MALI: Early Anxiety Over Price of Grain

In the small village of Gwélékoro, 60 kilometres south of the capital, Bamako, the fields are empty now, during the dry season. After a poor harvest, farmers are worried by swiftly rising prices for staple foods like sorghum and millet.

Q&A: “Women Must Be Part of the Peace Equation”

Eleven years ago, 192 countries – all the United Nations member states – agreed to step up the integration of women in international peacebuilding and security processes, a promise that has remained largely unmet.

U.N. Water Conference Focuses on Cities

As a U.N. conference on water opens in South Africa today, the country's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has repeated warnings that the country faces a water supply crisis. Experts attending the three-day conference will consider the challenges posed by growing demands, migration and water resources potentially limited by careless use and climate change.

MOZAMBIQUE: Educator in the Foothills of Her Political Career

If women like Judith Mussacula realise their aspirations to become the next generation of Mozambican politicians, the country's future will be in safe hands.

Integrating HIV Care with Broader Maternal and Child Health

From the outside, little has changed at the Maternal and Child Healthcare Clinic: pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers wait patiently on wooden benches. A chorus of infant call-and-response betrays the less long-suffering approach of their children to the wait.

A Moment of Silence for Dying Millions on World Water Day

When the international community commemorates World Water Day next week, perhaps it should ponder the words of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who once remarked he does not expect people the world over to stop what they are doing and observe a moment of silence, come Mar. 22.

POLITICS-ZAMBIA: Days of Male Domination Numbered

Elizabeth Phiri was so incensed when she was overlooked as a parliamentary candidate for the Patriotic Front in a 2008 by-election on the basis of her gender that she quit the party. Four years on, she has rejoined the party but remains pessimistic - but other women politicians see reasons to hope the 2011 elections will be different.

AFRICA: Anxious Eyes on Green Climate Fund

The African Development Bank says it is concerned about administrative delays holding up progress on the Green Climate Fund - one of the most significant achievements from the Cancún climate talks.

Malawi Donor Funding Threatened by Rights, Governance Issues

Malawi is bracing itself for difficult economic times following a decision by the country’s main donors to withhold financial aid amounting to $400 million. Donors say they are responding to a range of governance and human rights issues in the country.

Maldives Seeks “Smooth Transition” for World’s Poorest Nations

When the environmentally-threatened Indian Ocean island of Maldives "graduated" from the ranks of least developed countries (LDCs) to a middle-income country last January, the graduation was characterised as a milestone in the country's socioeconomic development.

AFRICA: ‘We Cannot Leave Lives of Nationals to Development Partners’

As donors retreat from funding HIV prevention and treatment, the vulnerability of national programmes reliant on external funding has become apparent. Without long-term sustainability, the lives of millions could be at risk.

Agricultural Policy Is Gender Policy

Eva, a Ghanian woman, was given five pigs and some training on how best to care for them. Eventually, her farm grew to 400 pigs and she was able to buy more land and a motorbike which she not only used for transporting her goods to market but for helping neighbours get to town and to hospital quicker.

SOUTH AFRICA: Convention To Secure Decent Work for Domestic Workers

Despite formal recognition of domestic workers' rights in South Africa, they still face a struggle for fair treatment.

Zambezi Floods Displace Thousands in Namibia

Thousands of people and livestock in the Caprivi Strip have had to be evacuated as annual floodwaters rise in the Zambezi. However, loss of life has been kept to a minimum as informal warning systems prove to be effective.

KENYA: Community Turns Garbage Into Energy Source

A community-based organisation in the Kenyan slum area of Kibera set out to clean up garbage and deal with waste water; Ushiriki Wa Safi ended up creating a community cooker that turns waste into an energy source.

PAKISTAN: Unsung Heroines Bring Healthcare to Villages

At eight in the morning 30-year-old Sultana Solangi steps out of her house ready for her day’s work. Wearing a black gown that shows only her eyes, she is shod in comfortable slippers and lugs a large black bag.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Plumbing Grey Data for Clear Water

They come like pilgrims to the Department of Geological Surveys office in Lobatse, 120 kilometres south of the Botswanan capital. In the sparsely furnished offices there, they pore over charts, trying to take the guesswork out of choosing where to sink a borehole.

INDIA: Tech to the Rescue of School Lunch Model

Surrounded by lush green wheat and yellow flowering mustard fields at Ekdanta primary school, it is noon and the 57 children in two combined classes are fidgety - impatient for the school served midday meal.

ZAMBIA: The Extended Family – Blessing or Burden?

Peggy Kapanda has bad memories of the time she spent living with her uncle when she was young. She was treated as a second-rank child. But this only motivated her to do a better job herself. At her small home in John Laing compound, in Zambia's capital Lusaka, she and her husband take care of two other children in addition to their own three young boys.

MALAWI: Uncertainty Over Role for Traditional Birth Attendants

When the ban on traditional birth attendants was lifted last year, pregnant women quickly appeared at Dorothy Chirwa's door in Malombe village in Mangochi, a district on the southern shores of Lake Malawi. Chirwa was among the thousands of TBAs banned from providing women with care in 2007.

PAKISTAN: Deaths of ‘Unwanted’ Babies On The Rise

The graves at a cemetery in Moach Goth have no epitaphs, no verses from the Koran, not even the names of the deceased. The only inscription on the small wooden signs that serve as headstones is a number and the date of burial. The latest one is Number 72,315.