DEVELOPMENT-KENYA: Helping the Cotton Sector Turn Over a New Leaf

Kenya's cotton industry, once one of the country's main foreign exchange earners, declined substantially following liberalisation of the sector in 1991.

HEALTH-CHILE: Teen Pregnancy Bucks Global Downward Trend

She is only 24 and has already had three children. The first was born when she was 14, the second when she was 20, and the third, who she gave in adoption, was born just a few weeks ago. Her story is a reflection of teen pregnancy and early motherhood, which are on the rise in Chile.

WEST AFRICA: Investments Against Desertification Deliver the Goods

Experts from the Inter-State Committee to Fight Drought in the Sahel (Comité inter Etats de lutte contre la sécheresse au Sahel, CILSS) are calling on donors to invest further in the fight against desertification in this region, because of the positive economic effects such investment would have.

POLITICS: “One U.N.” to Streamline Development Efforts

The United Nations has had a longstanding notoriety for turf wars between competing agencies armed with overlapping mandates on development-oriented missions in the field.

KENYA: Going Beyond “Cheerleading, Singing and Dancing For Candidates”

With general elections scheduled to take place in Kenya this December, activists in the East African country are looking to constitutional reform to ensure that more women fill decision-making posts in government.

BRAZIL: Social Responsibility a Sure Bet for Business

At 62, engineer Oded Grajew, born in Israel but a naturalised Brazilian, is an icon of the progressive business sector who has revolutionised the behaviour of his fellow entrepreneurs.

DEVELOPMENT-NIGER: Land Degradation No Match for Speculators

The term "property speculation" may not be the first that comes to mind concerning Niger, a country which is mostly desert. Nonetheless, this is exactly what is happening in the West African state.

HUMAN RIGHTS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Mixed Response as Gays Come Out

The issue of lesbian and gay Africans’ human rights again came to the fore this week as Anglican Church leaders met in Tanzania amid the continuing row over the consecration of a gay US bishop in 2003.

CORRUPTION-HONDURAS: A Murky Transparency Law

The "law on transparency and access to public information" in force in Honduras since January is in violation of international conventions on freedom of expression and against corruption, and creates loopholes for preventing the declassification of "reserved" or restricted information.

DEVELOPMENT-COTE D’IVOIRE: Dwindling Rains, Falling Harvests

Every day as he leaves his house for the fields, Ousmane Soro is plagued by questions: "What will become of my harvests for sweet potatoes, sugar cane and mangoes this year? Will I be able to meet my family's needs?"

DEVELOPMENT-MALAWI: Outlook Remains Bleak for the Poor

Grace Kafere is tired. She has been on her feet for close to five hours, bending over as she moves up and down in a forest gathering twigs and branches to sell as firewood.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Flour, Sugar – Vehicles of Food Fortification Plan

Lack of vitamin A is associated with the deaths of 350 people a year in the Dominican Republic, where some 400 babies are born annually with brain and spinal cord defects caused by folic acid deficiency, according to official statistics. In addition, many women are at risk of serious complications during childbirth due to iron deficiency anaemia.

ENVIRONMENT-NIGER: Projects Aplenty to Halt the Desert

For those taking up arms against desertification in Niger, the task at hand must seem daunting.

HEALTH-PAKISTAN: Porous Afghan Border Thwarts Anti-Polio Drive

Pakistan has intensified efforts to eradicate the polio virus with a new vaccination drive that targets 12 high-risk districts in southern Sindh province where three new cases were reported recently, bringing the total number of polio incidents countrywide to four since the start of the year.

DEVELOPMENT-MOZAMBIQUE: Waterlogged, and There May Be Worse to Come

Mozambicans are bracing themselves for a cyclone that could spell further hardship for the 120,000 people devastated by floods over the past few weeks.

MAURITIUS: Syringes and Needles Now Part of Anti-AIDS Arsenal

In contrast to the rest of southern Africa, intravenous (IV) drug users have become the group most vulnerable to the transmission of the HI virus in Mauritius. This has led the Mauritian government to introduce a syringe and needle exchange programme in a bid to stem HIV infection among Mauritian drug users.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Islands Could Fall Off the Map

Sylt, the largest of Germany's Frisian islands, in the North Sea, lost at least 800,000 cubic metres of sand from its beaches in the last two months, because of heavy storms and flooding that have marked the northern hemisphere autumn and winter seasons.

HEALTH-ANGOLA: War, Plague, Pestilence and Death

Nearly five years after the advent of peace in Angola, following four decades of war which cost a million lives, the new killers in this Southern African country are cholera, malaria and AIDS.

GUATEMALA: The Dark Side of Five-Star Adoptions

Luxury hotels in the Guatemalan capital reserve entire floors for foreign couples visiting the country to adopt children - a reflection of the demand that is growing steadily without oversight by any specific government authority.

ENVIRONMENT-CAMEROON: Women Face to Face with Desertification

The village of Ngouma has a population of 538 people, 406 of which are women. Most of the men, especially those who can still work the fields, have left in the face of land degradation and even desertification.

BRAZIL-BOLIVIA: Morales Breaches Lula/Petrobras Fortress

Flaunting protocol in his determination to improve the price of the natural gas that his country exports to Brazil, Bolivian President Evo Morales achieved his goal. He persevered, extending his state visit to Brazil until Thursday, and as an extra bonus obtained assistance for development projects as well.