More information]
28 July: Launch of the African Economic Outlook, Kigali Rwanda. [More information]
23-28 August: Second Congress on World Agroforestry, Nairobi, Kenya. [More information] 
The Africa Weekly Sustainable Development Guidance Document is a publication of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) <info@iisd.ca>, publishers of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin © <enb@iisd.org>. This issue was compiled and edited by Tallash Kantai and Richard Sherman. The Guidance Document is part of IISD Reporting Service’s African Regional Coverage (ARC) Project in partnership with South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), the UN Environment Programme’s Regional Office for Africa (UNEP ROA) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Director of IISD Reporting Services is Langston James “Kimo” Goree VI <kimo@iisd.org>. The Programme Manager of the African Regional Coverage Project is Richard Sherman <rsherman@iisd.org>. Funding for the Africa Weekly Sustainable Development Guidance Document has been provided by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Development Research Centre, Canada, through the African Regional Coverage Project for IISD Reporting Service’s coverage of African regional meetings. IISD can be contacted at 161 Portage Avenue East, 6th Floor, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0Y4, Canada; tel: +1-204-958-7700; fax: +1-204-958-7710. The opinions expressed in the Guidance Document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IISD. Electronic versions of the Guidance Document are sent to the electronic distribution list (in HTML format) and can be found on the Linkages WWW-server at <http://enb.iisd.org/africa/>. For information on the ARC, including requests to provide reporting services, contact the Director of IISD Reporting Services at <kimo@iisd.org>, +1-646-536-7556 or 300 East 56th St., 11A, New York, New York 10022, US.
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