The last few weeks have seen one man held countries fall into 'people' reigned. From Tunis to Cairo, it was same news, maybe 'good news'. However, Libya may prove a different story because here, one man is great man, one nation is in anarchy because the media wants us to believe alot. Let us hope that the abolition of the Libyian 'anarchy' will not inflict the people with a catastrophe of the dimensions of which none of us imagined. The time to act is now!

Dear all,

I hope everyone of you is enjoying the holiday season with your friends and your families.
Another year has gone by, and with this we have made a few adjustments to the organization along the way.
We also noticed that some things have not being working properly because we did not follow any guidelines whatsoever. This is why we are now establishing three main goals for this new year.
These are the following:

1) Increase members and staff members' participation in the organization.
How are we going to do this?
Each one of us needs to post more often in the forums and the YFCI Webpage. It's as simple as introducing yourself to other members or sharing a link to an interesting activism site!
2) Expand our monthly visits in the site.
How?
With the collaboration of all our members, we can manage to find more people interested in at least browsing through the YFCI Website. We only need you to give a shout out about us to your friends!
3) Find members willing to collaborate as part of the staff.
How will we do this?
Now this is crucial. If you have been an active member or if you are a new member who wants to help us improve the Website, we are more than glad to have you as part of the staff. We are still in talks about this, but we are going to modify last year's staff and renew it with people who are indeed active in YFCI. Being selected depends entirely upon you!

We hope these goals satisfy you. If they don't, do not hesitate in letting us know!


Regards,

Victoria Maravi
Co-director of YFCI

My good mother once remarked about me. 'Boy, you need confidence' and because confidence ends our crisises together we must stand up and get confident to address our issues. It works.

Government all over the world ard doing their best to enable the people believe with various policies that look promising. However, we need assurances in these places to deal with unemployment, high deficits, lower output and poverty in all its forms.

On the first of October 2010, Nigeria turned 50 years. My man Chris asked me what i needed. I told him i need Nigeria to 'innovate' because from the words of Angel Gurria of the OECD, 'a fundamental driver demanding a big push is innovation. We need innovations to achieve our goals!

At the MTN centre just to register my sim pack. It's not easy what impact the registeration would do for Nigeria. Maybe another avenue for police harassment is being created for the innocent citizens? Who knows, maybe we might eradicate crime with the process. I try to be positive but who knows?

Jennifer Staple of Unite For Sight has reinstated the relevance and importance of best practices in international eye health care. She made this statement in her article published in Eye News.

Eye health is a global issue and an emergency whose time would come. Make it happen!

With a captivating theme: 'Strengthening Regional Economic Intregration For Africa's Development' the Report focuses on ways of strengthening regional economic integration for Africa´s development. It complements existing institutional analyses of regional integration in Africa with an economic analysis of trade in goods and services, migration and investment, and surveys recent trends in these flows and assesses the potential for increasing them in ways that will support economic development. The report finds that - when designed and implemented within a broader development strategy regional integration could help improve competitiveness and serve as a launching pad for African economies´ effective participation in the global economy.

The global recession is unprecedented in its depth and breadth, and has left no country unscathed, according a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) launched today, predicting a gloomy economic future.

The UNCTAD report blames excessive risk-taking made possible by financial deregulation and innovation in obscure financial instruments for the economic turmoil inflicted across the world over the past year.

The crisis that initially began in the financial sector now has turned into a dramatic downturn in the wider economy with global gross domestic product (GDP) expected to fall by more than 2.5 per cent this year, according to the 2009 Trade and Development Report.

GDP in the developed nations is forecast to contract by some 4 per cent this year, and output in the so-called “transition economies” is expected to fall by more than 6 per cent, while growth in developing countries is expected to slow from 5.4 per cent in 2008 to 1.3 per cent in 2009.

“The outlook is bleak,” UNCTAD’s Director of Division on Globalization and Development Strategies Heiner Flassbeck told reporters in New York.

Mr. Flassbeck cautioned that even in the most optimistic circumstances it could take up to six years for many countries to return to levels of GDP reached in 2007 before the crisis.

“On the global scale there are only two things that can promote growth,” he said. “One is consumption [and] the other is investment. There is nothing else, unfortunately.”

He noted that rising unemployment rates and depressed wages are obstacles to consumption, and new investment is hampered by idle manufacturing capacity and cuts in profits.

“We can only urge governments to go on with stimulating the economy,” said Mr. Flassbeck, stressing that all “talks about early exit strategies are premature. The world has to wait another one or even two years until the stimulus can be withdrawn and the private sector [can] go ahead on its own.”

