The 48 members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum have agreed to use only renewable energy by 2050.

At their meeting on the sidelines of  the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Marrakech, Morocco, the Forum decided to make their energy production 100 per cent renewable “as rapidly as possible” and between 2030 and 2050 at the latest.

The forum also vowed to take action to help limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The Climate Vulnerable Forum, currently chaired by Ethiopia, was set up in 2009 and is made up of countries that are disproportionately affected by climate change.

A representative of the Marshall Islands said, “We are pioneering the transformation towards 100 percent renewable energy, but we want other countries to follow in our footsteps in order to evade catastrophic impacts we are experiencing through hurricanes, flooding and droughts.”

An adviser to the Bangladesh government said: “We shouldn’t see it as a burden, but an opportunity. Climate vulnerable countries can seize those opportunities.

“Former US Vice-President Al Gore described the forum’s statement as an ambitious vision for others to follow.”These ambitious and inspiring commitments show the path forward for others and give us all renewed optimism that we are going to meet the challenge before us and meet it in time.”

The 48 members of Climate Vulnerable Forum who have agreed to the decision are: Afghanistan, Haiti, Philippines, Bangladesh, Honduras, Rwanda, Barbados, Kenya, Saint Lucia, Bhutan, Kiribati, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, South Sudan, Cambodia, Malawi, Sri Lanka, Comoros, Maldives, Sudan, Costa Rica, Marshall Islands, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mongolia, Timor-Leste, Dominican Republic, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Nepal, Tuvalu, Fiji, Niger, Vanuatu, Ghana, Palau, Viet Nam, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Yemen, and Guatemala.

On November 26, 2016 the Danish Ambassador to Ethiopia Mette Thygesen asserted that the government of Denmark is dedicated to make available various technical assistance to Ethiopia’s renewable energy resources development undertakings.

“Denmark is geared up to provide all the necessary technical assistance to Ethiopia to meet its power demand from wind over the coming three years”, the ambassador revealed.

The Danish Ambassador Mette Thygesen  has also said the partnership between the Ethiopia and Denmark has been growing in various sector and said  a good example on this regard could be her country offer to support the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) to expand modern farming in Ethiopia.

In addition to this the Ambassador further added that “recently we are about to establish corporation in the fields of climate and climate change,” adding that the two nations agree on the need for economic growth that does not have negative impact on climate. On this regard Ambassador Thygesen said agreement on the first phase of the project will be signed with the pertinent government body next week to make the project become operational soon.

EUCAP Nestor and EU Naval Force Somalia (EU NAVFOR Operation Atalanta) recently held a series of meetings with state government officials and local leaders in Bosasso, in Somalia’s Puntland state.

They discussed the maritime security situation off the Somali coast and the importance of keeping down pirate attacks. EUCAP Nestor said the meetings were very constructive and fruitful, adding: “We now have even better understanding of the situation in Puntland and where the support of EU Missions would be required the most. We are all in this together and these meetings are a great example of the good cooperation between the local leadership and the EU Missions.”

Operation Atalanta’s Force Commander said he was pleased with the engagement with the local authorities. “Cooperation and coordination is crucial between the EU organizations, but also with key Somali officials and security agencies. It is only by working together that the threat of piracy might one day become a distant memory,” he said.

Alongside the meetings, members of the Bosasso Port Police trained with Dutch sailors at sea and take part in exercises designed to develop search skills of suspicious vessels. Such training is an important part of Operation Atalanta’s commitment to strengthen cooperation and capabilities of regional partners.

Source: MFA Ethiopia

On 23 November 2016 in Brussels, a briefing session was conducted at the EU Council in Brussels to members of the working group on Africa (COAFR) by Ambassador Teshome Toga. COAFR members are responsible for the management of EU external policy towards sub-Saharan Africa.

During the meeting, H.E. Ambassador Teshome Toga briefed the 28 EU member countries about the current situation in Ethiopia and responded to several questions raised by the members.

In his introductory remark, Ambassador Teshome reminded the importance of the mutually beneficial Ethiopia-EU partnership which was recently elevated to a strategic level.

This partnership is providing a permanent framework to hold high-level and senior officials consultations, organize an Ethiopia-EU business forum and address challenges such as migration, economic development and deeming democracy, climate change and fight against terrorism and radicalisation..

The Ambassador also gave insights about how the State of Emergency was declared last October and enabled the country to restore peace and security, with social, economic and other activities getting back to normalcy.

In this regard, he emphasized that some measures such as the travel restrictions for diplomats had already been lifted given that peace and security had been restored, and that some travel advisory of European foreign ministries have also been amended in a positive way.

