Category: MIL-OSI

Source: APO – Report:

On a slightly overcast Thursday morning, a convoy of 14 UNMISS vehicles leaves Juba. Led by Nepalese peacekeepers and carrying military advisers, UN Police and civilian staff, the patrol team is heading to Sokare in Liwolo payam – the first UNMISS road mission to the area in three years.

This is where more than 35,000 displaced people have sought shelter after fleeing their homes near the border following recent border clashes in Kajo Keji.

The objective is straightforward: meet displaced families and local authorities, assess the security situation and urgent needs, and bring back recommendations for the Government, humanitarian partners and UNMISS leadership in Juba.

Getting there, however, is anything but straightforward.

About an hour outside Juba, the convoy leaves the main Juba-Yei road and turns onto a narrow track heading south.

Four months into the rainy season, the road has been badly damaged. Its rocky surface is carved with deep ruts. Loose rocks and boulders are scattered across the track, while deep, muddy craters can only be navigated in four-wheel drive.

The radio crackles. The convoy stops. One of the vehicles is stuck.

Its engine whines in low gear as the driver tries to free a wheel wedged between two boulders. Inside the tilted vehicle, he struggles to see clearly. Outside, a colleague stands on a large boulder and guides him as he moves the vehicle slowly back and forth, trying to get out of the rut.

Eventually, the vehicle gets through.

About an hour later, another vehicle develops a brake problem. Everyone gets out and waits while the brake pads are replaced. Another hour passes.

The convoy continues slowly, climbing and descending the rough track. The vehicles hit rocks along the way, their rear bumpers clanging as they move through the forests of Central Equatoria.

After 10 hours on the road, the patrol stops for the night and sets up camp in Kaya, near the White Nile.

The following day, after another six hours on the road, the convoy reaches Kajo Keji and heads to the office of the County Commissioner, Wani Jackson Mule.

“Currently, everyone is safe in Sokare,” says Commissioner Mule. “But we don’t have the capacity to provide them with food and non-food items, and we seek humanitarian support.”

He tells the UNMISS team that the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNHCR have provided assistance, but that the needs of the displaced families are greater than what is currently available.

That evening, the team sets up camp in Kajo Keji town. Early the next morning, they leave again.

“We left Juba on Thursday, and it took us almost 17 hours to cover 140 kilometres to Kajo Keji. That’s two days on the road, and this morning we are headed to Sokare, which is four hours away. We were hoping to make it sooner, but this is the reality,” says Col. Clarke Brown, the senior UN military adviser leading the mission.

Around midday on the third day, the patrol reaches the Episcopal Diocese of Liwolo in Sokare Payam, where about 1,000 families are sheltering.

The team meets with Bishop Joseph Aba, one of the first humanitarians to open the church’s doors to displaced families. He briefs them on the conditions facing the people sheltering there.

The UNMISS team then speaks with mothers and other displaced people.

“We have food and crops at home that we cannot harvest again this year. The church has been kind to accommodate us, but we lack food and health services, and my children have missed school for more than five weeks,” says Kila Grace Simon, a displaced mother of five.

Other families raise similar concerns, including food, healthcare, shelter and education.

The team also meets local officials and the Brigadier General of the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces to discuss the security situation.

After two hours of interviews and interactions, the patrol begins the journey back to Kajo Keji, tired but happy that their findings will help garner the support needed by displaced families.

– on behalf of United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Source: APO

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Mozambique has reached a major milestone in strengthening the regulation of medicines and imported vaccines, with its national regulatory authority recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having a stable, well-functioning and integrated regulatory system.

The Autoridade Nacional Reguladora de Medicamentos de Moçambique (ANARME) has achieved Maturity Level 3 (ML3) for the regulation of medicines and imported vaccines under WHO’s global classification of national regulatory authorities.

Mozambique becomes the 10th country in Africa to reach ML3, joining Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe and marking further momentum in strengthening regulatory systems across the region.

For people in Mozambique, stronger regulation means greater assurance that medicines and vaccines are appropriately evaluated for quality, safety and efficacy and monitored throughout their lifecycle. It also strengthens the country’s ability to identify and respond to safety concerns and substandard or falsified products, while supporting timely access to quality-assured health products.

