Wine to China

South Africa and China are partners within a club of leading emerging markets, and it would seem natural that exports of South African wine to the Chinese market should be surging.

Somaliland Rising from the Ruins of Somalia

As Somalia starts to emerge from its quagmire of instability and chaos, 20 years of relative peace and stability are starting to pay dividends for its close neighbour Somaliland, as this November it struck its first major oil deal since seceding from Somalia in 1991.

Q&A: Education Is Where HIV Care Begins

When Shorai Chitongo founded Ray of Hope, a support group for female survivors of domestic violence in 2005, she discovered that three-quarters of the survivors in the group were HIV-positive. [caption id="attachment_114724" align="alignright" width="250"]

Q&A: Combating Gay Stigma Critical in Fight Against AIDS

As the international community comes together on Dec. 1 to celebrate World AIDS Day, a new report from UNAIDS reveals that while significant progress has been made in preventing and treating HIV/AIDS, stigmatisation, violence and discrimination against members of the gay community continue relentlessly. [caption id="attachment_114719" align="alignright" width="300"]

DRC – Wishing the Rebels Would Remain

Lined up along a dirt path that meanders its way up into the lush war-torn mountains surrounding the small town of Sake, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, hundreds of young rebel soldiers sat on the road banks in the baking sun.

Anti-gay Stigma Hinders Bid to Lower Côte d’Ivoire’s HIV Rate

When Emmanuel Kokou, a 28-year-old sex worker, moved from his native Togo to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in 2010, he knew there was a good chance that he had previously been exposed to HIV. But he had no intention of getting tested.

The Economic Cost of Kenya’s Insecurity

The wave of insecurity that has hit Kenya in the last few months is causing severe damage to the country's recovering economy, local economists have warned.

Striving to Increase African Food Productivity

For decades food security and self-sufficiency in Africa have been seen as a distant dream. The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, however, hopes to make it a reality, and while it may have begun with a slow start, its coordinators are confident it will produce more positive results in the coming years.

The Price of Ignoring the Sexuality of Kenya’s HIV-Positive Youth

It all started with a fight, one that would change his life forever.

/UPDATE*/ Africa – Calling for a GMO-Free Continent

South African smallholder farmer Motlasi Musi is not happy with the African Centre for Biosafety’s call for his country and Africa to ban the cultivation, import and export of all genetically modified maize. "I eat genetically modified maize, which I have been growing on my farm for more than seven years, and I am still alive," he declared.

Q&A: Turning Remittances into National Profits in LDCs

Remittances to the world’s poorest countries reached a record 27 billions dollars in 2011, according to a report released Monday by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva.

Rebels Begin Withdrawal in Eastern DR Congo

Rebels in eastern DR Congo say they have started withdrawing from territory they have captured from government troops, days after a pullout deal was reached in neighbouring Uganda.

Taking the Knowledge of Doha Back to Kenya’s Rural Communities

The skyscraper Qatari capital city of Doha is a far cry from Cecilia Kibe’s home in Turkana district, a remote area in Kenya inhabited by mostly nomadic communities and pastoralists hit hard by the effects of climate change.

South Sudan Oiling Up for Self-Reliance

As South Sudan continues negotiations with Sudan regarding the resumption of oil production and transit, the South Sudanese government says that it is developing its own industry and will start producing fuel for domestic consumption within the next eight months in order to avoid continued reliance on its neighbour.

African Negotiators Saving Kyoto from the Grave

African negotiators attending the United Nations climate change talks in Doha, Qatar say they are determined to ensure that developed countries do not let the Kyoto Protocol die as its commitment period comes to an end.

Chinese and Brazilian Firms Building the New Angola

"In Luanda there are no matches." This was the first line of a report written by Nobel Literature laureate Gabriel García Márquez in the Angolan capital in 1977.

Q&A: COP18, Another ‘Conference of Polluters’

There is no political will among rich nations to find funding for developing countries experiencing the brunt of changes in global weather patterns, and the current climate change conference will fail to do so, according to Professor Patrick Bond, a leading thinker and analyst on climate change issues.

Development Targets Ride on Vitamins

One hundred and ninety million – that’s more than the populations of Germany, France and Poland combined. It is also the number of children affected by vitamin A deficiency around the world.

‘The Children Could Die’ in Eastern DRC Fighting

Humanitarian agencies working in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been overwhelmed following a massive displacement triggered by fighting between the Congolese army (FARDC) and rebel movement M23 in North Kivu.

Developing Senegal’s Urban Agriculture

Watering cans in hand, men and women move back and forth between the wells and water storage tanks and the crops they're watering: carrots, onions, tomatoes, cabbage, and potatoes, as well as fruit trees like palm, coconut, papaya and banana trees.

Keeping African Roots Alive in Brazil

A Nigerian diviner dances and sings next to a Brazilian priest of the Candomblé religion, brought to this South American country by African slaves, that is now being rescued from oblivion in school texts on national history and culture.