By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh

On December 3, Moscow prepares to hold its ground-breaking International Honest View Award for foreign journalists and bloggers in a planned ceremony.

The 2024 award has collected a record number of applications for all three years of its existence – 488 competition materials from 59 countries, including Argentina, Germany, Israel, India, Iran, Canada, China, Norway, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey, 19 African countries and all CIS countries.

The goal of the Honest View Award is to identify the best materials from foreign media and authors who cover humanitarian, cultural and economic initiatives of the Russian Federation abroad, as well as joint global, interregional and inter-country projects with Russia. According to the organizers, the world is in demand for objective information about Russia, its international activities and projects abroad.

The competition for foreign media is annually held in order to identify, popularize and promote the best journalistic experience in covering the humanitarian activities of the Russian Federation abroad. The surge in the applications, as compared to the previous years, demonstrated a growing interest in reporting on Russia, especially in the context of the changing geopolitical situation.

This is not the limit: based on the dynamics of growing interest in the contest in the previous two years, the Organizing Committee has expanded the geography to all the continents – especially since the contest was receiving attention from international associations that unite journalists from different regions and strive to maintain high standards of the profession.

It is also aimed at inspiring and motivating foreign journalists to join the movement for multipolar change and make a departure away from criticisms to promote Russia’s image abroad. The works of foreign journalists and bloggers were evaluated by the members of an Expert Council and the Media Award Jury.

The most popular nomination was “Best Material on International Cultural Partnership with Russia” – 159 applications were received. 132 authors are competing for the victory in the nomination “Best Material on Social and Humanitarian Topics” and 103 materials have been submitted in the nomination for “Best Material in the Genre of Journalism and Documentary” after the deadline on 25th September 2024, according to reports.

One of the innovations of the award in 2024 is the nomination for young journalists aged 18-25, and it has found its audience: more than 15% of the applications received for the competition were submitted by applicants under 25. This year’s innovation – the nomination “Best Material by Young Journalists about the Russian Federation” – attracted 54 young and aspiring journalists aged 18-25 to the competition. The most talented and active participants will be invited to Moscow in early December to attend the Media School, which includes lectures, master classes and trainings by Russian and foreign experts on international issues, global challenges, mastering modern journalism formats and mass communication technologies in the context of covering international humanitarian projects.

Another innovation of this year included the special nomination for the author of the material covering cooperation within EAEU, BRICS and other international projects and initiatives. The winner in this category was selected by the Competition Jury together with one of the Award’s partners. The final results of the award will be announced at the award ceremony for the winners and laureates on 3rd December 2024 in Moscow.

Reference: The Honest View Media Award is being held for the third year and has already become a platform for uniting journalists and bloggers from all over the world. In 2022, 118 journalists from 28 countries participated in the award. Participants from Uzbekistan, Montenegro, Tajikistan, Belarus, and Iran were the winners of the competition. In 2023, the geography of the award expanded, and the number of participants doubled: 250 works from 51 countries were received.

In 2024, journalists and bloggers from 59 countries submitted applications for the competition, including Abkhazia, Azerbaijan, Argentina, Armenia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Germany, Greece, Egypt, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Israel, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Cameroon, Canada, Kyrgyzstan, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mali, Morocco, Moldova, Mongolia, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Senegal, Serbia, Syria, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Finland, CAR, Chad, Montenegro, Ecuador, Ethiopia, South Africa, South Ossetia.

The organizer of the award and media school is the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo). The operator of the competition and media school is the AGT Communications Agency, one of the leaders in the communications industry of Russia and the CIS countries.

By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh

Never underestimate the power of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), also known as CEDEAO in French and Portuguese, created on 28th May 1975 as a regional political and economic union bringing together fifteen (15) countries of West Africa. Per the date of its establishment, this so-called regional bloc marks its 50th year in 2025, a significant historical celebration.

Considered one of the pillar regional blocs of the continent-wide African Economic Community (AEC), ECOWAS generally has its primary common goal of working consistently towards achieving, what is first referred to, as “collective self-sufficiency” for its member states by creating a single large trade bloc by building a full economic and trading union. Additionally, ECOWAS aims to raise the living standards of an estimated population of over 425 million people and to promote economic development based on the principles of interdependence, solidarity, and cooperation.

