Libraries exist within the formal and the informal sector of the learning ecosystem. They play a fundamental role in learning within educational institutions and in different communities where they exist all over Africa. They are critical for achieving inclusive, equitable and quality education where no one is left behind including those who are in employment and cannot attend school fulltime and/or are taking online courses. They are critical also for those who have fallen through the cracks of the educational system as school dropouts at various stages of their educational journey or out-of-school-children. Before School Age Public libraries introduce pre-school children and late school starters to the world of books and learning. Early literacy development is expected to start from the home. However, in communities where parents and caregivers do not have sufficient funds to buy age-appropriate books for their children who are yet to start school and/or may not be literate, the public library serves the children adequately by providing age-appropriate books and running story hour programmes where children learn and begin to understand words. In a survey for English speaking countries in Africa recently run by the African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA), it was discovered that public and community libraries in Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone run programmes targeted at helping children learn to read in order to read to learn as it is clearly understood that it is the necessary foundational building block for inclusive and quality learning in school, future academic achievement, and lifelong learning. This has the potential of reducing the rate of children who drop out of schools due to inability to keep up with what is taught in the classroom. Some libraries such as the City Library Abuja, have gone further to run a programme for out-of-school children. The library staff read to the children, help them to be comfortable around books and provide writing and painting materials for them. This invariably leads to their acquiring basic literacy skills such as  recognition of letters and words. In Schools Libraries in tertiary institutions serve not only the students but also the faculty members who need to be kept up-to-date on current best practices in the various disciplines. This drives quality education as the library assists lecturers to update their knowledge so that they do not depend on their old lecture notes year in and year out. The library in tertiary institutions also provides online and offline materials that drive research for all members of the academic community. As the concept of openness and knowledge equity become more accepted in sub-Saharan Africa, academic libraries in the West African region are establishing open access institutional repositories where lecturers openly share their lectures notes and articles published in different journals for easy access by students and their professional colleagues. This makes learning more collaborative, richer and equitable as all within the community especially the students have access to the library’s repository and resources even when they cannot afford textbooks or need to search research projects in order to build on already existing knowledge. Such repositories which can be found in https://www.internationalafricaninstitute.org/repositories exist in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) http://dspace.knust.edu.gh/, Asheshi University, Ghana https://air.ashesi.edu.gh/home, Afe Babalola University, Nigeria, http://eprints.abuad.edu.ng/ Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria, http://repository.fuoye.edu.ng/, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, http://ir.library.ui.edu.ng/handle/123456789/243, Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar, Senegal, among others. In secondary schools and primary schools all over Africa, libraries provide curriculum based texts and supplementary reading texts for all those who cannot afford the important learning materials. School libraries also serve as study spaces for those who wish to read during free times. The libraries in these schools help to grow the reading culture among young adults so that they can achieve more academically. Libraries in these schools also provide literature and fiction resources that open the eyes of students to a better understanding of the world. The UN SDG Book Club African Chapter plays a role in this aspect as the Book Club recommends books that children can read to sharpen their understanding of the SDGs and of how the Goals can be achieved at different levels by all. Libraries make the children aware of the  books recommended for every SDG and make these books available whenever possible especially to  parents who cannot afford them. In the formal education sector, libraries are also used as learning laboratories for students who need to be taught research and information literacy skills that will enable them navigate adroitly and safely in online spaces as they search for needed information for their studies. This boosts the quality of education as students are equipped to search for more knowledge and to not only depend on what is taught in classrooms.   