HEALTH: Rotavirus Vaccine Making Headway in Africa

New vaccination programmes against rotavirus are starting to have a positive impact, and could eventually prevent hundreds of thousands of child deaths a year, according to a new report.

SWAZILAND: Dreams of Free Education Deferred

Ten-year-old Tembuso Magagula sat outside her classroom with her shoulders hunched against the cold today, tears streaming from her eyes. Her long-awaited first day of school had turned into a nightmare.

ARGENTINA: Slow Progress in Cutting Maternal Deaths

Some 300 women a year die in Argentina of complications during pregnancy, childbirth or the postpartum period, from largely preventable causes. Many of the deaths result from unsafe abortions.

ZIMBABWE: One Million Casualties of Land Reform

The seizure of large commercial farms - almost all white-owned - has continued despite the formation of a unity government in Zimbabwe. The country's farm workers say they are the biggest losers.

DEVELOPMENT: Yemen to Lead South in U.N. Negotiations

The republic of Yemen, categorised by the United Nations as one of the world's "least developed countries" (LDCs), will lead the largest single coalition of developing nations this year: the 130-member Group of 77 (G77).

Q&A: “U.S. Should Invest in New U.N. Women’s Agency”

One year after U.S. President Barack Obama's inauguration, how has his administration fared in terms of advancing an agenda for women's rights around the world?

MAURITIUS: These Women Chose the Sea

She cannot swim, but Marie-Claite Hector is not afraid of the ocean. The 53-year-old pushes her small boat with all her strength towards the blue lagoon, starts the engine, and sets out to sea.

ZIMBABWE: Water Scarcity No Obstacle To Bulawayo Farmers

A project in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, is creatively using "marginal water" to ease water scarcity while helping residents provide food and earn a living.

GHANA: Quietly Extending Options to Women

Juliana Kweais has a small scar on her bottom lip, from the first time she witnessed an abortion. The sharp blow to her mouth was delivered by her grandmother, after the then-13-year-old Kweais had asked why her auntie had given "birth" to a bloody sack.

MALI: Small Farmers in the Carbon Market

Mohamed Abd Khibé is a caretaker at the acacia nursery in Dialoubé village, part of a project to sequester carbon in trees while simultaneously improving farmers' livelihoods.

BRAZIL: ‘Colonisation Made Us Poor,’ Say Indigenous Peoples

"We weren't poor until colonisation made us poor," indigenous leader Marcos Terena said at the Rio de Janeiro launch of a United Nations report on the State of the World's Indigenous Peoples.

KENYA: Clash Over Abortion Rights in New Constitution

A harmonised draft constitution has now been handed over to Kenya's Parliamentary Select Committee. Influential Christian leaders are warning that the question of abortion could derail the constitutional review process.

MIDEAST: Will You Marry Poor Me

"If we had money we'd get married right away," says Samir*, 23. He has found his bride, but not the money to hold the wedding.

LIBERIA: Paper Rights Flimsy Protection

Just a few metres outside the front door of a large white-washed courthouse in north central Liberia, Tete Garwo sells small plastic bags of cold water and passes time by pleading her case to thirsty customers. The 40-year old woman describes how she was forced out of her house by an abusive husband, then deprived of her half of the property.

BIODIVERSITY: A Tipping Point on Species Loss?

Humanity is destroying the network of living things that comprise our life support system. While this sawing-through-the-branch-we're-perched-on is largely unintentional, world leaders can't say they didn't know what's going on: 123 countries promised to take urgent action in 2003 but have done little to stem the rising tide of extinctions in what's known as the extinction or biodiversity crisis.

Q&A: Sweden Vows to Sustain Aid Levels to Poorer Nations

Sweden has pledged to maintain its current level of development aid to the world's poorer nations - roughly at about one percent of gross national product (GNP) - despite the global financial crisis.

MALAWI: Green Belt Initiative Taking Shape

Let the rains fail, even for several successive seasons, and Malawi should still be able to produce enough to feed itself.

NIGERIA: Lake Communities Left High and Dry

The fittest are fleeing the shores of Lake Chad: Adamu Modu, a young fisherman, is joining a stream of able-bodied men heading south to find work in the southern part of the country.

URUGUAY: Coming Together to Tackle Climate Change

Fighting the front line battle against global warming, with the participation of all sectors of society, is the cornerstone of a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) pilot project in Uruguay that is drawing attention from the rest of the world.

AGRICULTURE: Three-Quarters of Hungry Are Rural Poor

Climate change, associated with a four-fold increase in natural disasters in the last decade, and the growth of world population, which is expected to reach nine billion by 2050, pose new challenges for aid initiatives like those of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

SPECIAL OP-ED: Why Women’s Reproductive Freedom Ensures Our Survival

Fifteen years ago in Beijing, then first lady, Hillary Clinton, stated firmly, "Women's rights are human rights." Today, after eight years of non-existent U.S. support for women's reproductive rights, Secretary of State Clinton is reviving women's hopes around the globe by affirming the Obama Administration's support for the International Conference on Population and Development Action Plan.