Until writing this article, ECOWAS has frequently been discussing and reviewing the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Development Project, one single regional infrastructure project these several years. It has shown its total commitment to looking for funding while billions have been siphoned by leaders into foreign banks. African leaders are quick negotiating and paying for foreign military weapons but are grossly unsuccessful in soliciting similar assistance from these external partners to invest in infrastructure development such as the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor Highway Development Project.

West African Highway Launched in 2017

The construction of this proposed grandiose West African highway has its chequered history. The proposed project was successfully launched in 2017, and since then it has had a series of high-powered meetings and conferences, technical studies have been conducted, and the construction to its feasibility and practical operationalization. The Abidjan-Lagos highway, the six-lane dual carriage highway, is estimated at $15.1 billion.

On resource mobilization, it was explicitly noted that ECOWAS had adopted a new regulatory framework on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) – an incentive for the entry of the private sector in large investments like the nature of this project. The African Development Bank (AfDB) on behalf of the development partners offered its assurance for unwavering commitment to the realization of the highway.

Akinwunmi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has several times highlighted the importance of the Abidjan-Lagos highway as an infrastructure project in West Africa that would ease the free movement of people, goods and services, generate social and economic activities, and ultimately promote cross-border trade within the region, its economic viability and enormous potentials especially now that African Union looks to implement the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Noticeably, Africa has long been considered a frontier for manufacturing, technology, for food production. Africa is getting ready for business, it is busily building the world’s largest single market of 1.4 billion people.

Special Meetings and Technical Consultations

Several meetings upon meetings and meetings have been held since the project was proposed in 2017. Since 2017, paid meetings have been held, and experts have been paid. The latest of such a paid meeting was held on November 10-11, 2024. This roundtable was initiated following the instructions given to the ECOWAS Commission. Late September 2024, such a roundtable meeting was held in Abidjan, the capital city of Côte d’Ivoire, under the auspices of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID).

The highway corridor is calculated to be approximately 1,080 km long. It will connect some of the largest and most economically dynamic cities Abidjan, Accra, Cotonou, Lomé and Lagos while covering a large proportion of West Africa’s population. It will also link very vibrant seaports in West Africa. In addition, it will serve all the landlocked ECOWAS member-states, for example, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in the region. Nearly 40 million people are estimated to be living along the Abidjan-Lagos corridor while 47 million people travel along the axis every year. These are expected to be direct beneficiaries of the development of the project touted to be a real backbone of trade in the region.

According to official documents, this highway project falls in line with the key objectives of the ECOWAS Vision 2050, including (i) facilitating the movement of people and goods, and (ii) accelerating trade and transport, regional and international, improving road infrastructure. It is eventually expected that the transport corridor will be transformed into a development corridor to stimulate investment, sustainable development and poverty reduction within the entire region.

West African Highway and AfCFTA

The focal point of controversy and debate, these several years, are centred on the mechanism of financing, and the state-of-the-art management of this new mega-highway – from planning through practical construction to its final commissioning, ready for cutting-edge usage by the transport industry. The idea of prioritizing highway innovation, signalling a bold leap in West Africa’s transportation infrastructure, is its recognizable potential transformative impact. Simply intended to improve and facilitate the movement of services, goods and people across the region. The Abidjan-Lagos Highway highlights its potential to enhance regional connectivity and drive economic growth, especially with the establishment of the African Continental Free Trade (AfCFTA), the ambitious flagship of the African Union (AU).

According to ECOWAS’ latest document issued after their two-day special meeting held on November 11 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, “experts have lauded findings of the study which has among others, unveiled a potential $6.8 billion investment prepared and ready to be implemented to unlock economic growth and enhance the viability of the proposed highway.” The overall objective is to identify and unlock the inherent and latent economic potential (short, medium and long-term) and commercial viability of economic and industrial value chain projects. These economic projects, once implemented, will also generate trade volumes and traffic to augment the viability of the highway.