Answering issues raised by the members of COAFR, Ambassador Teshome further underlined the State of Emergency was not meant to address the root cause of grievance of the public but rather help create the necessary environment so that actual concerns are addressed with full participation of the public.

More importantly, an in-depth reform package including cabinet reshuffle, reform of electoral law and other fundamental reforms will be part of the reform process through consultations with the public and political parties.

On their part, the COAFR members reiterated the importance of the partnership between the EU and Ethiopia and assured that they are willing and ready to assist Ethiopia to overcome the current challenges facing the country.

Finally, members of the COAFR expressed their strong appreciation of the work of the Ethiopian government to address the challenges and reiterated the importance of the strong partnership and solidarity with Ethiopia.

Ambassador Teshome thanked the members for the opportunity and expressed the readiness of the Embassy to engage in a similar dialogue in the future.

Belgium recently improved its Ethiopia travel advice.

While it was advising against all unnecessary travelling in the country in the wake of unrests in the country, the website of the Foreign Ministry has now modified its travel advice from warning to caution when travelling in Ethiopia.

Last week, the German Foreign Ministry also lifted its warning for German tourists planning to visit the main touristic areas of Ethiopia. According to the German Ministry, cities such as Bahir Dar, Gondar, Lalibela, Dire Dawa, Arba Minch can now be visited safely. Travelling there “is currently possible without any problem”, the website further states.

As a result of the unrest that occurred recently in some parts of the country, countries, including Belgium and Germany, had issued travel warnings for visitors.

These countries are now cancelling the warnings since the Ethiopian government has managed to restore peace and bring back business as usual.

Ethiopia declared a six-month nationwide state of emergency early October following unrests that occurred in some areas of the country.

Two weeks ago, Ethiopia lifted the directive which required diplomats to inform the Command post if they wanted to travel beyond a 40-kilometer radius out of Addis Ababa.

The Diaspora Engagement Coordination Forum which took place on Friday 18 November 2016 discussed a range of issues to boost the Ethiopian Diaspora engagement in the country’s overall socio, economic and political development.

Stakeholders from government and non-governmental institutions participated. In the opening session to evaluate achievements in the first quarter of Ethiopian 2009 budget year (2016-2017), Demeke Atnafu, Director General for Diaspora Engagement Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noted that the Ministry, Ethiopian missions abroad, Regional Diaspora Engagement Offices, the Ethiopian Diaspora Association and other government and non-government stakeholders had been working to enhance Diaspora involvement.

Among their activities had been the coordinating the Second Ethiopian Diaspora day celebrations, delivering necessary investment information to members of the Diaspora, working with Internal Office of Migration to enhance the technology and knowledge transfer of the Ethiopian Diaspora’s in the Netherlands and the hiring of a consultancy firm to conduct research on how to implement a Diaspora mapping project in the United States. Equally, successfully achieving the goals of Diaspora Engagement had yet to be achieved.

Mr. Awlachew Masre, Head of Amhara Regional State Diaspora Engagement Coordination Office, said that close to 3,500 members of the Diaspora participated in the 2nd Ethiopian Diaspora Day celebration in Bahir Dar. For the first time the Diaspora Knowledge and Technology Transfer Workshop had held among professional members of the Diaspora. This had been very successful, and had a profound effect. The Ethiopian Somali Diaspora Association head, Mr. Abdiwahab Yusuf, gave an account of the successful outreach tour of the Somali Regional president and other officials in Australia and United States, meeting members of the Ethiopian Somali community residing in those countries. He stressed that his office had achieved considerable success in mobilizing the Ethiopian Somali Diaspora to counter destructive propaganda by extremist elements abroad.

The Forum welcomed the fact that in the first quarter of this financial year, 1,859 members of the Diaspora opened bank accounts and saved nearly 12 million US dollars. Participants discussed the need to offer support to investors from the Diaspora, and provide accurate and timely information to members of the Diaspora wherever they might be, as well as implement the Diaspora mapping project and deliver all necessary consular services to the Diaspora through Ethiopian Embassies and Consulates. They agreed to continue to exert every effort to help boost the Ethiopian Diaspora engagement in the country’s affairs.

Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn briefed diplomats on 17 November 2016 on current situations in Ethiopia; particularly on major progresses witnessed during the State of Emergency period and of the reforms being pursued by the government to fulfill the pledges it has made for the public.

Given the appalling actions of the destructive forces on lives of people, hard-won investment projects and infrastructures, the Premier noted, the government was obliged to declare the State of Emergency.

