Categories
Default

South Africa: Build Our Houses or Face Court Action, Community Warns Housing Development Agency

The HDA bought 700 hectares of land near Malmesbury just outside Cape Town eight years ago. But the agency says it was only officially appointed as implementing agent for the project in March this year. Chatsworth residents, near Malmesbury just outside Cape Town, want to take the Housing Development Agency (HDA) to court for not […]

Categories
Default

Africa Is a Treasure Trove of Medicinal Plants – Here Are Seven That Are Popular

Plants have directly contributed to the development of important drugs. The antimalarial treatment artemisinin, pain medication morphine, and cancer chemotherapy taxol are just three examples of drugs derived from plants. Africa is endowed with up to 45,000 plant species – about 25% of the world’s plant genetic resources. More than 5,000 plant species from this […]

Categories
Default

West Africa: Herder-Farmer Conflict in the Sahel Needs a New Description – Why ‘Eco-Violence’ Fits

The Sahel – a 5,000km long strip of the African continent stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea – has become the most neglected and conflict-ridden part of the planet. Millions of people have been displaced in the region. Mass murders and property destruction occur almost daily. According to reports, around 11,276 people […]

Categories
Default

Seychelles Still Considering Large-Scale Agriculture Projects On Outer-Islands

Seychelles’ state-owned Islands Development Company (IDC) says that it is still going ahead with its agriculture programme on the outer island of Coetivy despite some issues with prospective farmers. Plans for large-scale farming on Coetivy were announced in 2020 but since then there have been a number of hurdles which resulted in the project being […]

Categories
Default

South Africa: Open Letter Rejects ‘Unconstitutional Fatwa’ Against LGBTQIA+ Muslims

A group of Muslim South Africans have released an open letter denouncing the Muslim Judicial Council’s fatwa which they says amounts to hate in a context where the lives of LGBTQIA+ people are already in danger. “It is based on ignorance and reinforces oppression and injustice rather than supporting just, fair and equal ruling,” the […]

Categories
Default

Rwanda: Part of Gisozi Business Centre to Be Demolished Over Pollution

Different facilities in Gisozi commercial hub commonly known as Agakiriro in Gasabo district have been given ultimatum to vacate following an inspection which revealed that they are polluting the nearby wetland in Gisozi sector. One of the facilities to be affected is a market that had been built for former street vendors in Kigali’s most […]

Categories
Default

South Africa: Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Publishes Strategic Biodiversity Draft White Paper for Public Participation

The Draft White Paper on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity in South Africa has been published by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Ms Barbara Creecy, for public comment. The call for submissions was published in Government Gazette 46687 (Notice No. 2252) on 8 July 2022 in terms of the National […]

Categories
Default

Namibia: Bid to Stop Reconafrica Spills Into Court

COMMUNITY forest and conservancy organisations from the Kavango regions are trying to get a court order to stop Canadian oil exploration company ReconAfrica from further oil and gas exploration activities in Namibia. The case will be heard in the High Court on Friday. It was postponed at the end of last week after respondents in […]

Categories
Default

Nigeria: She Writes Woman – Giving Mental Health a Voice in Nigeria

For a significant part of her life, Hauwa Ojeifo had struggled with extreme mood and energy swings, which, coupled with trauma from sexual and emotional abuse, severely interfered with her quality of life. In February 2016, she was on the verge of taking her own life, but she shared her suicidal thoughts with a friend […]

Categories
Default

Liberia: U.S.$250,000 Empowerment Project for People With Disabilities

Persons with disabilities continue to face barriers in finding and keeping employment, and many are unable to participate fully in society and the economy thus, prompting the Government of Liberia (GOL) through the National Commission on Disability to launch a US$250,000 empowerment project for people living with disabilities in the country. The chairperson of the […]

Categories
Default

Liberia: Great Relief for People With Disabilities

It was a great joy for people living with disabilities as several members gathered at the National Commission on Disabilities (NCD) at the weekend for the official launch of the Disability Empowerment Project (DEP), a project which seeks to bring relief to them by taking them off the streets of begging. The launch of the […]

Categories
Default

Africa: Global Cost-of-Living Crisis Catalyzed By War In Ukraine Sending Tens of Millions Into Poverty, Warns UN Development Programme

71 million people in the developing world have fallen into poverty in just three months as a direct consequence of global food and energy price surges. The impact on poverty rates is drastically faster than the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic. Targeted cash transfers to households are more equitable and more cost-effective than blanket energy […]

Categories
Default

Ethiopia: Wag Hemra’s Health System in Desperate Need of Assistance

Addis Abeba — Three woredas under the Wag Hemra administration zone: Abergele, Zequala, and Tsagebej remain under the control of Tigrayan forces and as a result, the people continued facing severe hunger, compounded with drought. Abergele woreda, in particular, is facing malaria, rabies and significant food shortages as well as severe Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) […]

Categories
Default

Kenya: GAF Train Rural Communities in Kitui to Adopt Clean Energy

Nairobi — The Green Africa Foundation (GAF) has rolled out an initiative to train rural communities to adopt clean and energy saving cooking solutions as way of controlling destruction to environment while mitigating against climate change. The training involves imparting skills to rural communities on how to use modern energy saving jikos to cut the […]

Categories
Default

Africa: How Sweet Potato is Preventing the Global Wheat Crisis from Taking Root in Africa

Long before the Ukraine conflict began and sent wheat futures spiralling, scientists in Africa were experimenting with an alternative ingredient for baked goods: orange fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) puree. These efforts to diversify staple products like bread and chapati in Malawi as well as Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda by replacing as much as 60% of […]

Categories
Default

Africa: Intersecting Crises Are Impeding the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, Threatening Peace & Security

United Nations — This week marks the mid-way point to the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and with it the release of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022. While we would like to trumpet success stories and report that we are on track in eradicating poverty and hunger and improving health and education in […]

Categories
Default

Zimbabwe: Citrus Production Transforms Rural Lives in Beitbridge

The large irrigation scheme for 189 communal farmers growing citrus fruit spearheaded by the Government and development partners, has transformed many rural lives in the semi-arid district of Beitbridge. The major turning point for the Shashe community was 2011 after the Government and its partners revamped a 200-hectare scheme that was almost collapsing due to […]

Categories
Default

Rwanda: Calls Grow for Govt to Do More On Food Security

There is a need to urgently devise ways to significantly boost food productivity if the country is to achieve its food security targets, experts and farmers say. They say one of the key bottlenecks facing the sector is lack of results-oriented research and called for increased funding in that area. The issue is even more […]