DEVELOPMENT: Africa Still Hampered by Lack of Geographical Data

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) could play a vital role in improving agriculture and boosting food security in Africa. However, only a few African countries are capable of developing such systems, partly because of a lack of basic geographical data.

BRAZIL: Producing Guitars and Luthiers in the Rainforest

Cuban instrument-maker or luthier Raúl Lage came for six months, but has already spent seven and a half years in Manaus, the city in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. "The project is really fantastic," he says, explaining why he plans to renew his work contract again in September.

TRADE-KENYA: British Imports Losing Their Appeal

When Kenya purchased Toyota vehicles for its military forces, instead of the all-pervasive Land Rover, it signalled a seismic change - in effect ending the most favoured status enjoyed by imports sourced from its erstwhile colonial master the United Kingdom.

ENVIRONMENT-ARGENTINA: Scarce Water Threatened by Gold Mine

For nearly a year and a half, local residents in the northwestern Argentine province of La Rioja have been blocking the road that climbs up to the Nevados de Famatina mountain to protest a gold mining project that they say will pollute the water in the country’s driest district.

ETHIOPIA: Choosing Among One's Own Amid Food Crisis

The global food crisis has forced families to make grievous choices. When Mulu Baboche travelled from the Ethiopian capital to visit her home town in the drought-stricken southern countryside, she found her brother weakened, his animals emaciated and his nine children wilting from hunger.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Free Trade Deal Full of Potential – And Danger

The launch of a free trade area (FTA) within the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) has brought the region one step closer to a regional customs union by 2010. But the launch of the FTA at the recent SADC heads of state summit was met with mixed reaction.

TRADE-SOUTHERN AFRICA: FTA Will ‘‘Choke’’ Small Business

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that Southern African Development Community (SADC) governments agreed to will boost large South African companies’ reach in the region at the expense of small-scale producers and shops.

PERU: Indigenous Groups Win Major Battle in Congress

The Peruvian Congress voted Friday to repeal two decrees that opened up communally owned native lands to private investment and that triggered a wave of protests this month by indigenous people in Amazon jungle provinces.

DEVELOPMENT: Food, Fuel and Water Crises Converging

A spectre is haunting the cities and villages of most developing nations, warns a senior official of a World Bank-affiliated organisation.

DEVELOPMENT: Wasted Food Is Also Wasted Water

The world's growing food crisis - which triggered riots and demonstrations in over 30 developing nations early this year - is being aggravated primarily by wastage and overconsumption.

BRAZIL: Setting an Important Precedent for Indigenous Lands

An imminent decision by Brazil’s Supreme Court on the demarcation of the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous reservation in the Amazon jungle region has the country’s native communities on edge, because of the precedent it will set.

CULTURE-SOUTH AFRICA: Crafts That Steal Hearts All Over the World

It is early on a Monday morning and Margret Woermann is late for her interview with IPS. The owner and creative force behind the Heartworks shops is at a meeting discussing a project with a clothing designer.

KENYA: Gathering Storm of Expectations in Nairobi Slum

For the first time in its 60 years of existence, there is a ray of hope for the one million inhabitants of Kibera, one of the world's most densely-populated slums. After spending most of his life on opposition benches - or in prison - as a champion of the poor, the member of parliament for this desperately poor constituency is now the prime minister of Kenya.

HEALTH: Global Agenda Increasingly Disease-Driven

At the end of last month, U.S. President George W. Bush signed a global health package that effectively tripled U.S. spending over the next five years to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in poor countries, to 48 billion dollars.

DEVELOPMENT: South Africa Beats Deadline on Water, Sanitation

South Africa and Madagascar, two African nations participating in the Stockholm International Water Conference currently underway in the Swedish capital, provide a contrasting picture of where they stand - or fall - in achieving the U.N.'s heavily-trumpeted Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

TRADE-TANZANIA: Cheap Imitation Goods Are Flooding Markets

The mishmash of shops in Tanzania's central Kariakoo market in Dar es Salaam stock an infinite array of brand name fakes. Throngs of customers snap up mobile phones, designer gear, high-tech electronics and gadgets - all imitations being sold at unbelievably low prices.

DEVELOPMENT: Wastewater Crops Feeding Millions

Vegetables, rice and other cereals in at least 53 cities in Asia, Africa and Latin America may someday come with warning labels that read "this is a byproduct of raw sewage".

ZIMBABWE: Farmers Can't Afford to Leave Markets – Literally

It is a wintry Tuesday evening at one of the tobacco auction floors in the Zimbabwean capital Harare. A group of small-scale tobacco farmers are preparing food for the night.

DEVELOPMENT: Water Progresses, Sanitation Regresses

The world's poorest nations are making halting progress in water, but little or no tangible improvement in sanitation - two of the basic necessities of life.

DEVELOPMENT-UGANDA: Looming Problems With Kampala's Water

The water supply for two million residents of the Ugandan capital Kampala is threatened by a combination of ill-planned urbanisation and changing rainfall patterns.

TRADE-AFRICA: ‘‘An Injury To One Market Is an Injury to All’’

Southern African non-governmental organisations have put forward demands to their governments in resistance to the continuing talks on economic partnership agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states.