CHILE: Eliminating Slums

Chile, touted as Latin America's great economic success story, has gone a long way towards reducing poverty and eliminating the country's slums. But a new study shows that disadvantages are still faced by 50,000 children living in shantytowns.

SOUTH SUDAN: Women’s Eyes on the Political Prize


January marks the fifth anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended a bitter north-south civil war in Sudan. With important elections scheduled for April, women are debating and fighting for an expanded role in the new institutions of government.

SOUTH AFRICA: HIV Stigma Persists

HIV-related stigma and discrimination remain a key concern in South Africa, despite the multitude of HIV awareness campaigns that have been launched by government and civil society organisations throughout the years, health experts say.

URUGUAY: From Open Sewer to Green Parkway

For decades, the Miguelete, the main waterway running through the Uruguayan capital, was a virtual open sewer that the capital had turned its back on, along with its past as the site of the traditional Sunday promenade in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

KENYA: Mapping An African Slum

In early November, a group of explorers set out to map a blank space in Africa’s map. Twelve youths armed with global positioning system (GPS) devices made the rounds of the Nairobi slum of Kibera.

HEALTH-INDIA: Hunger Haunts Hospitals

As a nurse, Amita Dhaka sees much suffering, but what she finds hard to handle is inadequate nutrition and even hunger among poor in-patients.

TANZANIA: Addressing Energy Crisis Through Alternatives and Efficiency at Household Level

Tanzania's electricity grid is fed by a mixture of natural gas, diesel and hydropower; however, over the past few years the country has experienced severe blackouts and power rationing in urban areas due to drought and subsequent low-water levels.

COLOMBIA: Women Empowered by Restoring Desertified Land

Indigenous and rural women from southern Tolima, a province located in the heart of Colombia, are lending a hand to the bleak land around them, with the aim of simultaneously recovering the ecosystem and regaining their own dignity, in a community effort that is changing their environment and their lives.

COTE D’IVOIRE: Independent Candidate Pledges Reconciliation

Presidential elections in Côte d'Ivoire, scheduled for Nov. 29, were postponed until February or March 2010. Among the candidates who will try to take advantage of some additional time to campaign will be the sole independent candidate, Jacqueline Oble.

HUNGER: New Warning on Food Security for Horn of Africa

The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) has raised a red flag over the worsening food security situation in the Horn of Africa.

URUGUAY: ‘Dry Toilets’ Provide Ecological Solution in Slums

Marisabel's modest home had no plumbing, like the rest of the dwellings in this poor suburb on the outskirts of Montevideo, the capital of this small South American country.

MALI: Mobilising in Defence of Migrants

The number of migrants being deported and returned to Mali is increasing. Civil society has mobilised to support the returnees.

SANITATION-ZAMBIA: Turning Urine Into Gold

When he ordered his colleagues at the Water and Sanitation Association of Zambia to save all their urine in a plastic bottle in the office toilet, they thought he was mad. But German sanitation specialist Christopher Kellner wanted to demonstrate why he calls urine "liquid gold".

BRAZIL: Hunger-Free Christmas Still Out of Reach

The traditional campaign for a Christmas without Hunger in Brazil is in its 17th year. But in spite of ongoing programmes, food insecurity still affects 15 million people in South America's giant, according to official figures.

NEPAL: Witch Tag Only on Dalits, Minorities

Just 40 kms away from the capital Kathmandu, in Thasingtole, Lalitpur District, Kalli Kumari B.K., 46, a local Dalit woman, was mercilessly beaten up. She was accused of being a 'witch', imprisoned in a shed and forced to eat her own excreta

RIGHTS-JAPAN: Privacy Invaded in Sex Crime Trial

Japan's first sex crime trial under the new lay judge system finished in September amid large-scale media attention that troubled the female victims.

AGRICULTURE-CONGO: All Hands On Deck to Repair Rural Roads

Two kilometres from the village of Ngouha II, a party of villagers are busy repairing an old bridge made of logs, and filling in a massive pothole.

MEXICO: Green Light for Gay Marriage, Adoption in Capital

The Mexican capital's local parliament has authorised marriage between same-sex partners, a measure covering the eight million people in Mexico City proper. Adoption by gay couples will also be allowed.

DR CONGO: Access To Credit Hampers Farmers in the East

The hundreds of savings and loan cooperatives operating in South Kivu should be providing an opportunity to develop agriculture and fight food insecurity in the province, but few farmers have been able to take advantage.

DR CONGO: Small-scale Farmers Say They Just Need Land

The more than 800 small-scale farmers belonging to co-operatives around the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) capital, Kinshasa, could produce enough rice and vegetables for the capital's estimated eight million inhabitants, according to the country's agriculture ministry.

EGYPT: Cheap Bread Frees Women to Work

At a small bakery in Cairo's Boulaq district, dozens of hands thrust through a barred window waving coins and small banknotes. The clerk inside deftly takes the money and deals loaves of round flatbread into plastic bags.