ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT
MUHAMMADU BUHARI
AT THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL RETREAT ON THE ECONOMY HELD AT THE STATE HOUSE CONFERENCE CENTRE, PRESIDENTIAL VILLA, ABUJA,
MONDAY 21ST, MARCH 2016
I am delighted to have the opportunity to address this distinguished and all-important retreat on the Nigerian economy. The purpose of this retreat as outlined in the Retreat Concept Notes is to generate immediate, medium and long-term viable policy solutions to the economic challenges facing us at both the Federal and State levels.
2. From information at my disposal, if we aggregate public views from the grassroots, city dwellers, the economic managers, consumer groups, the Unions and other stakeholders of the economy, there is near unanimity about the ills of our economy. But naturally, there are divergent views about solutions.
3. I am going to throw at this gathering some random policy options filtered from across the spectrum of our stakeholders on four (4) selected sectors of our economy.
These are:
Ø Agriculture
Ø Power
Ø Manufacturing
Ø Housing
4. I have not touched Education, Science and Technology pointedly because these related subjects require a whole retreat by themselves.
5. Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen, these suggestions I am putting forward to you are by no means directives but a contribution to your discourse.
AGRICULTURE
6. On Agriculture today, both the peasant and the mechanized farmers agree with the general public that food production and self-sufficiency require urgent government action. For too long government policies on agriculture have been half-hearted, suffering from inconsistencies and discontinuities.
Yet our real wealth is in farming, livestock, hatcheries, fishery, horticulture and forestry.
7. From the information available to me the issues worrying the public today are:
· Rising food prices, such as maize, corn, rice and gari.
· Lack of visible impact of government presence on agriculture.
· Lack of agricultural inputs at affordable prices. Cost of fertilizers, pesticide and labour compound the problems of farming. Extension services are virtually absent in several states.
· Imports of subsidized food products such as rice and poultry discourage the growth of domestic agriculture.
· Wastage of locally grown foods, notably fruit and vegetables which go bad due to lack of even moderate scale agro-processing factories and lack of feeder roads.
8. These problems I have enumerated are by no means exhaustive and some of the solutions I am putting forward are not necessarily the final word on our agricultural reform objectives:
· First, we need to carry the public with us for new initiatives. Accordingly the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the States should convene early meetings of stakeholders and identify issues with a view to addressing them.
· Inform the public in all print and electronic media on government efforts to increase local food production to dampen escalating food prices.
· Banks should be leaned upon to substantially increase their lending to the agricultural sector. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should bear part of the risk of such loans as a matter of national policy.
· States should increase their financial support through community groups. The appropriate approach should be through leaders of community groups such as farmers cooperatives.
· Provision of feeder roads by state governments to enable more effective evacuation of produce to markets and processing factories.
9. When I was a schoolboy in the 1950’s the country produced one million tons of groundnuts in two successive years. The country’s main foreign exchange earners were groundnut, cotton, cocoa, palm kernel, rubber and all agro/forest resources.
10. Regional Banks and Development Corporations in all the three regions were financed from farm surpluses. In other words, our capital formation rode on the backs of our farmers. Why was farming so successful 60 years ago? The answers are simple:
· Access to small scale credits
· Inputs (fertilizers, herbicides etc)
· Extension services.
11. Now we have better tools, better agricultural science and technology, and greater ability to process. With determination we can succeed.
POWER
12. Nigerians’ favourite talking point and butt of jokes is the power situation in our country. But, ladies and gentlemen, it is no longer a laughing matter. We must and by the grace of God we will put things right. In the three years left for this administration we have given ourselves the target of ten thousand megawatts distributable power. In 2016 alone, we intend to add two thousand megawatts to the national grid.
13. This sector has been privatized but has yet to show any improvement in the quality of service. Common public complaints are:
• Constant power cuts destroying economic activity and affecting quality of life.
• High electricity bills despite power cuts.
• Low supply of gas to power plants due to vandalization by terrorists.
• Obsolete power distribution equipment such as transformers.
• Power fluctuations, which damage manufacturing equipment and household appliances.
• Low voltage which cannot run industrial machinery.
14. These are some of the problems, which defied successive governments. In our determination to CHANGE we must and will, insha Allah, put a stop to power shortages. Key points to look at here are:
· Privatization. We are facing the classic dilemma of privatization: Public interest Vs Profit Motive. Having started, we must complete the process. But National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the regulatory authority, has a vital job to ensure consumers get value for money and over-all public interest is safe-guarded.