“Mozambique’s achievement is the result of sustained investment in regulatory capacity that will deliver crucial benefits for public health,” said Dr Sylvie Briand, WHO Chief Scientist and Assistant Director-General a.i. for Health Systems, Access and Data. “Strong regulatory systems protect people, build confidence in health products and help countries respond more effectively to evolving public health needs and challenges. Mozambique’s progress also contributes to advancing regulatory capacity across Africa and promoting more equitable access to safe and quality-assured medicines and vaccines.”

Building a stronger regulatory system

Mozambique’s achievement follows years of sustained efforts to build the institutions and capabilities needed for effective regulation.

WHO worked closely with ANARME throughout this process, assessing the national regulatory system and supporting the authority in addressing identified gaps and strengthening priority areas.

WHO evaluates national regulatory systems using its Global Benchmarking Tool (GBT), which assesses the regulatory functions required to ensure the quality, safety and efficacy of medical products. These include registration and marketing authorization, licensing, market surveillance and control, pharmacovigilance, regulatory inspection, laboratory testing and oversight of clinical trials, as applicable.

WHO’s maturity levels range from 1 to 4. Reaching ML3 confirms a stable, well-functioning and integrated regulatory system, while ML4 represents an advanced system focused on continuous improvement.

Benefits for Mozambique and the African continent

An ML3 regulatory system can support more timely and predictable regulatory decisions, reinforce safety monitoring and help ensure that health products entering and remaining on the market meet appropriate standards.

It also creates greater opportunities for regulatory cooperation and reliance – approaches that help authorities make use of the work and decisions of trusted regulators, reduce unnecessary duplication and allocate limited resources more efficiently, while maintaining rigorous standards for quality, safety and efficacy.

As the first Portuguese-speaking country in Africa to reach ML3, Mozambique’s experience can also contribute to strengthening regulatory systems and fostering greater cooperation, knowledge sharing and reliance among Portuguese-speaking countries and across the African continent. Its achievement further reinforces a more connected African regulatory ecosystem, providing a solid foundation on which the newly established African Medicines Agency can build to advance regulatory convergence and cooperation across the region.

Strengthening confidence in regulatory recognition

Mozambique’s achievement comes as WHO strengthens the process through which the performance of national regulatory systems is recognized.

The newly established Technical Advisory Group on Regulatory Systems Strengthening (TAG-RSS) brings together independent international experts to advise WHO on whether recommendations concerning regulatory authorities reaching ML3 and ML4 and WHO-Listed Authorities, are supported by the findings of WHO evaluation processes. Its recommendations provide an additional level of independent assurance, strengthening the impartiality, transparency and credibility of WHO’s recognition process.

Mozambique is among the first countries to achieve ML3 following consideration and recommendation by the TAG-RSS.

As part of the same TAG-RSS process, South Africa was recommended to retain its ML3 status for the regulation of vaccines manufactured, imported or distributed in the country, following an additional WHO assessment. This extends the recognition first granted in 2022 and underscores the sustained performance of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA).

The two recognitions highlight continued progress in strengthening regulatory systems across Africa, as well as the importance of continued performance, improvement and assessment in sustaining regulatory maturity.

WHO will continue working with ANARME and SAHPRA to sustain these gains and support continuous improvement as science, technologies and public health needs evolve.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Health Organization (WHO).

Source: APO

The United States has awarded a $125,000 U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) grant to the Center for Memories in Enugu to support the digital documentation and physical preservation of the historic Lejja Iron-Smelting Site in Enugu State. This and other AFCP grants strengthen U.S-Nigeria relations by safeguarding shared cultural heritage, fostering closer ties among our populations, and supporting sustainable preservation efforts that can economically benefit communities in both nations.

“The Nchekwaba: Lejja Iron-Smelting” project will support the conservation, 3D digital documentation, and physical preservation of the site, which dates to approximately 2000 BC and offers important evidence of Nigeria’s long history of technological innovation and ingenuity. The project’s implementation by the Center for Memories, led by U.S. exchange alumnus Iheanyi Igboko, reflects the enduring connections forged through the Cultural Heritage Forward program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of State and organized in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. The year-long program connects Smithsonian experts with Nigerian museum professionals and community-based heritage practitioners to exchange expertise, strengthen professional networks, and advance the preservation of Nigeria’s cultural heritage.

