Africa

Hisham al-Ashmawy was a special forces officer before he became a radical Islamist.

Credit: Dinh Manh Tai, 2012 CGAP Photo Contest

By Silvia Baur-Yazbeck
WASHINGTON DC, Oct 8 2018 (IPS)

Few experiences undermine a digital financial services (DFS) customer’s finances and trust in DFS like becoming the victim of a cybercrime. This is especially true of low-income customers, who are least able to rebound from the losses, and of the newly banked, whose trust in financial services may be fragile.

Unfortunately, cybercrime is a growing problem in developing countries, where customers often conduct financial transactions over unsecure mobile phones and transmission lines that are not designed to protect communications.

In Africa, the number of successful attacks against the financial sector doubled in 2017, with the biggest losses hitting the mobile financial services sector. DFS providers must adopt stronger cybersecurity measures to protect themselves and their customers. But which threats pose the greatest risk today?

In 2017, CGAP surveyed 11 DFS providers operating in Africa to understand how they perceive and mitigate cyber risks. We learned that all of them have been affected by cybersecurity incidents and are at various stages of implementing cybersecurity measures in their organizations.

While they are still most concerned about better-known types of fraud in DFS, such as malicious employees and agents, they are seeing themselves confronted with four types of risks emerging in cyberspace.

Social engineering

In a social engineering attack, the criminal tricks the victim into revealing sensitive information or downloading malware, which opens the doors to physical locations, systems or networks. The idea is to exploit a vulnerable person rather than a vulnerable system. DFS providers from Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia told us that fraudsters had duped their employees into sharing their user login details and then accessed corporate information systems.

Most DFS providers consider careless or unaware employees to be a major factor in their organization’s cyber risk exposure. But DFS customers are a vulnerability, too. The newly banked are more likely to fall victim to this type of scheme because of their limited experience with digital fraud.

Providers can guard against social engineering through regular awareness and education campaigns. It is also important to appropriately manage user access rights, introduce system log monitoring processes and require two individuals for completing sensitive transactions (i.e., maker-checker controls).

Data breaches

Using malware or social engineering, hackers can gain access to valuable information, such as credit card numbers, customer personal identification numbers, login credentials and government-issued identifiers. Weak patch management, legacy systems and poor system log monitoring were cited as the main reasons why DFS providers’ systems are susceptible to hacking attacks.

In addition to financial losses that can result from a data breach, providers’ reputation and customers’ trust are at risk. In 2017, thieves breached a DFS provider’s systems in Kenya and stole hundreds of customers’ identities. The fraudsters accessed sensitive customer information, such as account types and last transactions, which allowed them to pass as legitimate customers and apply for loans in the victim’s name.

To protect against data breaches, DFS providers need to regularly update their systems and software, patch their systems, use strong encryption for data at rest and in transit and implement 24/7 system log monitoring.

Outages & denial of service attacks

DFS providers sometimes experience system outages during routine system upgrades or patches. Earlier this year, an upgrade gone awry left DFS users in Zimbabwe without access to their digital money for two days. Systems unavailability can also be the result of a cyberattack.

For example, in 2017, M-Shwari customers in Kenya were left without access to their savings and loan products for five days. And, after the outage, several found inconsistencies in their account balances. The most frequent form of attacks that cause system unavailability are denial-of-service attacks.

In a denial-of-service attack, cyber criminals overwhelm a server by flooding it with simultaneous access requests, depriving legitimate users of access to the system. In most cases, the objective is to harm the business. Yet, in some cases, cyber criminals have launched denial-of-service attacks to distract attention from an attempt to gain access to the system.

Effective countermeasures include continuous network traffic monitoring to identify and detect attacks while allowing legitimate traffic to reach its destination, a solid and tested incident response plan that allows for quick reaction in an emergency and strong change management processes and disaster recovery planning.

Third-party threats

DFS providers rely on third parties for a range of services, such as mobile network, information technology and data storage solutions. Sometimes, these providers misuse their system rights to access confidential customer information that they can sell or use for social engineering.

Also, a third party that handles sensitive information may not have appropriate safeguards against cyberattacks, putting at risk the confidentiality and integrity of the DFS provider’s customer data.

To address third-party threats, DFS providers should implement due diligence reviews of current and potential partners, including reviews of their security policies and practices.

Impact on low-income customers

If physical money used to be kept safe in bank vaults, what is protecting money now that it is digital? This is a financial inclusion question because the answer is especially important for low-income customers. In developed countries, it is usually the financial services provider that is legally responsible for bearing the cost of fraud. In developing countries, it is often the customer.

