Q&A: 'We Need Policies That Address Climate Change'

Last year, Zimbabwe's second largest city of Bulawayo faced a crippling water crisis, after three of its five supply dams went dry. Some high density suburbs went for over three months without water.

HEALTH-SWAZILAND: AIDS Creating a Society in Distress

In a narrow and still winter-brown valley, little more than a crevice between rocky mountains, Gogo Ndlovu looks after her five young orphaned grandchildren.

AFRICA: Link Between Crop Failure and Climate Change Often Missed

Climate change has a profound effect on food security in Africa, as increasing temperatures and shifting rain patterns reduce access to food across the continent.

MAURITIUS: Workers Urged to Work Nightshift in ‘24-Seven Economy’

In this era of technological progress people should be working less, not more, says Ashok Subron.

AGRICULTURE-SOUTH AFRICA: Small Farmers Pushed to Plant GM Seed

Baphethile Mntambo has been farming organically for the past five years because she knows that avoiding chemicals will in the long-term benefit her yield. She decided not to plant genetically modified seeds because she has heard that they cannot be saved for the next season and will eventually deplete her soil. But she is not entirely sure how and why.

ENVIRONMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: Western Cape Farmers Expect the Unexpected

The Western Cape region attracts millions of tourists who come to this part of South Africa to enjoy its famous Table Mountain and beaches, and to experience some of the world's best wines and deciduous fruits. But changes in the region's climate could be threatening these industries.

TRADE-AFRICA: Senegal and South Africa Moving Closer?

Senegal’s opposition to United Nations sanctions against Zimbabwe aligns Pres. Abdoulaye Wade’s government with that of South Africa. This should boost the two countries’ bilateral relations, which have seemingly been improving in the wake of a recent bilateral trade treaty.

Q&A: Shared Water Resources – Source of Conflict or Cooperation?

Over the past decade, numerous media and research reports have have anticipated wars over water in Africa. As far back as 1998, the Institute for Security Studies presented a research paper stating that water is "recognized as a fundamental political weapon in the Southern African region. Water will increasingly shape the international relations and security arrangements of Southern Africa."

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Transition Not Yet Taking Shape

There is a general consensus in Zimbabwe that the only way out of the current crisis is dialogue between the two main political parties, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF).

ZIMBABWE: ‘‘Companies Cutting Ties Will Hit Average Person Most’’

As state violence in Zimbabwe worsens, economists in the capital Harare have warned that cutting international economic ties with the country will hit the average person the hardest.

DEVELOPMENT-MADAGASCAR: Not Enough Money for Basic Water

Safe drinking water is a scarce resource in Madagascar. Considerable financial investment is needed to improve sanitation and water treatment and distribution for the population of this large island.

ECONOMY-ZIMBABWE: ‘‘Basic Commodities Have Become Luxuries’’

Business has never been this bad, said Nomathemba Nkomo.

DEVELOPMENT-MOZAMBIQUE: An Overly Civil Society?

Civil society organisations in Mozambique are weak, concludes a report on the state of CSOs in the country earlier this year. It only confirmed an open secret: "The involvement of civil society organisations in the fight absolute poverty is mainly as observers, listeners..."

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Refugees Denied Access to Health Care

Refugees and migrants do not have adequate access to health care services in South Africa, aid organisations and NGOs say. This is particularly detrimental for those who are HIV-positive and in need of continuous antiretroviral (ARV) medication: interrupted treatment can mean illness, development of drug-resistance and ultimately death.

ZIMBABWE: Tobacco Sector Up in Smoke as State Violence Escalates

The perennial political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe has wreaked havoc with the country’s once thriving tobacco industry.

HEALTH-SOUTH AFRICA: Bleak Future For the Country's Water

Earlier this month, a private pilot reported to a Johannesburg radio station that while flying over the Kruger National Park, in the far eastern reaches of the country, he had spotted the carcasses of several large crocodiles floating in the Olifants River. This was unusual because the crocodiles within the country's largest game reserve are protected from hunting.

AFRICA: Artists Reflect on World Through Toys With A Difference

It’s not child’s play to showcase ‘‘toys’’ made by artists reflecting on a changing world in African countries. Miniature construction vehicles from Malawi, next to a diminutive Nelson Mandela presiding over South Africa’s first democratic parliament, jostle for space with the Belgian comic hero Tintin on safari in the Congo – all captured in carefully crafted wood.

RIGHTS-ZIMBABWE: Women Bear Brunt of Violence

"We are too familiar with the violence that was meted upon numerous of us from 1890 when the colonialists came into our country right up to the most recent elections. Chief among these forms of violence is sexual violence, and it concomitant implication, HIV infection. Zimbabwean women now have the lowest life expectancy world wide because of HIV & AIDS - 34 years."

HEALTH-MALAWI: Water Woes in Model Hospital

Gladys Mawera's face is contorted with pain -– both she and her newborn baby survived a complicated birth three days ago - but she has not been able to take the painkillers and antibiotics prescribed to her by the medical personnel at the Chiradzulu District Hospital in southern Malawi. The hospital has been without water for five days.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Media Blackout for Female Candidates

For activists campaigning to put more women into Africa's parliaments, the media has become a key battleground. All too often, female candidates are sidelined in election coverage, or reported on in a way that entrenches stereotypes of women rather than analysing the strength of their political and economic policies.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Knockout or Standing Eight for Democracy?

The decision this week by Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party to pull out of Friday's presidential run off election will not have surprised many people in Zimbabwe. A growing chorus of doubt regarding the legitimacy of the poll has been raised, which came amid mounting political violence in the country.