U.S. Consul General Brandon Hudspeth launched the project in Lagos at a ceremony when he noted that the Lejja Iron-Smelting Site tells a 4,000-year-old story of ingenuity, innovation, and technological sophistication. He explained that the AFCP grant, awarded to the Center for Memories, builds on a longstanding U.S.-Nigeria partnership to protect and preserve Nigeria’s cultural heritage. He also expressed the U.S. government’s commitment to working with Nigerian cultural heritage professionals and institutions. “The United States has invested approximately $1.2 million in cultural heritage preservation projects in Nigeria over the past five years, primarily through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation,” Consul General Hudspeth said. “This is not aid — this is a strategic economic intervention that advances the interests of Americans, Nigerians, and the global community.”

The launch event was attended by Enugu State Deputy Governor Ifeanyi Ossai and representatives of the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy; the National Commission for Museums and Monuments; the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Nigeria; the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art; and the Center for Memories. Executive Director of the Centre for Memories, Iheanyi Igboko, thanked the Federal Government, the Enugu State Government and its local partners for their outstanding support for the initiative. He explained that the project will preserve not only Lejja’s archaeological remains but also the living knowledge, oral histories, traditions, and community practices that give the site its meaning. “Lejja was not discovered by this project – the community was already there, the researchers were already there, and the knowledge was already there. Our role is to bring these efforts together and build the institutional and technical framework through which Lejja can be preserved and shared with the world.”

The United States and Nigeria also work together under a Cultural Property Agreement signed in 2022. The agreement restricts the importation of certain Nigerian archaeological and ethnological materials into the United States to help combat looting and trafficking of cultural property, while strengthening law enforcement cooperation and cultural exchange. The U.S. Mission recently began discussions with Nigerian officials on efforts to extend the agreement for another five years, underscoring the continued importance the United States places on protecting Nigeria’s cultural heritage.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Nigeria.

Source: APO

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The Portfolio Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation calls for stronger and more coordinated action to ensure that women and girls can enter, progress and lead in South Africa’s science, technology and innovation system.

As South Africa marks National Women’s Month, the committee recognises the important contribution women and girls are making in research, innovation and technological development, while also emphasising the need to address the barriers that continue to limit their full participation and advancement.

Committee Chairperson, Ms Lusizo Makhubela, said South Africa cannot build a competitive and inclusive innovation economy while girls and young women continue to face barriers in scientific and technological fields. “Women and girls must not only be encouraged to enter science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM); they must be supported to remain, advance and lead. The country needs their talent, ideas and leadership if science, technology and innovation are truly to be for everyone,” Ms Makhubeka said.

The committee believes that the participation and advancement of women and girls in science, technology and innovation is not only a gender equality issue. It is central to national development, economic transformation, skills development, competitiveness, innovation and social justice. This is particularly relevant in 2026, when South Africa has launched its inaugural National Science Month. For this principle to have practical meaning, women and girls must have genuine opportunities to enter, progress and lead across the science, technology and innovation system.

South Africa has made important progress in strengthening women’s participation in the research and higher education system. The Department of Science, Technology and Innovation’s (DSTI) most recent end-term assessment of its 2020–2025 Strategic Plan, records that women constituted 48% of the country’s research workforce in 2024/25, up from a baseline of 45.1% in 2019/20. The National Advisory Council on Innovation’s 2025 Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators Report also indicates that women’s representation among permanent academic staff at public universities increased from 46% in 2010 to 52% in 2022.

However, participation does not necessarily translate into equal representation at the highest levels of the system. In 2020, women accounted for 37.5% of permanent professors, including associate professors, compared with 27.8% in 2011. At the same time, there are encouraging indications of women’s advancement into recognised research leadership, with women holding 57% of Research Chairs under the South African Research Chairs Initiative by March 2023.

These indicators present a mixed but important picture. South Africa is making progress towards greater gender representation in the research workforce and in areas of research leadership, but women remain underrepresented in most senior academic positions and across key STEM disciplines. Men continue to dominate fields including engineering, computer and information sciences, mathematics and statistics.

The committee therefore believes that the measure of transformation must extend beyond how many women enter the system. Parliament and the National System of Innovation must also ask how many remain, how many progress, who controls research resources, who leads institutions and research programmes, and whether women are able to translate knowledge and innovation into economic and social value.