The experience of fraud and rumors of fraud experienced by others causes mistrust in DFS, especially among lower-income consumers. The DFS providers we spoke with in Africa recognize their need to invest more in cybersecurity for both themselves and their customers. They acknowledge that better safeguards are needed to mitigate threats and be better prepared to respond to incidents.

Failure to take the relevant steps could deter people from entering the formal financial system and significantly harm consumers and markets.

The post Cyber Attacks Growing Problem in Developing Nations appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Oby Ezekwesili is set to become the most prominent Nigerian woman to run for the presidency.

By WAM
DUBAI, Oct 8 2018 (WAM)

The World Green Economy Organization, WGEO, and the Global Green Growth Institute, GGGI, signed a partnership agreement today in Dubai to fast-track green investments into bankable smart city projects.

The joint initiative makes it possible for smart green cities and sustainable infrastructure projects to gain access to grants and investments through the WGEO Trust Fund. Sixty bankable smart green city projects worth a total of US$1.1 billion are being delivered by GGGI to this initiative over the next three years. Each project benefits from the explicit support of host government, and as such present a competitive advantage to interested investors.

Committed to supporting a transition to a green economy, the joint project between WGEO and GGGI will serve as a platform to identify, develop and fund long-term, high-impact bankable projects. Recognising that people are at the centre of sustainable development, the partnership between WGEO and GGGI aims to contribute to securing a world that is equitable and inclusive. Sustainable economic development means that the green economy must include the reduction of inequalities and bring multiple social, economic and environmental benefits to all citizens.

“Smart green cities and sustainable infrastructure projects create unprecedented opportunities for long-term prosperity, leading to more vibrant and attractive markets, healthy economies, poverty reduction, and sustainable development,” says Saeed Mohamed Al Tayer, Chairman, World Green Economy Organization.

“The World Green Economy Organization is uniquely placed to provide systematic and holistic catalytic support to the promotion of the green economy, meaning that it will handle all aspects of the promotion of the green economy. Access to green finance through the WGEO Trust Fund is one among a number of practical value propositions offered by the organisation,” he added.

Dr. Frank Rijsberman, Director-General of GGGI said, “I see a tremendous opportunity in our collaboration from jointly setting up the process of managing the Project Preparation phase and developing green city bankable projects. I am confident that our projects will attract the GGGI Member countries as well as WGEO investors to want to invest.”

GGGI is championing green growth and climate resilience to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and Paris Agreement commitments. It is a trusted advisor to governments in more than 30 countries transitioning to green economic growth. GGGI results support six outcomes critical to achieving SDGs and NDCs, greenhouse gas emission reduction; creation of green jobs; increased access to sustainable services; improved air quality; adequate access to ecosystem services, and enhanced climate adaptation.

WGEO emerged in response to the call by the international community, as reflected in the outcome document of the Rio+20 conference, entitled “The Future We Want”, where governments, the private sector, and all other stakeholders are called to support countries interested in the transition to a green economy.

WGEO seeks to promote the mainstreaming of the green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, by linking financing, technology, capacity building and all other elements of the enabling environment for the green economy.

WGEO facilitates the implementation of various green investment projects, including renewable energy, a specialised green industrial zone development, waste management, waste to energy, e-mobility, green transportation and smart water solutions.

 

WAM/Tariq alfaham/Hassan Bashir

The post WGEO, GGGI launch joint initiative for the funding of smart green cities appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Ivory Coast and Goztepe defender Adama Traore is ruled out for rest of the season with a knee ligament injury.

A farmer walks past the solar panels used to pump water in the Soan Valley. The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) works closely with countries to diversify their economies, promote solar energies, and connect financial investors with specific green growth projects. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS

By Carmen Arroyo
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 8 2018 (IPS)

In May the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced next year’s summit on climate. This assertion has given the Global Green Growth Institute international momentum, which was reflected in the events of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City.

During the UNGA week the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), an international organisation based in Seoul, South Korea, led the conversation on green growth. Frank Rijsberman, the institute’s director general, highlighted that green growth is not a matter of the future but of the present. Green growth, defined as sustainable economic growth, is essential due to the damage caused by climate change and increased pollution.

While at UNGA, GGGI participated in the Sustainable Development Impact Summit, organised by the World Economic Forum, the P4G (Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030), and the Sustainable Investment Forum, organised by Climate Action and U.N. Environment Programme Finance Initiative.

GGGI also helped organise the event named “Leveraging Green Growth Potential in Vulnerable Countries,” which took place at the U.N. headquarters. Representatives from the Rwandan and Ethiopian governments, the U.N.-OHRLLS (U.N. Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States), and the European Union participated.

