AU/CIEFFA 5th High Level Dialogue: Leveraging arts and culture to increase girls and women's participation in STEM education

 The African Union International Centre for Girls’ and Women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA) in collaboration with the AUC Department of Social Affairs, Global Partnership for Education (GPE), UNICEF, Save the Children, UNESCO and the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Addis Ababa will host the 5th High Level Dialogue (HLD) on Gender Equality in Education on the 2nd of February 2021 under the theme “Leveraging arts and culture to increase girls’ and women’s participation in STEM Education”.

What is the role of the Arts & Culture in STEM Education & how can we leverage it to encourage more African girls & women to take up STEM?

The 2021 theme for the African Union “Arts, Culture and Heritage: Levers for Building the Africa We Want” gives African Union Member States & stakeholders in the education sector the opportunity to examine the role of arts and culture in promoting girls and women’s education as we move from #STEM to #STEAM.

How can we leverage the arts, culture and heritage to improve the teaching and learning of STEM?

Did you know? 

Only 35% of university STEM students are women. How can art and culture be used to encourage more girls to pursue STEM-related fields?

Arts, culture, heritage and education are inherent to the socio-economic fabric of African societies. How can they be used to promote the uptake of STEM by young girls?

Embedding  the arts, culture and heritage within education can help empower girls to pursue STEM-related subjects.

AU/CIEFFA 5th High Level Dialogue Registration

Description

An online event dedicated to looking into the different approaches that AU Member States can take to transform the process of teaching and learning and encourage girls and women to take up STEM studies in school through arts, culture and heritage.

When: Tuesday, February 2, 2021
Time: 12:00 -14:00 GMT / 13:00 - 15:00 CET / 07:00 - 09:00 EST

Moderator: Dr. Rita Bissoonauth, Head, African Union/International Center for Girls and Women’s Education in Africa (AU/CIEFFA)

Speakers:
• H.E Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya
•H.E. Prof Sarah Agbor Anyang, AUC HRST Commissioner
•H.E. Ms Amira Elfadil, AUC Social Affairs Commissioner
•Ms. Alice Albright, CEO Global Partnership for Education
•Hon. Dag Inge Ulstein, Minister of International development, Norway
•Hon. Youssou N’Dour, Artist, Former Minister of Culture of Senegal and GPE Champion
•Hon. Mabuza Lady, Minister of Education & Training, Eswatini
•Hon. Ginette Amara Ali Mazieki, Ministre de la Recherche scientifique et de l'Innovation Technologique, CAR
•Hon. Elise Ilboudo Thiombiano, Minister of Arts, Culture and Tourism, Burkina Faso
•Ms. Doris Mpounou, Director and AU Representative, Save the Children International
•Dr. Edward Addai, UNICEF Representative to the AU & ECA
•Adanna Nwagagbo, youth leader, Nigeria

This event is being co-hosted by the AU/CIEFFA, AUC Department of Social Affairs and the Global Partnership for Education, with support from the Royal Norwegian Embassy of Addis Ababa as well as UNESCO, UNICEF and Save the Children.

Join us for AU/CIEFFA’s 5th High Level Dialogue where we will look at how the arts, culture and heritage can be leveraged to encourage more girls to pursue studies and careers in STEM.

Register here for the February 2 event: 

https://worldbankgroup.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_L_Z2KVZ8R5uvP4mhzYh55w

Don't miss out! 

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The HLD will take place on Zoom and broadcast live on the African Union YouTube channel from 12:00 pm - 14:00 pm (GMT).

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Live Broadcast Link

● YouTube: African Union

Unbelievable – “a thief stole from me and I had to feed him while he’s in police custody”

 Hello my name is Akua Donkor – not my real name for security reasons. I was recently a victim of repeated theft – GHC200 here, GHC 300 there which prompted me to set up a hidden camera at the market place where I trade. Fortunately my camera caught a young man on video taking money from my box when I had left to go and use the washroom.

When I showed the video to some area boys, they wanted to pounce on him and beat him the next time he came to deliver water to us, but I knew they might end up killing him so I rather contacted the police and they sent an officer to come and watch the video. We then waited until the man came to deliver water and he was arrested and taken to the police station.

