HEALTH-AFRICA: Financial Crisis Scapegoat for ARV Stockouts?

Shortages in supply of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs are caused by lack of political will and bad supply management, not by the global economic crisis, health experts say.

MADAGASCAR: Poverty Forces 2 Million Children into Hard Labour

Poverty has increased dramatically in Madagascar since January, when a national protest movement to end the regime of former president Marc Ravalomanana plunged the country into a socio-economic crisis. Since then, the number of child labourers has risen by a whopping 25 percent.

ZAMBIA: Farmers Resort to Human Waste for Fertiliser

The economy's down, the price of fertiliser's up. And Zambian farmers are stealing sewage for their vegetable gardens.

Q&A: Plants Know No Frontiers, They Grow Everywhere

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim has spent the last two decades travelling among the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean studying plants.

ZIMBABWE: Warm Words for Investors at Mines Summit

Desperate for investment to lift its moribund economy, the Zimbabwe government welcomed hundreds of prospective mining investors to a conference in Harare this week.

ZIMBABWE: Football Fails to Feed Families

Football was never a ticket to fabulous wealth in Zimbabwe, at least not for players who stayed in the country. But the economic situation has made it ever harder to play simply for the pride and pleasure of pulling on local team colours.

Q&A: Regional Prescriptions for Water Management

The Orange-Senqu River has a one million square kilometre basin that covers Lesotho, South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. The water it provides is crucial to industry in South Africa, but is also relied on by farmers and domestic users.

DRC: Electricity Lines Overhead But Never Seen a Light Bulb

"We produce electricity but we manage darkness. We have big energy sources of electricity but only 20 percent of the population has access to electricity because most of the energy is sold to foreign countries."

MOZAMBIQUE: Building Awareness to Reduce Maternal Mortality

In the Niassa province of northwest Mozambique, one doctor has been working with local communities to overcome the delays responsible for three-quarters of maternal deaths each year.

ANGOLA: Rich and Poor – One Country but Worlds Apart

A chauffeur guides a shining 4x4 BMW out of a gated condominium, ferrying a smartly-dressed executive and her three uniformed children out into another morning in the Angolan capital, Luanda.

SWAZILAND: Educating Angels

It is not a typical classroom setup where pupils sit in rows facing the front with a teacher lecturing before them.

MALAWI: Questions Over Water Stats

A set of new research data contests the Malawian government's claims that nearly all of the country’s urban citizens have access to clean water and sanitation.

SWAZILAND: Sunshine Brings the Gift of Water

It is break time. A handful of pupils of Sitsatsaweni Primary School are crowded around a 25-litre bucket to wash their hands before tucking into a meal of samp and beans.

HEALTH-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Learning From Criticism, U.S. Committed to AIDS Fight

The United States has embarked on a mission to restore Africa's trust in U.S. commitment to global AIDS relief.

MOZAMBIQUE: Local Leadership On Environmental Sustainability

Tucked away in the remote northwest corner of Mozambique is some of the most rugged and least developed terrain in the country. It was in this area that some of the most intense fighting took place during the civil war, which ended in 1992.

ECONOMY: "Africa Is Paying Most for a Crisis Not of its Making"

The global economic crisis has hit the African continent especially hard despite not being involved in its making, civil society organisations gathered in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo heard at the fifth people’s summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Q&A: Cross-Border Links to Boost Women’s Economic Empowerment

The Professional Women, Executives and Businesswomen’s Forum (PROWEB) organised a unique investment conference last week in Zimbabwe’s capital where businesswomen from South Africa and Zimbabwe got the opportunity to not only network but forge what may be a unique African association among businesswomen across national borders.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Zimbabwe Must Abide By SADC Decisions

Condemning Zimbabwe’s withdrawal from a regional tribunal which ruled its state-orchestrated land seizures illegal, civil society groups have said the country should abide by decisions of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) or pull out of the regional body entirely.

HEALTH: Diabetes Wreaks Havoc in Mauritius

Every year 400 Mauritians undergo amputations, another 400 have heart surgery; 175 people's eyes are under the knife every week - all due to a disease that is easily prevented, Type 2 diabetes.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Zimbabweans Rubbish SADC’s Sanctions Call

The unresolved issues plaguing Zimbabwe’s coalition government are set to drag on after southern African leaders once again failed to call President Robert Mubage to book for reneging on his coalition promises.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: "Women Can Be More Than Small-Scale Farmers"

"Government must lead in breaking down the stereotypes of women as tuck-shop owners, candle-makers, peasant farmers, teachers and nurses and create the reality in which they become hoteliers, large-scale commercial farmers, miners and proprietors of retail chains."