Driving Against Gender Stereotypes

It is swerves and roundabouts for Keddy Olanya, a 32-year-old wife and mother of three from Gulu, northern Uganda, who is one of only a handful of female drivers negotiating the country’s potholed roads on a bodaboda or motorbike taxi. 

From Slum Girl to World Chess Prodigy

Phiona Mutesi was a muddy, desperate nine-year-old foraging for food in Uganda’s biggest slum, Katwe, when she discovered, through her older brother Brian, a chess programme.

Civil Society Under Attack Around the World

In December 2011, 159 governments and major international organisations recognised the central role of civil society in development and promised to create an “enabling” operating environment for the non-profit sector.

Monetising Human Waste and 101 (Slightly) Crazy Other Ideas

One, two or more of the 102 newly launched out-of-the box ideas to improve global health could be world-changing breakthroughs.

‘Born in War, Grown up in War, Now Time for Rehabilitation’

Sungu Mizele, a Congolese national living in Yambio, in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state, earns a living selling the fruit and vegetables that she grows in her backyard, at the local town market. On average, she earns nine dollars a day. But on a good day, when she has fresh supplies, she can earn up to 31 dollars.

Africa – Rising Investments, Rising Middle Class

Rising investments in Africa's service sector, the unlocking of its vast natural resources and the sound economic policies pursued by African countries in the last two decades are spurring the rise of the continent's middle class at a faster rate than population growth.

Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” Bill Spreads Fear

Gay activist Gerald Ssentongo of Uganda is afraid to talk openly about his cause. Not only that, but he is terrified of being “caught” socialising with gay people and only meets his friends at night in out-of-reach places.

How African Men are Changing Traditional Beliefs

Charles Kayongo of Uganda is a father of two girls aged five and three. And even though age-old traditions among his ethnic group, the Baganda, say a man should have an unlimited number of children and a son as an heir, Kayongo refuses to have more children.

No Contraceptives Means More Illegal Abortions in Uganda

Every day at least five women are brought to the gynaecological ward of Uganda’s Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala for treatment for complications caused by crude attempts to terminate their pregnancies.

Conservationists Call for Ugandans to Stop Eating Chimps

Conservationists struggling to protect the remaining population of Ugandan chimpanzees have raised concerns that people around wildlife reserves in the west of the country have taken to eating the primates.

Nile Powers Uganda Slowly

Uganda is facing the unwelcome possibility of increased costs for building a projected 600-megawatt hydropower plant at the Karuma Falls, on the Victoria Nile, owing to construction delays.

Untreated Mental Illness the Invisible Fallout of War and Poverty

About 50 percent of Afghanis over 15 years of age suffer from mental health problems - depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder. In northern Uganda, nearly every family suffered during the vicious 20-year rebellion during which thousands of children were kidnapped and turned into child soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army.

Coffee Time in Uganda

Uganda, Africa's biggest coffee exporter, is racing against time to boost its production of the crop by 60,000 tonnes, or one million 60-kilogramme bags, within the next three years. But some industry players believe that the feat is unattainable.

Keeping Girls in School in Uganda

Three years ago, after Irene Kamyuka finished her sixth year of primary school in Uganda, her father ran short of money. With four siblings ahead of her in school, Kamyuka’s father told her she would have to drop out until his finances turned around.