WFA Launches Planet Pledge For Marketers

Esan Bolaji
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WFA Launches Planet Pledge For Marketers

WFA launches a framework to help marketers lead on climate change challenges. New research suggests marketers lag corporate progress on the sustainability journey

WFA is urging global marketers to sign up to its new Planet Pledge. The initiative is designed to put marketers in a position where they can help lead brands’ responses to climate change, encourage efforts across the wider marketing industry and help consumers act more sustainably when using their products and services.

The pledge is being launched at WFA’s Global Marketer Week to coincide with new WFA research– Marketing and Sustainability: Closing the Gaps – which identifies that while marketers believe that they can be a force for change, marketing, as a function, often lags other functions within the business: Just 10% of marketers claim to be well advanced in this area compared to 29% who said that their company as a whole was at this stage.

The Planet Pledge aims to bridge this gap by encouraging CMOs to take action in four key areas:

  1. Commit to being a champion for the global Race to Zero campaign both internally within their organisations and to encouraging their marketing supply chain to do the same;
  2. Scale the capability of marketing organisations to lead for climate action by providing tools and guidance for their marketers and agencies;
  3. Harness the power of their marketing communications to drive more sustainable consumer behaviours;
  4. Reinforce a trustworthy marketing environment, where sustainability claims can be easily substantiated so that consumers can trust the marketing messages they are presented with as they seek to align their own consumption with their values.

Progress on all these goals will be reported annually by the WFA. The WFA will also work with advertising standards bodies worldwide and other relevant stakeholders in order to deliver industry guidance that will preserve trust in the evolving language of environmental claims in a way that enables consumers to make sustainable choices with confidence.

The Pledge is designed to amplify existing efforts and direct WFA members and their value chain partners towards them. In addition, it introduces new actions that marketing leaders can initiate and champion, thereby playing a distinct role in support of the transition to net zero.

It may take time for WFA members to sign up, as signing up to Race to Zero is a corporate commitment that extends well beyond marketing. Nevertheless, there is strong support among WFA members for the Pledge, which has been developed alongside CMOs from companies such as Bayer, Danone, Diageo, Dole Packaged Foods, Mastercard, Ørsted, Reckitt, Telefónica, Tesco and Unilever.

The four commitments they need to sign up to reflect the challenges identified in the WFA’s new research, which found that 95% of marketers believe that the marketing function can make a difference in the sustainability journey.

It will not be easy, however, and Marketing and Sustainability: Closing the Gaps identifies three areas of significant challenges in delivering on these goals:

  • The gap between consumers’ expectations of brands – and what they perceive brands are doing with respect to the environment and sustainability. This is despite the fact that 79% claim their companies are already taking action to meet the UN’s sustainable development goals. Among the 17 SDGs, four were cited most frequently as relevant were: Good Health & Well-Being (SDG 3), Gender Equality (SDG 5), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12) and Production and Climate Action (SDG 13).
  • The gap between organizations’ efforts on sustainability – and what their marketing departments are communicating; Marketing appears to significantly lag on the sustainability journey, and more than 50% describe their marketing organization as “about to start” or still taking “first steps.”
  • The gap between the acknowledged power of brands to make a difference – and what they are doing, particularly to help consumers make better choices and live more sustainable lifestyles. Research by Futerra has found that 40% of consumers feel that brands are actually making it harder for them to act sustainably.

Marketing and Sustainability: Closing the Gaps was run in partnership with Project 17, the communications unit centered on the United Nations’ Global Goals and behavioural change experts, BVA Nudge Unit. The findings are based on in-depth qualitative Interviews with 13 global Chief Marketing Officers as well as a quantitative survey run in conjunction with National Advertiser Associations with responses from more than 650 marketers in 34 markets around the world, including a wide mix of geographies, company sizes and categories.

Sustainability has certainly rapidly risen up marketers’ agendas. In WFA’s 2020 ‘Marketer of the Future’ study sustainability lagged at the bottom of the ‘current role’ options provided but it was also No. 1 when asked which areas would become more important over the next five years.

Part of the challenge for marketers is the organizational structure for many corporates, as sustainability does not sit neatly into an existing function. Marketers cite challenges such as conflicting business priorities (39%), lack of dedicated internal resources (27%), and pressure from shareholders (26%).

