Their News [Archives:2008/1213/Local News]
– Agreement on German Financial Cooperation to be signed
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Planning, Abdulkarim Al-Arhabi, and the German Ambassador, Michael Klor-Berchtold, on Wednesday, December 3, 2008 will sign the Yemeni German Agreement on Financial Cooperation 2008 amounting to around 37 Mio. Euro (46 Mio. US$).
Around 10 Mio. Euro will be used to relief the food crisis in Yemen through the WFP nutrition program, 17,5 Mio. Euro will be put at the disposal of SFD for education; other funds are allocated to water and sanitation projects in Saadah and Aden.
“Water and sanitation and education are the focal sectors of German cooperation in Yemen”, the Ambassador said, “but we also want to support the Yemeni people who suffer from the food crisis and from the results of the protracted conflict in the Saadah region which has prevented us to start the agreed water and sanitation project since a couple of years. We hope that access to Saadah will be open so that the can start without further delay.”
– Rabat Forum announces winners of UNICEF's first media prize on child rights
UNICEF brought to close its 4th Regional Media Forum today in Rabat announcing the winners of its Middle-East and North Africa Media Award on Child Rights, which honored best entries of the year on adolescents in the Middle East and North Africa region.
UNICEF's Regional Media Prize for Middle-East and North Africa, the first of its kind, was awarded to four different submissions in the categories of print media, radio, television and web-based media. Winners announced today are:
– Category: TV – Country: Syria
al-Mun'ataf (turning point), by Manal Salhiya, Syrian National TV
(on three teenagers talking about how adolescence affects their daily life)
– Category: Radio – Country Yemen
From the memory of children, Sana'a Radio, by Samir Mohammed al-Math'haji
(on youth discussing key issues in their lives from their early adolescent days
– Category: Press – Country: Egypt
Volunteers under 20 – Sabah al-kheir magazine, Abeer Salaheddine
(on adolescents finding a sense of purpose through volunteer work)
– Category: Internet – Country: Yemen
Movement to encourage girls' education and b) New study on street children, by Mohammed al-Jabri, IRIN, Online Humanitarian News Services, Yemen
– Judges looked favorably at solution-oriented pieces as well as entries promoting the development, protection and participation of adolescents as full-fledged citizens. The Award Jury was composed of media professionals from the region, members of UNICEF and adolescents themselves. UNICEF's Goodwill Ambassador for the Middle East and North Africa, Egyptian film star Mahmoud Kabil was amongst the jury members.
– Tackling taboos
The Forum tackled “difficult to report” topics such as Hygiene and Sanitation, HIV & Aids, maternal and child health and nutrition and their linkages to child survival and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Media delegates tackled issues relating to child and maternal health and survival at the Rabat Forum helped craft recommendations on how to enhance media groups and journalists' role as agents and promoters of community-based behavior change.
Ideas include the need for media to develop innovative communication in order to deal with technically dense subjects. Involving youth as the target audience and further developing the use of new technologies in reporting were seen as key fronts of intervention by media practitioners. The purpose of balanced reporting will also be achieved by significantly broadening the spectrum of so far unexplored sensitive issues, the audience agreed.
Media also agreed they had a role to play in mobilizing various stakeholders as contributors to behavior change and to discuss taboos openly and continuously, while understanding and respecting given cultural sensitivities. Specialization of media professionals in technical subjects was also recommended.
Moroccan National partners contributing to this years' Forum included the National Observatory on the Rights of the Child (ONDE) and the Media Group ECOMEDIA.
UNICEF's regional Media Forum in 2009 will address the overall picture of child protection issues throughout the region.
– UNFPA assists Ministry of Health in the emergency situation in Hadramout.
Minster of Public Heath and Population “MoPH”, Dr. Abdulkareem Rase'e and United Nations Population Fund “UNFPA” representative, Mr. Hans Obdeijn, signed today an emergency work plan agreement for Hadramout governorate. According to the signed plan, UNFPA provides medical equipments for functioning of mobile health clinics and reproductive health kit, with value of $ 110 thousands dollars, for affected by the recent flood in areas in this governorate. The Work plan is an immediate response plan especially targeted to vulnerable women in need of reproductive health services.
In the main time, Rase'e and Obdeijn also singed a revision plan of Saada, including additional fund to support reproductive health medical supplies.
“In our work plan of 2009 we will continue our help to the MoPH”, Obdeijn said. “Sada'a will be in UNFPA mind”, he added.
