Regional Bureau for West & Central Africa Education Newsletter, April 2022

The International Day of Sport for Development and Peace (IDSDP), which takes place annually on April 6th, presents an opportunity to recognize the positive role sport and physical activity play in communities and in people’s lives across the globe.

Sport has the power to change the world; it is a fundamental right and a powerful tool to strengthen social ties and promote sustainable development and peace, as well as solidarity and respect for all. In recognition of sport’s broad influence, the global theme of IDSDP 2022 was “Securing a Sustainable and Peaceful Future for All: The Contribution of Sport”, which creates an opportunity for the Day’s celebrations to promote the use of sport as a tool to advance human rights and sustainable development.

Sport in refugee settings is a powerful tool to improve protection and development outcomes for displaced young people and their communities.

The Global Compact on Refugees recognizes the important role that sports can play in social development, inclusion, cohesion, and well-being, particularly for refugee children (both boys and girls), adolescents and youth.

An integrated approach to education and protection should consider sport as a key means of improving social cohesion and psychosocial well-being for all children and youth, both in and out of school. Sport can also contribute directly to increasing school enrolment and retention rates, as well as improving gender equality and preventing sexual and gender-based violence.

Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

SADC to hold a joint meeting of ministers responsible for agriculture and food security, fisheries and aquaculture

Gaborone, Botswana: The Southern African Development Community (SADC) will on 13th May, 2022 hold a Joint Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Agriculture and Food Security, Fisheries and Aquaculture in Lilongwe, Republic of Malawi.

The objective of the meeting is to follow up on the decisions of SADC Summit, Council of Ministers and the Sectoral Committee of Ministers responsible for Agriculture and Food Security, Fisheries and Aquaculture. The meeting will specifically review the food security situation following challenges experienced by the region with regards to excess rains that caused flooding in some parts, cyclones and drought in others; outbreaks of transboundary animal and plant pests and diseases; and developments in the fisheries and aquaculture sector.

The meeting will review the implementation of the Regional Agricultural Policy (RAP) and its related programmes including food security, livestock, crops and fisheries and aquaculture; as well as review programmes of work of the SADC Plant Genetics Resources Centre (SPGRC) and Centre for Coordination of Agriculture Research and Development in Southern Africa (CCARDESA).

Ministers will also deliberate on programmes of regional dimension in support of the implementation of the Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP) 2020-2030 and the SADC Vision 2050 particularly programmes for the development of Agriculture and Food Security, Fisheries and Aquaculture sectors.

The Joint Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Agriculture and Food Security, Fisheries and Aquaculture, will be preceded by the meeting of the SADC Senior Officials responsible for Agriculture and Food Security, Fisheries and Aquaculture to be held from 10 – 12 May 2022.

Source: Southern African Development Community

Reuters Partners with The Globe and Mail’s Sophi.io Automation Platform

TORONTO, May 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Sophi.io, an AI-powered automation, optimization and prediction platform developed by The Globe and Mail, is now working with Reuters – the news and media division of Thomson Reuters – as it continues to invest in the latest AI solutions for its newsroom. Sophi is helping to automate content curation on select sections on Reuters.com, which was relaunched in April 2021.

Sophi Site Automation is an AI system that autonomously curates digital content to find and promote an organization’s most engaging content. Sophi looks at all content as it’s published, and all traffic, to find the hidden gems that an organization’s customers value the most.

In order to automate content curation, Sophi’s algorithm has been learning from Reuters editors. The newsroom has been able to work with some of the latest AI solutions, which has resulted in giving time back to editors to focus on finding the next story and creating the journalism that makes Reuters such a trusted brand.

Josh London, Head of Reuters Professional and Chief Marketing Officer of Reuters, said: “Sophi’s cutting-edge AI platform is one of the next steps in the evolution of our digital properties. Sophi will help us further our mission of bringing AI-based technology and tools to more corners of the workforce, whilst helping to bring our readers the stories they both want and need to know.”

Michael Young, Chief Technology Officer for Reuters, said: “Our partnership with Sophi.io is another example of how a newsroom like ours can successfully deploy some of the latest AI solutions for effective content discovery. Our team worked closely with the Sophi team to ensure our Sophi Score reflected our business goals and we are pleased with the resulting site automation.”

Mike O’Neill, Co-Founder and CEO of Sophi.io, added “We are delighted to have Reuters as a customer. They put their trust in Sophi and we are excited to automate curation across all of their article pages to start and expand the relationship to include more solutions down the road.”

“It’s wonderful to work with Reuters in this capacity,” said Phillip Crawley, Publisher and CEO of The Globe and Mail. “They have a strong mission and Sophi.io is helping them continue to demonstrate how editorial integrity can be supported by AI.”

About Reuters
Reuters is the world’s leading provider of trusted news, insight and analysis, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Founded in 1851, it brings together world-class journalism, industry expertise and cutting-edge technology with unparalleled speed, reliability and accuracy to enable people to make better decisions. Reuters is committed to the Trust Principles of independence, integrity and freedom from bias, and is the essential source of business, financial and world news delivered to financial professionals exclusively via Refinitiv services, and to the world’s media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.

