Under the agreement between UNIDO and Israel’s National Agency for International Development Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MASHAV), efforts will focus on capacity building in areas such as: agriculture-related technologies and biotechnology; support to small and medium industrial enterprises; women’s entrepreneurship development; rural entrepreneurship development; and environment and sustainability.

AEWA has allocated €20,000 for SGF projects, augmented by voluntary contributions from contracting Parties. National government institutions and non-governmental organizations concerned with the conservation of migratory waterbirds and their habitats in African countries are eligible to submit project proposals.

The World Bank is financing sustainable energy initiatives for women in Tanzania to learn biofuel production techniques that save them the time and money invested in wood fuel collection.

The Energy Sector Management Assistance Program's (ESMAP) annual report highlights key achievements in 2011, including: informing World Bank lending to facilitate scaling up concentrated solar power in the Middle East and North Africa; production of low carbon growth studies for South Africa, India and Poland; and delivery of country-specific ‘market transformation’ strategies to help plan for large-scale integration of renewable energy for India, Mexico, and Peru.

The meeting took place with the aim of progressing on the AEEP 2020 targets to radically improve African deployment of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy access, and energy security. After sessions on these issues and financial institutions, the business of energy, and more, specific messages to be sent to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) and the UN Secretary-General’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative were formulated.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security were negotiated over the course of three years, and will be adapted and implemented by individual governments. The new guidelines aim to promote food security and sustainable development by improving access to resources and protecting stakeholders' rights.

The latest issues of the IOSEA Marine Turtle MoU E-News highlights turtle releases in Eritrea and capacity building in Myanmar/Burma. It also reports on future use of satellite transmitters for research in several African countries.

UN-HABITAT has released the 2012 State of Arab Cities on the theme “Challenges of Urban Transition.” The report notes that climate change adaptation will require better water conservation, better allocation of water use rights, reduction of fossil fuel use, and investments in renewable energy. It identifies Comoros, Somalia and Yemen as some of the most vulnerable countries in the world.

This meeting will seek to provide an opportunity for coordinating and facilitating effective stakeholder participation to ensure that stakeholder concerns in regard to advancing the country’s sustainable development agenda are articulated and captured in the national position papers.

The African Development Bank (AfDB), supported by the FAO, has implemented an inland fisheries improvement project in Rwanda that focuses on improving the fisheries infrastructure and building the capacity of local fishermen. Infrastructure to reduce post-harvest losses and increase the value of fish, such as cold storage, drying racks and ice-making machines, has been installed. FAO's role is to improve the fisheries information system.