· Government to fast-track completion of pipelines from Gas points to power stations and provide more security to protect gas and oil pipelines.
· Power companies should be encouraged to replace obsolete equipment and improve the quality of service and technicians.
MANUFACTURING
15. It grieves me that so many manufacturing industries in the country today are groaning and frustrated because of lack of foreign exchange to import raw materials and spare parts.
Painful though this is, I believe it is a temporary phase which we shall try to overcome but there are deeper, more structural problems bedeviling local industries which this Retreat should identify short and long-term answers to. Chief among these problems are:
· Inadequate infrastructure:
Power
Roads
Security
leading to increase in costs of making Made-in Nigeria goods pricier than imports
· High Cost of Borrowing Money:
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has been hammering on the fact that high lending rates make manufacturing unviable and unprofitable.
· Lack of Long Term Funding:
The Nigerian Capital Market has not completely recovered from the 2008 worldwide crisis. Banks’ funding sources are short-term in nature due to sources of the liabilities.
· Under-developed Science and Technology Research: As with Agriculture, Nigeria’s industries are in the main outmoded and industrial practices far behind those in advanced countries.
· Unions:
We need to protect our workers from exploitation, but unions must cooperate with entrepreneurs to substantially improve productivity and quality of products if we are to move forward.
· Smuggling:
Need I say more?
16. Recommended Actions on industries are:
· The infrastructure Development Fund should be fast-tracked to unlock resources so that infrastructural deficiencies can be addressed.
· There should be more fiscal incentives for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which prove themselves capable of manufacturing quality products good enough for export.
· Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should create more incentives and ease credit terms for lending to manufacturers.
· A fresh campaign to patronize Made-in-Nigeria goods should be launched. Example: all uniforms in government-sponsored institutions should be sourced from local factories.
HOUSING
17. Some estimates put Nigeria’s housing deficit at about sixteen million units. In our successful campaign to win the general elections last year our party, the APC, promised to build a million housing units a year. This will turn out to be a very tall order unless:
· The Federal Government builds two hundred and fifty thousand units. The 22 APC States together manage another two hundred and fifty thousand units.
· We invite foreign investors together with local domiciled big construction companies to enter into commercial housing building to pick up the rest.
· The most frequent public concerns brought to my attention are three-pronged:
1. Severe shortage of housing
2. High rents
3. Unaffordable prices for prospective buyers especially middle and low-income earners.
· In addition, red tape, corruption and plain public service inefficiency lead to long delays in obtaining ownership of title documents.
· Again, there are no long term funding sources for mortgage purposes.
18. These hurdles are by no means easy to scale, but we must find solutions to the housing deficit. This Retreat might start by looking at the laws.
· Laws
The relevant laws should be reviewed to make the process of acquiring statutory right of occupancy shorter, less cumbersome and less costly. Court procedures for mortgages cases should make enforcement more efficient. Ministries of Works and Housing should upgrade their computerization of title registration system for greater efficiency.
· Mortgage Institutions. Achieving affordable housing for all Nigerians will require the development of strong and enduring mortgage institutions with transparent processes and procedures.
· Mortgage Re-financing Company. This institution when fully operational should ensure adequate support for mortgage financing.
HEALTHCARE
19. Last of the four areas that time will allow me to say a few words, but by no means the least, is healthcare. In my inauguration speech last May, I remarked that the whole field of Medicare in our country needed government attention. Dirty hospitals! (Few sights are more upsetting than a dirty hospital), inadequate equipment, poorly trained nursing staff, overcrowding. The litany of shortcomings is almost endless.
20. Sound health system is part of the prerequisites for economic development. Nigerians travel abroad, spending an estimated One Billion US Dollars annually to get medical treatment. Despite huge oil revenues the nation’s health sector remains undeveloped.
21. In attacking the challenges of this sector we could start with
· More funding for health centres to improve service delivery. World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO) could be persuaded to increase their assistance.
· Strengthening public health propaganda in primary prevention:
Ø Environmental sanitation
Ø Stop smoking
Ø Better dieting
Ø Exercising
And secondary prevention:
Screening and early diagnosis of diseases
· NAFDAC to intensify efforts on reducing or stopping circulation of fake drugs in Nigeria.
· Ministry of Health should work closely with the Nigerian Medical Association to ensure that unqualified people are not allowed to practice.
