Category: Culture

Windhoek, NAMIBIA: The Namibian Correctional Service (NCS), United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), Impact for Africa S.p.A. (IFA) and Lithon Project Consultants Pty (Ltd) (Lithon) launched an integrated food production project on Thursday, 12th January 2023 at the project site in Mariental. This groundbreaking project will support government’s efforts to increase domestic food production, develop agricultural value chains and improve the socio-economic outcomes.

“Namibia has abundant potential to secure its food and can build a concrete and sustainable food system, but it needs support from all stakeholders and actors within the food value chain says, George Fedha, WFP’s Country Director in Namibia. “Investment in productive infrastructure such as tools and seeds as well as supply chain and logistics sub-activities such as farm and community level storages, packaging, digital markets, transportation network are equally important.”

The project will plan, develop, and implement an agricultural pilot project aimed at producing a variety of high-value crops for local and international markets. The overall program is a multiyear project anticipated to cover hundreds of hectares across the country, with the pilot phase beginning on an initial 6.8 hectares. The project is expected to bolster agricultural production, boost the local economy and pave the way for long-term self-sufficiency.

“The project will apply leading-edge methodologies of regenerative and symbiotic agriculture that will make Namibia one of the first countries in the world to apply these practices on a large scale. These farming practices, among other benefits, reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity, resulting in carbon drawdown, and improved water cycle” said Mr Adriaan Grobler, Managing Director, Lithon Project Consultants.

As Namibia continues its monumental task of achieving zero hunger by 2030, joint collaborative efforts like these are a critical for achieving this goal, and spring-boarding the achievement of food security and leveraging expertise and resources to accelerate progress toward zero hunger. In addition to supporting increase in productivity, the partners will work to improve access to markets, technology, capacity, skills, and knowledge required to develop a robust, diverse, and resilient initiative.

“I am delighted to confirm that this launch is another milestone brought about by our dedication to collaborate in contributing, not only to the Namibian Correctional Service’s mandate, which is “to provide safe, secure, and humane custody of offenders, rehabilitate and reintegrate them in the community”, but also to the overall food security of the country” says Commissioner-General Raphael Tuhafeni Hamunyela, Namibian Correctional Service. “Additionally, this joint effort will support the scaling-up of domestic food production, the development of agricultural value chains and the improvement of socio-economic outcomes”.

This long-term partnership among the parties is catalytic in developing cutting-edge proof of concepts that will tackle the complex, rapidly evolving issues relative to transformative food systems, economic transformation, social protection and progression, and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

This collaborative effort comprises of National Correctional Service, (Project Owner), Lithon Project Consultants, WFP (Joint technical partner and interlocutor) and Impact for Africa (Financier).

The Pilot Project is being executed under the Logo -Together We Achieve Impactful Results-

Source: World Food Programme

The Pan-African Film Festival of Ouagadougou returns to Burkina Faso this weekend after being canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One Burkinabe director, who has made a film documenting a nursery for the infants of sex workers, talks about the importance of telling African stories through cinema.

Moumouni Sanou is a documentary film director from Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s second largest city.

In 2019, he made a film, which is being screened at The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, or FESPACO.

Night Nursery follows the story of an older woman who runs a nighttime home for sex workers’ children in Bobo Dioulasso.

Sanou said he wants Night Nursery to humanize sex workers.

Sanou said the idea was to show a different side to sex workers, which is very rarely seen. In Burkina Faso and in the rest of Africa this profession is frowned upon, he said. “But it is also the oldest profession in the world. When we see these girls, people say they are bad people because they are sex workers,” he adds.

FESPACO has been running since 1969 and this year will feature films from around 30 African countries in its official selection. Cinema professionals and cinephiles travel from all over Africa and beyond to attend.

“FESPACO is one of the biggest African film festivals, and for me to be selected and represent Burkina Faso in the documentary film section will mean this film will be seen by the whole world, not just by Africans,” Sanou said.

Ardiouma Soma, the director of FESPACO, says that this year, the event will also host the African International Film & TV Market — known as MICA — for the first time.

Soma said, because this year the MICA will be held at FESPACO they have invited distributors, whose names he prefers not to mention, to Ouagadougou. He said the market will allow them to find new projects that are in post-production and also films that are already finished but not scheduled for FESPACO, so that they can buy them for their own platforms.

Last year, FESPACO, which usually happens every two years, was cancelled due to COVID-19. Burkina Faso is also in the middle of a conflict with terrorist groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaida.

Burkina Faso’s culture minister, Élise Foniyama Ilboudo Thiombiano, said it is important the festival goes on.

She said it’s a challenge for Burkinabè to continue to be able to keep the festival going every two years. But it is through cinema we can see the vision of Africans and the people who live on this continent, she adds. She points out that her predecessors all made sure FESPACO remained a focal point for Africa and she intends to do the same.

As for Sanou, he is hoping Night Nursery could receive an award, and the recognition it needs to win a wide audience.

Source: Voice of America