s mother, wife, daughter or sister – and often they are also someone's battered and abused victim. Rape, child abuse and domestic violence are all driving HIV on the continent. Rapists care little for condoms, which means every victim faces a vastly higher risk of HIV infection. African women abused by their partner are 1.5 times more likely to acquire HIV; women who have been sexually abused in childhood...
s raining outside and the room at Bvumbve health centre in rural Thyolo, a district in southern Malawi, is crowded and stuffy. Men, women and children queue along the wall, waiting for a check-up, or to collect medicine. Outside, more people squeeze under the roof of a brick walkway connecting two of the health centre's buildings to shelter from the showers. It's not yet 9am. This is a quiet morning,...
t interfere with police in the investigations", Mwanyongo said. Among the 25 cabinet members fired was the finance minister, Ken Lipenga who ,on Thursday, was leading a high-profile delegation in Washington to meetings with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. It was not clear whether he continued with his mission, but Mwanyongo said: "You stop forthwith to act as a minister of the Malawi...
s efforts to support people in poor countries to push for better public services, but warns that it must be clearer about its goals and more strategic in its allocation of money. The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (Icai) examined UK aid-funded projects in Ghana and Malawi, worth more than £40m, including those designed to help communities play a greater role in how their local schools are run,...
corruption crisis' meeting in Malawi US: federal employees put out of work by government shutdown On Friday 4 October the US shutdown entered its fourth day . The budget standoff between the Republicans and Democrats led to the first partial shutdown of the US government in two decades , taking effect at midnight on Monday 31 September. On Tuesday hundreds of thousands of federal government employees...
s much vaunted economic growth is failing to trickle down to their daily lives, according to the biggest survey of its kind. "After a decade of growth in Africa, little change in poverty at the grassroots," is the title of a report by the Afrobarometer research project , which questioned 51,605 respondents in 34 countries from October 2011 to June this year. Roughly one in five Africans told researchers...
s learned working in the male-dominated world of diplomacy You served as an ambassador to Zambia and India, from 2005 to 2012. Tell us what that entailed I was an academic teaching at the university, but the system in Malawi is that you can always second somebody to government to serve in another capacity. In 2005 I was the dean at the faculty of applied sciences, and we had a meeting with government...
s trip through the Arrest Blair campaign, says Elliot Ross Until recently, Tony Blair had never visited Malawi. Last summer there was a lot of international press coverage on the discovery of oil under Lake Malawi. Since then he's developed an interest in the country's "governance" and has visited twice in nine months. He arrives in Malawi today, having successfully shoe-horned a couple of staffers...
s president, Joyce Banda, Featherstone said: "I have asked them to look at prevention and behavioural change, and to look at women and girls and the connection to violence." Rates of infection across southern Africa are unacceptably high, she said. "Across the world, we have made huge strides in tackling HIV over the past decade. Yet new infection rates remain too high, particularly amongst adolescent...
s Handbook by P N Khanna. First published in 1958, it gives all the information including materials, quantities and man days for every conceivable construction, including a humble, 2x4 metres brick wall. My next challenge, where do you buy bricks, cement and sand, and at the best price? I called on my friend George, who knew exactly where I should go. The best bricks are from Mpemba, a village on the...
s government has had to apply a painful remedy to heal economic damage of the past but we're seeing signs of recovery At the nutrition for growth summit, held in London this month, Malawi became a member of the G8's new alliance for food security and nutrition . This is a tremendous opportunity to accelerate my government's efforts to generate greater investment in agricultural development . The new...
lives and achieve global development goals: "Girls need to be at the centre of the global development agenda. We need both stronger laws to protect girls, and greater political commitment to effective implementation," said the Canadian MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan. Beyond political will, research presented at Women Deliver highlighted the importance of girl-centered advocacy to improve laws, policies,...
To celebrate Africa day on the anniversary of the birth of the Organisation of African Unity, 25 May 1963, we have put together this quiz. No Googling now, says David Smith David Smith Judith Soal ...