CHILE: Maternity Leave – Longer, or for All Working Mothers?

"In Chile, women carry the entire burden of maternity," says teacher Fabiola Quiñones, who applauds the government's proposal to extend pre- and post- natal leave to six months -- but only if all new mothers who work can have that option.

HEALTH-ASIA: New Infectious Diseases a Challenge to MDG Success

While successful immunisation programmes worldwide have saved millions of lives, the threat of new infectious diseases and drug-resistant strains of existing diseases is posing a major challenge to governments, especially in developing regions like Asia, in meeting their commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Keeping the Pressure on to Invest in Women’s Health

Men, women, NGOs, governments, the Gates Foundation. Everyone agrees – women are awesome. More importantly, protecting the health of the people that make up more than half of the human population and do far more than half of the work to sustain it should be everyone's priority.

ZIMBABWE: Learning to Survive the Mean Streets

Twelve-year-old Tapuwa Bakare* darts through the traffic as irate motorists hoot at him and the tyres of speeding vehicles screech to a halt to avoid hitting him. Miraculously, the box filled with sweets and chewing gum that he carries does not fall from his grasp.

ARGENTINA: Football Referee School Offers Way Out of Poverty

A new school to train football referees to work amateur-level tournaments in Argentina aims at providing skills and a legitimate source of income for young people from poor homes.

NEPAL: Under-Five Deaths Show Robust Decline But Hurdles Remain

With still five years left before the expiry of the Millennium Development Goals’ (MDGs) 2015 deadline to reduce under-five mortality rate by two-thirds from the 1990 level, a mid-term survey of Nepal Family Health Program (NFHP) II shows the country has already achieved the target.

RWANDA: Women Win by Formalising Businesses

The vast majority of businesses in Rwanda - like elsewhere in Africa - are informal. Government expects that a drive to register an estimated 900,000 informal enterprises will both strengthen these businesses and improve tax revenues.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Restoring Trust After ‘Horrible’ Copenhagen Conference

Six months after failing to reach a binding agreement on climate change, negotiators are meeting in Bonn to try to get the process back on track. But deep disagreement over measuring developing countries' emissions and finding funds for adaptation to climate change remain unresolved.

FOOD: Something Smells Rotten in Venezuela

Tens of thousands of tonnes of basic foods rotted in the last year in shipping containers belonging to the Venezuelan government. Fully two-thirds of the food consumed by Venezuela's 27 million inhabitants is imported.

Door to Political Office Opens for Senegalese Women

A law on gender parity in electoral lists, approved by a large majority in Senegal's National Assembly, has been welcomed by women from diverse walks of life.

Rewriting 195 Million Stories of Childhood Malnutrition

In a vast field, a sinewy, dark-skinned man bends at the waist, slicing stalks of wheat with a small machete. In a village, a mother gently places her infant son, slung in a piece of blue fabric, onto a vegetable scale housed in a makeshift clinic.

BRAZIL: “Gol de Letra” Scores Goals off the Playing Field

In a country where many poor children dream of "making it big" through football or modeling, retired Brazilian football stars Leonardo and Raí could have simply basked in their fame. But they decided instead to combine sport with education, art and skills training.

HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Community Mobilisation Key to Fight TB

African medical experts have realised they need to make a much bigger effort to educate rural communities if they want to effectively contain the continent’s tuberculosis (TB) epidemic.

Q&A: China Pays a Price for the ‘Lost’ Girls

In a country like China, that regularly exorcises the ghosts of the past, few understand the importance of oral history better than Chinese writer Xinran.

SOUTH AFRICA: Tuberculosis in Children Neglected

Even though tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause for illness and mortality in children, South Africa lacks the political will to tackle the disease, health experts say.

Agatha Exposes Central America’s Many Vulnerabilities

Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, which form the so-called Central American Northern Triangle, have many weak points when it comes to natural disasters. The were exposed once again this week by tropical storm Agatha, which claimed nearly 200 lives and left millions of dollars in infrastructural damage.

BURMA: HIV Infection on the Rise Among Men Who Have Sex with Men

The only son in his family, Maung Maung Oo was forced to marry when he was 24 years old. By then he had been carrying on a sexual relationship with a man for four years – which he continued even after his marriage.

LATIN AMERICA: Taxing the Poor

Not only do Latin America and the Caribbean collect less tax revenue than any other region in the world, in spite of positive economic growth this decade, but national tax systems are unfair, as they rely heavily on indirect taxes that are levied equally on rich and poor, according to a new study by ECLAC.

Are Namibian Women Being Forcibly Sterilised?*

A landmark court case, alleging that HIV-positive women were forcibly sterilised in Namibian state hospitals begins in Windhoek's High Court on Jun. 1. Human rights groups claim the practice has continued long after the authorities were notified.

NICARAGUA: Giving Women Farmers a Boost

Josefina Rodríguez very nearly lost her life trying to protect the small plot of farmland in rural Nicaragua that allows her to support her family. Twelve years ago her husband wanted to sell the land, and when she stood up to him, he attacked her with a machete, almost killing her.

Millennium Goals Need Development, Not Charity

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) came into existence in the right place, the United Nations, but at a most unpropitious time, in September 2000, when ideas about the invincibility of market forces still held sway in the world.