At the UNFPA we are celebrating two significant milestones of immense importance globally as well as in Africa – the 50th anniversary of the setting up of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the 25th anniversary of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD).
China has joined the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Chairman, Tanzanian President Dr. John Magufuli in supporting the lifting of economic sanctions against Zimbabwe. A number of nations including the European Union, the United States of America and some Multilateral Organizations, have slapped Zimbabwe with economic sanctions. Tanzania raised its position during the just ended UN General Assembly meeting in New York recently. The same was echoed this week when President Magufuli met leaders of the Asia-Africa Legal Consultative Forum (AALCO) during their annual meeting in Dar es Salaam.
Twenty-nine year old Chisomo Chundu* (not real name), from the low-income township of Ndirande, Blantyre said. According to Chundu, in Malawi people who identify as gays, lesbians or transgender live in fear of stigma, violence and discrimination. This discrimination extends to access rights such as health care. Chundu lamented “ If you get assaulted, you can’t even report the case to the police because you will be criminalised for being gay, lesbian or transgender instead of accessing justice. At the hospital you cannot get even basic health care treatment”.
A Revolutionary art work and Prophetic Painting entitled “GOD HAS GRANTED US AUDIENCE”by a Nigerian painter who describes himself as a prophetic with paint and brush, Mazi Daniel Awgu says God has Granted us Audience is an Inspirational artistic representation, prediction of what is going to happen in the NEXT LEVEL agenda of the President Mohammdu Buhari’s APC led administration as he begins his second term in office as the President of the most populous black nation in the world. However, how these predictions come to reality to change the situation of an average Nigerian on the street remains unclear. Many Nigerians are unemployed, hungry, faced with uncertainty as violence, insurgency, kidnapping, ritual killings of innocent Nigerians has dotted the country’s landscape.
Transformation and transparency are one of the fundamental principles of good governance and social development. The two are inseparable. Africa, having missed for decades the type of aggressive and patriotic leadership in bringing about social, political and economic development, the continent can now boast about for having people like Dr. John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania or Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia. For Magufuli, since his inauguration as Fifth President of Tanzania in November 2015, he has implemented many initiatives to ensure that people know and see the impact of what their government is doing.