Marketing and Sustainability: Closing the Gaps argues that true progress will necessitate the same transformative mindset that organizations had to adopt during the ‘digital revolution. Marketers need to see the opportunities inherent to the sustainability agenda as a new filter through which to see the entire ecosystem versus simply a new chapter to the marketing playbook. Right now, just one-third of organizations have sustainability as a KPI on their marketing dashboard and approximately 20% of marketing organizations are not measuring sustainability efforts at all.

Above all, however, it will take courage for marketers to more boldly communicate corporate efforts, once they have something positive to say. Eighty-nine percent say companies need to be braver in communicating their efforts but only a quarter do, in many cases due to the fear of consumer backlash. Sixteen percent of those questioned said they had a good story to tell but were not yet ready to do so, while 47% said they need to improve their narrative.

Although the marketers who responded to the report cited a wide range of solutions for driving a step change in action, there were three areas of common focus: Upskilling the marketing team; committing to efforts to help consumers make sustainable choices; and providing inspiration, via sustainability and marketing case studies.

Hyundai Motor And Kia Recruit AI Expert To Strengthen Smart Technology Development

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Hyundai Motor And Kia Recruit AI Expert To Strengthen Smart Technology Development

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation announced today the recruitment of Kyunghyun Cho, associate professor of computer science and data science at New York University. Professor Cho will provide outside expert counsel to strengthen the group’s development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and its application in the mobility industry.

Cho will work with researchers at AIRS Company, an organization dedicated to the development of Hyundai and Kia’s AI technologies and AI-based services. He will advise on the application of AI technology to the mobility industry, strategies to overcome the current limitations of AI technology, and the excavation of new AI-based business opportunities.

“We look forward to working with Professor Cho to explore ways to incorporate AI technology in the mobility industry,” said Jeong Hee Kim, Vice President and Head of AIRS Company. “Hyundai and Kia will continue to develop innovative technologies and cooperate with diverse global institutions to become a frontrunner in the future mobility industry.”

To pioneer the future of sustainable mobility, Hyundai and Kia are undergoing an ambitious transformation from automotive manufacturer to Smart Mobility Solution Provider and are engaged in various projects covering AI agents, machine translators, smart factories and mobility services.

As a renowned figure in the AI field, especially of machine learning and applied AI research, Cho is expected to elevate Hyundai and Kia’s expertise in AI technology research, helping the companies to proactively respond to the growing competition in future mobility development.

Cho earned a doctorate and master’s degree in computer science from Aalto University in Finland, and a bachelor’s degree from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He developed a new simple yet effective algorithm that can resolve long-term dependency problems within recurrent neural networks (RNN).

Cho is also considered to have revolutionized AI translation services by developing a neural machine translation (NMT) algorithm that enables high-quality translation by understanding the overall context of the translated sentence, as well as to have shown achievements in the research of multimodal AI systems, a system that can learn different types of combined data such as text and images. Based on such outstanding research achievements, Cho was granted tenure at New York University in 2019.

ADVAN To Hold Its 2021 Market Outlook

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ADVAN To Hold Its 2021 Market Outlook

The Advertisers Association of Nigeria (ADVAN) has announced plans to kick off its Market Outlook for 2021.

The exclusive event which holds on the 7th of May at 11.00 am will assemble key experts in the marketing and communications eco-system providing insights on the theme: ‘2021 Consumer Engagement and Interaction – A Post-Covid Opportunity‘
This year the event will be a Hybrid of Physical (Sheraton Hotel Ikeja) and Virtual (Online).

Speakers lined up for the day are:

  • Mrs Adenike Adebola, Marketing Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc
  • Mr Otega Ogra, Group Head, Corporation Communications, BUA International Limited.
  • Mr Osamede Uwubanmwen, General Manager, Biogenerics Nigeria Ltd
  • Mr Kelvin Orifa, Chief Executive Officer, Emblue
  • Mr Jude Odia, Managing Director, Starcom Media Perspectives
  • Mr Opeyemi Dairo, Service Line Lead – Innovation Marketing Strategy, IPSOS
  • Mr Oti Ukubeyinje, President Association of Digital Marketing Professionals, Nigeria
ADVAN-2021-MARKET-OUTLOOK-Brand Spur Nigeria ADVAN To Hosts Its 2021 Market Outlook
ADVAN is the umbrella association for all advertisers (Corporate organisations that engage in major advertising)in Nigeria. It was established in 1992 as the National Advertisers’​ Association of Nigeria and in 1994 was renamed Advertisers’​ Association of Nigeria (ADVAN).
ADVAN provide an organised forum for advertisers to express their views and influence developmental changes in the Nigerian marketing communications scene.

