SADC

Finding Ways to Feed South Africa’s Vast Hungry Population

In the deep rural village of Jekezi in South Africa's Eastern Cape, most young and able-bodied people have fled the area, leaving behind people with disabilities, the elderly, and children.

Clean Water, Decent Toilets, Hygiene Challenge for Southern African Community

The toilets in the maternity wing of Namatapa Health Centre in the populous Bangwe Township in Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial city, fell into disrepair a few years ago. So, pregnant women who come to deliver their babies and their guardians use two pit latrines.

COP26 Could Get Hot, but Southern African Region Needs it to be Cool and Committed

COP26 is almost upon us, and dire warnings abound that it’s boom or bust for a greener future. Meanwhile, everybody boasts about what they will do to cool down our planet, but there is a disjuncture between talk and action. Even Queen Elizabeth II of the host country, the United Kingdom, has grumbled publicly that not enough action is taking place on climate change.

Will the World’s Largest Single Market Transform Africa Fortunes?

Getting just a sliver of the global trade in goods and services worth more than 70 trillion dollars, Africans have every excuse to decide to trade among themselves.

Southern Africa Must Unite to Boost Tourism

Competing players in the tourism industry in southern Africa are putting aside their rivalry in pursuit of a common goal – a big boost in tourist numbers to the region.

Water Knows No Border Between Angola and Namibia

A transboundary initiative aimed at providing clean drinking water and proper sanitation between Angola and Namibia is making steady progress.

Malawi Turns to Mozambique for Power

On-again, off-again… it's the story of both Malawi's power supply and the interconnection project that could end blackouts with power imported from neighbouring Mozambique.

Sharing Southern Africa’s Water

The Southern African Development Community's protocol on shared watercourses is recognised as one of the world's best. But sound agreements on the sustainable and equitable management of joint water resources require effective means to implement them.

Mercy Kamphoni is able to send all her children to school and provide for her family’s needs – thanks to paprika. / Claire Ngozo/IPS

Paprika – Spicing Up Malawi’s Economy

As she sits down to watch the 8pm news on TV, Mercy Kamphoni from Chamtulo Village in Malawi’s Mangochi lake district looks elated. She still cannot believe that she is the new proud owner of a television set, refrigerator and radio.

Female subsistence farmers, who form more than 70 percent of farmers on the continent, remain clueless about climate change issues.  Credit: Busani Bafana

Nothing to Show for Hard Work but Burnt Fields of Maize

Gertrude Mkoloi earns a living harvesting maize on a small piece of land in rural Zimbabwe. Or at least she used to.

Malawi

MALAWI: Women’s Education the Path to the Presidency

On an elegant veranda adorned with a red carpet, Malawi's Vice President Joyce Banda recalls how her childhood friend Chrissie Mtokoma was always top of their class and how she struggled to beat her. But now decades later Banda is a likely contender for the country's presidency in 2014, while Mtokoma lives in poverty.

CLIMATE CHANGE: City Apartheid Built Turns Green

Something unusual is happening in Atlantis. Created in the 1970s to fulfill the apartheid government's agenda to evict "coloured" South Africans from Cape Town, Atlantis has always been best known as the city that apartheid built.

SOUTH AFRICA: Climate Change Affecting Fisherwomen’s Livelihoods

Having observed changes in the sea and the life cycles of the rock lobsters that their livelihoods depend on, a group of fisherwomen from the Western Cape, South Africa are calling on government to adjust fishing seasons to adapt to what they claim are climate change-related alterations.

Almost nobody believes that a second, comprehensive commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol is still possible. Credit: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

Kyoto Protocol – Hopes for Tangible Results Remain Slim

The last hours of the 17th United Nations climate change summit in Durban have begun. Since the arrival of almost 150 ministers and heads of state on Tuesday, negotiations have moved to the political level. They are expected to debate the way forward until late Friday night, or even Saturday morning.

 Reducing carbon emissions will not result in limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius.  Credit: Zukiswa Zimela

Failure to Bridge the “Emissions Gap” Brings Economic Crisis

Countries at the United Nations climate change negotiations have publicly acknowledged their current pledges to reduce carbon emissions will not result in limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius.

U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said there is a pool of possible financing options for the Green Climate Fund. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

Carbon Pricing to Save Green Climate Fund

Carbon pricing will be the core mechanism to finance the Green Climate Fund and with it climate change adaptation projects in developing countries.

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres (l) and COP 17 President Maite Mkoana- Mashabane (r) spoke at the opening of the high-level talks.  Credit: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

CLIMATE CHANGE: Comprehensive Agreement Beyond Reach

The goal of a comprehensive and binding agreement may be beyond the reach of the 17th United Nations climate change negotiations, says the organisation's secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

Immediate funding for adaptation and mitigation will help countries to confront climate change.  Credit: Tinus de Jager/IPS

CLIMATE CHANGE: Kyoto Protocol on Life Support

The United States has become the major stumbling block to progress at the mid point of negotiations over a new international climate regime say civil society and many of the 193 nations attending the United Nations climate change conference here in Durban.

Solar geysers are just one requirement for "green" accommodation.  Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

South Africa Moves Towards Low Carbon Footprint Travel

Counting on responsible travellers who increasingly seek environmentally friendly alternatives for their holidays, South Africa's tourism sector wants to conserve its biggest asset – nature – while fighting climate change at the same time.

Access to water is an urgent issue here in the Southern Africa region. Credit: Mantoe Phakathi/IPS

Growing Calls for Water to be Prioritised

Efforts to establish water as an agenda item in its own right in climate change negotiations are gaining momentum in Durban, South Africa. Water experts say doing this will lead to a greater focus on developing policy, and attract more resources into the water sector through adaptation programmes.

Emerging economies face developmental challenges but are also significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.  Credit: Zukiswa Zimela/IPS

TRADE: Small Steps towards Emission Reduction Deal

Emerging economies China, South Africa and Brazil have indicated their openness to legally-binding carbon emission reduction targets from 2020 during the United Nations climate change summit in Durban, South Africa.

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