The final draft reports were issued after groups revisited (that was not the first time) several tolled bridges and roads in Abidjan for knowledge and experience sharing strategy envisaged for the Abidjan-Lagos Highway. At the end of the exercise, the study report (re)validated commitment to unlock the inherent and latent economic potential of the highway construction and estimated $6.8 billion in potential investment in the region.

Final Construction Still Out of Sight

For the past few years, significant attention has been drawn by the widely publicized announcement of securing enough funds from African banks and external sources for the construction of this regional highway which could become a cornerstone, and the public narrative of achievement by ECOWAS, which marks its 50th year in 2025. However, transport industry analysts, researchers and experts have already cast serious doubts and skyline scepticism if ECOWAS could live up to this onerous task. Grandiose ceremony-infested ECOWAS future task of achieving its primary target of constructing a ‘speed-highway’ remains an eternal dream. Noticeably, ECOWAS has little to celebrate, except its existence by name, (the golden jubilee) at its 50th year in May 2025. At least, Africans will rather jubilate over the authenticity of reforming and transforming the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

By Adedapo Adesanya

After many delays and negotiations, richer countries agreed to take the lead on raising at least $300 billion per year by 2035 to support climate adaptation and emissions reduction projects in developing nations.

This came after two exhausting weeks of chaotic bargaining and sleepless nights at the Conference of Parties (COP29) held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Other donors — including less wealthy countries, development banks, and private investors — were also invited to chip in. The agreement also called on all these parties to work, on a voluntary basis, toward the goal of $1.3 trillion.

The figures are far lower than what many in Baku had hoped for with delegates from countries like India, Kenya, and Vanuatu among others lamenting the agreed amount. Expectations were around $2.3 trillion.

“The amount that is proposed to be mobilised is abysmally poor. It’s a paltry sum,” said Indian delegate Chandni Raina.

“This document is little more than an optical illusion. This, in our opinion, will not address the enormity of the challenge we all face.”

“The commitments made in Baku — the Dollar amounts pledged and the emissions reductions promised — are not enough. They were never going to be enough,” said Ralph Regenvanu, climate envoy from the island nation Vanuatu. “And even then, based on our experience with such pledges in the past, we know they will not be fulfilled.”

“This COP has been a disaster for the developing world,” said Mohamed Adow, the Kenyan director of Power Shift Africa, a think tank.

“It’s a betrayal of both people and planet, by wealthy countries who claim to take climate change seriously.”

Nations struggled to reconcile long-standing divisions over how much rich nations most accountable for historic climate change should provide to poorer countries least responsible but most impacted by Earth’s rapid warming.

The climate envoy of the European Union, Wopke Hoekstra said COP29 would be remembered as “the start of a new era for climate finance”.

Despite repeating that no deal is better than a bad deal, this did not stand in the way of an agreement, despite it falling well short of what most of these delegates wanted.

The final deal commits developed nations to pay at least $300 billion a year by 2035 to help developed countries green their economies and prepare for worse disasters.

A group of 134 developing countries had pushed for at least $500 billion from rich governments to build resilience against climate change and cut emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases.

UN climate chief, Mr Simon Stiell acknowledged the deal was imperfect.

“No country got everything they wanted, and we leave Baku with a mountain of work still to do. So this is no time for victory laps,” he said in a statement.

The United States and EU have wanted newly wealthy emerging economies like China — the world’s largest emitter — to chip in.

The final deal encourages developing countries to make contributions on a voluntary basis, reflecting no change for China which already provides climate finance on its own terms.

The deal posits a larger overall target of $1.3 trillion per year to cope with rising temperatures and disasters, but most would come from private sources.

Wealthy countries and small island nations were also concerned by efforts led by Saudi Arabia to water down calls from last year’s summit in Dubai to phase out fossil fuels.

A number of countries also accused Azerbaijan, an authoritarian oil and gas exporter, of lacking the experience and will to meet the moment, as the planet again sets temperature records and faces rising deadly disasters.

The next COP will hold in Brazil in 2025.