Abu Dhabi Fund For Development (ADFD) completed renewable energy projects worth Dh117.3 million ($31.9m) in 2020.
The projects were carried out in Cuba, Somaliland, the Bahamas, Barbados and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic, the fund said in a statement on Thursday.
“We doubled our effort to ensure that we delivered the projects to our partner countries, especially during such a time of crisis,” Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, director general of ADFD, said.
“The aim was to help them maintain their economic and social development trajectories by enabling them to meet developmental challenges during the pandemic.”
ADFD is an autonomous national entity affiliated with the emirate’s government that finances projects across developing countries.
The fund allocated Dh622m to finance various projects across the world last year including loan agreements worth Dh121m ($33m) with the West African nations of Togo, Niger and Liberia. The deals include a $10m solar project in Niger, an $8m mini hydro project in Liberia and a $15m project in Togo.
ADFD also announced an allocation of Dh384m to execute eight renewable energy initiatives under the seventh cycle of its partnership with the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Under the facility, eight projects will be funded in Antigua and Barbuda, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cuba, the Maldives, Nepal, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, according to ADFD. In July, it financed a waste-to-energy project in the Maldives.
“Renewable projects remain high on our agenda as their impact is felt on multiple levels, from commerce to the environment,” Mr Al Suwaidi, said.
The fund is also financing projects in 16 Caribbean countries through its $50m UAE-Caribbean Renewable Energy Fund. Launched in 2017, the UAE-CREF is the largest renewable energy initiative of its kind in the Caribbean region.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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