Tunis: British Ambassador to Tunisia Helen Winterton said on Tuesday her country supports Tunisia's efforts to develop its educational programmes, especially through capacity-building in English and soft skills in educational institutions. The United Kingdom aims to broaden the scope of its partnership programme over the next period to include second chance schools and vocational training centres, the ambassador said as she met Tuesday with Employment and Vocational Training Ministier Lotfi Dhieb. This in addition to supporting economic empowerment programmes, mainly through partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB), The meeting helped follow up partnership programmes in employment and vocational training, reads a ministry press release. Dhieb commended partnership with the UK in all fields. He also outlined the ministry's priorities, mainly an improved employability of jobseekers among higher education and vocational training graduates. In this respect, he emphasised the importance of scaling up partnership in private entrepreneurship and support of young promoters. There is also need to increase the attractiveness of vocational training so as to attract as many drop-outs as possible and build their capacities so that they can easily integrate the national or international job market. The creation of the second chance school in the governorate of Kairouan under a partnership between Tunisia, the UK and the UNICEF, is a qualitative leap aimed to reintegrating early school drop-outs into the training system, the minister added. It is highly important to beef up language and soft skills capacities of jobseekers and coordinate action in this area, Dhieb further said. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse Addis Ababa: Addis Sustainable and scientific environmental and natural resource protection works should be consolidated in order to ensure food security in Ethiopia, the environmental activist and expert Mengistu Wube noted. The environmental activist Mengistu Wube is a researcher and lecturer who has been publishing books and studies on food security. In an exclusive interview with ENA, he pointed out that Ethiopia has resources that could feed the region by exploiting its multi-ecological and bio-diversity potentials. In this respect, Mengistu said the Green Legacy Initiative (GLI) that Ethiopia has been implementing over the past years is of immense significance. For him, the initiative is a pragmatic response and has become imperative in ensuring soil security and water conservation. According to him, environmental conservation should be widely taught in schools beginning kindergarten and the role of institutions that are bases for indigenous knowledge must be consolidated. The activist noted that land protection and use policy are crucial for sustainable natural resource conservation, adding that soil and water conservation activities play a major role in ensuring food security. Man's cruelty to natural resources has created many crises on himself, the activist stressed. In addition to the effort to reverse the looming danger of climate change on food security, Mengistu underlined that pursuing a strategy that can withstand the unprecedented impacts of the change is critical. In this regard, the special attention given to wheat production and bounty of the basket (Ye Lemat Tirufat) programs by the government have lots of hope, the activist said. The Green Legacy Initiative (GLI) has so far planted over 25 billion tree seedlings. Source: Ethiopian News Agency