DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Sanitation: 'This Is the Way We Live'

In 1925, Mahatma Gandhi remarked that "Sanitation is more important than political independence." More than 80 years later, access to basic sanitation remains out of reach for 546 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.

COLOMBIA: New Meaning in Life for Young Shantytown Dwellers

After three of Viviana’s friends were killed, and one of them dismembered, she began to think things over, and decided to join the Legión del Afecto project in Colombia, leaving six years of gang life behind her.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Building Regional Water Management

As southern Africa braces for the negative effects of climate change, calls for integrated water resources management become more strident.

AGRICULTURE-SUDAN: Can Local Investors Beat Foreign Investment?

Sudan is hoping to use foreign cash to reinvigorate its under-performing agricultural sector, but there is growing disagreement over the extent to which outsiders, rather than local farmers, should be taking control of the industry.

DEVELOPMENT: Investing in a Better World

Developing countries will be able to share best practices for development more efficiently via the newly created South-South Human Development Stock Exchange (SS-HDSX), as social entrepreneurs meet up with potential social investors on this online platform.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Indian Scientists Competent But Still at Sea

The prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc), set up here in May 1909, is celebrating its centenary with year-long lectures and seminars, some of which have revealed Indian science’s lack of coherence in dealing with climate change in India.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Another Record Year for Heat, Storms

A new U.N. study on climate change reveals that 2008 was one of the warmest years since 1850 when scientists started to keep weather records.

Q&A: Failure to Translate Women’s Legal Rights into Action

Each year, for 16 days in December, the world’s focus shifts towards taking action against gender-based violence. Governments and civil society organisations raise awareness around women’s rights and lobby for gender equality. But activists lament that little action is taken throughout the rest of the year and women’s legal rights often fail to be implemented and put to action.

SOUTH AMERICA: Mercosur Shares Social Concerns, Diverges on Economy

Concern over the social impact of the global economic crisis dominated the discussions at the Mercosur Summit on Tuesday, but economic proposals by some presidents underscored their ideological differences.

VENEZUELA: “Children Can’t Even Play on Their Front Stoops”

Johana Bracamonte never had a chance to learn to read. She was just five years old the morning her uncle took her to kindergarten and they were both shot by thieves who stole his motorbike, in 23 de Enero, a shantytown on the west side of the Venezuelan capital.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Constitutions Affirmed as Essential for Democracy

One of Africa's main challenges is ensuring that constitutions reflect a consensus amongst all sectors of the population, including vulnerable groups such as women, are rarely taken into account in constitutional strengthening initiatives.

Q&A: South Africa Suffers Sanitation Backlog

Sanitation is a key element of health, and hygiene a basic need for survival. Yet, millions of South Africans, especially those living in rural areas, do not have access to basic services, such as clean, running water and sanitary toilet systems.

AGRICULTURE-ETHIOPIA: Can Foreign-Owned Farms Solve Food Crisis?

Tola Melka was planning to throw a traditional party at his shanty home in rural central Ethiopia, anticipating a bumper harvest. He was grief-stricken in late October when unexpected rains totally destroyed his almost ripened teff, a native staple crop used to make spongy bread.

HEALTH-ZIMBABWE: Shady Dealings With Antiretrovirals

The current political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe is dealing a blow to the provision of free treatment and care to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs).

CUBA: Even the Coral Reefs Shook

The years will pass and their children’s children will ask how much truth there was in their grandparents’ stories.

DEVELOPMENT-URUGUAY: Slowly but Surely

While Uruguay’s human development levels are improving, the country has lagged behind the faster progress made by some of its neighbours due to fluctuations in its economic performance, according to a local study sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

RIGHTS: Universal HIV Testing Raises Hopes and Fears

While prospects remain dim for a successful HIV vaccine in the near future, public health experts and AIDS advocacy groups are pinning their hopes on a new strategy released by the Geneva-based World Health Organisation (WHO) that could end the disease's endemic phase within a decade.

DEVELOPMENT-NEPAL: Returning Power to Local Bodies is Critical

As members of Nepal’s newly-formed Constituent Assembly (CA) begin the process of a writing a new constitution for this former monarchy they will consider reviving devolution of power to local administrative bodies as the fastest way to ensure development.

DEVELOPMENT: 40 Million More Go Hungry

Rising prices have plunged an additional 40 million people below the hunger threshold this year, a new FAO report says.

CARIBBEAN: Despite Successes, Too Many Dying of AIDS

Every day, 55 people in the Caribbean are infected with the HIV virus and 38 of them die of the disease. That's 20,000 new infections and 14,000 deaths annually.

EL SALVADOR: Gold Mining ‘Is a Huge Rip-Off’ – Environmentalists

A black coffin was consigned to the flames amid music and fireworks as dozens of people from Salvadoran communities that fear the impacts of gold and silver mining celebrated a "symbolic burial" of the Pacific Rim Mining Corporation, a Canadian-based company.