Monday, May 16, 2011
THIS DAY, Vol. 16, No. 5866, Pag~ 31
BusinessweRlD.' news Food Security: FAO Harps on Local Capacity Devt ,
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upporting countries to take the lead in their own sustainable development and fooil security by putting greater emphasis on capacity development has become a renewed priority for FAO. This was emphasised by the visit of U.s . Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to FAO on 6 May 20 II to discuss rising food prices. "The international community must work to support countries carry out solutions that they take the lead in designing and implementing. We want to help counlries and those who live and fann within the countries to actually bolster their own long-term capacity for agricultural growth." Clinton said. Capacity development is now recognised as a core function of FAO, and a launch ceremony was held at its headquarters on May 10 to draw . aneotion to the Organisation's new Corporate Strategy on Capacity Development In this renewed approach, development results will not
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By Crusoe Osagie with agency reports
only be measured by short-term outputs but also by how FAO engages local, national, and regional actors. FAO programmes will place greater emphasis on policy support, knowledge sharing, partnering, and sustainability. " FAO is moving beyond providing traditional technical assistance to using broader and also more integrated approaches. In FAO's Knowledge Arm, we will still foster the methods and 'tools which connect local people with each other and with their community bodies, with FAO playing a supportive role. At the same time, we will improve the ways that we work and focus on buildiog longterm approaches, which are key for achieving lasting resuits in critical areas like climate change, food security, nutrition, and gender:' said Ann Thtwiler,
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FAO's Deputy Director-General for Knowledge. Training will remain a key component of FAO's work and an indispensable tool, but current efforts need to be comprehensive to help countries adopt roore sustainable methods to foster development. India, for example, sought a sustainable approach to growing conan while reducing the use of pesticides. FAO teamed up with national partners to 'create Fanner Field Schools (FFS), training nearly 50,000 fanners in four Indian states. This led to the participation of another 100,000 fanners. Several Indian states adopted FFS as the official approach to sustainable field management practices. Agricultural extension services and policies in the country were reoriented and partnerships between scientific and research institutions, universities and policy-makers were foimed. In Gambia, 78 per cent of the forest area is severely degraded. The govemment recognised that improved forest management
required greater community · involvement. FAO worked with the Gambia Forestry Department to introduce community-based enterprise development at the local level. This methodology has since been incorporated into the curricula of many of the technical
schools that '!>i'!!pare' students for forestry management. As a result· of theSe" 'efforts, many villages now successfully engage in community-based enterprise development. Capacity development must be country-led to address the needs which the country itself
identifies through national priority strategies and plans. FAO engages locally and supports this process as FAO cannot deliver capacity development but can facilitate its achievement and with its renewed approach it is in a bener position to do so.
Discrimination at Work: ILO to Unveil Global Report he International Labour Organisation (ILO) will tOday launch a new , report entitled 'Equality By Lillda Erok£ at work: The continuing challenge", at the ILO's office its constituents. in Geneva, Switzerland. It (Report) is part of a The report, according to a series of annual ILO studies staternent by the internationon core labour standards and al labour centre, provides a was prepared under the ILO comprehensive overview .of . Declaration on Fundamental the state of discrimination in . Principles and Rights at the world of work, in the Work . The four fundamental . wake of the global financial principles are freedom of and economic crisis, and association, the elimination offus =mmendations for . of child labour, tbe eliminafuture action by the ILO and tion offorced labour and discrimination. The global economic and financial crisis, which has predictably turned into 'a major employment crisis, forms the background to the third Global Report on dis. crimination . The aim of the Report is to provide a dynamic picture of trends over the lasl" four yean; and present some findings, conclusions , and =mmenda-
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tions for future action by"the ILO and its constituents . 'The Report contains both good and bad news about recent worldwide trends regardi ng discrimination in employment and occupation. On Ole positive side, there is more legislation, there are more institutional initiatives , and, in general, a growing awareness of the need to overcome disaimination at work. "However, capacity does not keep pace with the political will , and a prolonged economic downturn exposes structural weaknesses and even aggravates structural discrimination. Furthermore, the agenda of discrimination at work is continuously diver.;ifying, and new challenges arise where old ones remain at best only partially answered," the ILO stated .
