SOUTH AFRICA: No Political Will to Support Generic Medication

South African health experts are calling on governments to use legally available mechanisms to promote the production or import of generic drugs in their countries.

MALAWI: Painkillers Prescribed for Malaria Amid Drug Shortage

Malawi is experiencing a drug shortage as the country's international donors remain reluctant to release aid meant for the health sector.

CLIMATE CHANGE: A Threat to Food Security in Africa’s River Basins

While Africa has successfully avoided conflict over shared water courses, it will need greater diplomacy to keep the peace as new research warns that climate change will have an effect on food productivity.

World’s Biggest Hydropower Scheme Will Leave Africans in the Dark

South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed an agreement to build a major hydroelectric power project, which is said to bring electricity to more than half of the continent’s 900 million people. But economic analysts warn that foreign investors will prevent the grid from benefiting the general public.

Angolan Spring – Protests Shaking Up Authorities

Adolfo Andre knows what he wants for his country and says he will fight on until he gets it.

MALAWI: Water Promises Light for Isolated Community

In just a few weeks, seven villages that had expected to remain "in the dark forever" will finally have electricity, courtesy of a small hydroelectric power plant on Lichenya River, one of the major rivers on the eastern slopes of Mulanje Mountain in southern Malawi.

ZIMBABWE: Rural Women Banking By Mobile Phone

Collecting the monthly subscriptions for her co-operative has always been a headache for Thelma Nare, 41. This is because Nare lives in Tshitshi, Plumtree in rural Zimbabwe, about 60 kilometres away from the humdrum of the nearest town centre where banks are located.

OP-ED: Rwandan Refugees Fear Cessation Clause

They should be wary of each other. The historical conflict between their ethnicities has resulted in Africa’s largest genocide.

MALAWI: No Social Safety Nets for the Poor

In Mbedza village, a remote rural community in southern Malawi, Fedson Feston beams an infant’s awkward smile and swings his tiny arms up towards the face of his mother. Four months old, Fedson is too young to know how lucky he is to be alive.

Africa’s Free Trade Zone: A Pie in the Sky?

African heads of state have ambitious plans to create a free trade zone, encompassing 26 countries and more than 600 million people on the continent. But economic experts warn the project is a bold step that comes with a plethora of legal, administrative and political hurdles. Others suggest the plan might be a pie in the sky.

SOUTH AFRICA: Saving Water, Money and Improving Livelihoods

For many months now, a hosepipe connected to a leaking cistern in Isaac Mooi's outside toilet daily pours an estimated 100 litres of wasted water into the aged sewer system of the Emfuleni Municipality, in Vanderbijlpark, south of Johannesburg.

IBSA: In Conflict with the EU

When the G20 leaders meet for their fifth summit in Cannes, France, on Thursday, they will be confronted with several worsening global economic and trade issues. Among them is how to strengthen the international trading system and how to overcome the developmental deficit that continues to create an uneven playing field for poor countries.

ZIMBABWE: Forcing Parents to Top Up Teachers’ Salaries Cannot Continue

As concerns deepen about the quality of education in Zimbabwe, parents can expect an indefinite extension of subsidising teacher salaries as the cash- strapped government struggles to meet the bloated civil service wage bill.

LESOTHO: Government to Turn its Back on Textile Industry

Lesotho’s textile sector – the country’s largest employer - is regarded by many as the only way out of the poverty trap in a tiny kingdom where more than half of the population lives on less than 1.25 dollars a day. But what many do not know is that the government and the World Bank have unofficially turned their backs on the sector and will soon cut important subsidies.

IBSA: Coverage of Economic Body Vital for Development

As the India Brazil and South Africa Summit of heads of state and government starts Tuesday, editors from the respective countries have resolved to provide better coverage of the economic body.

DR CONGO: No End to Mass Rapes: “It’s a Miserable Life”

Angeline Mwarusena, 61, sits on a small wooden bench in front of her hut, head bent, shoulders slumped. Her voice is barely audible. Four years ago, three soldiers from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) entered her home, hit her and raped her repeatedly. One after the other.

ZIMBABWE: Minister Trying to Create a “Paper Tiger” Human Rights Commission

Zimbabwe’s justice minister is frantically trying to fend off probes into allegations of human rights abuses perpetrated by President Robert Mugabe’s regime since the country’s independence in 1980.

NAMIBIA: German Extermination Marginalised Ethnic Groups

Over 100 years after the attempted extermination of Namibia’s indigenous men, women and children, 20 of the 300 skulls that had been stolen for racial research have finally returned home from Germany.

AFRICA: “Ideal for the Development of a Real Economy”

Foreign direct investment in Africa over the last decade has contributed to marked economic growth for the continent but it has not translated into development for its people, say pan-African leaders.

TRADE: Europe Puts Foot Down on EPAs

Botswana and Namibia are set to lose preferential access to the European Union, which wants African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to sign controversial free trade agreements within two years or face potential loss of market access to the 27-member EU bloc.

TRADE: Climate Change Will Impede North-South Trade

Climate change is increasingly playing a role in North-South trade, as carbon emissions are being used as an excuse to protect markets, with poorer countries likely to lose out.