It is noteworthy that, UNFPA and JTZ are intended to conduct joint emergency works in Hadramout in the coming days.
The Work plan was signed by H.E Dr.Abdelkarim Rase'e, on behalf of the MoPHP, and by the UNFPA representative in Yemen, Mr. Hans Obdeijn, on behalf of the UNFPA, and attended by ministry deputies.
– Signing ceremony for the record of discussions on JICA project in TEVT sector
Under the auspices of Minister of TEVT Dr Ibrahim Omar Hugari and the Japanese ambassador to Yemen Mr. Masakazu TOSHIKAGE, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Yemen Office signs a Record of Discussions with the Ministry of Technical Education & Vocational Training and the Ministry of Planning & International Cooperation on Saturday November 29, 2008 at 12:30 pm on the technical cooperation project named, “The Project for Improvement of TEVT System through the Establishment of the Model in Automobile Maintenance Sector” which is scheduled to be launched in the beginning of 2009.
The pilot project comes in a response to a request by the Government of Yemen and it aims to create a training model in MoTEVT that meet labor market needs through the establishment of a pilot training program in automobile maintenance department of technical level to be implemented at the Technical Industrial Institute, Dhabhan at Sana'a Capital Secretariat. The project will reintroduce the training program of automobile maintenance by combining both automobile mechanics and automobile electricity as one program and it will target the staff of the Central Office of MoTEVT, the staff of MoTEVT Sana'a Capital Secretariat and the staff of the Technical Industrial Institute, Dhahban, and the project will establish a network for Public Private Partnership with participation from MoTEVT and concerned private companies in the Capital Secretariat of Sana'a.
During the duration of the project (2009-2013), the project will involve the dispatch of Japanese experts to Yemen, the provision of the necessary equipment and the training for Yemeni counterparts in Japan or a third country. And it is expected that the actors of the project will gain the necessary knowledge and skills of planning and implementing a more demand- driven TEVT program that produces more employable graduates and meets labor market needs and the experience, therefore, will be shared with TEVT stakeholders and should be replicated across Yemen for the improvement of TEVT system.
– Yemen, Jordan discuss developing agriculture product exports
Yemen and Jordan held talks here on Saturday on the procedures for developing the agriculture product exports and the commercial exchange between the two countries.
During a meeting gathered Chairman of Agriculture Cooperative Union Mohamed Bashir and Chairman of the Jordanian Cooperative Institution Abdul Majeed al-Ajarmah, the two sides discussed a protocol of joint agriculture cooperation between both countries, reviewing the hurdles that hinder cooperative cooperation.
The talks dealt with possible cooperation between both countries in areas of training and providing experts in the agricultural domain in addition to the possibility of preparing training programs in the field of developing vegetable production.
During the meeting, Bashir affirmed the importance of benefiting from the pilot Jordanian experiment in this field, considering this meeting as an opportunity to develop the current relations, particularly these related to agricultural product exports.
For his part, the Jordanian official praised the cooperation relations between the two countries, highlighting to the importance of such meeting to avail from the agriculture experiences in both countries.
– Inauguration of Japanese funded water and health projects in Al-Mahrah and Hadramout governorates
The Embassy of Japan, the Qishen Local Council in Al-Mahrah governorate, the Ghail Bawazir Hospital management, and the Malaria Control Program administration, in Mukalla, Hadramout, organized inauguration ceremonies for three Japanese funded projects, in the presence of Mr. Matahiro Yamaguchi, Counsellor at the Embassy of Japan in he Republic of Yemen and a number of Yemeni Officials from the concerned authorities in Al-Mahrah and Hadramout governorates.
The Government of Japan extended three grants to fund the projects for Improving the Water Supply System in Qishen district at Al-Mahrah governorate, improving the Medical Services of Ghail Bawazir Hospital, and Enhancing Malaria Control Program in the Coastal Areas in Hadramout governorate, with a total amount of US233,931.
Thousands of inhabitants benefit from these grants which aim at upgrading the living standard of the citizens in the aforementioned areas through improving the infrastructures and promoting the social welfare services and in the field of water supply and health.
– Spanish medical supplies for victims of Hadrmout flood
Hadrmout Chamber of Commerce received aid through the Spanish embassy in Sana'a. The aid is in terms of medical supplies provided by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation as a support for victims of flood in Hadramout. The aid consisted of 27 boxes medicines and first aid kits. Khaled Ba Hadad board member of Hadramout Chamber of Commerce received the aid on behalf of the flood victims.
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