He underscored, since the first day of the authorization of the State of Emergency the country has been able to restore law and order and is now back to normalcy. The recently lifted restrictions on diplomats travelling in the country without permission clearly affirm this fact, noted the Premier. He re-affirmed that regular business can be conducted as usual. The Premier noted, in the first ten days of the State of Emergency, seventy percent of those who were involved in the violence had willfully given their hands to security forces and pardoned after being given the necessary training which he said would help them integrate with their communities successfully.

Briefing on the key reform programs being carried out by the government, Hailemariam said, there are three major categories; shared and equitable economic growth, expansion of the democratic space and economic restructuring. Ethiopia has achieved seven of the eight Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations and witnessed a double digit growth. However, the Premier noted, significant number of the population, particularly the youth, has not been benefiting from the development as much as it should. He added among those who were engaged in the violent activities, the youth accounted 99 percent; and the youth aged 15 to 30 is fifty percent of the population. Hence, the government is working aggressively to provide job opportunities more than ever by allocating funds worth billions of birr.

Regarding opening up the democratic space, Hailemariam noted the government thoroughly understood the importance of enhancing civic participation, strengthening democratic institutions particularly on pertinent organs like Human Rights Commission, the Ombudsman, Office of the Federal Auditor General, Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, etc. Touching upon reforming the electoral system, the Premier said that “we felt that the coming parliament should also accommodate those who are not represented.”

Prime Minister Hailemariam also said the economy of the country is performing well even at the times the country witnessed the violence where it has observed an eight percent growth in the previous Ethiopian calendar. Albeit El-Niño, the Premier said the country has managed to overcome its dreadful effects where the agricultural sector was only affected in a certain controllable way. He stressed that the good news is the country would have a bumper harvest where the pre-harvest estimate showed that the agriculture would come to normalcy; even score higher growth of 12 percent.

The Foreign Direct Investment is still one of the best in the continent and the government is working hard that the current situations would not hamper the flow, according to Hailemariam. He called on diplomats to encourage their nationals to continue investing in the country. Hailemariam said that the twelve industrial parks that will be built in the country are expected to create job opportunities for more than 1.2 million people. He underlined that no slowdown was witnessed regarding the ongoing mega projects in the country.

On 17 November, H.E. Ambassador Teshome Toga met with Mr Marcis Dzelame, Head of Foreign Affairs for the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and discussed areas of cooperation to strengthen the economic relationship of the two countries.

Ambassador Teshome seized this opportunity to brief Mr Dzelame on the economic achievements, priority investment areas, export commodities and tourism potential of Ethiopia, and requested the Chamber to encourage the private sector of Latvia to eye African business opportunities. On his behalf, Mr Dzelame said that compared to the trade volume between Ethiopia and the remaining Baltic states, Latvia remains behind. He thus underscored the need to elevate the trade relations by creating awareness. He has also mentioned that the Latvian private sector is not well informed about the business potential of Africa.

In this regard, Ambassador Teshome shared his experience of organizing a successful business forum with Estonia and mentioned the need to organize the same platform to fill the information gab. Meanwhile both sides reached on a concrete agreement to organize a business forum on April 2017 in Latvia focusing on Africa. Ambassador Teshome has taken the initiative to coordinate other African countries Ambassadors to take part on the forum. The two side also agreed to cooperate in exchanging trade missions between the two countries.

On the same day, Ambassador Teshome Toga met with H.E. Ambassador Rets Plēsums, Director of Second Bilateral Relations Department of the Latvian Foreign Ministry and discussed the bilateral relationships between the two countries and issues related to regional and global situations. In his behalf, Ambassador Teshome extended his gratitude for the government of Latvia for voting in favor of Ethiopia for the seat of non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. He also reassured the readiness of his government to work together with Latvia in tackling global peace and security challenges. Similarly, Ambassador Teshome has also congratulated the Ambassador for the 98th Independence Day of Latvia.

H.E. Ambassador Teshome has also indicated that his visit to Latvia is also intended to follow up the implementation of the MOU signed between the two countries last year. On his behalf, Ambassador Rets Plēsums indicated the excellent diplomatic relations of the two countries and mentioned the need to implement the MOU to deepen the existing diplomatic relations. He has also indicated the preparation his Ministry to visit Ethiopia for political consultations based on the framework of the MOU. The Director has also mentioned that the Ambassador in Cairo is on the process of accreditation to Ethiopia.

Ambassador Teshome welcomed the proposed political consultations in Ethiopia. He also took this opportunity to brief the director on the economic development of the country and the recent political unrests causing the loss of life and destruction of property. He further noted that measures are being taken by his government to restore law and order and address the political and economic demands of the people.