Cutix Plc CEO Adds 1,450,000 Shares to His Holdings

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Cutix Plc CEO Adds 1,450,000 Shares to His Holdings

Oduonye Ijeoma Agnes, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cutix Plc purchased additional 1,450,000 shares of the company.

Mrs. Ijeoma Agnes Oduonye was appointed to the Board of Directors of Cutix Plc in October 2018 and she took over the position of the Chief Executive Officer of the Company effective November 1, 2018.

Cutix Plc CEO Adds 1,450,000 Shares to His Holdings ijeoma oduonye Brand Spur
MRS. IJEOMA AGNES ODUONYE
CHIEF EXECUTIVE | BRAND SPUR NIGERIA

In a statement signed by Nwokporo Chinwendu, Company Secretary and released through the Nigeria Exchange, the company said Oduonye Ijeoma Agnes, purchased a total of 1,450,000 ordinary shares of Cutix Plc at an aggregate price of N1.95, on April 21, 2021.

Price(s) and Volumes (s)

  • 450,000 Shares at N2.00
  • 1,000,000 Shares at N1.90

She is an Associate Member of, Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria. She graduated from the Federal Polytechnic Oko, with HND in Secretarial Studies in 1995. She attended the Advanced Management Program at Lagos Business School and Chief Executive Program at IESE Business School, Spain in 2018.

Mrs. Oduonye is presently pursuing her Post Graduate Diploma in Business Administration at Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu University.

Cutix Plc CEO Adds 1,450,000 Shares to His Holdings Brand spur Nigeria
Source: NGX

Cutix Plc engages in the manufacture and marketing of electrical, automobile and telecommunication wires, cables, and related products. Its products include aluminium twist cables, armoured cables, bare aluminium conductor, flexible or auto cables, and regular cables.

Proposed New Measures By The African Telecommunications Union And Ericsson Set To Expand Africa’s ICT Space

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Proposed New Measures By The African Telecommunications Union And Ericsson Set To Expand Africa’s ICT Space

African Countries and telecommunications stakeholders have today launched the first set of ATU spectrum recommendations that focus on transforming Africa into a knowledge economy through the development of technologies that boost connectivity and innovation.

The spectrum recommendations are as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Ericsson and ATU to help fast-track the roll out of technology across the continent.

In Africa today, a limited amount of Spectrum is allocated to the mobile industry as well as other sectors of communication to facilitate the transmission of wireless signals. The launched spectrum recommendations outline the importance of awarding the radio spectrum in countries across Africa in a timely, predictable and cost-effective fashion so as to support affordable, high-quality delivery of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services and spur smart technology initiatives. The recommendations also establish the idea that licensing should be technology-neutral and allow for service innovations.

The new spectrum recommendations further encourage African countries to enable spectrum sharing by giving licensees the right to share their spectrum voluntarily through various means such as trading and national roaming agreements. Additionally, African countries through the recommendations, are urged to adopt a licensing approach aimed at promoting the right mix of low, mid and high radio band spectrum to ensure that all communications service providers (CSPs) have access to spectrum amounts and type that allows for the development of a variety of use cases and caters to enterprise and customer demands.

Speaking during the launch Ceremony, the ATU Secretary-General Mr. John OMO reiterated the importance of the recommendations saying, “The launch of these recommendations is a joint effort aimed at expediting the rollout of ICT driven technologies for the development of digital economies in Africa.” Mr. John OMO’s sentiments were also shared by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of Cameroon, Mrs. LIBOM LI LIKENG born MENDOMO AWOUMVELE Minette who officiated the launch event where she affirmed that the new measures compliment African countries’ continued growth in mobile broadband.

The recommendations come at a time when Africa is looking to harness ICT driven innovation, with a rapid rise in usage of technology and smartphones. The November 2020 Ericsson Mobility Report projects that by 2026, mobile broadband subscriptions in Sub-Saharan Africa will increase to up to 76 percent.

