AGRICULTURE: A Better Banana For Africa

With the eyes of a predator and attention to detail of a master craftsman, Benjamin Maina combs the 100-acre Khosla plantation for fallen banana trees. The good health of this crop is everything to the many people whose lives depend on trading banana -– the best selling fruit in the world.

DEVELOPMENT: Crisis Both a Distraction and an Opportunity

Despite intense media focus on the U.S. presidential campaign and the ongoing economic turmoil, organisers of "Stand Up and Take Action" events this weekend are confident that hundreds of thousands of citizens in this country will not forget the world's poorest.

HEALTH-MALAWI: Help for Women with Obstetric Fistula

A group of 138 unhappy and mostly destitute women from Malawi’s lake district of Mangochi have something to look forward to this week: They will have a chance to restore their dignity and pride by accessing a medical service usually not available to them.

TRADE-AFRICA: Red Faces Over EPAs Red Herring

Senior European Union officials have admitted being embarrassed at how the bloc’s own procedures are delaying them from signing economic partnership agreements (EPAs) with Africa.

DEVELOPMENT: Challenging the Bio-fuel-Hunger Paradigm

Participants at The Third India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Business Forum 2008 came together here to debunk the belief that development of bio-fuels would invariably exacerbate global hunger. Conventional wisdom has it that increased production of bio-fuel - particularly ethanol - will invariably result in decreasing acreage for food grain production, rising food prices and a surge in hunger and malnutrition. Participants at the Forum - held in New Delhi during the lead-up to the third IBSA Summit - declared that this was not necessarily true.

ECONOMY: Poor Sidelined in Rush to Contain Financial Crisis

The worst market crisis since the 1930s has dominated financial leaders' talks here, stoking misgivings that the world's poor are being overlooked.

DEVELOPMENT: Signs of Hope for Ethiopia’s Children

Amid the hardship facing Ethiopia's children, there are signs that conditions may be improving and that children's lives are changing for the better.

DEVELOPMENT: U.N. Prods Drug Firms to Cut Prices for Poorest

The world's poorest nations continue to suffer from high prices for life-saving drugs and a shortage of generics - specifically to treat HIV/AIDS - despite assurances by the some of the major pharmaceutical companies to help lower costs.

ECONOMY: India, Brazil and South Africa Should Gang Up With China

The India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) formation could have enough clout to stand up to the European Union and the U.S. but it needs the help of emerging superpower China. Alternatively it should align with the BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) group.

POLITICS-SENEGAL: Ms. Mayor, Ms. Prefect

The Sicap Baobab neighborhood, one of the prettiest in the Senegalese capital, stands out, but not for the most obvious reasons. Not for its well-paved roads, or the number of naturalised immigrants from Cabo Verde, Togo or Benin, not for the hustle and bustle of the formal and informal economies.

TRADE-EAST AFRICA: Going Bananas to Fight Poverty and Hunger

Arguably one of the world’s most popular fruits, bananas are poorly marketed as a value-added commercial crop in Africa. But that is about to change as a plan is being conceptualised to transform the way Africa produces and sells bananas.

ENVIRONMENT: Crises Likely to Spur Mass Migrations

As climate change, sea-level rise, earthquakes and floods threaten countries such as Bangladesh, Tuvalu, Vietnam and Tajikistan, the Tokyo-based U.N. University (UNU) warns that by 2050, some 200 million people will be displaced by environmental problems.

MADAGASCAR: A Difficult Step For Women

The northern region of Diana is known for the beautiful beaches of the Nosy-Be district and the scent of fields of ylang-ylang flowers. But the political landscape of Diana is as extraordinary as its geography: the region's administrative head is a woman, Anjara Mantasara.

POLITICS: Unchecked Arms Trade Fuelling Conflict, Poverty

With 1.3 trillion dollars spent every year on the world's militaries, countries enmeshed in conflict are often flooded by weapons which are then turned against helpless civilian populations, say human rights organisations pushing for an international treaty to closely regulate arms sales.

MEXICO: Legalisation Fight Gains Ground as Illegal Abortions Increase

Legal access to abortion, available since April 2007 in the Mexican capital, should be extended to the rest of the country, where the rate of illegal abortions exceeds the average for developing countries and the total number reached 880,000 in 2006, up 64 percent from 1990.

COLOMBIA: Sugar Workers Strike for Basic Rights

"We sugar cane cutters are neither delinquents nor terrorists; we are honest workers demanding respect for our rights," say Colombia’s cane harvesters, who have been on strike since Sept. 15, demanding basic rights.

LATAM-CARIBBEAN: Everyone Is Invited to the Summit

For the first time ever, the heads of state and government of Latin America and the Caribbean will gather for a summit meeting Dec. 16 and 17 in Salvador, the capital of the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia, in a new attempt to further regional integration, at present fragmented in several subregional blocs.

DEVELOPMENT: Is a Food Bank Answer to the Crisis?

Bangladesh, one of the world's 49 least developed countries (LDCs) described as the poorest of the poor, is calling for the creation of a global food bank.

BIODIVERSITY: Mammals Face Extinction Crisis

One in four mammals on Earth is at risk of disappearing forever, according to the new "Red List of Threatened Species" released by the Geneva-based International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Monday.

EL SALVADOR: Increase in Poverty Driven by Soaring Food Prices

In the village of Talchiga in northeastern El Salvador, 20 families live in wooden shacks with earth floors, have no piped water, electricity or sewer services, and suffer from high levels of malnutrition.

PERU: Native Groups Hemmed in by Coca Threat

Small farmers from Peru’s impoverished Andean highlands provinces of Ayacucho are moving into indigenous land in the country’s central jungle region to grow coca.