PR Times Africa

Day: July 12, 2025

Southern Youth to United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL): Improving the economy and security are priorities
Southern Youth to United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL): Improving the economy and security are priorities

Participants stressed the need for representation for the south in any mechanism or institution, highlighting that they suffer through economic instability and insecurity across borders and do not benefit from oil money
Thirty-four youth from across the south of Libya joined Deputy Special Representative for the Secretary General Stephanie Koury in an online youth consultation Wednesday to discuss their opinions on the Advisory Committee’s recommendations.

The event is part of broader consultations to gather feedback from the public on the next steps of the political process. UNSMIL has also launched an online poll inviting Libyans to share options on the Advisory Committee’s recommendations and contribute to shaping the way forward in the political process.

Participants stressed the need for representation for the south in any mechanism or institution, highlighting that they suffer through economic instability and insecurity across borders and do not benefit from oil money.

The youth all agreed that the deteriorating economic situation was closely linked to the security situation and one could not be solved without addressing the other. They highlighted that they wanted stability and security and their voices to be heard in representative forums.

“We suffer from weak infrastructure with power cuts during 50-degree heat,” said one participant from Ghat. “We are deprived of basic services. We need to focus on these things, not a constitution.”

The economic situation is so bad, another participant from Ghat said, that it’s impacting the security situation. “This is why people are making their livelihoods from selling weapons,” they said. “We need to have a clear economic plan,” said a participant from Sebha. “We need to end the sources of corruption.”

A participant from Ubari called for transitional periods to end. “Through the years and different governments, our divisions have only increased,” said a participant from Sebha, adding that the best way forward was to have a referendum.

When discussing elections, the youth expressed distrust in the national authorities’ ability to oversee elections and in the democratic process overall. One spoke of how votes had been bought; people he knew sold their voter cards in the previous elections.

DSRSG Koury briefed participants on the four options put forward by the Advisory Committee in May. As outlined in the  Executive Summary of the Advisory Committee’s report,  the options include:

Conducting presidential and legislative elections simultaneously;

Conducting parliamentary elections first, followed by the adoption of a permanent constitution;

Adopting a permanent constitution before elections; or

Establishing a political dialogue forum, based on the Libyan Political Agreement to finalize electoral laws, executive authority and permanent constitution.

Many of the participants who joined favoured option four saying that this was the only option that ended the current cycle of entities that they felt did not represent them or the people of Libya.

UNSMIL stressed that youth voices were crucial to the political process and that it intended to continue with its YouEngage outreach efforts.

All participants were encouraged to complete UNSMIL’s online poll [link] and share it with their friends and families to ensure community voices are heard.
July 12, 2025
Harnessing data and digital tools to strengthen social protection.

Harnessing data and digital tools to strengthen social protection

Long viewed as a fallback for hard times, social protection is now being reimagined as a driver of resilience. With rising costs, widening inequality, and fragile economies, governments are searching for ways to make every policy choice count.

These challenges brought policymakers from Africa, Asia, and the Pacific to Livingstone, Zambia, from 8 to 10 July, where they focused on targeted refinements and applied approaches to strengthen social protection.

The gathering centered on hands-on methods: tools, data, and policy strategies that help governments respond to poverty, economic shocks, and climate threats with greater precision. It formed part of a broader UN effort to promote universal, adaptive, and inclusive social protection systems worldwide.

Zambia, the host, is contending with drought-linked hunger and soaring living costs. The Maldives faces logistical hurdles in delivering services across 187 dispersed islands. Tanzania is navigating population pressures, youth unemployment, and informality. Each delegation brought its own realities, but the drive for smarter systems was shared.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) introduced a suite of empirical tools, including ECA’s multidimensional poverty dashboard and ESCAP’s evidence-based targeting models, to help governments sharpen decisions using locally relevant data.

Christian Oldiges, Chief of Social Policy at ECA, described the tool as a bridge between data and delivery. “It shows not just where the poor are, but what kind of poverty they face, and how existing schemes measure up.”

Selahattin Selsah Pasali, Social Affairs Officer at ESCAP, said member states such as Cambodia and the Maldives value the tools’ flexibility and training support, “which helps localize and institutionalize them.” Many, he noted, are now considering a shit from survey data to administrative records to better design policies and estimate costs.

Namibia shared progress digitizing its social grant system. Malawi, a global champion for the Social Protection Accelerator, is rolling out a new policy rooted in a lifecycle approach that addresses risks across age groups.

Tanzania is widening its model too. Frank Kilimba from the Office of the Prime Minister said: “We’re expanding beyond contribution-based systems to ensure broader coverage, especially for informal and rural populations.”

Rwanda was among the countries exchanging experiences. Ariane Mugisha, Chief Digital Officer in the Local Government Sector, said the sessions on social registries and data integration offered key insights into building adaptive systems. Her colleague Joel Murenzi, Social Protection Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Local Government, highlighted the importance of learning from others’ approaches to expanding coverage and adjusting benefit levels in line with inflation.