First I had to leave my store for someone to watch for me while I spent almost three hours at the police station before I was able to write my statement. After writing my statement I left to return to my store with the man still in counterback.

The following day I received a call from one of the police officers from the station asking me where I was. I told him I was at my shop and that I was waiting for them to advise me on the next steps. To my surprise he was yelling at me that how do I expect them to feed the prisoner. I was so shocked that I only managed to utter the words “why is that my business?”

The officer got even more upset this time and blurted out “fine, if it is not your business, then it is also not our business so we are releasing him.” I asked why and he said they cannot starve him to death but they don’t have money to feed the prisoner so I had to bring him food.

So I was faced with two choices – either I allow them to set the person who has been stealing money from me free, or I had to bring him food to eat. I quickly bought some food and brought it to the police station where they asked me to taste the food before giving it to him. Apparently that is to ensure that I don’t put poison in the food to kill him.

Apparently this thief did not have anyone to come and bail him out so as long as he remained in the police custody, I had to be the one providing the person who stole money from me breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which I can’t even afford for myself. So after a couple of days of doing this I was forced to drop the charges and the thief was set free.

Now I wish I had listened to the market boys to deliver vigilante justice and beat him. Indeed I now understand why in Ghana it is easier to subscribe to the vigilante mob justice when a thief is caught. In my heart I don’t believe in this jungle system. But what choices do we have?

Are we to believe that the police stations are not given a budget to feed prisoners in their custody? If so, then the Ministry of Interior has a few questions to answer. And if a budget is provided and the police is still forcing victims of crime to be the ones feeding their attacker, then someone is pocketing the money somewhere.

How do we fight crime in a country where victim of crime are confronted with these two very unfavorable option?

AFRICAN UNION COMMISSION IN CRISIS

 

At least 13 killed in car bombs, shooting in Syria’s north

 While one person was killed in a shooting incident in northeastern city of Hassakeh, 12 others died in two car bombings in northern Aleppo.

At least 12 people have been killed and 29 wounded in two car bomb blasts in northwestern Syria, according to rescue workers and media reporters.

The successive explosions on Sunday took place in the town of Azaz and another village some 50km (30 miles) away, both areas held by Syrian rebel fighters allied with Turkey.

Turkey and the allied Syrian fighters control large parts of northern Syria, and are at odds with government troops and Kurdish-led forces, who are considered “terrorists” by Ankara. The rebel-controlled areas are scene of recurrent attacks that are rarely claimed by any one side.

The Syrian Civil Defence, a volunteer rescue group operating in rebel-held parts of Syria, said it has responded to 11 explosions in the country’s northwest since the start of January, before Sunday, where at least 11 people were killed.

Separately, Syria’s state news agency SANA said one Syrian was killed on Sunday and four were wounded in the northeastern city of Hassakeh, Deir Az Zor province, after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) opened fire at pro-government demonstrators protesting against a siege on their neighbourhood. The area is known as the security square and is controlled by government forces.

A video of the rally in Hassakeh showed dozens of men gathering in a street on a rainy day as fire rang out over their heads. The men began chanting, “With our souls, our blood we sacrifice for you Bashar,” in reference to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A Kurdish-run news agency, Hawar, said security forces at a checkpoint in the city had come under fire, prompting its members to respond to the source of attack. The clashes led to the death of a government security member, the agency said.

The differing accounts could not be immediately reconciled or independently verified in the city where both security forces have a presence.

The Kurds, Syria’s largest ethnic minority, have carved out a semi-autonomous enclave in Syria’s northeast following the start of the war in 2011. In the area, they run their own affairs and control most of the country’s oil resources.

In both Hassakeh and Qamishli cities, they share control with government forces – which have a presence in security zones, near the airport and in some neighbourhoods. Both cities have a sizeable Kurdish population.

There was no immediate comment from the Kurdish forces. But Kurdish officials have previously said they were reacting to government troops which have imposed a siege and are harassing Kurdish-dominated neighbourhoods in the northwestern Aleppo province where the government is in control.