22. Finally I urge participants to learn from the array of experts and resource persons and learn from the shared experiences and perspectives to understand how other countries have transformed their economies and livelihoods of their people for the better. It is also the government’s expectation that this Retreat will highlight the respective roles and responsibilities of each tier of government in adopting and implementing agreed policy initiatives.
23. I hope this Retreat will come up with practical, viable solutions and recommendations as we chart a course for our nation in this turbulent domestic and international economic environment.
Thanks for reading.
Story of cities #5: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace
This is the story of a lost medieval city you’ve probably never heard about. Benin City, originally known as Edo, was once the capital of a pre-colonial African empire located in what is now southern Nigeria. The Benin empire was one of the oldest and most highly developed states in west Africa, dating back to the 11th century.
The Guinness Book of Records (1974 edition) described the walls of Benin City and its surrounding kingdom as the world’s largest earthworks carried out prior to the mechanical era. According to estimates by the New Scientist’s Fred Pearce, Benin City’s walls were at one point “four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops”.
Situated on a plain, Benin City was enclosed by massive walls in the south and deep ditches in the north. Beyond the city walls, numerous further walls were erected that separated the surroundings of the capital into around 500 distinct villages.
Pearce writes that these walls “extended for some 16,000 km in all, in a mosaic of more than 500 interconnected settlement boundaries. They covered 6,500 sq km and were all dug by the Edo people … They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet”.
Barely any trace of these walls exist today.
View along a street in the royal quarter of Benin City, from 1897.
View along a street in the royal quarter of Benin City, 1897. Photograph: The British Museum/Trustees of the British Museum
Benin City was also one of the first cities to have a semblance of street lighting. Huge metal lamps, many feet high, were built and placed around the city, especially near the king’s palace. Fuelled by palm oil, their burning wicks were lit at night to provide illumination for traffic to and from the palace.
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When the Portuguese first “discovered” the city in 1485, they were stunned to find this vast kingdom made of hundreds of interlocked cities and villages in the middle of the African jungle. They called it the “Great City of Benin”, at a time when there were hardly any other places in Africa the Europeans acknowledged as a city. Indeed, they classified Benin City as one of the most beautiful and best planned cities in the world.
In 1691, the Portuguese ship captain Lourenco Pinto observed: “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well governed that theft is unknown and the people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.”
In contrast, London at the same time is described by Bruce Holsinger, professor of English at the University of Virginia, as being a city of “thievery, prostitution, murder, bribery and a thriving black market made the medieval city ripe for exploitation by those with a skill for the quick blade or picking a pocket”.
African fractals
Benin City’s planning and design was done according to careful rules of symmetry, proportionality and repetition now known as fractal design. The mathematician Ron Eglash, author of African Fractals – which examines the patterns underpinning architecture, art and design in many parts of Africa – notes that the city and its surrounding villages were purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with similar shapes repeated in the rooms of each house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village in mathematically predictable patterns.
As he puts it: “When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. It never occurred to them that the Africans might have been using a form of mathematics that they hadn’t even discovered yet.”
A plaque showing an entrance to the palace of the Oba of Benin.
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A plaque showing an entrance to the palace of the Oba of Benin. Photograph: Alamy
At the centre of the city stood the king’s court, from which extended 30 very straight, broad streets, each about 120-ft wide. These main streets, which ran at right angles to each other, had underground drainage made of a sunken impluvium with an outlet to carry away storm water. Many narrower side and intersecting streets extended off them. In the middle of the streets were turf on which animals fed.
“Houses are built alongside the streets in good order, the one close to the other,” writes the 17th-century Dutch visitor Olfert Dapper. “Adorned with gables and steps … they are usually broad with long galleries inside, especially so in the case of the houses of the nobility, and divided into many rooms which are separated by walls made of red clay, very well erected.”
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Dapper adds that wealthy residents kept these walls “as shiny and smooth by washing and rubbing as any wall in Holland can be made with chalk, and they are like mirrors. The upper storeys are made of the same sort of clay. Moreover, every house is provided with a well for the supply of fresh water”.
Family houses were divided into three sections: the central part was the husband’s quarters, looking towards the road; to the left the wives’ quarters (oderie), and to the right the young men’s quarters (yekogbe).
Daily street life in Benin City might have consisted of large crowds going though even larger streets, with people colourfully dressed – some in white, others in yellow, blue or green – and the city captains acting as judges to resolve lawsuits, moderating debates in the numerous galleries, and arbitrating petty conflicts in the markets.
