Changing Lives: Making Research Real

AFRICA: Better Data Key to Supporting Women Farmers

By Mantoe Phakathi
An accomplished farmer who won the coveted Woman Farmer of the Year Award in 2008, Thabile Dlamini-Gooday wants to uplift the standard of other women in agriculture. She believes that if women farmers were to work together they could fight hunger and significantly reduce poverty among themselves.
The department of social development wants to evaluate the positive effects of the country's child support grant. Credit: Evelyn Matsamura Kiapi

Q&A: National Study on Child Grant to Start

By Zukiswa Zimela
The department of social development hopes government will increase the child support grant based on the outcome of a rigorous nationwide study on the positive effects the grant has on South African society.
Cash transfers in Southern Africa have transformed the lives of the poor, who can now purchase food and grain for their families. Credit: Ntandoyenkosi Ncube

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Cash Transfers Transforming Lives of the Poor

By IPS Correspondents
When Letesia Mbewe was nominated as a beneficiary in a cash transfer pilot project in Zambia’s Chipata district, she had no idea the project would change her life and that of her three children.
Many South African teenagers are exposed to behaviour detrimental to their health. Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS

SOUTH AFRICA: Teenagers’ Health at Tremendous Risk

By Kristin Palitza
"I sometimes drink alcohol because it makes things funny," 15-year-old Senelo* giggles shyly. "I go to unlicensed taverns. They sell alcohol without asking questions."
Dr. Gilbert Ouma with a cross section of a Shibelenge tree traditionally used in rainfall prediction. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

KENYA: Successful Weather Prediction Uses Old and New

By Isaiah Esipisu
In the wake of ever-changing climatic conditions, a study in western Kenya has discovered that combining traditional methods of weather prediction with meteorological forecasting is the best way of obtaining more accurate forecast data.
Dr Alan Bernstein believes that a HIV prevention vaccine will be found. Credit: Safeeyah Kharsany/IPS

Q&A: The State of HIV Prevention Vaccines

By Safeeyah Kharsany
An HIV vaccine is possible if the world works together as a global community with the objective of finding one, but it will take some years to develop.
Agnes Mbuvi amidst the napier grass in her harvested maize plot. Credit: Keya Acharya/IPS

AGRICULTURE: Affordable Solution to Costly Pests

By Keya Acharya
The International Centre for Plant Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE), based at Mbita, on the Kenyan shores of the world’s second-largest freshwater body, is advocating "push-pull cultivation" as the answer to feeding future generations in Africa.
Farmers trade advice with each other - and the world - from the internet centre in Wainha. Credit: Joshua Kyalimpa/IPS

UGANDA: Information Technology Helps Farmers

By Joshua Kyalimpa
Mayuge district has 31,000 farming families served by just nine agricultural extension workers. In Wainha village, an internet centre run by the Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative is more than filling the gap in assisting farmers.
Dr Chimwamurombe (right) and a local farmer lift a marama tuber: they can weigh as much as 10 kilos. Credit: Moses Magadza/IPS

AGRICULTURE-NAMIBIA: Turning to Wild Bean for Protein

By Moses Magadza
Obed Kamburona has tried to grow many different crops on his large farm, but the dry sandy soil in Otjovanatje has thwarted him every time.
In September, ten people died - twenty more were hospitalised - after eating beans contaminated by farmers in an attempt to protect them from pests in storage. Credit: Wikicommons

AGRICULTURE-NIGERIA: Bagging Beans Against Beetles

By Salma Ahmad-Kano
Cowpeas are of vital importance to the diets and livelihood of millions of people in West and Central Africa. But the crop is notoriously difficult to store - beetles and other pests can destroy an entire granary full of cowpeas within 12 months.
Sanaa Botros: 'I believe we women have to push a lot further to ensure our roles still increase.' Credit:

Q&A: Harmonise the Efforts of African Scientists

By Omer Redi
As many as 100 million people in Africa suffer from schistosomiasis, a chronic illness caused by a parasite associated with freshwater snails. The schistosoma flatworm causes a debilitating illness that can damage internal organs, and stunt growth and cognitive development of children.
'We must maintain agricultural activity because the poorest rely on agriculture - everything else comes later.' - Simon Cook Credit: Amy Sullivan/FANRPAN

WATER-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Research Not Trickling Down To Farmers

By IPS Correspondents
Farmers could be losing tonnes of crops every harvest just because no one has bothered to tell them that scientists have found more effective methods of using water to farm.
Sum Gino at his market stall:

HEALTH-SAO TOME: The Forest is the Pharmacy

By Mercedes Sayagues
If you live in São Tomé, a good investment in your health is to plant a po-sabom tree (Dracaena aroborea) in your backyard. Leave space: it can grow up to 20 metres high, with sword-shaped leaves.
Processing shea butter in Ghana: women in the region are building on traditional knowledge to improve production. Credit: Kenneth S. Yussif

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Women in Pursuit of Knowledge

By Koffigan E. Adigbli
While Africa is still far from having adequate capacity for scientific innovation, women are more and more present in the field of research for the continent's sustainable development.
Mvuselelo

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Returning Sick – HIV, Illness, Death and Migration

By Siyabonga Kalipa and Brenda Nkuna
It's a Wednesday afternoon at the Joe Gqabi bus terminus in Philippi, Cape Town, and ticket touts scramble to recruit passengers wanting to travel to the rural Eastern Cape, a 1,000 kilometre, 16-hour haul away.

DEVELOPMENT: World’s Poor Offer Lessons in Bank Study

By IPS Correspondents
To be successful, poverty-reducing programmes must be informed by the lives and experiences of the millions of poor people around the world and emphasise economic opportunity, says a study released Wednesday by the World Bank.
Inshore catches are dwindling, putting the survival of fishing communities at risk. Credit: Patrick Burnett/IPS-WCN

ENVIRONMENT: Climate Change Threatens Livelihoods Along Africa's Coast

By Miriam Mannak
Environmental experts warn that climate change will lead to oceanic acidification and increase surface water temperatures, especially around the African continent.
T-shirt designer Eric Bidwell fights the power. Credit: Enrique Gili/IPS

TECHNOLOGY: Fab Labs Channel Your Inner Scientist

By Enrique Gili
Inside the confines of a modest 275-square-metre office space in this southern California city, the human imagination is running wild.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Who Is To Blame for the Crisis?

By Kristin Palitza
Health systems on the continent are riddled with inadequate policies, strategies, lack of institutional capacity, poor scientific review mechanisms and weak funding for research in the public and private sector, said Luis Sambo, regional director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Africa.

KENYA: Failing Grade For Free Primary Education?

By Najum Mushtaq
When in 2003 Kenya followed its neighbours Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi in introducing free and compulsory primary education for all, the response from the public as well as international donors was overwhelming.

RIGHTS-EGYPT: New Family Laws: A Success Story?

By IPS Correspondents
It was a love story of sorts and one that led to marriage. But 18 months later Nayrouz filed for divorce, making her part of a growing number of Egyptian women who are leaving their marriages. One in three marriages in this highly traditional and predominantly Muslim society fails within its first year, according to government figures.
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