In addition, banks still need to be recapitalized and their balance sheets cleansed of toxic assets before they can be guided back to their traditional role as providers of credit to investors in fixed capital, according to the report.

The report also spotlights elements of reform for the international financial architecture, which it says is long overdue, calling for a fundamental rethink of global financial governance to stabilize trade and financial relations by reducing the potential for gains from speculative capital flows. This will reduce the likelihood of similar crises occurring and help create a stable macro-economic environment conducive to growth and smooth structural change in poor countries.

The 2009 Human Development Report launched 5 October 2009 reports on the range of evidence about the positive impacts of migration on human development, through such avenues as increased household incomes and improved access to education and health services.

Human development is about putting people at the centre of development. It is about people realizing their potential, increasing their choices and enjoying the freedom to lead lives they value. Since 1990, annual Human Development Reports have explored challenges including poverty, gender, democracy, human rights, cultural liberty, globalization, water scarcity and climate change.

Migration, both within and beyond borders, has become an increasingly prominent theme in domestic and international debates, and is the topic of the 2009 Human Development Report (HDR09). The starting point is that the global distribution of capabilities is extraordinarily unequal, and that this is a major driver for movement of people. Migration can expand their choices —in terms of incomes, accessing services and participation, for example— but the opportunities open to people vary from those who are best endowed to those with limited skills and assets. These underlying inequalities, which can be compounded by policy distortions, is a theme of the report.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told policymakers from 186 countries gathered in Istanbul for the IMF/World Bank Group Annual Meetings that global cooperation had saved the world from a far worse crisis and leaders should now seize the opportunity to shape a post-crisis world.

He stated that barely a year ago, people feared the worst. But after concerted action to combat the crisis, the world had pulled back from the brink. “Even if it is much too early to declare victory, we have at least stepped onto the road to recovery.”

Mr. Strauss-Kahn also made a remarkable statement that: 'It no longer makes sense for global economic policy to be the concern of just a small group of countries” while promising that recent reforms at the IMF would carry all countries along to achieve and build a stronger and better post crisis world.

Vice President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has enjoined Nigerian youths to shun criminal activities and social vices, saying such activities not only have negative impact on the country’s image, but also cast a negative shadow on the efforts of hardworking youths.

He stated this when he received members of the Future Nigeria Project, who were led by the Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Guardian Newspapers, Dr. Reuben Abati, on a courtesy visit to State House, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Vice President Jonathan pointed out that even when crime is perpetrated by a small percentage, their activities rub off negatively on the entire society, adding that for a society to be acclaimed as corruption-free, its level of crime has to be extremely low. To this end, he charged youths in the country to eschew crime and other social vices, and do more to improve on Nigeria ’s image.

“We cannot talk about re-branding the image of Nigeria if the youths are not re-branded and there is no future for this country if there is no future for the youths. Hence the 7-point Agenda and the Vision 20-2020 exist to chart a befitting future for our youths and all Nigerians,” Jonathan stated.

He praised the commitment of youth movements like the Future Nigeria Project towards harnessing the talents of youths, saying Government is happy with their efforts and will continually support progressive ideas from them through the Ministry of Youth Development.

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has said that the post-amnesty period would require great patience, perseverance and hard work.

President Yar’Adua was speaking to leaders of the former militants from the Niger Delta, during a recent meeting at State House in Abuja, convened to discuss post-amnesty issues.

Also in attendance were Governors of the Nigeria's South-South zone, Ministers of Defence, the Niger Delta ministry, Finance ministry, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the National Security Adviser, the Special Adviser on Petroleum and heads of intervention agencies of government – NAPEP, NDDC, NDE, SMEDAN, MDG, and PTDF.

He said the ‘great achievement of the laying down of arms and renunciation of militancy must be supported to ensure peace, security and development in the Niger Delta region’, adding that this will require ‘great patience, perseverance and hard work from all of us’.

President Yar’Adua appealed to all concerned in the process to show ‘sincerity of purpose and patience, because development takes time and huge resources’ and not to lose sight of the goal.

The President further stated that if ‘we treat the post-amnesty process right, Nigeria will become a global example of how to achieve peace and development under the most difficult circumstances, as well as a reference point for the international community to emulate’, adding that the Administration was already working hard to ensure an unqualified success of the process.

President Yar’Adua said the willingness of the former militant leaders to attend the meeting showed that Nigerians are good people, and thanked them for responding to his invitation.

Responding on behalf of the Governors, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State said the Niger-Delta governors were convinced that the post-amnesty period would be very exciting for all Niger Delta people, and pledged their full and total support for the process.

Further response from one of the former militant leaders, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, confirmed their high hopes for the future, and pledged to support and cooperate with the Administration, for the development of the Niger Delta.