Russia, which conducts patrols in northeastern Syria and is a main backer of the Syrian government, has offered to mediate between the Kurdish forces and the government.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces have besieged Kurdish areas in northwestern Aleppo for months, preventing foods and medical supplies from entering. The Kurdish forces responded by imposing a siege on government-controlled areas in Hassakeh and to a lesser degree in Qamishli for the last 21 days.

The Observatory said it is not clear if the person killed in Hassakeh was a civilian or member of the government forces.

Nigerian farmers hail Shell ruling, but future remains uncertain

 A Dutch court has ordered the energy company’s Nigerian subsidiary to pay farmers compensation over oil spills.

It has taken 13 years for Fidelis Oguru to get the victory that he and a group of other farmers in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region so badly wanted.

On Friday, the Court of Appeal in The Hague ruled that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), was at fault for environmental degradation caused by pipeline leaks in the villages of Oruma and Goi in the Niger Delta region.

The Dutch court ordered the Nigerian arm of the British-Dutch company to pay yet-to-be-decided compensation to the affected villages.

“I am very happy and I thank God,” said Oguru, an 80-year-old farmer and one of the plaintiffs from Oruma village.

He told Al Jazeera oil leaks from pipelines have devastated farmland and waterways in the region, and the SPDC’s reluctance to replace old pipelines had led farmers to watch in angst as their crops such as cassava and plantain succumbed to oil pollution and their livelihoods eroded.

Frequent appeals to the SPDC for compensation and environmental clean-up had been futile, he said.

In 2008, four farmers from the villages of Oruma, Goi, and Ikot Ada Udo received backing from an environmental campaign group, Friends of the Earth Netherlands, to file lawsuits against Shell in a Dutch court over oil spills related to the SPDC between 2004 and 2007.

“In 2013, I went to the Netherlands when the judgment was on and the [court] ruled against us,” Oguru recalled.

SPDC and other oil companies often blame oil leaks on sabotage. Under Nigerian law, applied in the Dutch civil case, the company is not liable if the leaks were the result of sabotage.

But on Friday the court found it could not establish “beyond a reasonable doubt” that saboteurs were to blame for leaks that spewed oil over an area of a total of about 60 football pitches in Oruma and Goi.

Although the court ruled that sabotage was to blame for an oil leak in the village of Ikot Ada Udo, it said the case over whether Shell was liable would continue.

Eric Dooh, a 50-year-old plaintiff from Goi, told Al Jazeera the victory meant “oppressed people” such as farmers from the Niger Delta can take their “rightful place in society”.

He said the ruling sets a “world-class precedent” that could a be a turning point to give hope to those who have similar cases against multinational oil companies that they can get justice regardless of “the number of years and tribulations that they have been going [through]”.

“Other multinational companies must also know that they must adhere to international best practices in their oil exploration activities and respect fundamental human rights,” he said.

“The victory is not for only me,” Dooh added. “It is for the entire Niger Delta region.”

Russia arrests over 5,000 at wide protests backing Navalny

 Chanting slogans against President Vladimir Putin, tens of thousands took to the streets Sunday across Russia to demand the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, keeping up nationwide protests that have rattled the Kremlin. More than 5,000 people were detained by police, according to a monitoring group, and some were beaten.

The massive protests came despite efforts by Russian authorities to stem the tide of demonstrations after tens of thousands rallied across the country last weekend in the largest, most widespread show of discontent that Russia had seen in years. Despite threats of jail terms, warnings to social media groups and tight police cordons, the protests again engulfed cities across Russia’s 11 time zones on Sunday.

Navalny’s team quickly called another protest in Moscow for Tuesday, when he is set to face a court hearing that could send him to prison for years.

The 44-year-old Navalny, an anti-corruption investigator who is Putin’s best-known critic, was arrested on Jan.17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusations. He was arrested for allegedly violating his parole conditions by not reporting for meetings with law enforcement when he was recuperating in Germany.

The United States urged Russia to release Navalny and criticized the crackdown on protests.

“The U.S. condemns the persistent use of harsh tactics against peaceful protesters and journalists by Russian authorities for a second week straight,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter.

The Russian Foreign Ministry rejected Blinken’s call as “crude interference in Russia’s internal affairs” and accused Washington of trying to destabilize the situation in the country by backing the protests.

