At the onset of the 2020 wet planting season, Nigerian farmers were faced with an obvious challenge – a rise in prices and scarcity of essential agricultural inputs like fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, etc. – caused by the globally ravaging pandemic and its attendant cessation of movement.
June 23 is International Widows’ Day. Today is set aside by the United Nations to draw attention to the voices and experiences of widows and to galvanize the unique support that they need. In many parts of the world – including Nigeria, losing a husband is not just about coping with the grief, pain of loss, loneliness, or the financial aspect of performing the burial rites.
A few months ago, being seen wearing a mask in public would have elicited curious stares and jeers from people around you, but they have sadly become the visual metaphors of the novel coronavirus pandemic – an unfortunate reminder of our current reality. The reason for this is obvious: wearing a medical mask, according to the WHO, can limit the spread of certain respiratory viral diseases, including COVID-19. And wearing a face mask could reduce community transmission especially when it is used in ‘public transport and crowded areas,’ according to Ben Cowling, head of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Hong Kong.
In recognition of its commitment to building a society that provides equitable opportunity for self-actualization through economic empowerment and sustainable livelihood initiatives, Diamond Development Initiatives (DDI) has received an international recognition award as the Most Outstanding Community Development and Youth Empowerment Organization of the Year 2019, at the Pan African International Recognition Award and Annual Discourse (PAIR AWARDS) held on August 18, 2019, at the Swiss Spirit Hotel & Suites, Accra, Ghana. With the 2019 discussion theme as Driving Economic Growth and Sustainable Development through Good Governance; Improving Structures and Policies in Africa, the award has once again demonstrated DDI’s leading role in facilitating the growth and strengthening of grassroots businesses as well as fostering development-focused initiatives.
Not a few people are excited to leave 2020 behind – once and for all, considering the huge losses and distortions of life’s rhythms – all occasioned by a devastating global pandemic. But we wanted to take a moment to access how we fared in some of our core duties of providing technical assistance, business support, enterprise management and market access services to our agricultural and agro-allied cooperatives and producer groups in 2020. With key indices like growth facilitation, capacity development and strengthening, entrenchment of accountability and project sustainability, we gathered some feedback from grant beneficiaries on the contributions of DDI, highlighting how that impacted on their project implementation in 2020.
