TRADE-AFRICA: Liberalisation May Boost Growth But Not Create Jobs

Even if trade openness boosts economic growth, such growth may not create jobs or alleviate poverty. Therefore the much-vaunted Aid for Trade concept should be redesigned so that ‘‘the major focus is shifted from simply creating more trade to the more important objectives of poverty reduction''.

RIGHTS-NIGERIA: Grim, Overflowing Death Rows

Some 600 people are now crammed into Nigeria’s disease-infested death rows and the number is certain to rise with a justice system that critics say has been resisting reform since the end of military rule in 1999.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Forced to Choose ”Which Rights to Violate”

Images of tiny, malnourished African children, some scavenging for leftover food, have continued to grace the covers of brochures, posters and video clips of aid agencies since the devastating famine that claimed more than one million lives in Ethiopia 22 years ago.

DEVELOPMENT-BURKINA FASO: Small is Beautiful, But Big Has Its Place

An impressive crop of sweet potatoes, yams, cabbages, cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes has spelt a good season for Burkinabé farmer Amadou Diallo, who attributes his success to a nearby water storage tank.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Facing AIDS, Malaria Amidst Brain Drain

As though the decimating effects of HIV/AIDS and malaria were not enough to deal with, African countries also have to battle with the continuing exodus of health professionals leaving the continent for greener pastures.

Q&A: “You Clearly Saw the Horrors of Desertification”

Seven years of working in some of the poorest parts of Benin put Euloge Vidégla in the front lines of the battle against desertification. An agricultural economist by training, he managed the Local Development Support Project (Projet d’appui au développement local, PADEL), mostly in the northern Atacora region, from 1997 to 2004.

TRADE: Poor Infrastructure Undermines Food Safety in West Africa

A container ship is docked at Ghana's Tema port, stuffed to the brim with frozen food products, including thousands of metric tonnes of poultry parts recently arrived from Brazil. These are unloaded into cold storage facilities until they can be transported to the capital of Accra or elsewhere in the country.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Democracy Takes Root in Some Countries, Falters in Others

The progress of democracy in Africa has come under discussion this week at a conference in the South African commercial hub of Johannesburg.

TRADE: Europe Grapples With the Future of ACP Sugar Imports

The European Union (EU) has imported sugar at preferential prices from African, Caribbean and Pacific countries since the 1970s; but, failed sugar reform within the union and the prospect of unlimited imports from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in the near future have put a question mark over this arrangement.

DEVELOPMENT-CAMEROON: Solar Power Starts Muscling Out Kerosene

For Merline Momo Azeufac, a teacher at Balefock village in western Cameroon, the days of fearing nightfall while correcting pupils' work are over. She's no longer hostage to the poor light provided by kerosene lamps.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Making Policies for AIDS in the Workplace, Commonplace

With AIDS cutting a swathe through Africa's workforce, there is an urgent need for employers to set up policies that support HIV-positive staff - and ensure they are not victims of stigma. But, it's a need that often goes unaddressed.

CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE: Success Stories Amongst Growing Numbers of Street Kids

Sixteen-year-old Bamanandoki Pitchou hasn't finished his apprenticeship in hairdressing yet, but he already has a small business. A former street child who lives in Kinsoundi - a suburb in the south of the Congolese capital, Brazzaville - Pitchou trains in the morning, and attends to clients in the afternoon.

ENVIRONMENT-SENEGAL: Setting Fire to the Future

It's the season for bush fires in Senegal, and there are once again concerns that vast tracts of fertile land could be set alight, and ravaged.

ENVIRONMENT-CHAD: Rats, Where There Once Were Elephants

Leaving the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, isn't what it used to be.

ENVIRONMENT: The Niger River in Intensive Care

Stretching over more than 4,000 kilometres, the Niger is West Africa's longest river, and greatly threatened in the country of the same name by environmental degradation that is causing the water course to silt up.

WEST AFRICA: Investments Against Desertification Deliver the Goods

Experts from the Inter-State Committee to Fight Drought in the Sahel (Comité inter Etats de lutte contre la sécheresse au Sahel, CILSS) are calling on donors to invest further in the fight against desertification in this region, because of the positive economic effects such investment would have.

DEVELOPMENT-NIGER: Land Degradation No Match for Speculators

The term "property speculation" may not be the first that comes to mind concerning Niger, a country which is mostly desert. Nonetheless, this is exactly what is happening in the West African state.

DEVELOPMENT-COTE D’IVOIRE: Dwindling Rains, Falling Harvests

Every day as he leaves his house for the fields, Ousmane Soro is plagued by questions: "What will become of my harvests for sweet potatoes, sugar cane and mangoes this year? Will I be able to meet my family's needs?"

ENVIRONMENT-NIGER: Projects Aplenty to Halt the Desert

For those taking up arms against desertification in Niger, the task at hand must seem daunting.

ENVIRONMENT: Plans to Halt Desertification in Africa a Work in Progress

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) requires signatories to create national action plans for dealing with this scourge that allow sustainable development - and encompass participation by communities, amongst others.

ENVIRONMENT-CAMEROON: Women Face to Face with Desertification

The village of Ngouma has a population of 538 people, 406 of which are women. Most of the men, especially those who can still work the fields, have left in the face of land degradation and even desertification.