DEVELOPMENT-MAURITIUS: Water – Waste Not, Want Not

The 1.2 million-strong population of Mauritius presently enjoys plentiful piped potable water from the 2000 mm average annual rainfall that falls over the island annually. But large amounts of water are wasted, and with growing demand from new development, the island's water security may come under pressure in the near future.

ECONOMY-ZIMBABWE: ‘‘Basic Commodities Have Become Luxuries’’

Business has never been this bad, said Nomathemba Nkomo.

Q&A: Denying Antiretrovirals To Migrants Hurts Us All

South Africa has become a destination for people from across the continent and beyond. But in spite of migrants having a legal right to free antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV, they are being turned away from government clinics.

TRADE: EU Still Targeting Poorest States for Inclusion in EPAs

The European Commission is still targeting those least developed countries that have resisted economic partnership agreements (EPAs) by opting for the Everything But Arms trade preference scheme.

AFRICA: Russia Behind China and Brazil in Building Relations

The Soviet-era connections between Russia and some African states have collapsed into low levels of economic engagement between the former partners, with the arms trade remaining the exception.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Small Islands’ Warning Went Unheeded

When the president of the Maldives, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, addressed the U.N. General Assembly about 20 years ago, he warned of the possible death of his tiny Indian Ocean island if steps were not taken to curb climate change.

Q&A: "A Silent Housing Crisis Is Unfolding"

With a billion people living in slums, and thousands more joining them every day, the world faces yet another looming challenge - the rise of an impoverished urban underclass, says Anna Tibaijuka of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (U.N. Habitat).

POPULATION: UN Predicts 12 Billion if Family Planning Falters

The United Nations commemorated World Population Day Friday in the shadow of a staggering array of grim statistics: an estimated 200 million women worldwide want to delay or avoid pregnancy but are not using safe and effective family planning.

POPULATION-PAKISTAN: Illegality Inducing Unsafe Abortions

For thousands of Pakistani women, the World Population Day message of ‘Family planning is a right, let’s make it real’’ must sound hollow when they must resort to unsafe, illegal abortions while a debate on whether termination of pregnancy is Islamic or not rages on.

Q&A: Family Planning In Its Infancy in South Sudan

With few roads and almost no health and education infrastructure for the estimated 10 million people of South Sudan - an April census has yet to release any results - health care workers have an enormous task ahead of them.

DEVELOPMENT-MOZAMBIQUE: An Overly Civil Society?

Civil society organisations in Mozambique are weak, concludes a report on the state of CSOs in the country earlier this year. It only confirmed an open secret: "The involvement of civil society organisations in the fight absolute poverty is mainly as observers, listeners..."

POPULATION-INDIA: One-Child Ideal Catching On

Ponni, 27, lay quiet on a missionary hospital bed in this small town, groggy from the anaesthetic administered to her for a caesarean delivery a couple of hours earlier.

HEALTH-SOUTH SUDAN: Welcome New Attention to Maternal Care

A vast pregnancy has swollen the tiny woman walking South Sudan's shining new maternity ward clutching two pieces of paper stapled together. She looks no more than 16, wide-eyed with recent pain.

POPULATION-MIDEAST: Israel Fears the Womb More Than the Bomb

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has laid it out in the starkest possible terms for his fellow Israelis. If they do not relinquish control of the occupied territories, he has warned them, Israel will ultimately cease to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.

POPULATION-MIDEAST: Time Bomb Ticking Away in Gaza

Crowded into a tiny strip of territory of 360 square kilometres, plagued by poverty, malnutrition and unemployment, Gaza's 1.5 million people face a demographic time bomb as the fragile infrastructure struggles to cope with a soaring birth rate.

DEVELOPMENT: ‘Planet Burns While G8 Fiddles’

While the world's major industrialised nations expressed satisfaction over their three-day summit meetings that concluded Wednesday, non-governmental organisations, after some early and limited approval, were deeply disappointed with the outcome on the whole.

DEVELOPMENT: Decades of Bad Policies Brewed a "Perfect Storm"

When the Cold War ended following the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent dismantling of the Soviet Union, there was widespread political euphoria about de-militarisation, global peace, a decline in military spending and economic prosperity.

G8: Leaders Produce More Than NGOs Expected

Three key documents – on African development, food security, and corruption - emerging Tuesday from the summit of major industrial nations' leaders seem to have taken non-governmental organisations (NGOs) by surprise in delivering more than expected, even if they did not please all.

SOUTH ASIA: Eight Nations Unite to Combat Climate Change

As rising seas, melting glaciers, floods and cyclones are increasingly putting millions of people at risk in South Asia, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) met here last week to find ways to mitigate the impacts of changing climate.

DEVELOPMENT: Vision Exists, Reality Doesn’t

The implementation of internationally agreed development goals (IADGs) - including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 - is being increasingly hampered by lack of coordination and coherence both among rich and poor nations, and also within the United Nations.

TRADE: French Report Condemns EPAs as Anti-Development

The approach taken by the European Union (EU) in trade talks with Africa has been strongly criticised in an official report commissioned by France, the new holder of the EU’s rotating presidency.