In the Community   Public libraries have a standard non-discriminatory policy that allows everyone irrespective of status, age, or creed to come in, access learning and informative materials that lead to lifelong learning which has been recognized as being essential for a productive workforce, improved quality of life and a high sense of self-worth. They also offer conducive learning spaces for those who need to study independently for school and external examinations. Since 2012 when NITDA provided computers and internet access to the National Library of Nigeria and some public libraries across Nigeria, these institutions have been the go-to places for those who wish to acquire basic digital skills and/or access e-learning platforms for further studies. The Ghana Library Authority also has a learning app that allows its members to read e-books, listen to audio books and watch educational videos. The library also runs a Read2Skill programme through which one can study courses in Project management, UI/UX Design and Data Analytics amongst others. These initiatives by public libraries make learning more inclusive and closer to people who cannot afford the time or who do not have the opportunity to be in the formal education sector. Public libraries excel in driving informal education for all within their communities. In the Greater Accra Library, children’s section, one can walk in and learn embroidery, patch-making, collage, paper craft and poster design for a token fee. The Enugu Library Board, Nigeria, teaches young people how to make shoes without charging although the learners are encouraged to come with the materials. This was introduced as a project by a participant in AfLIA’s Leadership Academy. The Sapele Public library, Delta State, Nigeria, brought learning and education closer to fish farmers in the community by teaching them how to have higher yields, by introducing them to online resources for their field and by showing them how to access credit from banks. This was another project by a participant in AfLIA’s Leadership Academy which was carried out in collaboration with a bank in the community. Finally, libraries of all types in West Africa have come to realize that education is a lifelong venture and that they have definite roles to play in ensuring inclusive, quality and equitable education for all.   ABOUT NKEM OSUIGWE   Nkem Osuigwe PhD is the Director, Human Capacity Development and Training African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) with headquarters in Accra, Ghana. She has served as the Head of the public library system in Anambra State Nigeria, and as a Director of Nigerian Book Foundation. She is an ardent advocate for open knowledge as a pathway for inclusivity and boosting innovative solutions to development challenges that bedevil Africa. She sees the continuous development of human capital as the key to the progress and prosperity of Africa and believes that libraries of all types as core institutions that provide access to life-changing knowledge, opportunities and 21st century skills development are the future of Africa and should be in forefront of advocacy, provision of services and skills for the transformation of Africa. She has been the project lead for AfLIA’s projects with OER Africa, NBA South Africa, and Wikimedia Foundation. She represents AfLIA in the management team of the UN SDG Book Club, African. She recently won the global award of the Wikimedian of the Year 2022, (Newcomer category). She has been Chapter Chair, Nigerian Library Association as well as a 2nd Vice President of the association at the national level. She had also being Vice Chair and Chair, Public Libraries Section, AfLIA. She has served as mentor for Cohort 1 & 2, International Network of Emerging Library Innovators, sub-Saharan Africa (INELI-SSAf) and AfLIA Leadership Academy (AfLAC). She schooled in University of Benin, University of Ibadan and Abia State University. She has published articles in academic journals, in blogs and magazines and book chapters. She has also edited a book as well as served as the editor of an academic journal. She tweets through @librarian_nkem on Twitter and shares her views on LinkedIn and Facebook as Nkem Osuigwe. Nkem Osuigwe represents AfLIA on the Management Committee of the African Chapter of the UN SDG Book Club.

Omuji attends the Christ Apostolic Church Secondary School, Makurdi and hails from the Benue State in Nigeria. Hunger is a state of eating far less than the required quantity of food. It is also the state of a lack of food when there is a craving for it. "Mummy I want to eat!" "Aunty, the food is not enough!" "What will the children eat?" "I have not eaten since this morning.". These statements dominate too many homes and communities in Nigeria. This simply shows abundant hunger, or lack of food. Zero hunger is just the opposite of this. A situation where everyone does not just have enough to eat but the required food to eat. consider the scenario below. Mr. Eze married two wives, Ngozi and Chioma. Ngozi has seven children while Chioma has five. With this family of twelve children and their parents, Eze is a wheel barrow pusher in the market, though he claims to have owned a provision store that gradually collapsed due to circumstances. As at the time I packed into Mr. Ezes neighborhood his situation was already very pathetic. There was this incident that brought the whole thing to my knowledge. Ngozi and Chioma were seriously quarreling over who gets the larger share of Mr Eze little proceeds from the wheelbarrow business. The quarrel was prolonged and neighbors had to intervene. Moving closer to them, I heard Chioma