The early foreign explorers’ descriptions of Benin City portrayed it as a place free of crime and hunger, with large streets and houses kept clean; a city filled with courteous, honest people, and run by a centralised and highly sophisticated bureaucracy.
What impressed the first visiting Europeans most was the wealth, artistic beauty and magnificence of the city
The city was split into 11 divisions, each a smaller replication of the king’s court, comprising a sprawling series of compounds containing accommodation, workshops and public buildings – interconnected by innumerable doors and passageways, all richly decorated with the art that made Benin famous. The city was literally covered in it.
The exterior walls of the courts and compounds were decorated with horizontal ridge designs (agben) and clay carvings portraying animals, warriors and other symbols of power – the carvings would create contrasting patterns in the strong sunlight. Natural objects (pebbles or pieces of mica) were also pressed into the wet clay, while in the palaces, pillars were covered with bronze plaques illustrating the victories and deeds of former kings and nobles.
At the height of its greatness in the 12th century – well before the start of the European Renaissance – the kings and nobles of Benin City patronised craftsmen and lavished them with gifts and wealth, in return for their depiction of the kings’ and dignitaries’ great exploits in intricate bronze sculptures.
“These works from Benin are equal to the very finest examples of European casting technique,” wrote Professor Felix von Luschan, formerly of the Berlin Ethnological Museum. “Benvenuto Celini could not have cast them better, nor could anyone else before or after him. Technically, these bronzes represent the very highest possible achievement.”
A drawing of Benin City made by a British officer in 1897.
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A drawing of Benin City made by a British officer in 1897. Illustration: akg-images
What impressed the first visiting Europeans most was the wealth, artistic beauty and magnificence of the city. Immediately European nations saw the opportunity to develop trade with the wealthy kingdom, importing ivory, palm oil and pepper – and exporting guns. At the beginning of the 16th century, word quickly spread around Europe about the beautiful African city, and new visitors flocked in from all parts of Europe, with ever glowing testimonies, recorded in numerous voyage notes and illustrations.
Lost world
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Now, however, the great Benin City is lost to history. Its decline began in the 15th century, sparked by internal conflicts linked to the increasing European intrusion and slavery trade at the borders of the Benin empire.
Then in 1897, the city was destroyed by British soldiers – looted, blown up and burnt to the ground. My great grandparents were among the many who fled following the sacking of the city; they were members of the elite corps of the king’s doctors.
Nowadays, while a modern Benin City has risen on the same plain, the ruins of its former, grander namesake are not mentioned in any tourist guidebook to the area. They have not been preserved, nor has a miniature city or touristic replica been made to keep alive the memory of this great ancient city.
A house composed of a courtyard in Obasagbon, known as Chief Enogie Aikoriogie’s house – probably built in the second half of the 19th century – is considered the only vestige that survives from Benin City. The house possesses features that match the horizontally fluted walls, pillars, central impluvium and carved decorations observed in the architecture of ancient Benin.
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Curious tourists visiting Edo state in Nigeria are often shown places that might once have been part of the ancient city – but its walls and moats are nowhere to be seen. Perhaps a section of the great city wall, one of the world’s largest man-made monuments, now lies bruised and battered, neglected and forgotten in the Nigerian bush.
A discontented Nigerian puts it this way: “Imagine if this monument was in England, USA, Germany, Canada or India? It would be the most visited place on earth, and a tourist mecca for millions of the world’s people. A money-spinner worth countless billions in annual tourist revenue.”
Instead, if you wish to get a glimpse into the glorious past of the ancient Benin kingdom – and a better understanding of this groundbreaking city – you are better off visiting the Benin Bronze Sculptures section of the British Museum in central London. Thanks for reading.
Mourinho has signed pre-contract agreement with Manchester United – report
José Mourinho has reportedly signed a pre-contract agreement to join Manchester United, with the former Chelsea manager due up to £15m in compensation if he is not appointed by the club by 1 June.
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The Portuguese has been out of work since his sacking by Chelsea in December but has been persistently linked with Louis van Gaal’s job at Manchester United. Last week, Mourinho said he wants to join a new club in the summer after “reading and listening to a few lies” about his future.
According to the Spanish newspaper El País on Saturday night, a source from his agent Jorge Mendes’s company Gestifute has now confirmed the 53-year-old has already signed an agreement to move to Old Trafford last month, although United still reserve the right to change their mind.
“If United do not sign the final contract [with Mourinho] before 1 May, they must pay £5m; if by 1 June he’s still not signed, they shall pay another £10m,” read the report. “May is the key, because it’s the month in which the vast majority of the signings of players are closed and the plans formed.”.
