Careless Handling of Benin’s Medical Waste Could Cost Lives

Fifteen-year-old Aicha is one of the many spice vendors hawking their wares in the Dantokpa market, in Benin's economic capital, Cotonou. But a closer look at her tidy stall reveals a disturbing detail: the powdered spices are packaged in recycled medicine vials.

Chad Famine – Mothers Breaking Apart Anthills in Search of Food

"Only God knows what will happen to me and my children - for two months there's been nothing to eat. We're living like beggars," Henriette Sanglar, a mother of four in the Moursal quarter of the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, told IPS.

South Africa No Longer the Gateway to the Continent

South Africa’s membership of the bloc of leading emerging economies and its unique position in Africa heralded the country’s role as a gateway into the African continent. However, trade experts question whether it can live up to this position as investors begin to increasingly look towards other African markets.

Scientists Claim Their Place in Struggle for Food Security

Weather events such as extreme temperatures and drought caused global agricultural losses of 11.4 billion dollars in 2011, while 12 million hectares of farmland are lost to land degradation every year, and unsustainable agricultural practices contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases.

New Alternative in Senegal After Wade Defeat

Analysts say that Senegal’s outgoing President Abdoulaye Wade was made to pay for his failure to respond to popular demands, particularly arising from the high cost of basic commodities, a lengthy strike by teachers, and high youth unemployment, by losing his bid for a third term of office.

Women Lead Poverty Reduction in Bangladesh

Kalpana Rani Pal’s pottery business is modest by any yardstick but it is small enterprises like these that are helping reduce poverty levels in Bangladesh.

The Forgotten Emergency in Sudan’s Blue Nile State

Hamid Yussef Bashir said he walked for 17 days with his wife and five children to get to a refugee camp in South Sudan. Here in Jamam, they joined about 37,000 other people who fled from the war across the border in Sudan’s Blue Nile state.

Rio+ 20 Suffers Leadership Void Weeks Ahead of Summit

When a landmark U.N conference on sustainable development kicks off in Brazil mid-June, more than 120 world leaders are expected to participate in the much-ballyhooed talkfest on the future of the global environment.

Climate Change Aggravates Water Shortage in Cuba

In this eastern Cuban city, Danny Dip Leyva has begun to use her shower again after decades of hauling water into her house by hand. But in Aurora, a small neighbourhood on the outskirts of Havana, Manuel Roque still longs for a regular supply of piped water.

Urgent Need for “New Deal” in Equality and Sustainability

The pressing need for a global "new deal" to foster sustainable development and reduce inequalities was the conclusion of the 2012 Global Human Development Forum, a new initiative by the United Nations, held in Istanbul from Mar. 22-23.

Jamaica’s Food Security Hinges on Shaky Agricultural Fortunes

Like its Caribbean neighbours, Jamaica is looking for outcomes that will address its food security challenges when world leaders meet in Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Jun. 20 to 22.

OP-ED: The Key Is Youth Participation

When the secretary-general of the United Nations recently said that failing to invest in the one billion young people of the world "is a false economy", he certainly had more in mind than just a useful business idea.

The Ticket to an Education in Cote d’Ivoire

The births of tens of thousands of children during Côte d'Ivoire's eight-year rebellion were not formally recorded. Providing these children with birth certificates is one of the mundane yet vital challenges facing the authorities as they work to re-establish the country's public administration.

Development Deficit Compounds Indian Sundarbans Crisis

Sahara Bibi, a 47-year-old poor Muslim woman living on one of the climate- impacted islands of Eastern India’s fragile Sundarbans archipelago in West Bengal state, was forced to pull her two young sons out of school and send one of them to the Southern state of Kerala to earn a decent income.

Saving Mothers’ Lives One Midwife at a Time in South Sudan

Martha Borete Angela’s gaze sinks to the ground as she admits neither of her two children was delivered by a midwife or doctor. The 28-year-old South Sudanese woman shared this fact in front of her classmates: first-year students in a programme for midwives at the Catholic Health Training Institute in Wau, a city in the western part of the country.

Tale of Two Approaches – the WTO Torn Asunder?

Trade envoys of India, Brazil, and South Africa have warned industrialised countries not to hijack the Doha multilateral trade negotiations by adopting the controversial plurilateral approach to liberalise trade in services.

Protests in Southern Chile Spread to Other Remote Regions

Protests in the southern Chilean city of Puerto Aysén over the region’s isolation and high local prices of fuel and food have spread to other isolated regions of the country.

DRC Elections – U.N. Condemns Rights Violations

A report by the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office has slammed the government and security forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo, condemning electoral violence linked to the Nov. 30 elections which led to at least 33 deaths in the capital, Kinshasa.

Zimbabwe’s Mopani Worms Disappearing from Rural Diets

Job Mthombeni loves traditional food. One of his favourite culinary delights is Mopani worms, referred to locally as amacimbi, which means caterpillar in Ndebele. At an early age he understood the nutritional value of the worm, which is found in his rural hometown of Plumtree, in southwestern Zimbabwe.

Mexico, So Close to Oil, So Far from Clean Energy

Mexico is not only lagging in the development of renewable energies, but some of the projects that are being carried out actually pose a threat to the environment and biodiversity, such as a wind farm on the island of Cozumel, activists say.

Cameroon’s Baka Pygmies Seek an Identity and Education

Kokpa Pascale Moangue, a Baka Pygmy in southeastern Cameroon, has given his children the one thing he always longed for, but his parents could not give him – an education. And he was able to achieve it by obtaining a simple piece of paper: a birth registration certificate.