UGANDA-RIGHTS: Bride Price: You Feel You Are Family Property

John Owor is a paid spokesperson for brides and grooms. His job is to represent one of the parties during traditional marriage negotiations, which involves the payment of a bride price.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Uganda Women Seek Gender Recovery Plan

After two decades of war during which thousands of children were used as child soldiers and many women raped, northern Uganda’s recovery plan is to be spent on building roads rather than helping the country’s most vulnerable.

KENYA: Slum Upgrade Is Land Grab – Nubians

Her neighbours moved away one week ago, but Fatuma Abou sits against the tin door of her Kibera shack with a hijab over her head, chin on her knees and a defiant expression on her face when she looks up.

Q&A: Harmonise the Efforts of African Scientists

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.

HEALTH-KENYA: A Glove To Save a Mother’s Life

The need for gloves for health workers assisting with childbirth may be obvious, but in Yala Sub-District Hospital in western Kenya, obvious does not mean available.

SOUTH SUDAN: Complicating the Vote for Women

In April 2010, the people of South Sudan will vote in a milestone general election, and for the first time, South Sudanese women will be able to participate.

KENYA: Police Reform? Return To Sender, Say Rights Groups

The top policeman accused of supporting Kenya's post-election violence, in which thousands were killed or raped because of their ethnicity, has been given a cushy job as head of the country’s postal service.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Ugandan Court Asked to Declare Bride Price Unconstitutional

Deborah Awori could not stop her husband from selling their 14-year-old daughter away in marriage using the time-honoured tradition of asking for a "bride price".

AGRICULTURE-ETHIOPIA: Changing Mindset Over Markets

In 2001/2002, Ethiopia enjoyed a bumper maize harvest - so good in fact, that prices tumbled, and many farmers simply left the grain in the fields. When the rains failed the next season, famine loomed.

AFRICA: Ethiopia’s Pop Star Out of Jail, to Stage Big Concert

He has not yet decided where and when it will be, but Ethiopia’s sensational musician Tewodros Kassahun a.k.a. Teddy-Afro, will stage a major concert for the first time after his release from controversial imprisonment.

RIGHTS-UGANDA: Women Score Victory Against Gender-Based Violence

Women are celebrating a hard-won victory for gender rights after intense public protests led to today’s re-arrest of the country’s police boss – a self-confessed wife-killer.

HEALTH-AFRICA: South Sudan At Risk from Blindness

In the war-devastated South Sudan, a region with a population of over eight million people, Yeneneh Mulugeta is the only permanent ophthalmologist.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Elusive Justice for Victims of Gender-Based Violence

Florence Mukambi will always bear the brunt of the country’s post-election violence.

AFRICA: Raising the Profile of Gender-Based Violence

Imagine you are a journalist; you get a tip for a story about a sexual assault on a ten-year-old girl, and pitch it to your editor.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Family Planning: Expand Role For Private Sector

Dwindling donor support in the face of rising contraceptive demand, combined with diminishing government budgets could make already widespread shortfalls in the provision of contraceptives worse. African reproductive health experts are suggesting that the private sector could be the key to filling the gap.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Better Tools to Target Malaria

Roughly a billion dollars a year is spent fighting malaria. Using this money most effectively calls for a detailed understanding of exactly who is at risk - enter the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP).

TANZANIA: Solutions to Dar's Water Problems in the Pipeline

In the nine months since she moved to the Dar es Salaam neighbourhood of Kinondoni, Anna Christopher has only seen water running from her taps once.

WATER-TANZANIA: Who Pays the Piper?

When John Rubara* and his family moved into their new house in Dar es Salaam's Tabata Kimanga, a fast-growing middle-income neighbourhood in Temeke district, the water company disconnected their supply because the previous owner was in arrears.

ECONOMY-RWANDA: Credit for Women's Development

In early July, Rwandan officials announced a new programme that aims to strengthen women's economic capacity by providing more access to credit and enabling them to start income generating projects.

Q&A: Reality Fell Upon Us: Women's Voices Must Be Heard

Fifty-six percent of Rwanda's parliamentarians are women, a manifestation of the active role women have taken in rebuilding the country since the 1994 genocide.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Justice Waits While Debate Rages Over Tribunal

Kenya's cabinet is expected to meet Monday to review a bill establishing how the masterminds of the country's post-election violence will be punished.