El País claim that the clause has been included because senior figures at Old Trafford, including Sir Alex Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton, are not entirely convinced that Mourinho is the right man to succeed Louis van Gaal. The report also states that Real Madrid are also interested in hiring him to replace Zinedine Zidane but Mourinho would prefer to move to United. Thanks for reading
FG Set To Celebrate Young Nigerian Scientists – Onu
The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST) on Monday said it was ready to organise a science competition that would identify and celebrate the best young Nigerian scientists.
The FMST Minister, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, made this known during the official commissioning of the Abuja Office of the Nigerian Institute of Science Laboratory Technology (NISLT).
“The ministry will play an important role in helping to promote science and technology culture among our young people. By organising scientific competitions, our young people will benefit tremendously from a new scientific thinking that is needed to increase the awareness of our people for the role of science and technology in nation-building.
“FMST will organise a science competition that will identify and celebration the best among young scientists from all the 774 Local Government Areas in the country,” he said.
According to him, the NISLT building will serve as a reference centre for scientific equipment needs assessment as well as certification of laboratories for analysis and training.
Onu said that he was deeply concerned about the need to diversify national economy, pointing out that the problems facing the nation since independence had been essentially a mono-product economy.
“The fragility of our economy had been exposed with attendant consequences of the high rate of high unemployment and undue pressure on our economy.
“Nigeria must rise up and employ science and technology as the suitable instrument to help us diversify and strengthen our economy.
“I am happy that President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to using Science and Technology to diversify our economy,“ he said.
Earlier, the FMST Permanent Secretary, Mrs Habiba Lawal stressed that the NISLT would be used by Nigeria scientists and technologies for further greatness of the nation.
“Today’s event started in 2003 when the Act formally establishing the institute was enacted by the National Assembly. This was after a period of about 30 years of struggle to have an indigenous regulatory professional body of science laboratory technologies,’’ she added.
The NISLT Director-General, Mr Ighodalo Ijagbone, commended the entire management team of the ministry on commissioning of the first office building on the premises.
“The next major stage is to put in place appropriate infrastructure to provide the enabling space in carrying out the statutory duties and function as assigned to the institute by the Act,“ he said.
NAN
Thanks for reading,
iPhone SE: Apple launches smaller, cheaper smartphone
Apple has bucked the bigger-is-better phone trend and released a revamped version of its 4in iPhone 5S, the new iPhone SE.
It will be the smallest smartphone in Apple’s current lineup and the first smartphone to be released with a screen smaller than 4.7in since the iPhone 6 was released in September 2014.
Greg Joswiak, VP of product marketing for Apple said: “Some people simply love smaller phones. And the 4in phone is often their first iPhone. Some people asked and pleaded with us. So we’re calling it, the iPhone SE. Our most powerful ”
The iPhone SE – possibly harking back in name to the Macintosh SE computer, which was released in 1987 – has a similar form-factor to 2013’s iPhone 5S. It has a metal body, 4in screen, Touch ID fingerprint scanner and a flush camera lens, unlike Apple’s most recent iPhones. The phone will be available in black, white, gold and rose gold.
The outside of the device resembles an iPhone 5S but the inside will be similar to the iPhone 6S, using Apple’s A9 processor, an NFC chip with support for Apple Pay and a better 12-megapixel camera, in line with Apple’s 2015 iPhones.
The iPhone 5S, launched in 2013
The iPhone 5S, launched in 2013. Photograph: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
The iPhone SE has double the processing power and four times the graphics performance of the iPhone 5S, as well as longer battery life.
Apple hopes that the smaller smartphone will convince those still using an iPhone 5, 5S or 5C that do not want a larger phone of the size of the 4.7in iPhone 6S or 5.5in 6S Plus to upgrade. Cook estimates that 60% of those using Apple’s smaller iPhones have not yet upgraded to an iPhone 6 or newer, meaning there is a large potential market waiting to be tapped.
Larger smartphone screens have proved popular and have allowed manufacturers to add more features supported by larger batteries, Apple’s iPhone with its 4.7in screen is remained one of the smallest.
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As a smaller, premium smartphone the new iPhone SE has little in the way of competition. Only Sony produces a widely available flagship smartphone with a smaller screen with the 4.6in Xperia Z5 Compact. Other smaller phones made by Motorola, HTC and Samsung are cut-down, cheaper versions with poorer components that target a more budget-conscious section of the market.
