A lack of nurses and doctors where they are needed is often lamented in development work. Is task shifting a solution? Task shifting is a low-cost solution to tackling gaps in health services in the developing world, for example those in HIV and mental health treatment. The need for both is ever present. Last month, a report showed that South Africa has the highest rate of new HIV infections in the...
As a major funder of vaccine delivery programmes, we ask Melinda Gates to share the people, products and organisations working to make immunisation in the poorest countries possible His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi The Crown Prince is a leading champion in the Middle East for improving child health. He is making sure children in Afghanistan...
West Africa has long been a trafficking hub for Colombian cocaine. Now, the drug is coming ashore in Mozambique, alongside heroin and mandrax. Think Africa Press reports Looking out across the sea from the town of Vilanculos on the Mozambican coast, the silhouette of a large vessel, sitting on the edge of the blue-tinted horizon, is just about visible to the naked eye. The group of local fisherman...
Warnings of weaknesses in the ageing dam on the Zambezi river highlight the country's lack of preparedness for disasters In early March, engineers at a conference organised by the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA, a Zambia-Zimbabwe organisation that manages the Kariba dam) warned that the 128-metre-high dam could collapse, threatening at least 3.5 million people, especially in Mozambique and Malawi. Continue...
A pioneering new coalition promises to provide sustainable, cost-effective funding for disease control through development impact bonds. Will it work? Malaria control programmes in recent decades offer overwhelming evidence that integrated, sustained malaria-eradication protocols that cover prevention, diagnosis, and treatment achieve results. But two factors have kept the disease burden posed by malaria...
Though sexual discrimination remains widespread in Africa, a study of 34 countries reveals growing support for women's rights There was the Ugandan minister who defended raping girls as "natural", echoing a similar attitude among Nigerian lawmakers . In Somalia, a court sentenced an alleged rape victim to jail without bringing the accused men to court. This spring, Mozambique could pass a...
With 40% of female MPs, why is Maputo passing legislation discriminating against women, asks Daily Maverick In April, Mozambican MPs will debate and approve a long-overdue review of the penal code: finally, the country is getting rid of the colonial law which dates from 1886. The world has advanced in giant leaps in terms of human rights since then, 127 years ago. The laws of a young country should...
17 - 21 March: Been offline? Catch up on the development-related news, images, infographics and reports that matter Eliza Anyangwe ...
s Eve 2014. Tesfazghi Tewelde, manager of Apopo's mine-clearance programme in Mozambique, says he hopes the country will meet this latest deadline, since there is only an area the size of 1,400 football pitches left to clear. Mozambique is in a strong position to complete the demining operation, he says, thanks largely to the country's National Institute for Demining, which co-ordinates the efforts...
s entire population of white and black rhinos in a little over two decades. The environment ministry said 1,004 animals were killed in 2013 , mostly in poaching hotspot Kruger national park, as the poaching crisis escalated. The number is a big increase on the 668 killed in 2012, which was in itself a record year, up from just 13 in 2007. Appetite for rhino horn from Asia, in particular Vietnam, has...
In Mozambique, 14% of children between two and nine years old are disabled. They are often hidden away by their families – in effect rendered invisible ...
s name was on a list of seven people claimed in a blog run by Rwandan dissidents to belong to a hit squad sent to South Africa to eliminate Karegeya. Karegeya is suspected by police to have been strangled. A bloodied towel and curtain cord were found in a safe in the hotel room. Opponents of the Rwandan government say he was murdered at the behest of Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame. Earlier this week...
The star of Portugal's team that lit up the 1966 World Cup before losing to England in the semi-final has died ...
s team has identified 126 different species of birds within the forest block, including seven that are globally threatened, such as the endangered spotted ground thrush ( Zoothera guttata ). There are an estimated 250 species of butterfly, including five which are awaiting to be described, like Baliochila sp. , a vibrant specimen which has shimmering yellow wings dusted with black. New species of bats,...
t wait much longer. Brígida Mohamad, a 50-year-old widow, is worried about one of her seven children, whose land was also invaded by a company. "My son has nowhere to grow his crops; our machambas [farms] aren't for sale," she complained when she met with IPS in Nacololo, the village in Monapo where she has lived her whole life. These are two cases that help to explain the fear among small farmers...
s ex-fighters and government troops in the Sofala province . Although Renamo does not take responsibility for the violent attacks, dozens have been killed, including many civilians, and hundreds of families have been forced to leave their homes to take shelter in the bush. In the largest cities in the country, at the end of October and the beginning of November, citizens from all over the country organised...
s deputy police commissioner, Bollen Sankwasa, said. The plane was carrying 27 passengers, including 10 Mozambicans, nine Angolans, five Portuguese, and one citizen each from France, Brazil and China, the airline said. Six crew members were on board. Flight TM470 from Maputo, the Mozambican capital, did not land as scheduled in Luanda, the Angolan capital, on Friday afternoon, and the airline initially...
s flagship population report. If current trends continue, the number of girls under 15 having babies in this region is projected to increase from 1.8 in 2010 to 3 million over the next 17 years. This would take the estimated total number of under-18s giving birth in sub-Saharan Africa to more than 16 million by 2030, up from 10.1 million in 2010. The report , Motherhood in childhood: facing the challenge...
s leading cause of preventable infectious blindness. In 1998, health ministers from around the world passed a resolution at the World Health Assembly with an ambitious public health goal of eliminating blinding trachoma by 2020. Since then, the US and UK have been working alongside numerous public and private partners to free people from the devastating effects of trachoma. As the 2020 target approaches,...
s rhinos. By the end of September, 704 rhinos had been killed by poachers in South Africa, exceeding the annual record of 668 set in 2012, according to data provided by the environmental affairs ministry on Tuesday. If the trend continues at its current pace, more than 1,000 rhinos could be killed in 2014, putting the species on the brink of a population decline that the ministry has said could lead...