saying, "For the past five days I have not gotten up to a thousand naira from my husband, the whole money goes to Ngozi". “What about me?”shouted Ngozi. "Do you think he gives me millions? Tell us the truth. He gives you all the money. If it is the five or six hundred he gives to everyone you want to die for, eh, just go and die." While this drama was going on, I took time to observe Mr. Eze’s children. They were all looking unfed and sick. Chioma’s last three children, age 2, 4, and 5, were gathered round a cup of garri, fighting amongst  themselves as well. Ngozi’s children meanwhile were lying around helplessly. You didn’t need anyone to tell you that they had not had anything to eat. As the women argued with each other, dragging their children from all sides, they became so frustrated that they began to beat their hungry children. It took a long time to console the dejected, unfairly treated children and to calm the frustrated women. Eventually, I was able to ask them what the problem was. "My husband came and gave her all the money and went away", said one of them- I can’t remember which. “This is what has always happened in this house.” The other woman said, "The only problem here is that I don’t know what she and my husband do with all the money he makes. Last night I got nothing at all." After a series of accusations and counter-accusations, I was at last able to ask them where their husband was. “He came and went back,” answered one of the women. Why did he go back? I asked. Ngozi quickly answered that he had given her the money na! Chioma interjected, “Which money? Is it the 250 you mean? Tell us how much he gave you?” “Nothing”, Ngozi retorted. “If he had given me anything, would I send the children to him? Would I quarrel with him?” At this time I was the only person left there. The others probably only came out of concern for the children and may have become used to these dramas by Mr. Eze’s wives. I waited patiently for Mr. Eze, hoping he would come back and find me in his home.  He returned 30 minutes later. By them I had stopped the wives from quarrelling. He entered the house looking as though he had been waiting for the quarrel to be over. He looked miserable and frustrated. You don’t need to ask if the dread of the troubles at home kept him away or if he had been waiting for the women to stop their quarrel. I took him aside to discuss with him. Mr. Eze narrated how he had worked all day to make the N250 he gave to Chioma.  That was all he had made that day. As a father, he felt for his hungry children and  wanted to stay with them, but their mothers would not understand. All they were ever after was money for food for the children. He said he had not eaten all day because he wanted to make sure he could bring some money home. This happened often and at times he was even hungrier than his children. Whenever his wives began to quarrel, he felt miserable and defeated by life. In tears he said, "I know that my wives must be hungry too. I know that they may not really want to quarrel but a hungry man they say is an angry man." Mr. Eze told me the situation had been going on for the past three years. When he told me how much money he owed just to make sure his family was fed, I was shocked. He told me about the kind of harassment he has received from creditors who sell on food stuff. He said that matters would get worse when he wanted to buy on credit and they refused. The worst part of his story were the health problems the children continually suffered as a result of malnutrition.  What he didn’t understand was that those who refused to help his family with money to feed well, were prepared to pay their hospital bills and buy drugs for the children when they were sick! He really didn’t understand it. Whenever he tried to focus on the children, the other responsibilities like house-rent, would come up. He didn’t want to talk about school because paying school fees meant that his family would not eat  for weeks. I am familiar with the story of the Mr. Ezes of this world. At school we have course mates that eat garri every single day and nothing else. Some steal other people’s food to survive. Others break-down before exams. Others break-down during exams. Some fall sick and get hospitalized. It is always a very pathetic situation to watch very intelligent students fall victim to hunger. Hunger has caused a lot of damage in our society. You can’t think right when you are hungry. You lack patience and tolerance when you are hungry. You can’t focus on anything when you are hungry. Hunger has caused a lot of broken homes, accidents and fights and hunger has wrecked a lot of potential and has even led to death. Message to Nigerian Government I hereby call on the Nigerian government to focus on the crisis of hunger. I suggest that jobs should be created and agriculture invested in so that we can grow more food. I also believe that hard work should be appreciated and rewarded.   ABOUT THE 17 STORIES PROJECT The 17 STORIES project is an SDG Action Campaign designed to engage and motivate children towards taking action for the SDGs through the literary art of storytelling. The 17 STORIES project is an initiative of the Nigeria Volunteers Network (NVN) led by Vincent Odigie. Founded in 2020, with a headquarters in Edo State, NVN aims to empower the Nigerian volunteer with necessary and up to date information, skills and resources towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.    

