Expand choices for Women, Prevent New HIV Infections in Africa

In Uganda, women and girls are more affected by HIV. Out of 1.4 million people living with the disease, 860 000 are women and girls. According to UNAIDS, every week, 4,000 adolescent girls and young women aged 15–24 years became infected with HIV globally in 2023, with 3,100 of these infections occurring in sub-Saharan Africa.

Free Cesarean Sections in Nigeria: Can This Policy Truly Deliver?

In Nigeria, over 80,000 women die each year from pregnancy and childbirth complications. Recently, Nigeria’s coordinating minister of health and social welfare, Muhammad Pate, announced the Maternal Mortality Reduction Initiative. It aims to provide free cesarean section (CS) and essential maternal care to poor women nationwide, ensuring safer childbirth and improved maternal health outcomes. Free CS is a life-saving solution. But while the idea is great, let’s take a closer look to unpack how it can really help Nigerian women.

Sudan Ravaged By Disease, Famine, and War

As living conditions in Sudan deteriorate as a result of the Sudanese Civil War, levels of famine and violations of international humanitarian law continue to accelerate among the roughly 11.5 million displaced persons. Conflict between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have severely hampered aid efforts, leaving millions of civilians to deal with widespread disease and an overall lack of essential resources.

Insights From Negotiator into How COPs Move Needle Towards Healthy, Liveable Planet

Every year, the Conference of the Parties creates a global milestone for the climate movement, setting new standards and advancing action towards a net-zero planet to sustain all life on earth. COPs provide a platform for the global community to agree on what it would take to restore planet Earth and the contributions that all signatories to the Paris Agreement should make.

Finding Your Match: Partnership-Building for African Non-Profits

It is an already established truth that building partnerships is one of the single most effective ways for African non-profits to attract funding and deepen their impact. So, as an addendum to this article by Tafadzwa and I, here is a guide to finding your match.

Healing Minds, Empowering Women: Ghana’s Climate Change Battle

As climate change wreaks havoc across the globe, its effects are most acutely felt by those living in vulnerable coastal and rural communities.

Embedding Education into Climate Finance Will Deliver Desired Learning, Climate Action Outcomes

Education is under threat as multiple crises push children out of school and into harms way. COP29 Baku could break historical barriers that hold back education from playing a unique, critical role to accelerate the ambition of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement, protecting people and planet from life-threatening risks of climate change.

Don’t Lock Us Out of Negotiating Table—Indigenous Communities

Delegates representing Indigenous people’s rights have taken issue with the ongoing COP29 negotiations, calling for Parties to include text and language that promote Indigenous rights to be explicitly referenced in the consensus and outcome documents.

Definitely Not on Track to save Life on Planet

Alongside climate finance, COP29 currently being held in Baku, Azerbaijan, was expected to serve as an important platform for nations to demonstrate their intention to submit stronger national climate commitments, strengthen adaptation efforts, and show tangible progress and action on previous pledges.

Money Talks: Why COP29 New Collective Quantified Goal on Climate Finance Matters

The industrial revolution set the ball rolling towards global warming. Today, developing nations are on the frontlines of a climatic carnage and its snowballing effects. Developed nations bear a financial responsibility to provide climate finance to developing nations, as financing the transition to a low-carbon economy is an urgent, critical matter.

The Soil Mechanic: A Farmer’s Tale to Save Soil and Lives

In the heart of southern India lies an inspiring tale of determination, resilience, and an unyielding commitment to sustainable farming. This is the story of Anand Ethirajalu, who turned his childhood curiosity about food adulteration into a life mission to transform agriculture and protect human lives.

‘The International Community Must Stop Turning a Blind Eye to the Suffering of Sudanese Women’

 
CIVICUS discusses Sudan’s civil war and its impact on women with Sulaima Elkhalifa, a Sudanese human rights defender and expert on gender-based violence.

Breakthroughs, Setbacks in COP29’s First Week of Ambitious Pursuit of Climate Consensus

It has been a high-profile packed agenda in Baku, Azerbaijan, marked by milestone events designed to complete the first enhanced transparency framework and the new collective quantified goal on finance, among other top priority matters.

Climate Finance Loans a Disaster for Climate-Burdened African Communities

African environmental activists at the ongoing climate summit (COP29) in Baku have called on climate financiers to stop suffocating poor countries with unbearable loans in the name of financing climate adaptation and mitigation on the continent.

Africa’s Demands: Continent’s COP29 Irreducible Minimums Amid Release of First Draft Text

As expected, climate finance has taken center stage in Baku COP29 in a bid to renew the global focus on finance as a means to transform climate ambitions into tangible, sustainable action. 

French-Speaking African Nations Bartering Natural Resources for Russian Arms

At the first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum in the southern coastal city of Sochi, seeking to deepen political and business ties with African countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin in his message and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in his powerful speech underlined Russia's security support to fight terrorism and extremism across Africa.

Progress as Draft Decision Text for COP29 Presidency’s Top Negotiating Priority Released

Three days into the landmark COP29 conference, the co-chairs of the New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) have arrived at a workable basis for discussion on the summit’s top priority goal—a new climate finance goal. The COP29 Presidency says the draft will, moving forward, “guide conversations around potential landing zones and help identify concerns.”

Blinded by Circumstance: Trachoma’s Stranglehold on Kenya’s Rural Pastoralists

Draped in the vibrant red of his Maasai shuka, 52-year-old Rumosiroi Ole Mpoke sits cross-legged on a worn cowhide mat outside his hut, his face etched with a sorrow deeper than the lines of age. His once-sharp eyes, now clouded by trachoma, can barely make out the shadows of the cattle he once tended with pride.

Sudan Faces Esclations in Famine, Humanitarian Law Violations

After 19 months of conflict, the ongoing Sudanese Civil War continues to deteriorate living conditions for millions of Sudanese people. Intensive conflicts between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have greatly exacerbated nationwide levels of famine. Numerous civilians have been caught in the crossfire, leading to a rising death toll. Sexual violence and rape have been used as weapons of war, with thousands of cases going unreported due to a pervasive state of fear. Sudan has seen record numbers in displacement, becoming one of the biggest displacement crises in the world.

Hustle Culture Emerges in Benin in Face of High Graduate Unemployment

At just 11 years old, with a heavy heart, Louis  peered up at his parents and said goodbye. He was leaving his small village in northern Benin to live with his uncle in Parakou, where the schools were better. Ever since, Louis has continued to make sacrifices to pursue a strong education and a better life. 

As Forests Felled Wood Shortage Hits Villagers in Zimbabwe

Linet Makwera (28) has a baby strapped on her back as she totters barefoot, picking tiny pieces of wood on both sides of a dusty and narrow road, peering fearfully at people passing by along the road in Chimanimani’s Mutambara area in Gonzoma village located in Zimbabwe’s Manicaland Province, east of the country.