MAPinAfrica calls on African leaders to stop pedophiles - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

The Media Against Pedophiles in Africa (MAPinAfrica) has made its debut campaign on social with a call on African leader to stop the increasing worrisome pedophile enclave on the continent, reports ITREALMS.

Pedophilia also spelt paedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Prepubescent relates to or in the period preceding puberty for either boy or girl.

@MAPinAfrica, an African media response to rise in pedophilia threats on the continent, said in a press statement made available to newsmen that its worried over the rise of pedophiles and demanded tangile steps from African leaders under the auspices of African Union (AU).

The press statement endorsed by the duo of the @MAPinAfrica’s Admin Faculty, Ms Onneile Setlalekgosi and Mr. Remmy Nweke, described the frequency of pedophilia in Africa a big threat that demands urgent and consistent attention both from the media and African leaders.

They noted that nowadays, paedophiles target children in poor countries for online abuse, outside the socio-cultural encumbrances.

According to them, a situation where some African kings and rich individuals across gender use their privilege positions to marry an underage girl child is not acceptable.

Pointing out that there have been cases of female pedophiles tormenting children and girl-child in particular, stressing that this act has to stop.

Where the culture abrogates that to certain king, as in some parts of Africa, MAPinAfrica wants that abolished immediately as pedophilia is anti-development and anti-people especially children which it endangers.

The main aim of MAPinAfrica campaign, the group said, is to advocate for policies and programmes to help meet basic needs of children and families who are victims of pedophilia.

In addition, MAPinAfrica tends to collaborate with other organisations of similar objectives to provide trainings and public education to young girls and ensuring that Africans know that stopping child sexual abuse is everyone’s responsibility.

“With all the efforts children will be able to resist abusive behaviour directed at them by any offenders, both online or offline,” the faculty said.

Equally, MAPinAfrica said they realises that reducing sexual abuse of children also begins with training caregivers, parents and other professionals to guide their mind-set in responding to sexually reactive behaviour.

Further, the duo said that MAPinAfrica will work towards ensuring that counselling services are available to needy families affected by child sexual abuse and pedophilia. While enjoining media practitioners in Africa to join hands with them start with following MAPinAfrica on twitter among other social media handles.

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Kituyi tasks African leaders on eCommerce adoption – ITREALMS

ITREALMS: 

The Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi has said that time is running out for African Union to do catch-up on electronic commerce (eCommerce), reports ITREALMS.

In his opening speech to the business and civil society session at the Africa eCommerce Week in Nairobi, Kituyi said this has become imperative for a sense of urgency, decrying that Africa was being left out of the discourse on e-commerce that had already taken place elsewhere.

He also said, “That’s why this meeting is important,” just as Rapid eTrade Readiness Assessments were unique products that had been much in demand by African governments.

“Faced with current global trade challenges, many countries are moving forward with e-commerce strategies, but it is important that governments include all stakeholders,” he said.

UNCTAD’s Rapid eTrade Readiness Assessments focus on practical steps that national governments, with the support of donor agencies, development banks and international organizations, can take to boost online trade.

The assessments show that vast reforms are needed to seize the development opportunities offered by e-commerce. But they also help African countries to identify opportunities, barriers and relevant policy measures required to improve their readiness to engage in and benefit from e-commerce.

The Africa eCommerce Week, which commenced on Monday would last till Friday, December 15, 2018 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Remmy Nweke in Nairobi/ED, Ops

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Kofi Annan advises African leaders to 'leave when your time is up'

ITRealms:

The former United Nations (UN) secretary-general, Kofi Annan, has advised African leaders to ensure they leave when their mandated time is up, so as to avoid excluding opposing voices if elections are to cease contributing to conflicts on the continent, reports ITRealms.

The renowned international diplomat said that while unconstitutional changes to government on the continent had reduced, exclusionary politics threatened to reverse the gains made.

“I think Africa has done well, by and large the coups have more or less ended, generals are remaining in their barracks, but we are creating situations which may bring them back,” the Nobel laureate said in an interview at the 5th Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa.

“If a leader doesn’t want to leave office, if a leader stays on for too long, and elections are seen as being gamed to suit a leader and he stays term after term after term, the tendency may be the only way to get him out is through a coup or people taking to the streets.

“Neither approach can be seen as an alternative to democracy, to elections or to parliamentary rule. Constitutions and the rules of the game have to be respected.”

Annan, the keynote speaker at the forum this year, said winner-take-all approaches to elections on the continent had the effect of leaving out citizens for holding an opposing view, raising tensions around elections.