WINDHOEK – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is collaborating with Tololi Online (Pty) Ltd, an e-commerce platform to set up a virtual marketplace as part of efforts to improve market access and boost farmers’ income in Namibia. The virtual marketplace has so far connected over 100 smallholder farmers to local markets and will benefit several actors across the food value chain – from farmers to consumers. Farmers have been able to sell fresh produce such as vegetables, potatoes, green pepper, onions, maize, cabbages, beetroot, tomatoes, and pumpkins. “The platform will facilitate efficient offtake of produce to reduce post-harvest losses, minimise food waste and boost production and increase profits for farmers,” says George Fedha, WFP’s Country Director in Namibia. “WFP is committed to accelerating the attainment of zero hunger in Namibia.” WFP’s collaboration with Tololi aims to link more smallholder farmers to market through the virtual platform. Under the initiative, farmers also receive agriculture extension support including training, input support and equipment. “We at Tololi Online, are incredibly grateful and honoured to work with WFP to create innovative solutions for the global food system, in Namibia,” says Fillemon Nangolo, Tololi Team Lead. “By using our expertise in technology and innovation, we have been able to develop a solution that addresses some of the most pressing challenges facing the Namibian food systems, thereby enhancing agribusiness.” WFP has supported over 1,800 smallholder farmers countrywide with training, inputs, equipment, and infrastructure. In partnership with regional governments, WFP has since established over 30 integrated food systems projects across the country centred at schools, communities, correctional facilities, and health facilities to upscale food production.      

The United Nations describes its 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a call for action by all countries to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. I have written several books for young people. One of those books, Rosina Sedibane Modiba: A Dream Denied, is a young adult (YA) biography of a black female athlete who was the first to compete with white female athletes and set multiple records during apartheid. This biography was selected for the UN SDG Book Club Africa reading list in the SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) category. Through the stereotyping of gender roles, African girls, black and brown, are made aware from an early age, of their expected roles in society: at church, in the mosque, at school and even more so, at home. Even though it may seem like this topic is heavy for young readers, young girls in Africa have been the recipients of the most barbaric atrocities perpetrated against them, especially in conflict plagued countries and in societies that view the life of a girl child as having no greater value than that of servitude. And yet, the UN SDG 5 emphasises that gender equity is not only a fundamental human right, it is the necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. An African Icon Brings Hope to the Continent…But Does He? It was a hot Sunday of the 11th day of February in 1990. I was a junior in high school. The political climate was supercharged. We had heard that Nelson Mandela was getting out of jail, after 27 years of imprisonment by the apartheid government. Our then government of Bophuthatswana (present day North West Province), one of the Bantustans created by the apartheid government to divide black South Africans along ethnic lines, was doing everything in its power to suppress the citizens fired up by this exciting development. On 27th April 1994, a new democratic country for all was ultimately reborn, with the first black president, Nelson Mandela, at its helm. After this moment in South Africa, while some things changed for the better, one thing remained constant: violence against children, gender-based violence, and femicide, that is, the killing of women and young girls. As the UN states, even though there has been progress over the last decades, the world is still not on track to achieve gender equity by 2030. And don’t we all know that? The United Nations Women describes femicide as an intentional killing with a gender- related motivation. Unequal power relations between men and women and stereotyping of gender roles are some of the factors driving this. Living in the most unequal country in the world, (World Bank Report, 2022) black South African women bear the brunt of inequities. Each year when the South African Police Ministry unveils the annual crime statistics, it’s a given that femicide and gender based violence will be at the top. Usually the killing of women is interconnected with the killing of children. There have been reports of children being killed by their fathers or their mothers’ partners as a way to hurt the mothers, especially when they try to walk away from the partnership. From April to June 2022, the Police Ministry reported 855 women and 243 children killed in South Africa. This was over a period of two months! In 2016, when the World Health Organisation (WHO) listed countries affected the most by femicide, the statistics showed that South Africa had the fourth highest female interpersonal violence death rate out of the 183 countries listed. Femicide is five times higher in South Africa than the global average. Despite democracy, things remain the same for vulnerable