Society Tasks FAAN over Fund Remittance
P 'The Jllierim fresidenl, Nigeriall Siock ExclUl.nge (NSE), M,allam 8allama Manu; Chief Executive OjJicer, NSE, Mr. Oscar Onyerna; Direclor -General! Secrmtzes and Exc/range CommISSIon (SEC), MISS AmnnUl Oleh ;Fonner Interim Administrator, NSE, Mr. Emmanuell/aJzoboh ; and CluumUln, SEC, Senator Udorna Udo Udoma during die send off dinner organised by die NSEfor Iktu.oboh in iAgos.. J1!cenlly
Interswitch Adopts New Identity, Expan.ds into Africa
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leading electronic pay!'lent transaction switch109 company, InterSwitch, has unveiled its refreshed corporate brand identity and disclosed its plan . to penetrate other African markets. Speaking at the official presentation of t1Je new identity in Lagos, Managing Director of InterSwitch , Mr: Mitchell Elegbe, said the company decided to change its identity to reflect the general scope of its business and operations. According to him, "We are .• ~~~panding into East and West . Africa because we realise that InterSwitch has typically been viewed as a card company and the primary driver of the growth in Automated Teller Machines, and Point of Sale Terminal usage in Nigeria, but we do far more than that. We
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By Raheem Akjngbolll are therefore refreshing our identity and communication to reflect exactly what we do and how we can serve organisations and governments across Africa. "'The repositioning of our business has given us an opportunity to refresh our corporate identity in line with current times, develop consumer associations in line with our business offering, and create an awareness of our products and services in existing and new markets", he added . Also speaking at the event, the Chief Marketing Officer of the company, Mrs. Tito Adeniyi-Aderoju said, the
refreshed corporate identity formed part of an overall brand strategy to communicate how ·lnterSwitch could partner with businesses to accelerate growth, and reduce transaction costs; inrespective of where the business may reside on the African continent. InterSwitch opened the preliminary stage of its Pan- ' African expansion drive through the sale of 67 per cent equity to Helios Investment Partners and Adlevo Capital. Helicis has significant investments in financial service firms in East and West Africa' while Adlevo Capital has typically invested in businesses where technology and continuous innovation are critical for busi-
ness success. .
Prior to the sale,lnterSwitch had acquired a controlling stake in Bankom Limited,
Uganda's only licensed interbank switch, and more recently won a competitive bid to partner with the Central Bank and Bankers Committee of Gambia ' and Sierra Leone to design, implement and manage the national switches in these countries. With multi-<:hannel innovative solutions such as Quickteller (a value added service platform), Paydirect (a payment collections, lodgement and monitoring solution), Verve (a domestic Chip and PIN payment card), and MasteICard Verve (a cc>-branded payment card for domestic and international markets); InterSwitch has become a prominent bnuid in electronic transaction switching and payment processing in Africa, and is set to better serve customers with Africa wide aspirations.
resident of the Airport and Safety Ce-operative Multipurpose Society Limited , Mr. Yusuf Lawal , has urged the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to facilitate the remittance of its fund to the society in due time. Speaking to newsmen in his office, Mr. Lawal decried that FAAN was taking too long before remining what was due to the co-operative, noting that the previous management of FAAN used to give them their remittance as at when due. "In other organisation other than FAAN, we have our quick remittance but in FAAN it is delayed and we have the bulk of our members from FAAN and thiss has affected the operations of this society" "We used to have management of FAAN that gives us O.U f remittance as at when due, but we are now going through hard times and I can.categQrichlJy 'say that, this is the major challenge that we have and it is the only problem that we have because this place is being r\In by rules and regulations" he stressed. He however noted that he believes that the reason for the delay ofFAAN's remitting the co-operative funds was tied to management issue. "Well, I think it is management issue because we are supposed to have our remittance along with our salary but we discovered that for instance today is 11th of May, we have not gotten our remittance for month of April
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By Martha EigbeJoh whereas in other agencies . we have successfully gonen our remittance" Lawai stated. Asked about the achievement ·and prospect of the Cc>operative, Mr. Lawal said "We have actually been registered to run a Micro Finance Bank, we are licensed already, we have what it takes to run it. In fact it is a mUltipurpose socii ety so with the ministry of agric and co-operative, with their supervision we know that will take us to a greater height". He noted that the Co-operative has been assisting its members greatly in terms of giving them the opportunity to own their own houses. cars and other luxuries of life. "In the past one year, you .know like I just gave you the figure.of aPoU! one hundred to . one hundred and ten million naira monthly, I can tell you that on monthly basis, we give out loan to an average of 100 people and we do this on monthly basis" "I can tell you that there is no room for defaulters liecause it is being 'recovered from O,e salaries of the workfor er .so there is no defaulters. We take it from their salaries even though the remittance is being delayed to us but at the same time it can be mopped up from their own salaries, it is itre remains of the salaries that g.:ts ' (l' them so there is no room for dl ~uJ'e[l; at all" he stressed. .
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