Fadi Pharaon, President of Ericsson Middle East Africa, said, “Fostering agility and innovation from next generation ICT infrastructure is important for Africa’s growth and sustainability.” He went ahead to reiterate the importance of spectrum management strategies highlighted in the recommendations saying that they can be considered as opportunities to accelerate Africa’s digitalization and set #AfricaInMotion.

Following the launch of the recommendations, ATU will work with countries and all the stakeholders across the continent to support the implementation process. The  aim is for African countries to release the recommended spectrum and license it to the national telecommunications operators in a cost-effective manner. This would enable the  customer service providers (CSPs) to serve the demands of increasing communication needs and prepare them to deliver new technologies such as 5G, which look to revolutionize industries, enterprise, and consumers alike.

The harmonized and globally aligned frameworks as envisaged by ATU and Ericsson will assist African countries in spectrum management activities that will accelerate the cost-efficient rollout of ICT.

African Trade Finance Sees $5 Bn In Portfolio Outflows In Q1 2020 Due To Covid-19

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African Trade Finance Sees $5 Bn In Portfolio Outflows In Q1 2020 Due To Covid-19

…, But Opportunities Exist

The African Trade Finance Survey Report examines how trade finance has evolved during the Covid-19 pandemic and highlights the role it can play in overcoming the social and economic fallout of the disease.

The survey was conducted by African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) (www.Afreximbank.com), jointly with the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank-hosted Making Finance Work for Africa (https://bit.ly/3dIFcu1) Partnership.

At the launch, Professor Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, said a growing number of international banks were becoming even more reluctant to take on payment risks in countries where economic conditions were deteriorating.

“These massive capital outflows strained African banks, many of which recorded sharp drops in their net foreign assets. This further exacerbated liquidity constraints and undermined the capacity of banks to finance African trade,” he said.

The survey covers the first four months of 2020, including April, when global trade recorded its largest contraction on record. It aims to inform the design of interventions to address market challenges and effectively engage African financial institutions, trade finance intermediaries, regulatory authorities, and national authorities to accelerate efforts to bridge the region’s trade finance gap.

The report made numerous recommendations, including greater engagement between central banks and the industry, a push for increased digitalization and uptake of new technologies, and better data.

Despite the many challenges that came along with Covid-19, some opportunities also arose, the report noted. In fact, a few African countries’ economies showed strong resilience and expansion during the pandemic primarily due to their ability to be agile and to digitalize swiftly over the period.

To mitigate the significant outflows and mobilize for recovery, Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary at the UN Economic Commission for Africa, urged African leaders, especially Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers and development partners, to further support institutions such as Afreximbank through capital increases and deploy more resources towards Africa’s recovery.

Mervat Soltan, Chairperson and Managing Director at the Export Development Bank of Egypt, said the Bank had seen a significant increase in its digital services during the pandemic downturn. “Digitalization, which sustained business and trade growth during the pandemic, offers a great opportunity to help reduce costs and increase the use of trade finance facilities, and should become an integral part of the strategy to boost African trade post-Covid-19,” she added.

One way to boost African trade is through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa estimates can improve intra-Africa trade by over 50%. Bola Adesola, Senior Vice Chairman for Africa at Standard Chartered, said the AfCFTA can provide an ideal platform to help drive new businesses on the continent, which will help accelerate trade.

Fight Against Fall Armyworm: Good Progress, More Efforts Needed

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Fight Against Fall Armyworm: Good Progress, More Efforts Needed

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, QU Dongyu, today hailed progress in the fight against one of the most destructive pests jeopardizing food security across vast regions of the globe – while urging renewed drive and scaling up of efforts.

Qu was speaking at the latest virtual meeting of the Steering Committee of the Global Action for Fall Armyworm (FAW) Control, attended by over 40 participants including FAO Members, international experts and key research partners. Fall armyworm – known in Latin form as frugiperda, or “lost fruit,” for its crop-wrecking potential – has dramatically spread eastwards from the Americas in the last five years.

Having established itself in most of Africa, as well as large swaths of Asia, it has lately been reported in Australia and parts of Oceania. More than 70 countries are now affected; there are fears that the Mediterranean fringes of Europe could be next.