women, girl children and children in general. The excitement of the moment and the promise of a new country did not wash away their plight. Covid-19 and its enforced lockdowns exacerbated the situation for women and children locked into homes with violent partners and fathers. Elsewhere across the continent, it may not be as dire as it is in South Africa, but intimate partner violence is active there too. Although poverty and inequality are some of the main factors driving femicide and gender-based violence, women who are well-off are not immune to this scourge. Agnes Tirop, a celebrated Kenyan Olympic medallist, was stabbed to death by her husband when she tried to leave the marriage. Damaris Muthee Mutua, another celebrated Kenyan long-distance runner, met the same fate: she was found dead at her boyfriend’s place. Who will ever forget the kidnaping of the Chibok girls? They were stolen from their boarding school in Borno State, North-East Nigeria, on the night of 14th -15th April, 2014. What is Freedom for Women and Girls and How Do We Achieve and Sustain It? What does freedom mean to women and girls in Africa and the globe if the harm they are taught to avoid in the streets finds them at home?  How can we change the narrative of our beloved continent? In Africa, the colonialists left behind them an endless trail of destruction and pain. With regard to gender relations, their legacy will be felt for generations. But there’s also so much to celebrate in Africa. With the world’s youngest population, it rests upon young Africans, male and female, to change the narrative of the women of Africa and to steer our continent in a new direction – one which will see its people thrive. In many parts of the world, even though most of the violence perpetrated against women is by current or former partners, under the pretext of law and order, systems of power are geared towards the abuse of women. Law enforcement, health care provision, financial institutions, educational institutions and the judiciary, are some of the institutions that unfairly mete out the most inhumane treatment to women and girl children. The harassment and killing of Mahsa Amini in Iran by an overzealous police force with unchecked power to police women’s bodies and rights, is a tragedy many women and girls are faced with in their daily lives. But the kind of self and quiet activism women and girls need to carry within themselves requires them to understand this: the injustices meted out against them are not the result of their own lack but the outcome of deficits and inadequacies in the souls of the perpetrators of injustice and violence against women and girls.   Sources: https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2022/04/why-study-aging-in-africa-region-with-worlds-youngest-population.html https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/ https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-bheki-cele-quarter-one-crime-statistics-20222023-19-aug-2022-0000#:~:text=From%20April%20to%20June   About the African Perspectives Series The African Perspective Series was launched at the 2022 Nigeria International Book Fair with the first set of commissioned papers written and presented by authors of the UN SDG Book Club African Chapter. The objective of African Perspectives is to have African authors contribute to the global conversation around development challenges afflicting the African continent and to publish these important papers in the SDG Book Club blog hosted in the Stories section of the UN Namibia site. In this way, our authors' ideas about the way forward for African development, can reach the widest possible interested audience.   Author Profile Lorato Trok is an early literacy consultant and expert in developing reading for pleasure books for young children, especially in African languages. She has 20 years' experience in publishing, writing, translation, editing and story development in children's literature. She is currently a Managing Editor at Puku Children's Literature Foundation. Lorato is a published author of 16 children's picture books and biographer of Young Adults non-fiction books, originated in both Setswana and English and translated into other South African languages. She is a two-time recipient (2017 and 2020) of the Association of Non-Fiction and Academic Authors of South Africa (ANFASA) writing grant, supported by the Norwegian Embassy to write a series of young adult biographies the first is of Rosina Sedibane Modiba, South Africa's first Black female athlete to compete against white athletes during the apartheid years and set multiple records. The second book in this series of unsung heroes is The Forgotten Scientist: The Story of Saul Sithole (Jacana Media, 2020). It is about the untold story of a pioneering black scientist who made a great contribution to the fields of anthropology and ornithology in South Africa. In 2005 Lorato was invited to help launch the "Reading Africa" programme at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C. Lorato Trok is the author of SDG Book Club Africa’s SDG 5 (gender equity) selection, Rosina Sedibane Modiba: A Dream Denied. Read the SDG Book Club Africa interview with Lorato Trok here: https://namibia.un.org/en/169798-sdg-book-club-interview-series-lorato-trok Read about Lorato Trok’s experience at the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival 2022 here: https://namibia.un.org/en/187466-sdg-book-club-african-chapters-lorato-trok-celebrates-children-desert