SOUTH AFRICA: Delayed Drug Registration Could Affect Region

Delays in drug registration by the country's Medicines Control Council (MCC), contribute to depriving South African HIV patients of important fixed dose combination antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. But there are indications that the effects of the delays are being felt even farther afield.

Q&A: ‘Responding As We Would To A Friend In Crisis’

Working with grassroots organisations is the only viable way to genuinely help people, according Yifat Susskind, the newly appointed Executive Director of the New York-based women's organisation MADRE.

MALAWI: Women’s Voices to the Fore in New Development Policy

As Malawi works on its second development blueprint, the Malawi Development and Growth Strategy (MDGS II), the country’s women are hoping health and education will be prioritised and given proper attention in implementation.

SWAZILAND: Heavy Rains Welcome in the Mountain Kingdom

There's nothing quite like the enthusiasm that rises from the earth when rains come at last to a drought-stricken region. While heavy rains have caused extensive flooding across Southern Africa, with fears of worse to come, in at least one corner of the region the community is gazing with joy at an overflowing dam.

BRAZIL: Lending a Hand to Less Developed Countries

Mothers' milk banks that are helping reduce infant mortality in Guatemala and are starting to be set up in Africa as well form part of the numerous social technologies developed by Brazil that are driving the fast growth of its international development cooperation.

ZAMBIA: Unsolved Riddle of Sustaining Water Utilities

Sebastian Chilekwa’s job title at the Luapula Water and Sewerage Company is "Managing Director of Dilemma". Or it should be.

SOUTH AFRICA: New, Assertive Women’s Voices in Local Elections

Noncedo Pulana lacks many things, but she is certainly not short of confidence as she prepares to stand for election as Khayelitsha ward councillor. She feels her long years as an activist in the sprawling township have prepared her to do a better job.

ALGERIA: Civil Society Demands End to State of Emergency

The lifting of the state of emergency that has been in force in Algeria for nearly 20 years has emerged as a rallying point for groups united for democratic change.

UN Women Head Unveils Empowerment Agenda

Despite birthing 100 percent of the world's children, growing 70 percent of the world's food and performing 60 percent of the world's labour, women only receive a fraction - a mere 10 percent - of the world's income.

GUATEMALA: High Staple Food Prices Drive Up Hunger

The rise in prices of corn, beans and other staple foods, driven up by damages to crops caused by extreme weather events, is making it even harder for the poor to afford a basic diet in Guatemala, which has the highest rate of child malnutrition in Latin America.

PHILIPPINES: ‘Wanted, Full-Time Mothers’

It’s definitely not your typical job advertisement. "Wanted: Mothers; must be mature, strong and stable, self-confident, humorous and know how to cook; must have a positive and cheerful attitude towards life; must be willing to work as a full-time mother for the long term."

COTE D’IVOIRE: Protecting Public Health Despite Political Impasse

The political stand-off between Alassane Ouattara, certified by the United Nations as winner of Nov. 28 elections, and the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, who has refused to step down, is stretching into its eighth week.

ARGENTINA: Guarani Effort to Strengthen Culture Through Tourism

Since recovering part of their territory in 2005, an indigenous Guaraní community in the northeastern Argentine province of Misiones is working to maintain and expand a cultural tourism initiative.

Mexico Tempted to Shift From Tortillas to Ethanol

Farmers' protests and the rise in corn tortilla prices in late December put temporary brakes on the Mexican Senate, which was preparing to lift the national ban on utilising maize to make fuel alcohol, or ethanol.

SOUTH AFRICA: How Better ARV Prices Were Won

South Africa’s recently-awarded tender for antiretroviral drugs halved drug costs for the world’s largest ARV programme. Driven by a better-prepared and more aggressive government, the deal may stand up to criticism better than initially thought.

RWANDA: Forest Conservation Calls for Carrot and Stick

For years, the various campaigns for sustainable use of forests just passed Pascal Segatashya by. But Rwanda's ambitious Forest Conservation Project eventually found him - and it has transformed his life and livelihood.

Q&A: “In Mexico, We Have Let the Violent Ones Do the Talking”

"In Mexico, we have let the violent ones do the talking," says journalist Marcela Turati, author of "Fuego Cruzado" (Crossfire), a new book that tells the stories of victims of President Felipe Calderón's war on drugs, which has left an official death toll of 30,000 in four years.

COTE D’IVOIRE: New Techniques, New Profits for Tomato Farmers

Even while the country has faced civil war and political crisis, innovative research organisations have worked to meet the challenges of food security and rural poverty.

Set on Fire – New Form of Sexist Violence in Argentina

"I knew he beat her but I never imagined that she would end up like this," Elsa Jerez told IPS, talking about her 24-year-old daughter Fátima Catán, a victim of domestic violence in Argentina who died of severe burns to her body.

SWAZILAND: Free Primary Education – If You Can Afford It

The new school year opened with hope - and hunger - in Swaziland this week: an estimated 140,000 orphans and vulnerable children are among the small, eager faces in the mountain kingdom's classrooms. Poverty and the AIDS pandemic threaten to make an early mark on the next generation.

EAST EUROPE: Midwives Struggle to Deliver Home Births

Women’s rights in Eastern Europe have been put into the spotlight as a Hungarian midwife faces five years in prison for assisting with home births.