Challenges and best practices for green growth

At the event, the speakers discussed the challenges green growth encounters, the best practices in the field, and how public opinion regarding sustainable energies has shifted in the last years. Green growth, at the core of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, is not at the sidelines of international policy anymore, but at the centre of the conversation.

The United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, and even South Korea are already pursuing green growth agendas. But the shift is especially important for developing countries, which are more at risk due to climate change.

“Mainstreaming green growth is the only option for vulnerable countries,” stated Rijsberman at the event. “This is not just a challenge but also an opportunity.”

For Fekitamoeloa Katoa ‘Utoikamanu, High Representative for U.N.-OHRLLS, promoting sustainable growth in developing countries is a priority. She told IPS: “Leveraging the potential for green growth in vulnerable countries is critically important.”

Often times environmental damages are linked with other issues, explained Katoa. “Poverty and its alleviation are intricately linked to the environment and climate change is a threat which demands our immediate attention,” she commented.

Policy and finance obstacles to green growth

Despite its importance, getting governments to change to sustainable growth is not always easy.

According to Rijsberman, “policy obstacles, government, and finance” need to be taken into account. But the biggest challenge remains shifting investment patterns. The breakthrough for renewable energies comes with lower prices, he says.

“It is hard to compete fossil fuels if they are cheap,” said Rijsberman at the event. When fossil fuels become more expensive than renewable energies, it is easier to find investment for green growth projects. That, claimed Rijsberman, is already happening.

“Solar and wind have become cheaper than coal,” Rijsberman told IPS.

Now, the challenge for GGGI and national governments is to find investors to fund green growth projects —for example, increasing solar panels.

“Our goal for 2020 is to raise more than two and a half billion dollars in green and climate finance,” said Rijsberman.

Katoa, from U.N.-OHRLLS, stated: “It is clear that global financing needs to be stepped up considerably and directed towards investments that contribute to green growth and building resilience. This includes both traditional as well as new channels.”

The difficulties of changing public opinion have been overcome in the most part. Natural disasters, heat waves, and pollution have made public opinion aware that climate change is real, and solutions are needed.

During the event at the U.N. headquarters, Mauro Petriccione, director general for Climate Action at the European Union, pointed out how European opinion has shifted.

“It has taken the last two summers to make Europeans aware of the effects of climate change,” he said. Now, he added, “Europe is taking strong legislative action to this respect.”

New skills for renewable energies

Finally, the loss of jobs in the fossil fuel industry needs formal solutions. Rijsberman suggested formal retraining, because the skills needed in renewable energies are different from those required in the coal and oil industries.

Despite these difficulties, there are many cases of success in this transition. Rwanda and Ethiopia have already changed to sustainable growth. They are, as Rijsberman calls them, “champions of green growth.”

For countries like Ethiopia the change to sustainable energies is crucial. Climate disruptions have an immediate effect on their economy, which depends mainly on agriculture. Thus, the government prioritises climate resilience to secure its citizens’ livelihood.

Selamawit Desta, the Ethiopian representative at the event, shared with IPS how they succeeded in transitioning to green growth. “In 2008, we stopped subsidising fossil fuels. It was hard, but we gave an option. Food or fossil fuels,” she explained. And since then, Ethiopia barely has emissions.

Other countries with vast natural resources, also affected by climate change, need to take advantage of their ability to develop renewable energies.

Katoa stated: “Natural resource bases play a critical role in the economies of least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and Small Island Developing States.”

She continued: “These nations also typically have a large untapped potential for renewable energy, which can help to bring sustainable energy access to underserved and remote rural communities.”

Collaborative work with GGGI

The institute, founded in 2010, relies upon 36 countries, both members and partners of GGGI. They work closely with them to diversify their economies, promote solar energies, and connect financial investors with specific green growth projects.

Inevitably, their work depends on the will of the national governments. But more and more states are willing to collaborate with the Institute. During the event “Leveraging Green Growth Potential” both the Rwandan minister of environment, Vincent Biruta, and the representative for the Pacific Islands expressed their gratitude to GGGI.

GGGI also counts with a large institutional network, working with organisations such as the U.N., the World Bank, and the OECD, to promote green growth knowledge.

She added: “We look forward to ongoing cooperation with GGGI particularly in addressing climate change challenges and improving access to sustainable energy in vulnerable countries.”

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The post Leveraging the Potential for Green Growth in Vulnerable Countries appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The dream of visa-free travel for Africans on the continent is still a long way off.

