WATER-NAMIBIA: Policy to Create a Water Scarcity?

Several 20 litre buckets of water are crammed inside the small enclosure around the only tap in Epingiro, a small gathering of kraals in the Kavango woodlands in northern Namibia.

BOTSWANA: Media Laws Stir Dissent Within Ruling Party

There is growing dissent in the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) over laws that enable the government to regulate the media. Member of parliament, Keletso Rakhudu, broke ranks with his party by publicly criticising the Media Practitioner’s Act as an "assault" on the "fundamentals" and "undermining" free and independent media. He claims a number of his colleagues shared his dismay but were fearful of speaking out.

UGANDA: In Search of Peace and Justice

Alice Anywar lives in the Pagak resettlement camp in Gulu and at 39 is a multiple victim of the over 20 year-old Lords Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in northern Uganda. The rebels first attacked her home in Kilak village in 1987 killing both her parents and abducting her 12-year old brother. In 2002 they murdered her husband whom she had met in a refugee camp.

BOTSWANA: High Profile Trial Could Open Can of Worms

The high profile trial of former Debswana Managing Director, Louis Goodwill Nchindo, could open a can of worms about the shady activities of senior government officials in Botswana, officially Africa's least corrupt country.

POLITICS: Two Kenyas, Two Dreams: Which Do We Want?

Kenya's civil society has rebuffed efforts by its embattled government to restore its tattered image in the wake of waning public confidence in the state. Their major grievance is that the country's problems, including high level graft, are the result of a culture of impunity that has engulfed the nation's top officials and politicians.

Q&A: How to Break the Cycle of ‘‘Endless Philanthropy''

Dr Ramon E Daubon not only believes in democratising development but takes umbrage at the ‘‘cult of tangible results'' in development assistance.

ZAMBIA: Corruption in Water Sector Makes Clean Water A Pipedream

In his address to the National Assembly on Jan. 30, Zambia's finance and national planning minister, Situmbeko Musokotwene, allocated additional resources to the water sector, with the specific aim of preventing the spread of waterborne diseases. But Zambians have heard such promises before.

POLITICS-SOUTH AFRICA: ‘Media Must Adopt Its Own Agenda’

Electioneering in South Africa is in full swing. Party posters emblazon lampposts and the media has been lapping up the weekly rallies and manifesto launches as parties set out to woo voters. As in previous elections, the focus has been on party political events.

ECONOMY-SOUTH AFRICA: 'We Need Interventions'

The markets will be hanging on Trevor Manuel's every word when South Africa's minister of finance delivers his thirteenth Budget Speech on February 11. Expectation is even greater among poor communities, the unemployed and workers as the world's longest serving finance minister signals his government's economic plans in the face of the global economic crisis.


POVERTY: Cash Transfers Transform Lives of Malawi’s Poor

Malawi has taken major strides towards reducing poverty and hunger in the country. Government’s cash transfer scheme has managed to reach many of those usually unable to access grants due to lengthy and complicated bureaucratic processes and assessments.

ZAMBIA-POLITICS: Grumbling Over Constitutional Review

Two years into its work, the Zambia's National Constitutional Conference (NCC) is finding it difficult to get wide public acceptance.

MEDIA-SOUTH AFRICA: Battle Over Future of Public Broadcaster

A powerful coalition of civic organisations is calling for a complete overhaul of the legal framework of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to force it to fulfil its public broadcasting mandate.

EDUCATION-ZAMBIA: Communities Doing it For Themselves

"My mother has no job and she cannot afford the cost of educating me and my sister at the government school," says 12-year-old Muyunda Nyamba. But the little boy is one of 37,000 children from Zambia's poorest neighbourhoods beginning the new school year calendar at community-run schools.

EAST AFRICA: Increasing Women's Participation in Government

Kenya’s poor record of improving percentage of women in decision making positions has come under scrutiny, but its neighbours are doing significantly better.

Q&A: World Social Forum is Not a Static Platform

Onyango Oloo was the national coordinator of the Kenyan Social Forum in 2007 when the last global World Social Forum (WSF)took place in Nairobi. As another gathering of activists from around the world unfolds in Belém, Brazil, IPS asked Oloo for his views on the Forum's past and future.

MAURITIUS-RIGHTS: Sceptical Welcome for Equality Law

Nobody shall suffer prejudice in his social life or his place of work because of his or her ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, political conviction or physical handicap. This is the challenge of Mauritius's new Equal Opportunities Act (EOA).

RIGHTS-ETHIOPIA: Strangling Criticism

The Ethiopian parliament has voted into law a controversial bill which bars any civil society organisation receiving more than 10 percent of its funding from foreign sources from engaging in human rights issues.

RIGHTS-ZAMBIA: Vulnerable Children Must Fend For Themselves

There will be as many as one and a half million orphaned children in Zambia by 2010. Deprived of adult guardians by the AIDS pandemic, many of these children will end up living in the streets of the country's major towns and cities.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Extending Constitutional Justice

Jurisprudence in Africa has improved a lot since the early 1990s, but a lot of work still has to be done to improve justice structures across the continent.

Q&A: Unlocking the Power of Constitutional Rights

South Africa's constitution is often celebrated for its protection of social and economic rights; but how readily can this protection be invoked by the most vulnerable?

ZAMBIA: Corruption: Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

Zambia's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) received more than 2,000 corruption complaints from the public for 2008, the ACC yearly report states.