Thriving in warmer climates, FAW primarily feeds on maize crops – but also on wheat, sorghum, millet, sugarcane, vegetables, and cotton. The pest’s voracious appetite means that in many parts of the world, food, fuel, and fiber are at severe risk. FAO estimates that FAW has contributed to worsening food security for 26 million people. While the bug cannot be eradicated, managing it is vital and possible through a coordinated approach.

Demonstration Countries

In his address, the Director-General commended the steps taken to date: eight “demonstration” countries have been chosen as hubs for the Global Action, one for each geographical zone where the threat is most acute – China, India and the Philippines in Asia; and in Africa – Egypt, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Kenya and Malawi. All have set up National FAW Task Forces, and are developing detailed work plans for monitoring, technology evaluation and capacity building. The demonstration countries have also served as links to “scale-up” countries from their region, with some 50 more attending coordination meetings to date.

FAO’S Technical Cooperation Programme has been a “catalytic force to support a number of these efforts,” Qu told participants. The integrated pest management packages are based on the Organization’s guidelines. He added that “it is thanks to the excellent network among key stakeholders in the different countries that we have achieved these results together.”

Down In The Field

Aside from the institutional level, FAO has been working to assist those whose livelihoods are most directly threatened. In 2020, despite limitations posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly a million and a half African farmers were trained on scouting and monitoring the appearance and spread of FAW. They also learned about using bio-pesticides and pesticides, as well as nature-based solutions for FAW management.

Those benefitting from this outreach include farmers such as Cyril Nzagumandore, in Rwanda’s Nyamagabe district. “Before, from this 10-hectare marshland, we used to harvest 5 to 6 tons,” he explains. “But in 2017, this dropped to 3.5 tons. We did our best to fight the worm, but had nothing to show for it. When the FAO project came, we understood more about FAW and the technologies it takes to fight it. The FAW mobile phone application I received allows me to collect and share information. Then the agronomist comes and inspects the field. Production has gone back up. Today, from our 10 hectares, we’re harvesting 7 tons.”

Digitalizing The Fight Against FAW

The app on Nzagumandore’s phone is part of the digital tools FAO has put forward to tackle the FAW challenge. Available in 29 languages, it analyses manually entered data and photos, and uses a mix of artificial and human intelligence, to detect the presence of the worm and offer guidance. Current proposals are to enhance the system with a predictive capacity: this would warn of impending invasions by combining more sophisticated data, ranging from meteorological patterns to insect reproduction cycles to the presence of other host plants in the vicinity.

Overall, thousands of experts and technicians also received training from FAO last year in Africa and Asia – including on mass rearing of natural enemies of FAW, such as particular types of wasps. (Separately, China has included FAW monitoring and control in its own training programmes for nearly 4 million farmer technicians.)

While lauding recent progress, the Director-General also stressed the need for more funding – adding that a Working Group on Resource Mobilization had been set up to that effect. The meeting agreed on the need to embed the fight against FAW within wider food security and nutrition strategies, in an effort to increase awareness and expand donor engagement. “There is still a lot of work ahead of us,” the FAO Director-General concluded, as he called for stronger, timely national and regional monitoring; early warning capacities; effective technology transfer; and stepped-up capacity development.

Rome Call For Artificial Intelligence Ethics Draws Global Interest

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Rome Call For Artificial Intelligence Ethics Draws Global Interest

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a booming field drawing in large investments and already leading to major breakthroughs in the fields of drug discovery, chemical and molecular synthesis, computer vision systems, and language models.

It promises to catalyze revolutions in agri-food systems as well, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is already deploying it and looking at its longer-term ramifications.

As FAO Director-General QU Dongyu has said, AI “can have a tremendous positive impact, making agriculture more productive and sustainable”, but care is required to prevent it from introducing unwelcome new economic, social and ethical challenges and risks.

Qu made those remarks in early 2020 while making FAO, along with IBM and Microsoft, one of the first signatories of the Rome Call for AI Ethics, an initiative by the Pontifical Academy for Life to promote a sense of responsibility among organizations, governments, institutions and the private sector to create a future in which digital innovation and technological progress “serve human genius and creativity and not their gradual replacement.”

