* Priorities for 2012
* International Cancer Conference
* School meals for children
* Internship Training
* Masri Asli film festival
* Duty-Free access to American market
* The US helps rescue books
* Technology from Berlin
* Techgirls
* Tagore’s 150th
Priorities for 2012
Dealing with budget cuts is the main challenge that lies in the face of achieving the United Nations priorities for 2012, according to the director of the Cairo United Nations Information Centre, Khawla Mattar.
The UNIC held a briefing on18 January to discuss UN priorities in 2012, particularly the goals set by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for the Arab world and the UN in general.
“We have to address climate change, water scarcity, the food crisis, women’s empowerment, energy shortages and global health issues,” Dr Ban said in a pre-recorded segment presentation to the UN radio.
Dr Mattar presented the eight priorities for the UN outlined by the secretary-general, saying that Dr Ban spoke specifically about optimism in Tunisia and Egypt.
“You can’t change the environment without empowering women; and education and knowledge have to be a productive part of each and every society,” she said. “We still haven’t achieved much in this aspect, not just the Arab states but the whole world.”
Dr Mattar also noted that the UN believed violence against women was a large obstacle to empowerment, which led the secretary-general to create one entity for this purpose—UN Women—rather than leaving the effort as previous “scattered between four agencies.”
“Cairo has been chosen as one of ‘safe cities’ initiative where we create spots that are safe for women.”
Other priorities echoed what had previously been said regarding the establishment democracy in the Middle East and North Africa region, one that “hasn’t been blessed with democracy in recent years.”
She also noted that accountability was important. “The uprisings and revolutions [of 2011] have been a vivid example of how human rights can lead to a revolt,” she said.
“People have a right for dignity and to live with no fear, no hunger nor poverty,” Dr Mattar added. “The UN would like to see world leaders who have committed crimes against humanity punished for it,” along the examples of Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
The next six months, she concluded, would see lots of UN activity in preparation for the 2012 Rio summit, which is being held 20 years after the previous one and will review what had been accomplished.
International Cancer Conference
The fourth International Cancer and Gynecology Conference concluded with resounding success as hailed by keynote speakers, the United States Ambassador to Egypt Anne W. Patterson, along with Minister of Scientific Research Nadia Zakhari, renowned Egyptian psychiatrist, Professor Ahmed Okasha, Adel Adawi from the Ministry of Health and the president of the conference Professor Hisham al-Ghazali. The keynote speakers highlighted the importance of scientific research and ethics in this field. Ambassador Patterson congratulated the conference participants for their enormous contribution and highlighted the United States’ substantive support to maternal and child health in Egypt.
“One in eight women will suffer from cancer in the United States during their lifetime. Early detection has been a hugely important factor in increased survivability in the U.S. and here too,” Ambassador Patterson said. “The message is early detection is critically important and many of us here have learned this from personal experience. The U.S. government is committed to collaborating with the Egyptian government across a wide range of scientific activities. One of the factors in cancer treatment is cost, so the more effectively we can manage a health care system the more broadly the advantages of research can serve the population.”
The BGICC is the only conference specialising in breast and gynecological cancer in Africa and the Middle East. Its ultimate goal is to improve the quality of life of patients affected by the disease through undertaking international initiatives, sharing experiences, and implementing trials.
School meals for children
To provide school meals to vulnerable children in community based schools in Assiut, Upper Egypt, a new partnership agreement has been signed between Star Care Egypt, founded by Mercedes–Benz passenger cars group, and the United Nations World Food Programme.
“The WFP Food-For-Education activities are part of a wider five-year Country Programme aimed at enhancing the nutritional status of women and children,” said Gianpietro Bordignon, WFP Egypt Representative and Country Director. “The distributed snack is fortified with all the necessary vitamins and iron, addressing about 25 per cent of the child’s nutritional daily needs, while the take-home rations act as a conditional cash transfer, constituting about 20 per cent of the family’s monthly expenditure on food,” he added. The project will benefit approximately 2,000 children who attend 80 community schools in the vulnerable district of Manfalut in Assiut, and the take-home ration directly benefits about 10,000 of their family members.
The 800,000 Egyptian Pounds ($150,000 dollars) contribution by Star Care Egypt will be used to purchase a daily nutritious school meal to fight short-term hunger and increase the cognitive capacity of targeted children, in addition to a monthly take-home ration of 10kg of rice for their family, subject to a school attendance rate of 80 per cent. The take-home rations are an incentive for poorer families, to further encourage them to send their children to school regularly.
