KENYA: Jury Still Out on Traditional Birth Attendants

The government of Kenya has been encouraging women to deliver in hospital. Home deliveries by traditional birth attendants are considered to be a major contributor to maternal deaths.

ZIMBABWE: ‘Free’ Maternal Health Care Too Costly For Most

As African Union heads of state consider child and maternal health at the 2010 summit in Kampala, Uganda, the perennial question of user fees has reared its head in Zimbabwe. Fees for services are opening a growing gap between policy and implementation in maternal health care in the Southern African country.

Lack of Funds Hampers Global Fight Against AIDS

The global conference on AIDS in Vienna last week will be remembered for "Broken Promises Kill", a slogan echoed by a coalition of activists who had gathered from around the world.

ECONOMY: Latin America Grows Despite Global Uncertainties

More fixed capital investment to improve competition, greater added value to exported goods and services, and tax reforms to finance social policies are some of the challenges Latin America and the Caribbean face in the uncertain global economic panorama.

SWAZILAND: HIV – Long Distances Place Expectant Mothers at Risk

Affectionately known as Gogo Zondo by the community of Ndvwabangeni in northern Swaziland, Margaret Zondo is a traditional health practitioner who helps treat the sick and delivers babies.

Sustainable Aquaculture Picks Up Steam

As farmed fish consumption catches up on wild, a search for sustainable aquaculture picks up steam.

BRAZIL: Football Paves the Way to Masculinity Without Violence

It’s Friday night, and in a "favela" (shanty town) in this Brazilian city, a group of men relax with a beer after a hard week, while a song can be heard above the rowdy chatter.

CHINA-NIGERIA: New Refinery Planned for Lagos Free Trade Zone

Nigeria is a place where many more deals are announced than are ever completed. But July saw progress towards the construction of one of three new Nigerian refineries expected to reduce imports of refined petroleum products, a costly and ironic feature of the oil-rich nation's economy.

China: Outsmarting the West in Africa

China's interest in Africa is frequently portrayed simply as that of a rising economic power seeking natural resources. Deborah Brautigam argues that this portrayal misses the full complexity of business relations between China and the continent.

HEALTH: To Fight AIDS, Fight Gender Inequality

Under the banner that gender inequality is one of the main drivers of the spread of AIDS, women from around the world are uniting to demand a stop to the epidemic among all females -- whether adults or girls.

Water as Human Right Threatens to Split World Body

A long outstanding proposal to recognise the right to water as a basic universal human right is threatening to split the world's rich and poor nations.

North Korea in Dire Need of Food, Medical Aid, Amnesty Says

The fragile health system in the cash-strapped Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), long described as one of the world's most secretive countries, is on the verge of collapsing, Amnesty International (AI) warned Thursday.

Venezuela Starts Its Own “Zero Hunger” Programme

Standing between two wooden planks that shore up the front of her small makeshift house, 40-year-old Maribel Huerta talks about her family.

LATIN AMERICA: Environment’s Poverty-Fighting Potential Largely Ignored

The environment remains a second-tier matter in Latin America and the Caribbean despite being interwoven with persistent poverty and stalled economic development in the region, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme.

PARAGUAY: Women Manage Dairy for Self-Sufficiency

A year ago, Ramona Pereira was stuck with humdrum domestic drudgery in a rural village in Paraguay. Now she is the leader of a committee of women dairy producers in her community, and at 38 she feels like a new woman.

LIBERIA: Men in Testing New Role as Midwives

Henry Teh gently slides down a blue hospital sheet to expose the bare belly of a pregnant woman. As he pokes around to feel the position of the foetus, the midwife-in-training knows he is breaking tradition and changing the face of obstetric care in Liberia.

COLOMBIA: Midwives Seek Legal Recognition, Respect

In Colombia, western medicine has nearly succeeded in pushing midwives -- "parteras" or "comadronas," as they are known in Spanish -- out of existence. But some tenacious practitioners are pushing for a law to formalise the role of midwife as a health worker.

Is Global Poverty Reduction a Political Myth?

When the United Nations hosts a summit meeting of world leaders next September to assess the current state of its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is expected to single out one of the major "success stories" of the day: a reduction in global poverty.

More Than 200 Ways of Becoming a Mother

"You can only have one mother," as the saying goes, but in Brazil there are 215 ways of becoming a mother, one for each of the ethnic groups in this South American country. Promoting maternal health while respecting cultural traditions is a major health challenge.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Uruguay Fends Off Health Threats – So Far

The incidence of cardiovascular, respiratory and water-borne diseases is rising in Uruguay in tandem with climate change, while dengue fever and malaria lurk at the country's borders. Higher temperatures are encouraging the presence of insect vectors carrying diseases that were eradicated decades ago, experts say.

ZAMBIA: Women Welcome Equality Commission

The Zambian National Constitution Conference (NCC) concluded its business recently with the adoption of a clause for the creation of a Gender Equality Commission.