CORRUPTION-MALAWI: Mutharika Bites the Hand That Fed Him

It was not something expected of a president who was roundly denounced as being a front man for his predecessor, when he took office.

DEVELOPMENT-ZIMBABWE: Mixing Politics with Food

Food and politics, as Zimbabweans are finding out, are not always mutually exclusive. If they were, what would explain official claims of a bumper harvest when independent assessments suggest otherwise?

DEVELOPMENT-ZAMBIA: From Famine to Feast

It has been a bumper year for Zambia on the agricultural front. According to the head of the country’s Food Reserve Agency, Frida Luhila, Zambia is now able to export maize for the first time since the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy came to power in 1991. Maize is the country’s staple food crop.

HEALTH: Tuberculosis Resurges in Southern Africa

Fuelled by a burgeoning AIDS problem, tuberculosis is on resurgence in southern Africa where health officials are beginning to talk of integrating programmes to fight the two diseases.

CULTURE-SOUTH AFRICA: Helping Men Become Men

In the Nguni languages, which include Zulu and Xhosa, an "indlavini" is a violent and reckless man who disrespects elders and tradition. The indlavini emerged in the early twentieth century, when millions of South African men migrated to towns – looking for jobs in the gold and diamond mines.

EDUCATION-SOUTH AFRICA: Are Preschoolers Getting Their Due?

"Give me a child until he is seven, and I will show you the man," goes the old Jesuit saying – an advertisement, if ever there was one, for the virtues of preprimary education.

RIGHTS-AFRICA: Female Genital Mutilation in the Spotlight

Difficult to speak about and dreadful to endure, female genital mutilation is taking a toll on the women of Africa.

POLITICS-AFRICA: The Continental Legislature Puts Down Roots

It was a telling incident. While several religious leaders were invited to say a prayer at Thursday's opening of the Pan-African Parliament's second sitting, an imam was not amongst them.

HEALTH: New Drug Formulas Needed for Children With AIDS

With HIV-infected children dying much faster than adults – shockingly, one-half by their second birthday – doctors are scrambling to design new treatment protocols that work even in the most resource-poor settings.

HEALTH-ZAMBIA: In a Quagmire Over AIDS Testing

Voluntary testing or mandatory testing? That is the question AIDS activists and government officials are grappling with in Zambia, where about one million people have already died in the pandemic since the late 1980s.

POLITICS-ZAMBIA: Tensions Simmer Over New Constitution

Zambians could be forgiven for pleading "constitution fatigue". The constitution that was drawn up for their country at independence in 1964, has been replaced three times in the past 40 years. Now, yet another constitution is up for debate - something that has pitted government against civil society.

ECONOMY-SWAZILAND: A White Elephant for Those Jumbo Jets?

National airports are the primary gateways to countries today. From the design of a terminal building to the swiftness of baggage retrieval, airports give visitors an all-important first impression of a state’s modernity and capacity to provide services.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: Battered and Bruised, the Main Opposition Party Takes Stock

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), celebrated its fifth anniversary over the weekend. However, ceremonies to mark the event were overshadowed by the question mark hanging over the party’s participation in next year’s parliamentary election.

POLITICS-ZIMBABWE: The War That Might Not Have Been

Two years after Zimbabwean troops returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zimbabwe’s public remains largely unaware of the activities of the mission.

HEALTH: The Divergence of AIDS, and Sexual and Reproductive Rights

AIDS prevention efforts and initiatives to support sexual and reproductive health would seem to be natural allies. Why is it then that projects to advance these causes so often proceed in isolation of each other?

ECONOMY-AFRICA: IMF Chief Sees a Glimmer of Hope

For Africa to outgrow its economic woes, it will need a heavy dose of financial assistance from the world’s richest countries, says Rodrigo de Rato – managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

ENVIRONMENT-SOUTH AFRICA: To Cull, or Not to Cull?

In recent years, much attention has been given to elephant poaching – and the catastrophic effects of this on herds throughout Africa. Successful conservation of elephants presents its own challenge, however, in the form of overpopulation.

HEALTH: At Three Cents a Unit, Condoms Often Rare as Hen’s Teeth

‘Countdown 2015: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All’, a conference that wrapped up in London Thursday, was awash with statistics on a range of matters. One statistic had particular resonance, however - namely that men in sub-Saharan Africa only have access to an average of three condoms a year.

ENVIRONMENT: Upgrading Southern Africa’s Weather Predicting Technology

Southern African meteorologists say regional residents can expect another year of mostly normal rainfall, but with drought-stricken areas repeating dry patterns that have persisted for years, and Indian Ocean nations subject to more cyclones.

POLITICS: Darfur Overshadows the Peace Process in South Sudan

The crisis in the Sudan’s western region of Darfur has overshadowed the peace process in the south of the country, where more than 2 million people have been killed since 1983.

HEALTH: Men – Final Frontier for Education on Sex and Family Planning?

It's not as if men are conspicuous by their absence at 'Countdown 2015: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All'; quite a few have braved the meeting, even though it must be disheartening to hear the shortcomings of their gender so thoroughly dissected.