Internship Training
The Agricultural Training Schools, along with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA) celebrated the completion of supervised internship training of 17,000 agriculture technical school students at export commercial farms.
Government officials from the ministries of Agriculture and Education, along with agri-business leaders, attended the 11 January event recognising the distinguished students, teachers, headmasters and private sector partners for their critical support and participation. The training culminated in the successful creation of a new pool of qualified and skillful workers in the agriculture sector.
Working together, the USAID-MUCIA project and the agribusiness community have organised and funded the training of these students in 44 export commercial farms and food processing factories. Participating students developed technical and managerial skills needed for jobs in horticulture, livestock and food processing. The agribusiness community contributed more than EGP 18,000,000 to train students.
The initiative yielded more than 3,500 employment offers from commercial farms for the new graduates. An equal number of graduates decided to work on their family farms where they will introduce new practices and technology learned during their internship training.
Masri Asli film festival
From 19 to 22 January, the Italian Culture Centre in Zamalek hosted the travelling film festival Masri Asli (Real Egyptian), a festival for young independent Egyptian film-makers, which has been put together under the auspices of the Rising Stars; a project that is partially funded by the EU.
Short films and documentaries made by young Egyptian film-makers dedicated to Egyptian stories were the focus of the festival.
The travelling festival was opened in Cairo, before moving on to Port Said and Minya, where it will finish on 4 February, screening films shot recently by young Egyptians. The scheme is part of the Rising Stars project set up by the Italian NGO Ricerca e Cooperazione (Research and Cooperation) and is co-financed by the European Union.
The award ceremony was held on 22 January at the Italian Culture Centre. All films were subtitled in English and attendance was free of charge.
Duty-Free access to American market
The United States has been working with Egyptian companies to help ensure more of them benefit from the US Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) programme, which offers duty-free access to the US market to a wide array of Egyptian producers.
“Our goal is to help Egyptian businesses to increase and diversify their exports to the United States, using GSP and other programs, as a way to increase prosperity and employment in Egypt,” said US ambassador to Egypt Anne W. Patterson at an event for Egyptian exporters in Cairo last month.
The U.S. GSP program eliminates duties on over 3,400 products entering the US market from Egypt and other developing countries. In 2010, Egypt exported $51 million to the United States under the GSP program, including many agricultural and manufactured products.
The US helps rescue books
The US has positively responded to Egypt’s request to help restore the rare books and manuscripts which were rescued from the fire that erupted in the Institute of Egypt last November during the violent demonstrations in Downtown Cairo. The institute goes back to the early 19th century, and housed a rare collection of valuable old books and original manuscripts. Last month, the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), the USAID, and the Library of Congress all pledged their assistance and support in the restoration operations.
Technology from Berlin
Last January saw the first branch in Egypt of the Technischen Universität Berlin (TUB) launched in Cairo. In the Red Sea resort town of al-Gouna, the German ambassador to Cairo Michael Bock joined Samih Sawiris, chairman of the board of Orascom Hotels and Development (OHD), and TUB president Jurg Steinbach in the launching ceremony. Mr Sawiris explained that the Berlin technology university is different from other Egyptian joint ventures with foreign universities in that it is a German State university that is funded jointly by the German university and OHD and is a non-profit entity. Sawiris himself donated some EGP100 million towards the building and establishment of the university, laboratories, and workshops in Gouna on an area of 33,000 square metres. The university starts enrolling students next October.
Techgirls
The US embassy in Cairo has announced that Egyptian girls aged 15 – 17 may apply for a chance to study technology in the Us this summer through the Techgirls programme. The TechGirls program is an educational three-to five-week exchange initiative for approximately 25 teenage girls from the Middle East It aims to empower girls to pursue higher education and careers in technology, link peers who share interests and abilities, develop the leadership skills of the participants, and promote mutual understanding among the peoples of the United States and the countries and territories of the Middle East and North Africa.
Tagore’s 150th
To mark the 150th birth anniversary of the Indian poet and thinker Rabindarath Tagore, the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize, and within the year-long celebrations held by India in this regard, the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture in Cairo last month hosted the Indian classical vocalist Sumitra Guha and her troupe, as well as the leading classical dancer Kaberi Chatterjee and her 11-member dance ensemble. Ms Guha performed both Hindustani classical numbers including ragas as well as songs composed by Tagore. Dr Chatterjee performed the dance-drama Shyama, a classic Bengali romantic tragedy written in 1939 by Rabindranath Tagore. It was Tagore##s last major work for the stage and has a unique combination of song, dance, colour and movement of the dance style Tagore created and which was named after him Rabindranrithya.
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