Behind the mix of countries, organizers said, was an intentional effort to draw from diverse settings. “We brought together small island states like the Maldives and middle-income countries like Namibia with least developed economies such as Malawi and Zambia,” said Amson Sibanda, Chief of Service at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). “Their challenges differ, but their commitment to reform creates a space for grounded exchange.”

That reality, said Mamusa Siyunyi, Social Affairs Officer at ECA, makes targeted support all the more essential. “It’s not just the triple crisis of food, fuel and finance,” she said. “It’s demographic pressure, climate risk, and limited fiscal space. Countries need support that’s relevant and usable.”

Several delegates requested additional training and ongoing technical assistance. Others stressed the need to bridge institutional divides that hinder implementation.

“We have the data, but making it useful means working across silos,” said Hudha Haleem of the Maldives Bureau of Statistics. “The big takeaway for me was how collaboration between data producers and programme implementers can make systems more responsive and inclusive.”

Fathimath Nisha Fahmy from the Maldives Pension Office agreed, adding that geographic realities demand precise, adaptive systems. “Using real-time data to target and adapt social protection is critical for countries like ours, spread across many islands.”

Mr. Sibanda underscored the need to match innovation with institutional readiness. “We always say that policymakers should be able to leverage the science-policy interface to make good decisions and future-proof their strategies,” he said. “But for that to happen, public institutions need the capacity to harness these tools and understand both their benefits and potential pitfalls.”

As countries prepare for a series of global forums on social development, the Livingstone meeting formed part of a wider push to build systems that are better designed, better resourced, and better able to reach those most at risk.

“Policymakers don’t just need inspiration,” said Mr. Oldiges. “They need proof points, blueprints, and allies. That’s what we came here to build.”

The three-day interregional workshop was organized by UN DESA, ECA, and ESCAP in collaboration with the government of Zambia. It brought together officials from eight countries across Africa and Asia-Pacific with a shared aim to build smarter, more resilient social protection systems that lift people sustainably, not just catch them when they fall.

July 12, 2025
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) strengthens its strategy to make West Africa a world tourist destination of choice.

Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) strengthens its strategy to make West Africa a world tourist destination of choice.

The Director General of the Standards Agency of the Republic of Benin, Mohamed Nazif El-Hadji Alassane, representing Benin’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Mrs. Alimatou Shadiya Assouman, welcomed ECOWAS’ efforts to harmonise standards and regulations in the tourism sector.

ECOWAS Commission has launched a four-day technical meeting 2025 in Cotonou, Benin. This meeting brings together experts from Member States to examine six draft classification standards for tourist accommodation establishments. The standards, drawn up on the basis of various workshops organized as part of the ECOWAS tourism policy (ECOTOUR), concern hotels, motels, inns, ecolodges, aparthotels and holiday villages. The event is jointly organized by the private sector and industry directorates.

In her opening speech, the Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture, Mrs. Massandje Toure-Litse, represented by the Director of the Private Sector, Dr. Tony Luka Elumelu, recalled ECOWAS’s ambition to make tourism a major lever for economic development and regional integration. She affirmed that the region is striving to build a flourishing tourism industry, drawing on international best practice adapted to the West African context, with the aim of making it a world tourist destination of choice.

She emphasised that this strategy is based on five closely linked pillars: strengthening infrastructure, including investment in transport, accommodation and tourist attractions; relaxing regional visa policies for third-country nationals to improve accessibility, streamline procedures and foster greater people-to-people diplomacy; the harmonisation of sectoral standards and regulations to facilitate travel, trade and enhance the overall tourism experience; the promotion of sustainable tourism practices that ensure an environmentally friendly, socially responsible and economically viable industry; and collaboration and partnerships between stakeholders in the sector to pool expertise, share knowledge and develop effective solutions to common challenges.

She stressed the importance of implementing a coherent, collaborative and sustainable approach to tourism in order to stimulate national economies, strengthen cultural exchanges and ensure the sustainability of the sector. In reaffirming the Commission’s commitment to responsible tourism practices, she emphasised the need to minimise the negative impacts of tourism on the environment, local cultures and host communities, and stressed the importance of implementing a coherent, collaborative and sustainable approach to tourism in order to stimulate national economies, strengthen cultural exchanges and ensure the sustainability of the sector. In reaffirming the Commission’s commitment to responsible tourism practices, she emphasised the need to minimise the negative impacts of tourism on the environment, local cultures and host communities.

The Director General of the Standards Agency of the Republic of Benin, Mohamed Nazif El-Hadji Alassane, representing Benin’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Mrs Alimatou Shadiya Assouman, welcomed ECOWAS’ efforts to harmonise standards and regulations in the tourism sector. He stressed that this will help to transform the region into a single tourism market, while boosting tourism, employment and public revenue, with positive spin-offs for the economies of Member States.

July 12, 2025