RIGHTS-UGANDA: Refugee Policies a Victim of Their Own Success?

For more than 40 years, Uganda has been considered a safe haven for people fleeing violence in their homelands. It currently hosts about 230,000 nationals from neighbouring states such as Sudan, Rwanda, Kenya, Somalia, Burundi and Ethiopia - one of the largest refugee populations on the continent.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: A Mixed Verdict for Commission’s Report

A "decisive first step" towards making poverty in Africa history, an "exercise to cover up the Iraq war": reactions to the report issued last week by Britain's Commission for Africa have been many and varied.

POLITICS-DRC: The Challenge of Piecing Together a “Failed State”

This weekend sees a new military operation underway in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reports from the central African country say about 800 United Nations troops have been deployed in the north-eastern Ituri region to disarm local militias held responsible for the death of nine peacekeepers last month.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Moving from Top-Down to Bottom-Up No Easy Process

Urban poverty has a familiar face - the image of the overcrowded and garbage-strewn slum. It may surprise many to hear, then, that three quarters of the world's poorest people - about 900 million persons - live in rural areas.

RIGHTS: Violence Against Women Defies Laws, Education Campaigns

A decade after a landmark United Nations conference resolved to tackle violence against women head on, not enough has been done to put an end to this scourge, say female legislators from East Africa.

RIGHTS-UGANDA: Gov’t Takes Two Steps Backwards

Women in Uganda have accused the government of President Yoweri Museveni of using culture to undermine their rights.

TRADE: Inching Towards a Conclusion of the Doha Round – Maybe

Officials who attended two days of trade talks in Kenya have given a mixed verdict on the outcome of the discussions. While some described the meeting as productive, others said little progress had been made in resolving problems that have dogged the latest round of international trade negotiations since it got underway in 2001 in Doha, Qatar.

POLITICS: From the Ashes of Genocide, a True Democracy Rises

In an inspiring victory for African women - and women everywhere - Rwanda has surged to first place on an international scorecard for gender equality in political representation.

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.

POLITICS-SOMALIA: Reversing a Decade of Lawlessness

The Herculean nature of the task facing Somalia's new government has been brought to the fore again in recent days, as efforts proceed to have the administration installed in the capital, Mogadishu.

POLITICS-SOMALIA: Reversing a Decade of Lawlessness

The Herculean nature of the task facing Somalia’s new government has been brought to the fore again in recent days, as efforts proceed to have the administration installed in the capital, Mogadishu.

POLITICS-KENYA: Moi Casts a Long Shadow Over Goldenberg Commission

"Well, he’s damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t," says leading Kenyan lawyer Albert Mumma of the dilemma that may shortly face President Mwai Kibaki: whether or not to prosecute former head of state Daniel arap Moi in connection with the Goldenberg scandal.

HEALTH-KENYA: Do Safer Births Require a Break With Tradition?

"I use a razor, scissors and thread," says traditional midwife Peris Machanja, describing part of her work in delivering a baby. "Sometimes I use gloves, which I disinfect to use for another job – that is, if they are not torn. If they are, I try to get new ones."

ECONOMY-KENYA: Informal Traders Fight to Remain in the Heart of Nairobi

By the time IPS spoke to her, the pressures of mounting a round-the-clock protest outside the United Nations offices in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, were beginning to tell.

POLITICS-SOMALIA: U.N. Analyst Underscores the Importance of Human Rights

A United Nations analyst has warned that peace will remain elusive in Somalia if the country's new government fails to ensure respect for human rights.

RIGHTS-KENYA: Ruling Party Hijacks the People’s Constitution

Kenya’s civil society groups are protesting over a law that gives parliament sweeping powers to alter the country’s draft constitution, without involving the people.

POLITICS-SUDAN: Aid Workers in Darfur Try to Manage the Unpredictable

In New York this week, members of the United Nations Security Council busied themselves with a debate about whether genocide is taking place in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

POLITICS-BURUNDI: "When Will Justice Return From its Long Absence?"

For much of the past decade, it has been civil war that has compromised the safety of Burundians. Now, crime appears set to take over where the combatants are leaving off.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Uganda, DRC in Sights of International Criminal Court

Luis Moreno Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court (ICC), is going to be a busy man this year as far as Africa is concerned.

ECONOMY-KENYA: Textile Workers Face Uncertain Future

Kenyan manufacturing officials have accused the government of Mwai Kibaki of doing little to revive the country’s textile industry, and compete internationally.

HEALTH-KENYA: Tight Deadline for a Noble Initiative

Just 338 days. That is the amount of time that remained, Thursday, to meet the World Health Organisation’s goal of getting millions of HIV-positive people in developing countries on anti-retroviral treatment by the end of the year.