Africa ClimAccelerator Program 2021 for climate impact ideas. (€12,000 in grant funding)

Application Deadline: November 7th 2021 

Africa ClimAccelerator is the first Pan-African climate accelerator focused on supporting the most promising climate impact ideas and those who put the objective of enhancing sustainability at the forefront of their own mission and growth.

The 6-month long accelerator provides the support you need to validate your start-up’s business model, build solid customer traction, structure your organization, prepare you to raise early-stage funding, and explore how (through your business model) you can generate maximum social and environmental benefit.

Requirements

Start-ups developing a transformative climate solution that bring a social and environmental value in the themes of land use, circular economy, blue economy, energy efficiency or other climate themes.

Start-ups must be registered or plan to register (by end of the program) in any African country
Proof of concept exists, (ideally) with a proven need for the solution, main pain points mapped, feedback/ validations already received from potential customers, a tested prototype/minimum viable product created, and a roadmap designed.

At least 1 member of the team being fulltime on the business/project
The team/start-up should be committed to participate in the programme activities.
The team/start-up is expected to be able to participate in a programme fully delivered in English

Benefits

Receive up to €12,000 in grant funding, and access to follow-on funding opportunities

Maximise your climate and social impact

Use our bespoke tools to measure, monitor, and maximise your climate and social impact https://bit.ly/3phstVr

Receive financial readiness support and connecting with the climate investors most active across the continent

Funding support
Receive up to €12,000 in grant funding, and access to follow-on funding opportunities

Click here to apply:

https://bit.ly/3phstVr

Rwandan President Kagame to participate in YouthConnekt Africa Summit in Accra

The Rwandan President Paul Kagame is one of the high-profile personalities attending the 2021 YouthConnekt Africa Summit in Accra. 

President Kagame, since his assumption of office in 2,000, has prioritised youth development and empowerment and worked tirelessly to improve public healthcare, education, economic growth, reconciliation and foreign investment in Rwanda.

He was born on 23rd October, 1957 to a Tutsi family in Southern Rwanda.

The YouthConnekt Africa Summit is an annual platform that connects youth from across Africa and beyond with policy influencers, political leaders, public/private and development sector institutions to engage, discuss, design and accelerate youth empowerment efforts at the continental level.

The summit, first held in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2017, provides a platform for all partners involved in youth development and empowerment to synergise around policies, programmes and partnerships that connect the youth for continental transformation.

This year’s event, which is hosted by the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and National Youth Authority, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is expected to attracted more than 2,000 delegates across Africa and beyond.

The event is being attended by heads of state, ministers of Youth and Sports, government officials, academia, development partners, private sector and civil society representatives, as well as innovators and incubator labs.

“Africa Beyond Aid: Positioning the Youth for the Post-Covid Economy and AfCFTA Opportunities” is the theme for the three-day event, which comes off at the Accra International Conference Centre.

It will offer a combination of high-level plenaries, panel discussions, keynote speeches, small group workshops, presentations, project pitching, and exhibitions, as well as cultural events, off-site activities and learning visits.

………………………………………………………

White House details plans to vaccinate 28M children age 5-11

 Children age 5 to 11 will soon be able to get a COVID-19 shot at their pediatrician’s office, local pharmacy and potentially even their school, the White House said Wednesday as it detailed plans for the expected authorization of the Pfizer shot for younger children in a matter of weeks.

Federal regulators will meet over the next two weeks to weigh the benefits of giving shots to kids, after lengthy studies meant to ensure the safety of the vaccines.

Within hours of formal approval, expected after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory meeting scheduled for Nov. 2-3, doses will begin shipping to providers across the country, along with smaller needles necessary for injecting young kids, and within days will be ready to go into the arms of kids on a wide scale.

The Biden administration notes the nationwide campaign to extend the protection of vaccination to the school-going cohort will not look like the start of the country’s vaccine rollout 10 months ago, when scarcity of doses and capacity issues meant a painstaking wait for many Americans. The country now has ample supplies of the Pfizer shot to vaccinate the roughly 28 million kids who will soon be eligible, White House officials said, and have been working for months to ensure widespread availability of shots once approved.

More than 25,000 pediatricians and primary care providers have already signed on to administer COVID-19 vaccine shots to kids, the White House said, in addition to the tens of thousands of retail pharmacies that are already administering shots to adults. Hundreds of school- and community-based clinics will also be funded and supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help speed putting shots into arms.

The White House is also preparing to mobilize a stepped-up campaign to educate parents and kids about the safety of the shots and the ease of getting them. As has been the case for adult vaccinations, the administration believes trusted messengers — educators, doctors, and community leaders — will be vital to encouraging vaccinations.

While children are at lower risk than older people of having serious side effects from COVID-19, those serious consequences do occur – and officials note that vaccination both dramatically reduces those chances and will reduce the spread of the more transmissible delta variant in communities, contributing to the nation’s broader recovery from the pandemic.