On Sunday, police detained more than 5,000 people in cities nationwide, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests, surpassing some 4,000 detentions at the demonstrations across Russia on Jan. 23.

In Moscow, authorities introduced unprecedented security measures in the city center, closing subway stations near the Kremlin, cutting bus traffic and ordering restaurants and stores to stay closed.

Navalny’s team initially called for Sunday’s protest to be held on Moscow’s Lubyanka Square, home to the main headquarters of the Federal Security Service, which Navalny contends was responsible for his poisoning. Facing police cordons around the square, the protest shifted to other central squares and streets.

Police were randomly picking up people and putting them into police buses, but thousands of protesters marched across the city center for hours, chanting “Putin, resign!” and “Putin, thief!” — a reference to an opulent Black Sea estate reportedly built for the Russian leader that was featured in a widely popular video released by Navalny’s team.

“I’m not afraid, because we are the majority,” said protester Leonid Martynov. “We mustn’t be scared by clubs because the truth is on our side.”

At one point, crowds of demonstrators walked toward the Matrosskaya Tishina prison where Navalny is being held. They were met by phalanxes of riot police who pushed the march back and chased protesters through courtyards.

Demonstrators continued to march around the Russian capital, zigzagging around police cordons. Officers broke them into smaller groups and detained scores, beating some with clubs and occasionally using tasers.

Over 1,600 people were detained in Moscow, including Navalny’s wife, Yulia, who was released after several hours pending a court hearing Monday on charges of taking part in an unsanctioned protest. “If we keep silent, they will come after any of us tomorrow,” she said on Instagram before turning out to protest.

Amnesty International said that authorities in Moscow have arrested so many people that the city’s detention facilities have run out of space. “The Kremlin is waging a war on the human rights of people in Russia, stifling protesters’ calls for freedom and change,” Natalia Zviagina, the group’s Moscow office head, said in a statement.

Several thousand people marched across Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg, chanting “Down with the czar!” and occasional scuffles erupted as some demonstrators pushed back police who tried to make detentions. Over 1,100 were arrested.

Some of the biggest rallies were held in Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk in eastern Siberia and Yekaterinburg in the Urals.

“I do not want my grandchildren to live in such a country,” said 55-year-old Vyacheslav Vorobyov, who turned out for a rally in Yekaterinburg. “I want them to live in a free country.”

Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde, who currently chairs the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, condemned “the excessive use of force by authorities and mass detention of peaceful protesters and journalists” and urged Russia “to release all those unjustly detained, including Navalny.”

As part of a multipronged effort by authorities to block the protests, courts have jailed Navalny’s associates and activists across the country over the past week. His brother Oleg, top aide Lyubov Sobol and three other people were put under a two-month house arrest Friday on charges of allegedly violating coronavirus restrictions during last weekend’s protests.

Prosecutors also demanded that social media platforms block calls to join the protests.

The Interior Ministry issued stern warnings to the public, saying protesters could be charged with taking part in mass riots, which carries a prison sentence of up to eight years.

Protests were fueled by a two-hour YouTube video released by Navalny’s team after his arrest about the Black Sea residence purportedly built for Putin. The video has been viewed over 100 million times, inspiring a stream of sarcastic jokes on the internet amid an economic downturn.

Russia has seen extensive corruption during Putin’s time in office while poverty has remained widespread.

“All of us feel pinched financially, so people who take to the streets today feel angry,” said Vladimir Perminov who protested in Moscow. “The government’s rotation is necessary.”

Demonstrators in Moscow chanted “Aqua discotheque!” — a reference to one of the fancy amenities at the residence that also features a casino and a hookah lounge equipped for watching pole dances.

Putin says neither he nor any of his close relatives own the property. On Saturday, construction magnate Arkady Rotenberg, a longtime Putin confidant and his occasional judo sparring partner, claimed that he himself owned the property.

Navalny fell into a coma on Aug. 20 while on a flight from Siberia to Moscow and the pilot diverted the plane so he could be treated in the city of Omsk. He was transferred to a Berlin hospital two days later. Labs in Germany, France and Sweden, and tests by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, established that he was exposed to the Novichok nerve agent.