Lexy Blog

Application Deadline:    April 6, 2018 . Applications are now open for the ONE Champion Programme which will recruit, train, and support 50 emerging leaders of Nigeria. It advocates and campaigns on education, gender, health, agriculture and transparency as a means to fight poverty. These champions will work closely with the ONE Nigeria Country program, led by the Country Director and will work with the direction and support of the ONE Campaigns team to come up with innovative and exciting ways to engage policymakers to secure policy changes and public investments to address poverty in Nigeria. This is a fantastic opportunity to impact your community, country and the world working with a highly-visible, mission-driven ONE members in an incredible, supportive environment. Champions will receive training on how to campaign, lobby decision-makers and engage the media. You will have the opportunity to attend ONE event and put your skills into practice in meetings with hig...

The sixth edition of the Africa CEO Forum opened on Monday 26 March under the banner of " African champions: it's transformation time". This major meeting of Africa's private sector, organised by  Jeune Afrique Media Group and  Rainbow Unlimited , brought together three African presidents, namely  Alassane Ouattara  of Côte d'Ivoire and his counterparts  Emmerson Mnangagwa  of Zimbabwe and Ghana's  Nana Akufo-Addo . With around 1,600 high-level delegates from over 60 countries, the 2018 Africa CEO Forum strives to encourage participants to implement action plans that foster the transformation of the continent's major companies. In his opening speech,  Amir Ben Yahmed , President and Founder of the Forum, indicated that this edition would place the accent on "transformation" because, in his opinion, emergence is not possible without undergoing a transformation, which is one of Africa's biggest weaknesses. To remedy this, the for...

  In   this 70th anniversary year, the World Health Organization is calling on world leaders to live up to the pledges they made when they agreed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, and commit to concrete steps to advance universal health coverage (UHC). This means ensuring that everyone, everywhere can access essential quality health services without facing financial hardship by 2030 (SDG3.8). Today, too many people still miss out on health coverage and financial protection At least half the world’s people don't receive the essential health services they need. About 100 million people are being pushed into extreme poverty (<$1.90 a day) because of   payments for health services. Over 800 million people (almost 12 percent of the world’s population) spend at least 10 percent of their household budgets on health expenses for themselves, a sick child or other family member. People are missing out on health coverage and financial protectio...

Donors have pledged an additional US$15.3 million to support quick action by the World Health Organization to tackle disease outbreaks and humanitarian health crises through its emergency response fund in 2018, the Contingency Fund for Emergencies (CFE). Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland announced contributions ranging from US$20,000 to US$5.6 million at a conference hosted at WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday (March 26) – increasing CFE funding levels to US$23 million. This will enable the rapid financing of health response operations in the coming months – filling that critical gap between the moment the need for an emergency response is identified and the point at which funds from other sources can be released. WHO will seek to secure further donor commitments to achieve its US$100 million funding target for the 2018/2019...

After nearly 400 confirmed infections and 100 deaths, the spread of Lassa fever in Nigeria is beginning to slow but the epidemic is far from contained, the World Health Organization and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) have warned. NCDC’s latest data shows that the number of new confirmed and probable cases has been falling for five consecutive weeks, indicating that public health measures are proving effective, but more infections are expected until the end of the dry season, as the viral haemorrhagic fever is endemic to the area. Between 1 January and 25 March 2018, the NCDC reported 394 laboratory confirmed cases. There were 18 new confirmed cases in the last reporting week (19-25 March 2018), compared to 54 confirmed cases a month earlier (19-25 February 2018). “We should interpret the recent declining trend in new cases with caution. The Lassa fever season is not yet over. We need to maintain vigilance and response operations, and ensure continued e...

Food security and nutrition, land, water, food, work and a life free of violence and without poverty highlighted as main issues to tackle  The UN’s largest annual gathering on gender equality and women’s rights concluded today in New York with the strong commitment by UN Member States to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls. Coming on the heels of unprecedented global activism and public outcry to end gender injustice and discrimination worldwide, the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) reached a robust agreement highlighting the urgency of empowering and supporting those who need it most and have, for too long, been left behind. Today, 1.6 billion people still live in poverty, and nearly 80 per cent of the extreme poor live in rural areas. Many of them are rural women. They continue to be economically and socially disadvantaged – for instance, they have less access to economic resources and opportunities...

“Your Excellency Muhamadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Senator Bukola Saraki, Senate President; Honorable Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House; Your Excellencies, executive governors of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Royal fathers; Distinguished ladies and gentlemen; and as you say in Nigeria, all other protocols observed. Thank you for welcoming me to Nigeria. I’ve been coming here regularly since 2006, and I’ve always felt welcome. Nigerians usually greet me warmly. The first time I met the Sultan of Sokoto, I was honored that he greeted me with the gift of a white horse. At some point during every visit, though, some brave person eventually asks me—very politely —“Why are you actually here?” It’s an understandable question. Most American technology guys don’t wander around Nigeria learning about its health system. But I think I have a good answer. When we started Microso...