Growing Water Deficit Threatening Grain Harvests

Many countries are facing dangerous water shortages. As world demand for food has soared, millions of farmers have drilled too many irrigation wells in efforts to expand their harvests. As a result, water tables are falling and wells are going dry in some 20 countries containing half the world's people.

Q&A: CAPTCHA Creator Would Like to Tap Crowdsourcing to Fight Crime

If you use the internet, you will have come across CAPTCHA, a test to determine whether the computer user is human or a machine. What you may not know is that one of its inventors, mathematician Luis von Ahn, comes from one of the poorest countries in Latin America, Guatemala.

SOMALIA: “Children on the Verge of Death Left Behind to Save Those Who Had a Chance”

Tens of thousands of starving Somalis have made their way to the government- held part of Mogadishu in search of food, but many parents have made the anguished decision to leave a child too weak to make the journey behind in hope of saving the others.

War Increasingly Spills Over into Classrooms

The most pressing global challenge to children's rights may be the increasing number of military attacks on schools in war zones, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Wednesday.

Sanitation Moves Up Global Development Agenda

With nearly 40 percent of the world's population lacking adequate sanitation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced an initiative Tuesday to invest 42 million dollars in new grants to help "reinvent the toilet".

MALAWI: Women Get Dirty to Stop Water Scarcity

Ethel James cannot wait for the gravity-fed water scheme in her area to be fixed so that she and the other women in her village will no longer have to wake up before dawn everyday to queue for water.

/CORRECTED REPEAT*/: Burkina Faso Losing Thousands of Hectares of Forests Each Year

The Burkina Faso authorities have sounded the alarm over the increased rate of degradation of forests in this Sahelian country.

SOUTH SUDAN: Time to Start Learning

Being educated during the country’s civil war was almost impossible. But Victoria Maja wanted to become a doctor, and in order to do so she had to leave South Sudan and live and study in the north. She was one of the lucky ones.

EAST AFRICA: Millions Stare Death in the Face Amidst Ravaging Drought

While Kenya struggles to cope with the influx of refuges fleeing the drought in Somalia, it is estimated that about 1,300 people arrive daily at the Dadaab refugee camp, the country is facing its own crisis of malnutrition and starvation.

BURKINA FASO: Big Boost for Small Agricultural Producers

The government of Burkina Faso has responded to long-standing demands of farmers for greater support for small family producers with the launch of "Operation 100,000 Ploughs". Smallholder farmers say this will strengthen the country's food security.

COLOMBIA: ‘Matriarch’ Leads Struggle to Recover Stolen Land

"God willing, we will make it" reads the sign on a rusty old all-terrain vehicle, ideal for the complicated drive to the remote Curbaradó river valley in the banana-producing region of Urabá in northwest Colombia.

SOMALIA: Will the Prime Minister Uphold Media Freedom?

The appointment of a new prime minister in Somalia amid protests and a media crackdown will do nothing to resolve the country’s problems of corruption and cronyism, political analysts say. But they hope the new appointee may be able to do something about media freedom in the country.

HEALTH-UGANDA: Self Medication Blamed for Increased Drug Resistance

In pharmacies in the heart of Kampala men and women line up to buy drugs that you usually need a prescription for, like Coartem, a drug used to treat malaria.

AFRICA: The Struggle for Women to Own Land

Even at the best of times, obtaining a title deed from the ministry of lands is a difficult process. But as the minister of lands admitted on Jul. 13 that his office is rife with corruption, the disorganisation of this office means Kenyan women are no closer to owning land.

OP-ED: Afghan Women Fight Back Against Harassment

My mother entered the house and pushed the door closed with anger. After getting a cup of green tea, she sat in front of the television as her children watched her with concern and confusion.

Q&A: “Urgent CO2 Cuts Critical to Save Our Oceans”

The health of the world's oceans is much worse than is widely believed, but it is not too late to change tack and help this critical ecosystem recover, at least in part, experts say.

Turning Education From a Privilege into a Right

Going to school and receiving an education are opportunities most people usually take for granted. But for 67 million children around the world, such possibilities do not exist.

ASIA: Activists Press for Gender Equality in Forest Tenure Reforms

A 1993 forest act gave back Nepal its green hills, many believe. Activists say the law was also a catalyst for positive change in an area not readily linked with it – women’s rights in rural Nepal.

UGANDA: In Search of Better Medical Care

Even though government health services are free, Grace Nafungo Kutosi doesn’t mind paying the two thousand shillings (about one dollar) when she visits the non-governmental Beatrice Tierney Clinic in Bumwalukani village. In fact, paying the fee at the clinic, which is a 20-minute walk from her home, is cheaper than her having to travel to the nearest government clinic almost seven kilometres away.

ANGOLA: Law on Domestic Violence a Step Forward for Women’s Rights

Domestically abused women who are financially dependent on their abusers can now report the crime with the assurance that they will be able to get financial and medical support from the state, thanks to the country’s new law on domestic violence.

SOUTH SUDAN: Born into Crisis – Violence Against Women Continues

Violence against women is rampant, devastating and tolerated in South Sudan and the new country needs to address these gross human rights violations and train people, especially soldiers, to respect women’s rights.