Increasing women’s participation in science, technology and innovation is an investment in South Africa’s future productive capacity. Scientific research, engineering, digital technologies, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, space science, energy technologies and other emerging fields will increasingly determine the country’s competitiveness and its capacity to respond to complex social and economic challenges.

Greater diversity within scientific and technological communities can strengthen the questions that are asked, the problems that are prioritised and the relevance and accessibility of solutions developed for society. Women’s participation is therefore important not only because women deserve equal opportunities, but because South Africa needs the full range of its talent and perspectives to solve national challenges.

This is also a matter of scientific sovereignty. South Africa needs sufficient domestic capability to generate knowledge, develop technologies and adapt innovations to local conditions rather than becoming increasingly dependent on technologies developed elsewhere.

The committee urges girls to see STEM as fields in which they belong and can lead. They can become researchers, engineers, programmers, entrepreneurs, inventors, academics and institutional leaders. South Africa needs their ideas, capabilities and leadership.

Despite the progress achieved, significant barriers continue to affect women’s participation and advancement. These include gender stereotypes, unequal exposure to STEM opportunities, limited access to mentors and role models, financial constraints, unequal access to research infrastructure and digital resources, and the difficulty of balancing demanding scientific careers with family and care responsibilities.

The challenge is therefore not simply to encourage more girls to study STEM subjects. South Africa must ensure that girls and young women are supported throughout the pipeline from school to tertiary education, postgraduate study, early-career research, professional employment and senior leadership. Educational institutions, research organisations, universities and technology companies must also provide safe, inclusive and respectful environments. Gender discrimination, sexual harassment and gender-based violence have no place in any of the country’s institutions.

These challenges must also be understood in relation to other forms of disadvantage. Women and girls from rural and poor communities may experience overlapping barriers related to gender, geography, socioeconomic circumstances, access to quality schooling, connectivity, transport, research infrastructure and financial support. A genuinely transformative approach must therefore recognise these intersecting barriers and ensure that opportunities reach those historically excluded from the ST&I system.

From a parliamentary oversight perspective, greater attention must be given to whether interventions are producing measurable outcomes across the entire science, technology and innovation pipeline. This includes the effectiveness of interventions encouraging girls to take STEM subjects, access to bursaries and postgraduate funding, retention of early-career researchers, mentorship, access to laboratories and research infrastructure, progression into senior positions, and opportunities for women innovators to secure finance, protect intellectual property and commercialise research.

The committee also calls for stronger coordination between government departments, schools, TVET colleges, universities, science councils, research institutions and industry. As strategic emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, space science, advanced manufacturing, hydrogen technologies and quantum technologies expand, deliberate attention must be given to ensuring that existing gender inequalities are not reproduced in these emerging areas.

The committee welcomes initiatives that recognise excellence among South African women in science, technology and innovation fields. The South African Women in Science Awards provide an important platform for recognising research excellence and profiling women as role models. Recognition is particularly important for young women and girls who need to see that scientific and technological careers are attainable and that women can occupy positions of expertise and leadership.

However, recognition must be matched by opportunity. Awards and public profiles can inspire the next generation, but sustained investment in education, research careers, infrastructure, mentorship and innovation finance is what enables talent to develop and remain within the system.

The committee will continue to recognise the progress made while scrutinising the gaps that remain. It will encourage the DSTI and its entities to strengthen gender-responsive planning, monitoring and reporting, and to provide Parliament with clearer evidence of outcomes for women and girls. The Committee will also continue to examine whether public investment in science, technology and innovation is delivering measurable results.

Women’s Month should therefore be more than a period of commemoration. It should be an opportunity to assess what has changed, identify where progress remains insufficient, and strengthen the accountability mechanisms required to close the remaining gaps.

The committee calls on government, educational institutions, research organisations, industry and society to ensure that women and girls are not merely participants in science, technology and innovation, but are also leaders, decision-makers, researchers, engineers, inventors, entrepreneurs and architects of South Africa’s technological future.

The committee reaffirms its commitment to strengthening parliamentary oversight and supporting a National System of Innovation in which women and girls have an equal opportunity to participate, excel, lead and shape the future.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.