“COVID has also disrupted our kids lives. It’s made school harder, it’s disrupted their ability to see friends and family, it’s made youth sports more challenging,” U.S. surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy told NBC on Wednesday. “Getting our kids vaccinated, we have the prospect of protecting them, but also getting all of those activities back that are so important to our children.”

The administration notes that kids who get their first shot within a couple weeks of the expected approval in early November will be fully vaccinated by Christmas.The U.S. has purchased 65 million doses of the Pfizer pediatric shot — expected to be one third the dosage for adults and adolescents — according to officials. They will ship in smaller packages of about 100 doses each, so that more providers can deliver them, and they can be stored for up to 10 weeks at standard refrigeration temperatures.About 219 million Americans aged 12 and up, or 66% of the total population, have received a COVID-19 shot and nearly 190 million are fully vaccinated.

…………………………………………………………

French feminists take on Miss France beauty pageant for discrimination

 Osez le féminisme, a leading feminist organisation in France, has joined forces with three failed Miss France candidates to take the beauty contest to court for alleged discrimination in the criteria used to select participants.

Osez-le-Féminisme (Dare to be Feminist) said it had filed a complaint with the state labour tribunal on behalf of the former contestants because previous complaints about the annual pageant had proven ineffective.

“Despite protesting every year against a competition that drives sexist values, nothing ever changes,” Alyssa Ahrabare, head of the organisation, told Le Monde newspaper. “Trying to raise awareness is no longer enough, we’ve decided to use legal means to advance the cause of women.”

The complaint is targetting both the Miss France company and Endemol Production – which makes the annual TV programme screened on the privately-owned TF1 channel.

The plaintiffs argue that the companies oblige candidates to bend to restrictions, even outside of rehearsals or recordings, which are in breach of French labour law.

Aspiring beauty queens must abstain from drinking alcohol or taking illicit substances in public and in general behave in a way that is “not contrary to morals, public order or the spirit of a pageant based on values of elegance”.

Candidates are also required to be more than 1.70 metres tall, single, and “representative of beauty” – meaning for example no tattoos or body piercings.  Failure to satisfy these standards means they can be disqualified.

The three plaintiffs, who have not been named, revealed they had been forced to withdraw from the pageant because they smoke in public, are not tall enough and have been photographed nude.

The French labour code forbids companies from discriminating on the basis of “morals, age, family status or physical appearance,” Violaine De Filippis-Abate, a lawyer for Osez le féminisme disclosed.

The case, filed at a labor court in the Paris suburb of Bobigny, will therefore hinge on whether magistrates recognize Miss France contestants as employed by the organizers and TV company – in which case there is a case for breach of the labor code – or whether they are considered volunteers.

Contestants do not sign an employment contract as such, but they do carry out activities for which they receive gifts. The plaintiffs point to a judgement in 2013 when a former contestant on Mister France sued for similar reasons.

In 2019, France’s High Council for gender equality, a consultative body responsible for advising the government, qualified the Miss France contest as an “archaic caricature”.

……………………………………………………………

Queen cancels Northern Ireland visit on medical advice

 The Queen has cancelled a trip to Northern Ireland and has “reluctantly accepted medical advice to rest for the next few days”, Buckingham Palace says.

The 95-year-old monarch is resting at Windsor Castle but is still expected to attend the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow later this month.

The Queen is in “good spirits” but “disappointed” that the visit cannot go ahead, the palace said.

She was due to begin the two-day trip to Northern Ireland on Wednesday.

The nation’s longest-reigning monarch has attended a series of events in recent days, hosting a Global Investment Summit at Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening.

• Queen declines Oldie of the Year award
• Queen ‘irritated’ by climate change inaction

Earlier in the day, she held two audiences via video link, greeting the Japanese ambassador Hajime Hayashi and the EU ambassador Joao de Almeida.

On Monday, she held a virtual audience with the new governor-general of New Zealand, and at the weekend, she attended the races at Ascot.

It was revealed on Tuesday that the Queen had declined the Oldie of the Year award, from the magazine of the same name, saying: “You are only as old as you feel”.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “The Queen has reluctantly accepted medical advice to rest for the next few days.

“Her Majesty is in good spirits and is disappointed that she will no longer be able to visit Northern Ireland, where she had been due to undertake a series of engagements today and tomorrow.

“The Queen sends her warmest good wishes to the people of Northern Ireland and looks forward to visiting in the future.”

……………………………………………………………

Facebook announces plans to change its name

 

Facebook Inc (FB.O), under fire from regulators and lawmakers over its business practices, is planning to re-brand itself with a new name that focuses on the metaverse, the Verge reported on Tuesday.

The name change will be announced next week, The Verge reported, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

The move would likely position the flagship app as one of many products under a parent company overseeing brands such as Instagram and WhatsApp, according to the report. Google (GOOGL.O) adopted such a structure when it reorganized into a holding company called Alphabet in 2015.

………………………………………………………………