KENYA: Mobile Phones to the Rescue for Pregnant Women

Pumwani Maternity Hospital, in the impoverished Nairobi neighbourhood of Eastlands, is the site of a trial project using mobile phones to help HIV-positive mothers avoid passing the virus on to their children.

WATER: Early Rains Rekindle Interest in Rainwater Harvesting

In Thembekie Gwebu’s yard under the roof leaves stands a curious giant green plastic container with a plastic pipe connected to the gutter. She has been asked a number of times by curious visitors and passers-by what the contraption is, and she happily explains.

WATER: Miracle Man Eases Village’s Water Woes

Hermes Chimombo, a welder in his 50s, is a revered man in the impoverished Naotcha Township. Armed with rudimentary tools and a passion to ease people’s suffering, he has tapped a spring in the mountain above the slum to provide water for its 25,000 residents.

AGRICULTURE: Kenyan Researchers Say Traditional Vegetables Can Improve Food Security

According to Vision 2030, which is a government strategic plan on how to boost growth and development in Kenya, there are an estimated five million out of an estimated eight million households who depend directly on agriculture, despite the fact that agriculture continues to be one of the most under-budgeted ministries.

EDUCATION: Meet TESSA, Ugandan Teachers’ Best Friend

Beatrice Namuzibira’s class of 90 pupils is not even considered a large one, compared to classes in other schools. Universal primary education has filled classrooms beyond capacity across Uganda, putting a strain on teachers.

HEALTH: Scientists Focus on Male Mosquitoes in Bid to Control Malaria

After successfully suppressing scourges of fruit, tsetse and screwworm flies in the Americas, researchers are exploring whether the same sterilised insect technique can be used to control malaria, which kills some one million people every year, many of them in Africa.

COSTA RICA: Infertile Controversy over Right to Form a Family

Costa Rica is one of the few countries in the world where in vitro fertilisation (IVF) is illegal. And the Vatican wants it to stay that way: Pope Benedict XVI himself recently urged the government not to pass a law that would make it legal.

OP-ED: The EU Must Start Fishing Responsibly Now

The loss of marine biodiversity is hurtling forward at an unprecedented rate. At present, the FAO calculates that nearly 80 percent of the world's fishery resources are fully exploited, overexploited or depleted. Furthermore, marine scientists have suggested that if the current pace of exploitation continues, all fish stocks will have collapsed or disappeared by 2048.

Q&A: “Child Marriage Is a Form of Violence Against Women”

At the start of this month, the U.S. Senate unanimously adopted the 'International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act'. Women's rights groups are now urging the Congress's lower chamber to pass it before adjourning at the end of the year.

BRAZIL: Building a “Reforestation Economy” in the Mata Atlantica

In one of the most environmentally damaged areas of Brazil's Mata Atlântica forest, work is under way to reforest a watershed that supplies Rio de Janeiro, while also establishing a "reforestation market" that stimulates local job creation and local consumption.

TB Care Moves to the Community in Swaziland

Ntombikayise Mabelesa (36) is a recovering multi-drug-resistant (MDR) TB patient from Hoseya in the southern part of Swaziland.

LATIN AMERICA: Rural Women, Success Stories and Exploitation

The traditional image of rural women in Latin America is shifting, from one of subsistence farmers raising their families to that of women playing a growing role in small- and large-scale commercial and productive activities. But behind that change lie both success stories and exploitation.

NGOs Want Reforms Tied to New World Bank Funding

With the World Bank expected to announce a new funding package for the world's poorest countries Wednesday, NGOs are making a last-minute appeal to donor countries to use their leverage to compel reforms at the institution.

ETHIOPIA: Saving Rural Mothers’ Lives

Nigist Abebe has grown in confidence over five years on the job. Today she is one of 34,000 rural health extension workers at the heart of Ethiopia's primary health care strategy.

GUATEMALA: Forgotten Promises Leave Indigenous Peoples Poorer and Hungrier

Nearly three years into President Álvaro Colom's four-year term, Guatemala's indigenous people have seen little improvement in their lives -- and they represent approximately half the country's population.

Niger Herders Count Losses, Plan For the Future

Bacharou Gorel had 300 head of cattle before the food security crisis began in Niger. Today he has only 53 left.

Q&A: “Create a Protocol Based on Non-Emissions”

Latin America should create regional conventions to protect biodiversity and combat the impacts of climate change, according to Ecuadorian environmentalist Yolanda Kakabadse, president of the World Wild Fund for Nature International (WWF).

EL SALVADOR: Most Water-Stressed Country in Central America

Every night at 1:00 AM, Julio César Amaya gets up to turn on the faucet, because it is the only time that there is piped water in his neighbourhood - the poor district of San José, in the city of Soyapango, one hour east of the capital of El Salvador.

CHILE: Flood of Criticism for “Retrograde” AIDS Campaign

"It’s much more fun to die of old age than to die of AIDS. And if you die with your lifelong partner, so much the better. Avoid AIDS: be faithful" is one of the controversial TV spots in this year’s edition of the annual anti-AIDS campaign by Chile’s Health Ministry.

Q&A: Revitalising Agriculture Starts in a Small Field

In countries around the world, small farmers are trapped in a vicious circle - hard-pressed governments don't invest enough money in local agriculture, and local producers find themselves driven off their lands and into urban slums, where they sink even deeper into poverty.

OP-ED: Stimulate the Green Race to Tackle Climate Change

While negotiators in Cancún are struggling to make progress, there is something interesting happening in the world. And, it is good news. Countries have started to recognise and act upon the economic value in meeting the demand for green technology.