That call was one of the five most important news events in 2020 on the subject of ethical use of AI technologies, a topic that is rapidly gaining prominence, according to the AI Index Report from the Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI) of Stanford University.

The constructive proposition engaged by the Holy See, FAO and the other co-signatories, captured attention amid competition from other engaging news topics in the area such as public concerns over facial recognition and over whether language models and algorithms convey bias.

While using AI to optimize agri-food systems can contribute to alleviating hunger – clearly an ethical goal, and FAO is already using AI applications to improve forest monitoring and combat crop pests in vulnerable countries – method matters. As Qu said: “We have to make sure that AI tools are designed, developed and used to be consistent with the universal human rights principles.”

Moving Forward

The AI Index report noted that today there is little data on the topic of how ethics in AI is being handled by universities and companies, but that publications on the topic have been increasing noticeably since 2015 and the subject is increasingly present at major industry and academic conferences, which now often ask researchers to submit statements about the broader impacts of their work.

FAO is well placed to contribute significantly, buoyed by its core mandate of eradicating hunger, its experience in helping smallholders in low-income developing countries access the benefits of high-tech solutions and its multilateral status and normative expertise – factors that led Members to choose the Organization as the host for the new International Platform for Digital Food and Agriculture, an inclusive multi-stakeholder forum for identifying and discussing the potential benefits and risks of digitalization on the food and agriculture sectors.

The platform can help countries introduce agri-food system concerns into their national AI strategies.

Artificial intelligence and machine-learning techniques are embedded in FAO products such as the WaPOR portal, which monitors and reports on agriculture water productivity over Africa and the Near East, the Agricultural Stress Index System (ASIS) which scours satellite data for emerging signs of drought, SEPAL, which tracks small-scale change sin forests that can indicate fires or illegal logging or fires, iSharkFin, which allows port inspectors and fish traders to identify shark species from a photograph of a fin, as well as the successful FAMEWS app, which enables farmers to detect Fall Armyworm damage in a timely manner.

FAO Director-General Marks Earth Day With Sustainability Plea

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FAO Director-General Marks Earth Day With Sustainability Plea

The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, today told participants in a virtual Food for Earth “global marathon” that sustainability was a “fundamental concept and a cross-cutting theme throughout the Organization’s activities, interventions, and initiatives”.

QU was addressing the Chinese Session of the 24-hour sustainability-themed event: timed to coincide with Earth Day, it opened in Australia and worked its way across the world’s time zones, alighting in Asia-Pacific and moving on through the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas. Stopovers included some of the world’s largest economies: each one-hour session opened a window onto challenges particular to that country – and threw light on the best practices evolved in response.

Among speakers at the event were academics; senior policymakers; representatives of indigenous communities; youth groups; and other stakeholders at the intersection of environmental, agriculture and food security matters.

The event was jointly organized by FAO and the Future of Food Institute, an Italian NGO that works with FAO to safeguard the agri-food sector’s expertise and tradition, while boosting its innovative and entrepreneurial potential. Hosting the global virtual event from the southern Italian town of Pollica – widely seen as a capital of the Mediterranean diet – the Institute’s President, Sara Roversi, expressed pride in the FAO partnership. She spoke strongly in favour of a “holistic approach to build more sustainable food systems”.

Opening the Chinese Session, the FAO Director-General cautioned that making agricultural and rural development sustainable was far more than an academic exercise, noting that it required, a “viable design with practical and concrete measures”. He went on to outline what he described as four “crucial elements”.

The Rule Of Four

First, he argued, there was an acute need for “enabling policies for production, process, trade, and investment”. Second, more investment specifically in rural areas – with improved broadband infrastructure, accessibility to roads and cold chain systems. Third, a push for innovation and science (including social, institutional, financial and technological innovations) to produce new varieties based on biotechnology, using non-polluting chemicals; and fourth – partnerships and new business models to maintain trade flow and the sustainable supply of food across regions.

The Director-General further tied these four areas of action into FAO’s “Four Betters” approach – Better Production; Better Nutrition; a Better Environment; and a Better Life. He also commended China’s record on reducing poverty, while urging its scientists to act as an interface with policymakers and turn the country into a sustainability “powerhouse”.