SOURCE: LINKEDIN

By Badiuzzaman Bay
Oct 7 2018 (The Daily Star, Bangladesh)

Director Steven Spielberg’s 2017 newsroom thriller The Post, set in the 1970s America when a group of journalists try to expose a massive cover-up of government secrets about the Vietnam War, beautifully captures the tension between the press and a corrupt administration. It’s a standard theme for a movie on journalism—defenders of truth vs enemies of truth—but there’s a twist: The Washington Post faces an existential threat if it publishes the Pentagon Papers. So it must choose between a heroic stand to assert its right to publish and an about-turn to avoid threats of retributions. Tom Hanks, who plays the hard-charging editor of the newspaper, chooses the former: “The only way to protect the right to publish is to publish.”

Journalism, by its very definition, is conflictual as it exposes what is expected to be hidden. The Post, based on a true story, lays bare the tension that arises from this exercise but also, importantly, unearths the inherent vulnerability of the profession. There are always threats of retribution in the pursuit of truths. The Internet and other modern instruments may have revolutionised how news is gathered and shared today, but threats remain constant although the nature of threats has evolved over time.

For example, before the Internet, journalists rarely had to worry about virtual violence. The main risks they faced were in the field: the physical and psychological safety concerns of reporting on, for example, disasters and conflicts. But today’s media battlefields, according to Hannah Storm, director of the International News Safety Institute, are increasingly shifting online, resulting in hitherto unheard-of consequences and often extending to family members and even those remotely benefitting from their reportage. The result is a “blurring of virtual, physical, and psychological frontlines of safety” all rolled into one big, multidimensional threat.

And Bangladesh is as much vulnerable to this threat as any other country plagued by weak democratic institutions and restrictive media laws.

The country’s drift toward digital absolutism looks all but certain after the passing of the controversial Digital Security Bill 2018 in parliament, on September 19, which now awaits approval from the president to be enacted as law. As the Editors’ Council showed in a section-by-section analysis of the act, in trying to prevent crimes in the digital sphere, it “ends up policing media operations, censoring content and controlling media freedom and freedom of speech and expression as guaranteed by our Constitution.”

The act gives unlimited power to the police who can raid a place and arrest anyone on suspicion without any warrant or permission. It also “suffers from vagueness,” using many terms that can be misinterpreted and used against the media. The result? The editors believe it will “create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation” and make journalism, especially investigative journalism, “virtually impossible.” Their verdict? What we have here is a law that’s basically “anti-free press” and “antithetical to democracy.”

The manner in which this act has been drafted, promoted and eventually passed helps us understand the dynamics of state-media relations in Bangladesh. It’s a fragile, uneasy relationship, fraught with distrust. The state wants the media to be subservient to it. The media has to walk a tricky tightrope between divergent expectations. Not willing to entertain criticism, the overriding political narrative tends to isolate sceptics in the press and portray them as “the enemy of the people”—“enemy” being the keyword. It heightens fear of potential threats and justifies the action to contain them. Just in August this year, one influential ruling party leader said that “a section of the media is conspiring to thwart the government.” More recently, another wrote a commentary vilifying the editors for asking for reformation of the eight disputed sections of the Digital Security Act. He even appeared to suggest that any amendment to the act, while very unlikely, will depend on the editors rectifying their “amoral” ways.

In all fairness, such bellicose rhetoric does little to calm the frayed nerves. It only turns the spotlight on the supposed “unfairness” of the journalists rather than the unfair treatment being meted out to them.

The crisis for the journalists, however, didn’t begin with this law and will not end with it either. Already, Bangladesh stands 146th among 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2018 prepared by the Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), which cited growing media self-censorship amid the “endemic violence” against journalists and “the almost systematic impunity” enjoyed by those responsible. The true extent of this impunity can be understood from the Global Impunity Index 2017 released by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Bangladesh ranked 10th in the index, preceded by countries such as Somalia, Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and Pakistan—an irony given that Bangladesh far outranks these very countries in various development indicators.

How to make sense of Bangladesh’s appalling press freedom records? How to prevent it from further backsliding on democracy and people’s fundamental rights? More importantly for the journalists, how to continue their work with the integrity and responsibility expected of them despite the obstacles that have been put in their way?

Leon Willems, director of Free Press Unlimited, argues that while there are myriad pressures and challenges confronting the profession, resistance is possible. In a column published on the eve of this year’s World Press Freedom Day, he shows how journalists around the world are fighting back, navigating all sorts of dangers including physical and reputational harm. Even in countries where there is strict online censorship and few legal protections, creative use of social media and other journalistic tools is paying dividends. Willems cited the example of the Philippines, where independent news organisations have become targets of slander by politicians and online trolls but “reporters are turning the tables with devastating effect.” For example, in a recent series of reports identifying people making threats against the media, the news website Rappler uncovered a network of trolls tied directly to government insiders.

