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...
Brittle Paper gives a run-down of the contenders for this year's award. The winner is announced in July A Nairobi girl through and through, Oduor is working on her debut novel and teaches creative writing. I remembered a time when I was a little child, when I stared into my fathers eyes in much the same way. In them I saw shapes; a drunken, talentless conglomerate of circles and triangles and squares....
What can the rest of the developing world learn from Brazil's economic development and narrowing inequality gap? Researchers explain the three elements of sustained growth Brazil isn't getting the best press at the moment, with ongoing problems with the construction of the World Cup stadiums and protests about public services . Recently economic growth in the country has slowed , with some commentators...
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...
Complicated statistical recalculation adds $240bn to the economy - the equivalent of finding six Ghanas within Nigeria, says Tolu Ogunlesi After months of delays and mounting anticipation, Nigerias economy has been officially rebased. It is now worth $510bn (2013 figures) an 89% rise, far in excess of analysts predictions. Nigeria is now Africas largest economy, pushing South Africa to a distant second...
NGOs demand publication of bank's report into claims of tax avoidance by Glencore Xstrata-owned Mopani Copper Mines The European Investment Bank (EIB) has been accused of engaging in a hypocritical "cover-up" of its report into allegations of tax avoidance by a Zambian mining firm largely owned by the Swiss commodity trader Glencore Xstrata. In 2005, the bank which is owned by EU member states...
Photographs from the Guardian Eyewitness series...
Paul Kasonkomona detained overnight after appearing on live TV and demanding decriminalisation of homosexuality A human rights activist has been arrested in Zambia minutes after he appeared on live television calling for homosexuality to be decriminalised. Paul Kasonkomona was being driven from the Muvi TV studio in the capital, Lusaka, when his car was stopped by police. He was detained overnight...
Watch When China Met Africa, a revealing insight into China's commercial involvement in the African continent. Here's Philip French's review . The HD stream is available to watch on a pay-per-view basis for £3.49. The film will be available to watch immediately. The streaming version can be accessed five times within 30 days of purchase. Distrify, an online film distributor, are managing the payment...
Our new film on demand is the revealing documentary about China's commercial involvement in Africa Reading this on mobile? See the film here Tying in with the Guardian's revealing China in Africa series, here's an opportunity to watch an eye-opening documentary about just what it means. When China Met Africa , directed by Marc and Nick Francis, follows various Chinese enterprises underway in Zambia...
Guy Scott wastes little time on diplomatic language as he lets loose on Africa's biggest economy, race, Mugabe and gay rights One of the most colourful men in African politics happens to be white. Guy Scott is the vice-president of Zambia but his race is probably the least exceptional thing about him. On a recent afternoon in the capital, Lusaka, Scott held court with the kind of candour and eccentricity...
Pretoria angry over comments by Zambian vice-president that Jacob Zuma and others mimic former white rulers South Africa has summoned Zambia's high commissioner to explain a tirade by the country's vice-president in which he castigated South Africans for being backward. In an unusually frank interview in the Guardian on Wednesday , Guy Scott said: "The South Africans are very backward in terms...
The Barotse floodplain in Zambia's Western Province is the scene of an annual fishing expedition, but the methods used to secure big catches are causing fish stocks to dwindle, posing a threat to the traditional way of life ...
s famished Ethiopia of 1984 has become a nation achieving 93% GDP growth in six years, finds study "Dawn. And as the sun breaks through the piercing chill of night on the plain outside Korem it lights up a biblical famine, now, in the 20th century. This place, say workers here, is the closest thing to hell on earth." That television news report by the BBC's Michael Buerk in 1984 framed Ethiopia for...
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 plane crashed An international panel of retired judges has called for a new inquiry into the death in 1961 of the United Nations secretary general Dag Hammarskjöld, in an air crash in Zambia. It says that significant new evidence has emerged and that the possibility that Hammarskjöld's plane was shot down should be taken seriously. The Hammarskjöld commission – chaired by a former British privy council...
Zambia has one of the highest deforestation rates in the world. A pioneering reforestation scheme aims to increase awareness and halt the trend ...
s decision to spend 90% of its agricultural budget on subsidies has left little money for activities that generate a greater impact on agricultural growth and poverty reduction. Florence Chipwende, a farmer, was elated to discover in October last year that the ministry of agriculture had designated four bags of subsidised fertiliser for her under the farmer input support programme (Fisp). However,...
s future with five more years under Zanu-PF With the dust settling following the heavily disputed elections , Zimbabweans are getting used to the idea – whether in hope or despair – that Robert Mugabe will be in power for some time yet and that there is now a rejuvenated Zanu-PF with a super-majority in parliament. This much is clear. But much remains unclear. What will become of defeated opposition...
t any HIV programmes where deaf young people could go to learn. We realised we had to engage them and that we needed to open a Safe Love club here. When we launched it we actually had too many members for one group so we now have two." At the Safe Love club, the group's facilitator, Humphrey Chileshe, writes the words "Intergenerational and transactional sexual relationships" on the board and asks...