The partnerships angle was endorsed by Roversi, with reference to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 – the “how-to” goal, which provides for collaboration to fulfill the other SDGs. “Everyone”, she said, must “take responsibility”. She described the Food for Earth format as a framework where SDGs were being analysed through the prism of “integral ecology” – one which unites political, economic, human and social lenses.

China: From Poverty Reduction To Sustainability

For his part, Dr Shenggen Fan, Dean of Global Food Economics and Policy at the China Agricultural University, echoed the FAO Director-General’s praise for China for its impressive record of reducing poverty. But like other countries, he said, China continued to suffer from pollution, resource degradation, and hidden forms of malnutrition such as micronutrient deficiencies.

Fan also echoed QU’s Rule of Four approaches in his own statement of national priorities. China, he argued, should pursue transformation along these main axes: improve governance through a coordination mechanism that would encompass nutrition, climate change, and agriculture; aim for “multiple wins” on nutrition and zero-carbon emissions as it develops new technologies; increase inputs for the production of healthy and nutritious food, and strengthen international coordination to make the voice of emerging economies more audible on the global stage.

Another participant, Dr Chingweng Yang, a principal expert at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, expounded on the challenges of preserving biodiversity in what is, in effect, one of the world’s most biodiverse environments. China, he explained, has more than 1,400 varieties of crops, over 700 livestock breeds, and no fewer than 4,000 species of fish.

It was left to the third participant joining the virtual marathon from Beijing, Dr Shengkui Cheng of the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to address the consumption aspect of sustainability policies. Research conducted in the second half of last decade suggested that 27 percent of all food produced in China was lost or wasted, Cheng said – in a nod to FAO’s Director-General, who earlier described food loss and waste as gravely impacting food security and sustainability.

Cheng also noted that waste in China is concentrated in catering – enough, in his calculation to feed an extra 30 to 50 million people. He concluded by outlining policies against waste – but also (again) the need for partnerships spanning from state institutions to canteens in order to educate waste out of the food circuit.

Balyesa, Delta Beat Lagos To Become Top Investment Spots For Q1 2021 – NIPC

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Balyesa, Delta Beat Lagos To Become Top Investment Spots For Q1 2021 – NIPC

Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) reports that US$8.41 billion was tracked as investment announcements for Q1 2021, about 75% more than the value in the corresponding period in 2020 (US$4.81 billion).

This follows the gradual return of investors’ confidence globally after the COVID-induced decline.

The Commission continues the release of the NIPC Intelligence Newsletter 6 days a week and tracked a total of 15 projects across 8 states in the period under review.

Bayelsa State received the largest share of the announcements with US$3.6 billion in mining and quarrying. Delta State recorded US$2.94 billion worth of announcements in seaport construction and power transmission, Akwa Ibom State had US$1.4 billion announced in mining and quarrying, and Lagos State with announcements totaling US$0.26 billion in finance, insurance, and manufacturing.

The report showed that the leading 4 destinations this quarter accounted for 97% of the total investments announced as against 56% in the corresponding period last year.

The top sectors were manufacturing (60%), and construction (34%). Domestic investors were the most active during the period accounting for 35% of the announcements. This was followed by announcements from Morocco (17%), the United Kingdom (3%) and the USA (1%).

By sector, manufacturing received the largest investment accounting for 60 percent ($5.08 billion; followed by construction ($2.90 billion); electricity ($0.26 billion); and agriculture ($0.11 billion).

The federal government was the highest major source of investments in Q1, which accounted for 35 percent ($2.95 billion). Other sources of investments in Nigeria were Morocco ($1.40 billion); United Kingdom ($0.24 billion), and United States ($0.08 billion).

In terms of volume, NIPC said Nigeria received 15 projects across eight states compared to Q1 2020 with 19 projects across 14 states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The commission, however, said that its report may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period under review as it is based only on the 340 news articles cited in NIPC’s newsletters from January to March 2021.

NIPC’s Intelligence Newsletter publishes Nigerian investment-related news culled, from various sources. This report is based only on the 340 news articles cited in NIPC’s Newsletters from January to March 2021; it may not contain exhaustive information on all investment announcements in Nigeria during the period.

Nevertheless, the Report gives a sense of investors’ interest in the Nigerian economy. NIPC did not independently verify the authenticity of the investment announcements but is working on tracking the announcements as they progress to actual investments.

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