But I think the old, traditional concept of unity can achieve what few modern strategies can. In Bangladesh, perhaps the only silver lining to the recent debacle was the unprecedented display of solidarity by the Editors’ Council, an association of 20 newspaper editors, who united in ardent opposition to the Digital Security Act and published the section-by-section analysis of the act (as mentioned above) in their newspapers on the same day. This momentum needs to be kept alive and supported by other representative bodies within the wider news network.

At the risk of sounding trite, a united press is more powerful than one that is divided, and stands a better chance of surviving with dignity. There are historic precedents that show how a united front works better than journalists fighting separately. In 1971, after The Washington Post began to publish reports based on the leaked Pentagon Papers, braving threats from the Nixon administration, 15 other newspapers decided to publish copies of the study. It was a glorious moment in the history of journalism when one newspaper’s fight to protect its right to publish suddenly became everyone’s. Finally, the threats to their rights were removed.

Again, in August of 2018, nearly 350 news outlets united to run coordinated editorials denouncing President Donald Trump’s “dirty war” on the media. Trump routinely derides media reports as “fake news” and attacks journalists as “enemies of the people”. The call for a united pushback by the Boston Globe, which had launched the campaign using the hashtag #EnemyOfNone, was joined by major US national newspapers, smaller local outlets, tabloids—even pro-Trump ones—and international publications like the UK’s The Guardian. One of the editorials read: “It may be frustrating to argue that just because we print inconvenient truths doesn’t mean that we’re fake news, but being a journalist isn’t a popularity contest. All we can do is to keep reporting.”

“Unity, quality and creativity”—this can be our motto as we move into the Dark Age of Journalism.

Badiuzzaman Bay is a member of the editorial team at The Daily Star. Email: badiuzzaman.bd@gmail.com

This story was originally published by The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The post Journalism’s darkest hour and a roadmap to its survival appeared first on Inter Press Service.

In-form Ghana international midfielder Mubarak Wakaso escapes unhurt following a car accident in Spain on Sunday morning.

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The US First Lady undertakes her first major foreign trip alone to Ghana, Malawi, Kenya and Egypt.

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By WAM
GENEVA, Oct 6 2018 (WAM)

The UAE pursues a comprehensive approach in supporting world refugees with special emphasis on women and other members of vulnerable groups, said Obaid Salim Al Zaabi, the UAE Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva.

The ambassador made the statements while addressing the 69th Session of the Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme, convening in Geneva, where he presented an overview of the UAE policy in providing aid to refugees across the world.

He reaffirmed the UAE support for the UN in its efforts to bridge the gap between human development requirements and available resources for refugees, noting that the country regards the work of the Commission as a stepping stone for establishing a long-term development effort for improving refugees’ lives.

The ambassador reiterated the importance the UAE attaches for laying down a firm framework for world countries collaborating in sharing duties and responsibilities toward the refugees’ crisis around the world, reaffirming that the UAE, while receiving a large number of foreigners from different parts of the world, realises the added value provided by those coming in to seek job and security away from their countries.

“The UAE has received more than 130,000 Syrian refugees since the onset of the conflict in Syria and last year the country received more than 15,000 Syrians as part of the New York Declaration,” he said, noting that the UAE has renewed for one year the residence permits of those coming from crisis-ridden countries in case of their inability to return home.

The UAE also provided direct support to UNHCR, including assistance to Syrian refugees and others in Jordan, Iraq, Greece, Rohingya in Bangladesh, refugees of South Sudan in Uganda, not to mention the Palestinians who are supported by the UNRWA.

Using renewing energy resources is one of the best means to address energy shortage-related problems across refugee camps, he remarked.

In his speech, Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, commended the UAE policy in linking humanitarian work to development in crisis-stricken countries and its comprehensive approach in addressing refugees’ problems, with special emphasis on women.

He extended thanks to the UAE for its humanitarian support for all refugees, specially the Syrians and its pledge to receive 15,000 refugees as well its assistance for UNRWA.

WAM/Hatem Mohamed/Tariq alfaham

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Madagascar confirm Vontovorona as the new venue for their forthcoming Nations Cup qualifiers following a deadly stampede at their national stadium last month.

Armed rebels have vowed to enforce a boycott of the 7 October election in parts of the country.

Wiyaala Djimba is a Ghanaian Afro pop singer and song writer who is fast becoming an international icon.