Somalia on the Path to Recovery, but Real Challenges Remain

I arrived in Somalia in September 2019, two decades after having worked here previously. I knew that I was taking up a challenging assignment, but I was also looking forward to seeing Somalia’s progress.

Kenyan Domestic Workers’ Doomed Voyages to the Gulf

Distress calls from vulnerable Kenyan women in Saudi Arabia experiencing mistreatment and torture at the hands of their employers went from 88 in 2019/2020 to 1,025 just one year later.

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.

How Place of Birth Shapes Chances of Going to University

Many newly independent African countries in the 1960s inherited regional and ethnic inequalities in formal educational attainment. These new states bound together sub-national regions of diverse ethnic and religious communities. The regions differed in their exposure to missionary activity – the main vector in the spread of formal western education in the colonial era.

Underfunded and Deadly Tuberculosis Needs its Own Bill Gates

Global efforts to end tuberculosis (TB) are futile without dedicated investment in research into the debilitating disease that is killing 4000 people a day, Stop TB Partnership warns.

Free at Last: Trafficked Woman’s Story a Warning to Other Vulnerable Job Seekers

When Kamikazi * from Gisagara, a district in Southern Rwanda, was forced to quit her job due to COVID-19 last year, she desperately sought other employment.

Truth as War Causality? The Case of Ethiopia

A brutal drama is unfolding in Ethiopia and it is difficult to find straightforward accounts of what is happening there. However, this does not prevent people from taking a unilateral stand for either of the factions involved in the disaster.

Ecstasy as Zimbabwe’s Smallholder Farmers Secure European Pineapple Market

In her wildest dreams, smallholder farmer Sarudzai Sithole never imagined that her pineapples could someday stock the produce section of Europe’s finest supermarkets.

CORRECTED VERSION: Vaccine Famine & its Impact on African Economies

We are about to start a third year of living with COVID-19. The world’s humanity and solidarity are now at a further test – and yet implications of the absence of solidarity keep us all in the boat of mutations, lockdowns, quarantines and delayed SDGs – denied prosperity for all. 2021 has unearthed a new expression of global inequity: “vaccine nationalism” – itself competing with high with socioeconomic downturns, jobless growth, the climate crisis, and rising poverty.

In Africa, Vaccine Delayed is Development Denied, Warns UNDP Head

The 21-month-long corona virus pandemic has triggered three new phrases in the UN lexicon: “vaccine famine, vaccine apartheid and vaccine nationalism”. And the largest number of victims facing the triple threats are from developing countries, mostly in Africa, as reflected in grim statistics.

Trafficked and Trapped in Libya: A Nigerian Woman’s Story

Miriam* hoped for a better life in Europe. Instead, her journey ended in Libya, where, double-crossed by traffickers she was raped and abused.  She has returned to Nigeria and shared her experiences with Sam Olukoya.

High Yield Seeds Could Address Food Shortages and Place Africa on Track to Zero Hunger – Experts

Rahab Munene’s shoe selling business crumbled at the height of COVID-19 in 2020. She traded the enterprise for a mobile grocery along the Thika Superhighway, Kiambu County.

Cool Scheme to Reduce Food Waste in Nigeria

Food spoilage forced smallholder farmers out of pocket and out of business – until an entrepreneur came up with a cool idea.

Rising Suicides Shine Spotlight on Malawi’s Mental Health Burden

When a former deputy speaker of Parliament shot himself dead within the National Assembly buildings in Lilongwe in September 2021, it shook Malawi. It also turned attention to the mental health burden in the country.

Omicron & Developing Countries – Where Threats are the Greatest

On 25 November, news emerged from South Africa of a new COVID-19 variant. It has since been identified as Omicron, a Greek alphabet derivation the World Health Organization (WHO) reserves for virus variants “of concern”.

Africa Should Bargain Hard for COVID Vaccine Equity: Lessons from Indonesia during Avian Flu

Many countries around the world have punished most of the African continent for the scientific discovery of the Omicron variant through the imposition of travel bans.

Act to Save Children Living Precarious Lives in Cameroon’s Forgotten and Neglected Conflict

Education is under attack in Cameroon. As one of the most complex humanitarian crises in the world unfolds, Education Cannot Wait’s director Yasmine Sherif and the Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, say the children are pawns for grown men in a political conflict.

What Will it Take to Turn Farmers Toward Climate-Resilient Superfood Millet?

Millet could be Africa’s silver bullet for combating anaemia – and apart from health benefits, it is climate-resilient.

High Global Fertiliser Prices Overshadow Malawi’s Farm Subsidy Programme

Ellena Joseph, a small-scale maize farmer in Chiradzulu District in Southern Malawi, finished preparing her field early in October.

New Pan-African Payments System Provides Big Relief for African Traders

When Fidelis Adele, the CEO of Freetown-based Solid Graphics, a printing and communications company, needed to order some printing equipment from Nigeria in September, he paid an extra $165 on top of a $10,000 bank transfer to the seller. Yet it took three days for the money transferred in Sierra Leone to be credited to the beneficiary’s account in Nigeria.

How to Tackle Africa’s Employment Crisis

The Covid-19 pandemic aggravated Africa's already severe employment crisis. The solution lies in a long-term political and economic transformation.