In addition, Ambassador Teshome explained the situation in the region and in particular the challenges of the peace agreement of South Sudan and the election in Somalia, as well as Ethiopian’s role in sustaining peace and security in the region. The Ambassador did not pass without appreciating the excellent relationship that his country is maintaining with the European Union and its member states in  the areas of development, migration and maintaining peace and security.

Finally the two sides have agreed to strengthen their economic ties via trade, investment, tourism, transfer of knowledge and technology. Ethiopia would like to share the best experience of Latvia especially on the IT sector. On the finally day of his visit Ambassador Teshome participated in the official ceremonies organised the state to commemorate the 98th independence of the Republic of Latvia.

 Ambassador Teshome Toga assisting to a flower laying ceremony at Freedom Monument in Riga, Latvia, on 18 November 2016

H.E. Ambassador Teshome Toga is on a working visit to Riga, Latvia to strengthen the bilateral relations between Ethiopia and Latvia.

On 16 November, Ambassador Teshome Toga met with Mr Ojārs Ēriks Kalninš, Head of Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia. Sharing his experience as a speaker in the Ethiopian Parliament, Ambassador Teshome mentioned the irreplaceable role of parliaments in playing an active role in foreign policy of a country by way of parliamentary diplomacy. The Ambassador briefed the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee about the excellent diplomatic relationships between the two countries both bilaterally and at the EU level.

The Ambassador also recalled the MOU signed last year to further deepen the friendly relationship between the two countries via political consultation. Meanwhile, the Ambassador further explained Ethiopia’s economic development and the recent unrest causing loss of life and how the government is striving to address the grievances of the people through massive consultations and engagement. He mentioned the tireless effort of Ethiopia in maintaining the regional peace and security by sending peacekeepers and by hosting over 800,000 refugees. Mr Ojārs Ēriks Kalninš on his turn explained that his country is working towards strengthening its relationships with countries in east Asia, Middle East and Africa. Mr Kalninš mentioned that Ethiopia is a country having a long civilizations and his country has already established parliamentary friendship group to maintain close relationships with the Ethiopian parliament. He has also indicated that the friendship group has already decided to meet with its counterparts in Addis Ababa in 2017.

The two sides have expressed the will to enhance a direct trade relations based on Ethiopia’s comparative advantage of exporting quality coffee and cut flowers and for Ethiopia to benefit from the well established IT sector of Latvia. Both sides have also discussed and agreed to deepen investment and promote people to people relations via tourism. Both sides underlined the need to organize African-Latvian Investment forum with the view of informing the Latvian private sector about Africa’s investment potential.

Meanwhile, both sides have exchanged views related to the EU and other regional and global current phenomenon and agreed to cooperate on the international stage based on mutual interest.

An Ethio-german business roundtable was held on Monday 14 November 2016 at Hilton Addis, during which a delegation from the Bavarian state of the Federal Republic of Germany has been briefed on investment and business opportunities in Ethiopia.

State Minister for Business and Diaspora Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, Mr Regasa Kefale, addressing the delegation on the longstanding relations of the two countries stated, “Ethiopia and Germany enjoy excellent diplomatic relations that spans more than a century”.  He expressed Ethiopia’s appreciation for the meaningful support extended by the German Government in the past half a century to the tune of one billion Euros under technical and financial cooperation, among others, on education, food security and agriculture. Mr Regasa pointed out that, the Ethio-German two way trade exchanges has witnessed a continuous growth in volume, which achieved last year half a billion US dollars. He emphasized on the “need to further increase and diversify trade opportunities” between businesses and governments of the two countries.

From German side, the head of the delegation, Mr. Ulrich Konstantin Rieger, Deputy Head of the Department for Internalization in the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Media, Energy and Technology, stated that the longstanding historical relation between the two countries should be further strengthened on the field of business and trade ties. The delegation composed of Bavarian state officials, business company heads from energy, construction and manufacturing sectors as well as university professors will enhance the already existing strong economic relations of the two countries, he added.

Mr. Fitsum Arega, the Commissioner of the Ethiopian Investment Commission has also briefed the participants on investment opportunities in Ethiopia, namely in the manufacturing, agroprocessing, energy and pharmaceutical sectors. In his briefing, Mr. Fitsum underlined the favorable investment conditions ranging from Ethiopia’s fast growing economy which he said was attracting massive FDI up to the well-oriented investment policy of the government. Bavarian state business companies which are engaged on manufacturing, energy and construction sectors will be successful in Ethiopia’s conducive investment environment, he added.

The Bavarian state delegation is expected to meet government officials of the Ministry of Education, Health, Science and Technology, among others.

Source: MFA Ethiopia