Annan, who chairs the Africa Progress Panel and the Nelson Mandela-founded The Elders grouping, said he had been the first to tell the African Union not to accept coup leaders among their midst [during an OAU heads of state summit in Lusaka in 2001].

Annan also said that solutions to the problems the continent has must come from within. 

However, the continent must build up its ability to do so, including in financing its institutions.

“We cannot always pass a hat around and insist we want to be sovereign, we want to be independent. We should lead and get others to support us—that support will be much more forthcoming when they see how serious and committed we are.”

The African Union has struggled to get members to pay their dues to allow it run its operations and programmes efficiently, a recurrent theme addressed by leaders at the forum in the Ethiopian city of Bahir Dar.

Annan said such budgetary concerns were constraining the work of the continent in strengthening stability and required creative ways of resourcing.

“I was happy to hear them [African leaders] say ‘we must be prepared to pay for what we want; we must be prepared to put out our own money on the table and fund issues that are of great importance to us.”

The forum, now in its fifth year, is an inspiration of the late Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and is organised by the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) of Addis Ababa University.

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IP system to unlock Africa citizens’ creativity, innovation

ITRealms:

African leaders and about  50 government ministers from across the continent that attended November 3 2015, African Ministerial Conference on Intellectual Property (IP) for an Emerging Africa” have concurred that such initiative will unlock  citizens’ creativity and innovation, ITRealms reports.

 
The Conference which was held in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, saw Mauritius President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim and Senegal Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne join World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director General, Francis Gurry in stressing the importance of intellectual property (IP) in incentivizing innovation and creativity to promote economic and social development across Africa, ITRealms gathered.

“Ultimately, the source of all innovation and creativity is human. And Africa is the cradle of humanity, so it is in this sense the origin of all innovation and creativity that characterizes our species as human beings. Well-developed national intellectual property systems can help African countries unlock their citizens’ creativity and innovation, boosting economic growth, he said,” said Gurry in welcoming the delegates.

“Intellectual property is a necessary, but not a sufficient, condition of a healthy and vibrant innovation ecosystem. It is a means of capturing a competitive advantage that is conferred by innovation and it is a means of rewarding investment, human and financial resources, in the generation of new knowledge and innovation,” Gurry stated.

ITRealms also reports that Mauritius President, Gurib-Fakim cited positive economic growth prospects for African countries over the next decade and highlighted the “imperative need for Africa to protect IP rights in order to build sustainable knowledge economies by leveraging the benefits of science, technology and innovation.”

“In this globally fiercely competitive international economic landscape, the creation and management including protection of knowledge will be central to building and spearheading wealth creation and integration in the global economy,” said Gurib-Fakim.

Senegalese Prime Minister Dionne, on his part, ITRealms learnt, called the conference timely, due to the challenges facing Africa. He added that intellectual property can help ensure sustainable and inclusive development resulting in poverty reduction and increased economic competitiveness. “Innovation is the basis of all development,” he said.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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Experts seek leapfrogging on Shackles of Convention

ITRealms:

International experts will at a major education conference of the African Union in Ethopia next month, call for African leaders to leapfrog the shackles of convention, ITRealms reports.


The call ITRealms gathered is to be made at this year’s Africa’s leading conference on technology and learning, eLearning Africa, co-organized by the African Union (AU) and co-hosted by the Government of Ethiopia, in order to ensure that African economic growth is sustained by adequately trained young people.  


A major focus of the conference ITRealms learnt will be on the role technology-assisted learning can play in helping to develop the skills vital for the future of Africa, by equipping young Africans with entrepreneurial expertise, supporting capacity development in key sectors such as health, and assisting a new generation of entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions in the education technology sector.


In a statement as gathered by ITRealms, co-organizer of the event and Chief Executive officer of ICWE GmbH, Rebecca Stromeyer, expressed enthusiasm on the success of the event noting that, she anticipates a challenging, interesting and important eLearning Africa series this year.


Also, an education expert and speaker at the event, Shai Reshef, has argued that, with the numbers of potential students in Africa vastly outpacing currently available facilities, there is a critical need for smarter online resources to empower young people and provide the engine for continuing economic growth, ITRealms reports.


ITRealms gathered that the eLearning Africa is the continent’s largest and most influential conference on technology-assisted learning and training, which brings together over 1,500 people from nearly 100 countries every year, providing a unique forum for dialogue, networking and the exchange of ideas.


This year’s conference as ITRealms learnt would feature world leading experts on education and technology, and keynote speakers as will include Mark Surman, Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation, makers of Firefox and Shai Reshef, the founder and President of the University of the People.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE


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