News & Events

A new implementation framework was launched by the Commonwealth Secretariat to promote coordinated action on land, biodiversity, and climate challenges across the 56 Commonwealth nations. This framework called the Living Lands Charter Implementation Framework, was unveiled at an event alongside the COP28 conference in Dubai.

The Living Lands Charter was adopted last year to guide the Commonwealth countries on sustainable land management and restoration. The implementation framework introduced recently aims to facilitate practical on-the-ground actions aligned with the Charter. Through extensive consultations over the past year, the framework was designed to enable context-specific solutions while promoting collaboration on shared land and climate goals.

With the Commonwealth representing over 2.4 billion people and stewardship of a quarter of the world’s land area, this framework has immense potential to drive progress on biodiversity, desertification and climate change. By taking coordinated action on sustainable land management guided by the Living Lands Charter, the Commonwealth aims to lead by example in implementing solutions to interlinked environmental challenges.

Read the original article here: https://thecommonwealth.org/news/commonwealth-unveils-framework-implementing-living-lands-charter

iOCO’s data centre capabilities are receiving a boost through a new partnership with Africa Data Centres, enabling the company to expand its range of digital transformation services even further.

Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies, is a leading provider of secure, carrier-neutral colocation services across Africa. By partnering together, iOCO and Africa Data Centres can leverage their complementary strengths to help more customers achieve their digital transformation objectives.

For iOCO, this collaboration provides access to Africa Data Centres’ best-in-class, highly secure data centre infrastructure and colocation services. This will allow iOCO to enhance its portfolio of leading-edge digital business offerings for its customers. At the same time, the partnership opens up Africa Data Centres’ capabilities to a wider range of iOCO customers, giving them more choices in services to meet their digital needs. By joining forces, iOCO and Africa Data Centres can leverage their complementary positions to help even more customers achieve their digital transformation goals through secure, high-performance data centre infrastructure and services.

Read the original article here: https://www.africa-newsroom.com/press/africa-data-centre-and-ioco-joins-forces-to-fuel-competition-in-the-it-services-industry?lang=en

Samoa has become the first country in the Pacific to put a cap on the number of workers taking part in Australia and New Zealand’s labour mobility scheme. The new rules, which will come into force in mid-2024, will limit the number of Samoan workers in the program to 12,000.

The Pacific labour scheme allows citizens from certain Pacific island nations to take up temporary work in specific industries in Australia and New Zealand. It provides an important source of remittances for many Pacific economies. However, there have been concerns that too many workers leaving can impact essential services back home. By capping the number, Samoa is trying to strike a balance between meeting demand for overseas work and retaining skills domestically. The 12,000 limit approximately matches the current number of Samoan citizens in the programme.

The new rules will also give priority selection to Samoan citizens who have been unemployed for over 6 months. This aims to provide opportunities to those most in need of work and income. Supporters of the cap hope it will force employers to improve pay and conditions to attract and retain staff domestically.

Read the original article here: https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/programs/pacificbeat/samoaworkercap/103157944