HEALTH-MADAGASCAR: Eight Women Die During Delivery Each Day

Eight Malagasy women die per day while giving birth, either due to complications during the pregancny or during delivery, according to a recently-published national Demographic and Health Survey (DHS).

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Floods – Breaking the Cycle

The fourth largest river in Africa, the mighty Zambezi, is a lifeblood to 32 million people, from land-locked Zambia to Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. But its blessing is also its curse.

ENVIRONMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: How Friendly is Biodegradable Plastic?

Awareness of pollution and the amount of waste going into limited landfill space is encouraging the growing adoption of products with biodegradable plastic packaging. But environmentalists are challenging the claims made for these green products.

TRADE: Crisis Pushing Emerging Markets to Move Beyond the Dollar

The global economic crisis is pushing countries in regions with emerging markets, such as Russia and South Africa, to together move beyond the dollar-based economic model. Given their politico-economic similarities, these two countries should build on opportunities to share expertise and technology.

ECONOMY: Zimbabwe Can’t Repay Loans; Insisting on "Debt Strategy"

The Zimbabwean coalition government cannot afford to repay debts incurred when President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF was ruling on its own and will not repay those debts.

SWAZILAND: Add Water and Stir

What is the first step towards transforming life in a hardscrabble rural community? Address issues of water.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Song and Dance to Empower Women Farmers

Community theatre will be the main thrust of an innovative pilot project that aims to give women farmers stronger influence in agricultural policy-making in Southern Africa.

POLITICS-BOTSWANA: Parties Block Women Candidates for Upcoming Elections

As Botswana prepares for general elections in October, gender activists are protesting against the lack of female parliamentary candidates.

ZIMBABWE: 'Money Comes First, Health Second'

With half her body immersed in a muddy red pond, Esther Nyarambi closely inspects the contents of her wooden panning dish, locally known as zamba. Having spent the entire day pounding gold-bearing rock, she hopes her efforts will be rewarded with even the smallest nugget of gold.

SOUTH AFRICA: Young, Educated and Unemployed

Unemployment among young South Africans is hovering at 30 percent, shooting up to over 60 percent for youths in their late teens and early twenties. But tertiary education and skills development seem not to be making much of a dent in what is now regarded as a crisis.

POVERTY-MAURITIUS: Labouring Through a Class Four Cyclone

Thousands of workers in the textile and manufacturing industry in Mauritius have been forced into unemployment and poverty within the last few months, as factories announced multiple rounds of job cuts due to the global financial crisis.

ENVIRONMENT-MALAWI: Elephants Out of Harm’s Way

A South African capture team has almost completed the translocation of a herd of elephants from the Phirilongwe forest reserve located in a communal management area in southern Malawi.

ECONOMY-ZAMBIA: Hard Times on the Copperbelt

Nowhere in Zambia is the impact of the global financial crisis being felt harder than in the copper and cobalt-rich province of the Copperbelt.

RIGHTS-NAMIBIA: 'Cut, Cut Again and Now Tie Tightly'

Anna Shikongo* wanted many more children, but five-month old Johannes, perched on her lap, will forever be her lastborn. She was sterilised by doctors at a government hospital. Now she is ready to take the government to court.

DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: Investor Absence Fuels Retrenchments

Forty-year-old Thelma Dube was this month told by her long-time employer to stay home. She will be called back to work when business picks up. Her husband got the same instruction, as did hundreds of other workers at the company Textile Mills in Zimbabwe’s second largest city.

RIGHTS-SOUTH AFRICA: Xenophobia Still Smouldering

"My worry is that my children are going to be slaves because they won't have anything. These foreign people come to South Africa with nothing, but tomorrow he has cash, third day he owns a shop and fourth day he has a car. Where do these foreign people get this money?"

Q&A: ‘The Cake is Not Enough’

Gerald Mooi owns a business renting out pool tables for functions across the city of Cape Town area.

MADAGASCAR: Hunger Stalks Drought-Stricken South

The southern part of the island of Madagascar is suffering severe drought and famine. Lack of rainfall during the summer season has destroyed the country’s main harvest in March and April. Half a million Malagasy have little or no access to clean water and food.

ZIMBABWE: 'Let Us Farm, It's Our Job'

A regional tribunal in Namibia has referred a controversial Zimbabwean land case to the next Southern African Development Community Summit of Heads of State, rejecting a last-minute application for postponement by Zimbabwe on Jun. 5.

Q&A: The Key is Economic Growth for People

Countries around the world have committed themselves to reach eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. MDG 8 seeks to develop a global partnership for development, including sustainable debt and an open, rule-based and non-discriminatory system of trade and finance.

HEALTH-MOZAMBIQUE: Scant Progress With Paediatric HIV

Christina M.* looks worried as she cradles one of her sick twin babies. The mother of five already lost twins and another baby to illness soon after childbirth a few years ago.