Whether there is still demand for a smaller premium-priced smartphone remains to be seen. The downward pressure on price has meant decent smartphones now cost as little as £130 with features similar to top-end models costing four times their price.
For Apple, the iPhone SE represents a way to target a more cost-sensitive market without stooping to budget levels. In the past the company has used older models of the iPhone, maintaining the 2012 iPhone 4S for sale until the release of the iPhone 6 in 2014, and previous models before that. But selling older smartphones concurrently with new models has added to the company’s burden to maintain smartphone updates for longer, which it typically does for at least three years after release.
The iPhone SE, with internals similar to an iPhone 6S at a lower price, is easier to cater for with software updates because it reduces the number of hardware variants Apple has to support.
The iPhone SE will be released on 31 March with pre-orders starting 24 March costing from $399 in the US, or £359 in the UK, for 16GB of storage, $499 in the US, or £439 in the UK, with 64GB of storage in the US.
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Breaking: Fire Outbreak Destroys Over 100 Structures In Kuramo, Lagos
No fewer than 100 shanties at Kuramo, Lekki area of Lagos, were on Monday destroyed by wild fire.
It was gathered that that fire started in the wee hours of the day and had killed two residents.
The cause of the wild fire is yet to be ascertained at press time.
In the meantime, rescue operations are ongoing, as men of the Lagos State fire service are combating the flames.
Thanks for reading.
UN Women's head: 'Historic shift' needed to find concrete ways to end gender inequality
The resolve of world leaders to end gender inequality will be tested at this year’s Commission on the Status of Women, the head of UN Women told delegates during the opening session on Monday.
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said the annual two-week meeting in New York would be critical in finding concrete ways to implement the ambitious sustainable development goals (SDGs), a blueprint for development to 2030 that member states adopted in September.
She urged leaders to make “an historic shift” in agreeing ways to implement the goals – specifically goal five, which promises to end gender inequality and empower women and girls.
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“This commission is the largest and most critical inter-governmental forum, with diverse women’s voices that can influence the road to 2030 … This session marks the beginning of the countdown to 2030, to the future we want, where no one is left behind, the future where we have substantive gender equality,” she said.
“This is not a moment to reopen what was already agreed to in 2015. CSW is the first test of our resolve and an opportunity to make an historic shift.”
She said efforts to close the gender pay gap and get more women in leadership positions must be accelerated.
Mlambo-Ngcuka paid tribute to Berta Cáceres, the feminist activist from Honduras who was murdered on 3 March. To applause from delegates, she said Cáceres, who won the Goldman environmental prize last year, had paid the highest price in her fight “to assert different values against the power structures that could compromise agenda 2030”.
Ban Ki-moon addresses the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York.
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Ban Ki-moon addresses the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York. Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images
This year’s CSW is the first since leaders pledged to end extreme poverty, address inequality and conserve the environment over the next 15 years.
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For the first time, a youth forum of the CSW was held over the weekend, bringing together more than 300 young people from across the globe to discuss ways to achieve gender equality.
Concerted efforts are being made to get more young people engaged in the SDGs. There are about 1.8 billion 10- to 24-year-olds in the world. Mlambo-Ngcuka said the development agenda “is largely about them and for them”.
The CSW youth forum has called for education about gender equality and the rights of women and girls to start early.
Representing the forum, young activist Vanessa Anyoti told delegates: “The SDGs are about our lives now and our collective tomorrows. We stand with you in finding innovative and lasting solutions to achieve gender equality by 2030.”
The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, pointed out in his speech to the commission that there are still five countries with no women in parliament and seven countries with no women in the cabinet.
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“I am not going to disclose the names of the countries today but I am urging them: they know who you are. I will be checking every day until the last day of my mandate as secretary general. I will keep pushing until the world has no parliaments and no cabinets without any women,” he said.
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Haiti, Micronesia, Qatar, Tonga and Vanuatu have no female MPs.
Ahead of the CSW, campaigners said they want this year’s outcome agreement, signed by member states at the end of two weeks of negotiations, to show strong commitments on how governments plan to implement and finance the goals.
Although the draft outcome document was initially quite light on detail, member states have begun to firm it up with suggested inclusions, and strengthen some of the language to better reflect previous gender equality agreements, such as the Beijing platform for action. In light of Cáceres’s murder, several countries are trying to ensure strong language about protecting people who defend human rights.
Thanks for reading.
