HEALTH-SWAZILAND: AIDS Creating a Society in Distress

In a narrow and still winter-brown valley, little more than a crevice between rocky mountains, Gogo Ndlovu looks after her five young orphaned grandchildren.

ENVIRONMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: Western Cape Farmers Expect the Unexpected

The Western Cape region attracts millions of tourists who come to this part of South Africa to enjoy its famous Table Mountain and beaches, and to experience some of the world's best wines and deciduous fruits. But changes in the region's climate could be threatening these industries.

Q&A: Denying Antiretrovirals To Migrants Hurts Us All

South Africa has become a destination for people from across the continent and beyond. But in spite of migrants having a legal right to free antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV, they are being turned away from government clinics.

Q&A: Is Democracy Dangerous in Multi-ethnic Societies?

The Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE) would seem to have its work cut out for it in a world racked by brutal and enduring conflict. The centre's goal is to explore the links between ethnicity, inequality and conflict in order to identify policies that could lead to more inclusive multi-ethnic societies.

HEALTH-KENYA: Malaria Rises to Highland Areas

The end of June marks the start of the malaria season in East Africa. After the long rains, conditions in lowland swamps and coastal regions are more conducive for mosquito breeding. But in recent years malaria has also appeared in the highland areas where it was previously unheard of.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Free To Go Where I Like – Life Outside a Psychiatric Hospital

The wind has picked up and blows the sand, swirling in patterns, across the dirt roads and barren yards of Madadeni township. It batters relentlessly against the walls of Joseph Gumede’s* iron shack, rattling the windows, and he has to raise his voice to be heard above the din. But sheltered from the dust storm. Joseph feels that he has at last found his way home.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Children in the Path of the Pandemic

There is barely a path leading down the steep incline and through the dense bush to the Mabuyakhulu homestead. It would be easy to pass by without finding 13 year old Zanele* and her eight year old sister Andiswa who stay there on their own.

DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Water Studies – But Where Are the Water Supplies?

The road leading to the informal settlement of Korogocho is narrow and winding. Here, in Nairobi's third largest slum, up to 150,000 people are crammed into an area of just over one square kilometre, their shanties made of cardboard, wood or metal.

Q&A: Circumcision an “Opportunity To Take Great Strides Forward” Against HIV

Results from trials in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda in 2006 showed that male circumcision reduced the transmission of HIV from women to men by up to 60 percent. On the basis of these results, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organisation have recommended that countries encourage men to be circumcised.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Where Have the Piglets Gone?

Each psychiatric patient leaving Tower Hospital in the Eastern Cape Province under a new project to integrate patients into the community is sent home with two piglets. While at the hospital, patients are trained to raise pigs, the hope being that they will use the piglets for breeding to develop a sustainable source of income once discharged.

DEVELOPMENT: Reinventing Agriculture

The results of a painstaking examination of global agriculture are being formally presented Tuesday with the release of the final report for the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD).

Q&A: "Increase Agricultural Productivity While Reducing the Environmental Footprint"

Over the past few years, Robert Watson has had what must qualify as one of the world's tougher assignments: heading an initiative to help agriculture cope with the substantial challenges it faces presently, and the even bigger hurdles ahead.

Q&A: "A Collective Ignorance About How Agriculture Interacts With Natural Systems"

Representatives from countries, civil society and the private sector are meeting this week in Johannesburg, South Africa, to review the findings of the three-year International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD).

DEVELOPMENT: Towards a New and Improved Green Revolution

As food prices soar and hundreds of millions go hungry, experts from around the world will this week present a new approach for ensuring food security, at the intergovernmental plenary for the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). The Apr. 7-12 conference is taking place in South Africa's commercial hub, Johannesburg, and will be attended by representatives of an estimated 60 governments.

DEVELOPMENT- ANGOLA: Research Initiative Nets Interesting Discoveries

More than 50 species of fish have been recorded in the initial phase of a two-year joint research project on the Kwanza River in Angola.

TRADE-UGANDA: Exposing &#39&#39The African Green Revolution&#39&#39

Uganda’s major trade partners are not only looking for food markets but also for seed markets. This has happened in a push that has been packaged as ‘‘the new green revolution’’ by corporations involved in biotechnology and chemicals. They have been supported by philanthropic organizations, notably the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

SCIENCE-US: Top Scientists Want Research Free From Politics

Leading U.S. scientists called on Congress Thursday to make sure the next president does not do what they say the George W. Bush Administration has done: censor, suppress and falsify important environmental and health research.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Africa, South Asia Could Face Famines

Climate change will cause major disruptions in the global food system, and adaptation to those changes needs to begin immediately, experts say.

SCIENCE-SOUTH AFRICA: From "Publish or Perish" to "Publish and Vanish"

"Publish or perish" is the warning given many academics at the start of their careers. But it's publication of a very particular kind that scholarly researchers crave.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Putting Research Within the Grasp of Civil Society

In recent decades, the influence of civic groups has grown enormously. Organisations such as Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders and the like occupy prominent positions on the international stage, their views appearing alongside those of government in publications around the globe.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Putting Researchers and Policy Makers on the Same Page

Reports. They gather dust on the desks of journalists and bureaucrats - after having been opened with reluctance, and closed with speed. Months of work may have gone into their production; but all too often, the only use for these weighty tomes seems to be as doorstops.