About Sophi.io
Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI and ML-powered automation, optimization and prediction solutions that include Sophi Site Automation, Sophi for Paywalls and Sophi for First Party Data. Sophi also powers one-click automated laydown of template-free print publishing. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.

Contact us
Kayley Rogers
Communications Manager
Reuters
Kayley.rogers@thomsonreuters.com

Jamie Rubenovitch
Head of Marketing, Sophi.io
The Globe and Mail        
jrubenovitch@globeandmail.com
416-585-3355

Business of Football: A.J. Brown Trade Symbolizes the Story of the Offseason

Published by
Sports Illustrated

By Andrew Brandt The Eagles’ trade for Brown shows how much front offices have changed their valuation of wide receivers. Plus, business of European soccer vs. the NFL. Before getting to the business of football, a thought after doing a couple of speaking engagements last week to groups who know football mostly as fútbol. American vs. European ModelI spoke to a couple of groups from UEFA, both front office executives for soccer clubs and former players, including the world-famous Kaká (quite a good student). As I prepared for my talks comparing the American sports system and the European lands… Continue reading “Business of Football: A.J. Brown Trade Symbolizes the Story of the Offseason”

It’s Never Too Late to Live Out Your College Football Dreams

Published by
Sports Illustrated

By Lia Assimakopoulos Just ask these athletes, who took winding roads to accomplish the feat in their 30s, 40s, 50s and even 60s. When Zach Von Rosenberg was selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates out of high school in the sixth round of the 2009 MLB draft, his childhood dreams finally came true. He spent one season in rookie ball, four in Low A and one in High A—all in the Pirates’ system—but after six years in the minors, he began to feel like there was an expiration date on those dreams. “I had been battling injuries, and it just didn’t pan out,” Von Rosenberg says. “A lot of guys battle injuri… Continue reading “It’s Never Too Late to Live Out Your College Football Dreams”

Taconic Biosciences Appoints Nomura Siam as Distributor in India for All Taconic Animal Models

Improves Access to Critical Rodent Models for Researchers in India

RENSSELAER, N.Y., May 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Taconic Biosciences, a global leader in providing drug discovery animal model solutions, has appointed Nomura Siam International Co., Ltd (NSI), an established distributor of laboratory animals and related products, as its preferred distributor in India.

India makes a significant contribution to global pharmaceutical and vaccine production, and its pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development is expected to grow over the next decade. To support this growth, scientists in India need advanced mouse and rat models for pharmacology studies and toxicology and drug safety assessment. Research across all therapeutic areas requires genetically engineered models (GEMs). Additionally, mice with humanized immune systems are critical for immuno-oncology and other applications.

Taconic’s portfolio comprises nearly 4,700 mouse and rat models, including widely used standard strains, immunodeficient models, and exclusive GEMs. Taconic is also a global leader in humanized immune system mouse generation. Taconic’s industry-leading quality systems, genetic integrity, and globally harmonized animal health standards promote research reproducibility while its flexible approach to licensing reduces barriers to accessing valuable GEMs.

Based in Thailand, NSI is known for its focus on quality and customer service. The company’s new agreement with Taconic significantly increases preclinical researchers’ access to GEMs in India and allows NSI to offer this market a full spectrum of solutions.

“To date, rodent model selection and availability has been somewhat limited in India. We believe this partnership will provide India’s growing pharmaceutical industry access to the most sophisticated and high-quality animal models available globally,” said Dr. Michael Seiler, vice president of commercial products at Taconic. “We truly believe this partnership will support Taconic’s desire to accelerate new life-saving therapeutics for the global community.”

“Taconic’s portfolio of sophisticated mouse models fills a major gap in the Indian market,” said Taiichiro Kamiya, president of NSI. “By our frequent information sharing, and the improvement of logistic process, we will provide faster and easier access to GEMs for Indian users.”

To learn more about Taconic’s full line of animal model solutions, please call 1-888-TACONIC (888-822-6642) in the US, +45 70 23 04 05 in Europe, or email info@taconic.com.

About Taconic Biosciences, Inc.

Taconic Biosciences is a fully licensed, global leader in genetically engineered rodent models and services. Founded in 1952, Taconic provides the best animal solutions so that customers can acquire, custom-generate, breed, precondition, test, and distribute valuable research models worldwide. Specialists in genetically engineered mouse and rat models, microbiome, immuno-oncology mouse models, and integrated model design and breeding services, Taconic operates service laboratories and breeding facilities in the US and Europe, maintains distributor relationships in Asia, and has global shipping capabilities to provide animal models almost anywhere in the world.

About Nomura Siam International Co. Ltd. (NSI)

Nomura Siam International Co. Ltd., based in Bangkok, Thailand, was jointly established in 2012 by CLEA Japan, Inc. and Nomura Jimusho, Inc. as a comprehensive provider for the laboratory animal field. As a one-stop service supplier, NSI not only sells laboratory animals but also handles a wide range of related products, including equipment for breeding, conducting experiments, and environmental enrichment, as well as consulting services for preclinical research and laboratory animal facility design.

Media Contact:

Aidan Bouchelle
Associate Director, Marketing Operations
518-949-7598
Aidan.Bouchelle@taconic.com