TRADE: Chic Carpets Link Mozambique, Denmark and, Soon, Brazil

In two rooms in a small Mozambican coastal town, 70 women are cutting, weaving and packaging fabric carpets destined for eclectic design and homeware stores in Denmark and, soon, Brazil and South Africa.

WATER: Working Together on River Management

Postwar Angola is keen to expand irrigation for much-needed development, Namibia is prioritising clean drinking water and sanitation, while Botswana wants to preserve the integrity of the world-renowned Okavango Delta for tourism.

NAMIBIA: Water in the Kambashu

For Namibia's capital city, the goal of sustainable water and sanitation is a major challenge for the 21st century.

Botswana Parliament’s Speaker a Well-Loved Woman

It would have been hard for a teenaged Margaret Nnananyana Nasha to imagine that she would grow up to become one of the most powerful figures in Botswana's government.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Non-Tariff Trade Barriers Springing Up

Despite regional initiatives that even include the eventual possibility of a ‘‘Cape- to-Cairo’’ free trade area, protectionist impulses have caused non-tariff barriers to spring up across Southern Africa.

Mauritian Women Dreaming of Active Politics

"We have had enough of the training given to us in cooking, sewing and household works... We now have another dream: of participating actively in the development of our island at decision-making level," says Marie-Anne Laganne, a political trainer at Women In Politics.

Mass Protests Fail But Angolan Activists Remain Defiant

An attempt to organise a mass protest against the government in Angola’s capital Luanda this week may have fallen flat, but there is no doubt that a fuse has been lit among people who for so many years have not dared to challenge authority.

MALAWI: In Praise of Dry Sanitation

At its best it is waterless, odorless, eminently affordable and has a rich fertiliser as byproduct, yet for residents of Malawi's informal settlements, dry sanitation retains a whiff of the unwanted.

WOMEN’S DAY: DRC Mobile Court a Sign of Hope

Eleven soldiers found culpable in the rape of more than 50 women in the Congolese town of Fizi Centre in January, have begun serving lengthy sentences in the provincial capital, Bukavu. Their speedy trial and sentencing by a mobile court is a welcome sign of a new commitment to ending impunity for sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Medicine Alliance Fighting Corruption in Zambia

"I had always associated corruption with politics and business," laments Chalwe Kabwesha. "When I failed to access ARVs and TB drugs at our clinic because of corruption, I got worried."

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Tri-Partite Agreement Presages Wider Zambezi Agreement

Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe are poised to sign a memorandum of understanding to improve power generation along the length of the Zambezi River.

Zimbabweans Turn to Indigenous Medicine

Zimbabwe's government recently announced that the country had run out of the critical painkiller morphine. It was just the latest development in a debilitating health care crisis that has seen hospitals turn away patients because of drug shortages.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: A Region of Winners and Losers, Not Partners

As Southern Africa prepares itself for another year of economic partnership agreement (EPA) negotiations with the European Union, trade analysts say any deal should be about more than just liberalised trade.

Malawi Business Keen on Power From Mozambique

The feasibility study looking at connecting Malawi's electricity grid to Mozambique's Cahora-Bassa hydropower station was completed 15 years ago; a price for power was long ago agreed by the respective governments: but somehow the project is yet to go ahead.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Energy Pie Greater Than the Sum of its Parts

Two million compact fluorescent lamps will be distributed to households and industry in Malawi by June, in just one of several measures to bridge the gap between electricity supply and demand. Across Southern Africa, energy shortfalls threaten to choke development.

TRADE: South African Imports Filling Zimbabwean Shop Shelves

When the government of national unity (GNU) was formed two years ago, Zimbabweans expected that the days of shop shelves being filled with imported consumer goods would soon be over.

ENERGY-DR CONGO: Small Is Beautiful – And Electrifying

While discussion of hydroelectric power on the Congo River is dominated by the massive Grand Inga project and the dream of power for the entire continent, construction of a series of smaller dams to benefit local communities may produce tangible results much more quickly.

TRADE: South Africa Losing Interest in SADC Customs Union

A schism about the division of revenues in the world’s oldest customs union threatens to derail the process of regional economic integration in Southern Africa.

NAMIBIA: Basic Income Grant: ‘Let Others Taste What We Have Tasted’

A universal Basic Income Grant (BIG) would create laziness and dependence among Namibia’s poor, say politicians. A daring pilot project set out to prove that this untrue. IPS spoke to one of the beneficiaries of the BIG.

NAMIBIA: ‘You Know I’m Hungry, Feed Me Today’

A universal income grant in Namibia would alleviate poverty in one of the most unequal societies on earth, say campaigners. Free handouts only lead to laziness, responds an unwilling government.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Securing Safe Water for a Million More

Long years of armed conflict have obstructed development in the areas on either side of the Angola-Namibia border. Now a 45 million dollar infrastructure upgrade is set to improve access to clean drinking water and decent sanitation for one million people.