Day: November 4, 2021

Maseru – The Government of Germany, through the German Federal Foreign Office, has contributed EUR 1.5 million for the years 2021-2023 to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Lesotho to support highly vulnerable people struggling to meet their basic food needs amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This is part of a EUR 18 million contribution by Germany to Southern Africa for 2021-2023.

This contribution will improve access to food and ensure that vulnerable people, including women, have access to an adequate and nutritious diet in times of need, particularly during the lean season, more commonly referred to as the period between planting and harvesting. The assistance to the identified people will be through monthly cash transfers via mobile money and commodity voucher assistance.

“Germany hopes that this funding will contribute to mitigating the suffering of vulnerable people at a time when more of them are in need of humanitarian assistance,” said Andreas Pesche, German Ambassador to South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, based in Pretoria. “We commend WFP for its continuous efforts to improve the lives of vulnerable people in the southern Africa region.”

According to the 2021 Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, about 312,000 people of the total rural population in Lesotho are food insecure and the Lesotho vulnerability Assessment report estimated that a total of 158,000 urban population in Lesotho is food insecure. In total, about 470,00 people are food insecure and require humanitarian assistance to reduce food gaps, protect and restore livelihoods and prevent acute malnutrition.

“WFP welcomes this timely and generous contribution from the people of Germany to enable us to respond to the most urgent humanitarian needs across the country, especially during the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic which has impacted already vulnerable groups in Lesotho, driving them into increased food insecurity,” said Lesotho WFP Country Director and Representative, Aurora Rusiga. “This contribution from Germany will go a long way in assisting vulnerable people who are finding it increasingly difficult to put food on the table and in dire need of support.”

WFP aims to assist 122,000 food insecure people through emergency response assistance until the end of the lean season in March 2022 with monthly cash transfers via mobile money and commodity vouchers. Beneficiaries receive USD 47 per month to help meet their basic food needs. Presently, the available funding will allow WFP to assist a total of 44,000 food insecure people.

Source: World Food Programme

Belinda Kaziwisi of Mount Darwin, Zimbabwe, about 200 kilometers north of Harare, is among the Zimbabwean mothers seeing the benefits that have grown from money provided by UNICEF.

“What I see has changed for the better is that from when I got pregnant until up to the delivery of my child, I didn’t pay anything,” Kaziwisi said, her healthy baby in her arms. “When I delivered, I was given soap, cotton and other things for free. It was all nice compared with what used to happen before.”

With funding from UNICEF, the Zimbabwe government has hired health workers who encourage pregnant mothers in rural villages to seek assistance from the country’s health institutions to avoid complications.

“We encourage pregnant mothers to come to clinics,” said Letty Chindundu, one of the health workers. “We tell them: When you get to the third month of your pregnancy, please go to the clinic. Health workers there will tell you what to do. The journey to delivery of your baby becomes easy. Even your baby will be taken care of while in the tummy, since there are now so many diseases. If they do not come to clinic, the baby may be delivered with ailments. That’s how we encourage them to come to clinic — when they [become] pregnant.”

Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale, the UNICEF representative in Zimbabwe, said that having health workers in rural villages and funding the country’s health sector are paying off.

“[According to] the latest results of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, Zimbabwe has successfully halved the maternal mortality ratio in the last 10 years, and this is a combination of different efforts [by] everyone,” Oyewale said. “The challenges are real because the world is evolving. We did not [know] COVID was going to come. What is great about what I have seen is innovation. The problem comes, our people innovate.”

Dr. Aboubacar Kampo, UNICEF’s director of health programs, was a junior official in Zimbabwe for the U.N. agency when it launched the Health Transition Fund, a multidonor pooled fund to support the country’s barely functioning health sector, about a decade ago.

This week, Kampo has been in Zimbabwe to assess whether the fund has changed Zimbabwe’s maternal, newborn and child health systems. He said the fund was bearing fruit.

“I am very pleased with the progress which Zimbabwe has made in terms of providing health care to the entire population,” Kampo said. “It is not perfect. But I think Zimbabwe can be proud of the achievement made. I think you have fully functional health systems, in particular primary health care. What I have seen is an integrated system.”

Kampo, a Mali national, said Zimbabwe now has a fully functional health system in primary health care, a sharp contrast to what the nation had nearly a decade ago.

Source: Voice of America

Britain could revive domestic production of super strong magnets used in electric vehicles and wind turbines with government support, to cut its reliance on China and achieve vital cuts in carbon emissions, two sources with direct knowledge said.

A government-funded feasibility study is due to be published on Friday, laying out the steps Britain must take to restart output of rare earth permanent magnets, the sources said.

A magnet factory would help Britain, hosting the COP26 U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, meet its goal of banning petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and slashing carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.

British production of the magnets vanished in the 1990s when the industry found it could not compete with China. But with the huge growth in demand, the government is keen to secure enough supply.

Last month, the government set out plans to achieve its net zero strategy, which includes spending $1.15 billion to support the roll out of electric vehicles (EVs) and their supply chains.

The study outlines how a plant could be built by 2024 and eventually produce enough of the powerful magnets to supply 1 million EVs a year, the sources who have read the report said.

“We’re looking to turn the tide of shipping all this kind of manufacturing to the Far East and resurrect U.K. manufacturing excellence,” one of the sources said.

The government’s Department for Business declined to comment on details regarding a possible magnet factory because the report has not been released.

“The government continues to work with investors through our Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) to progress plans to build a globally competitive electric vehicle supply chain in the U.K.,” a spokesperson said in an email.

EV ramp up

British rare earth company Less Common Metals put together the feasibility study and is considering seeking partners to jointly build the factory, the sources said.

LCM is one of the only companies outside of China that transforms rare earth raw materials into the special compounds needed to produce permanent magnets.

Automakers will need the magnets as they ramp up EV output in Britain. Ford said last month it would invest up to $310 million in an English plant to produce around 250,000 EV power units a year from mid-2024.

Rare earth magnets made of neodymium are used in 90% of EV motors because they are widely seen as the most efficient way to power them.

Electric cars with these magnets require less battery power than those with ordinary magnets, so vehicles can travel longer distances before recharging.

A race by automakers to ramp up EVs and countries to switch to wind energy is due to boost demand for permanent magnets in Europe as much as tenfold by 2050, according to the European Union.

The sources said government support would be vital so Britain could compete with China, which produces 90% of supply.

The strategy mirrors similar efforts by the EU and the United States to create domestic industries of raw materials, rare earth processing and permanent magnets.

Source: Voice of America