The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
many farmers across the world will now stop going bananas. Researchers have developed a method to quickly assess the susceptibility of the banana plants to Panama disease
africa's Ivory Coast might become the eighth polio-free country to be re-infected with the virus, warned the World Health Organization (who). The fresh case of paralytic poliomyelitis reported here is suspected to be linked to the same virus that spread to seven polio-free countries from northern Nigeria. Prior to this, …
the World Health Organization (who) is toeing the Bush administration's line, proves a recent research of the premier health institute. As per the study, infectious syringes account for only 2.5 per cent of the hiv infections in Africa and unsafe sex practices are mainly responsible for the continent's aids crisis. …
pro-farmer groups have questioned the credibility of a study stating that the acreage under transgenic crops is increasing at a much faster rate in developing countries than the industrialised nations. As per the groups, the study drew such conclusions as it has been conducted by the us-based International Services for …
• A girl born in Japan today may live till she is 85, but another born in Sierra Leone can expect to live only 36 years • Despite global gains, in 2002, while life expectancy at birth reached 78 years for developed country women, it fell to less than 46 …
The World Bank has approved a grant wherein giant pouched rats will help detect tuberculosis (tb) bacteria in human saliva. The project will be carried out in Tanzania, Africa; tg cases there are expected to quintuple, to 8 million, by 2015. The rat (Cricetomys gambianus) can sniff about 120-150 human …
Even as the government of Angola, Africa, mulls over a second draft of a legislation on land rights, aid and humanitarian organisations point out it could become a source of major future conflict. Tensions over land ownership are on the rise, as millions of Angolans return home after a devastating …
• At the first African Ministerial Conference on Science and Technology for Development, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, ministers from 20 African governments committed to pursue all measures to increase public expenditure on research and development to at least 1 per cent of GDP per annum • In the first …
In Kenya, where sixty per cent of all agriculturists are small farmers with less than 5 hectares (ha) of land, Peter Saku is an interesting case. A marginal farmer of Kifurusha village in Kenya's Machakos district, he grows 11 different kinds of produce on his meagre 0.5 ha. What makes …
West Africa is hell-bent on eradicating polio. In a remarkable effort, via "synchronized' national immunization day (nid) programmes from October 19 to 26, thousands of volunteers and health workers fanned out to administer the oral polio vaccine to 15 million children in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger and Togo, and …
The Nama are forever: The Nama community of South Africa are today scattered over four poor villages near the Namibian border. But, on October 14, 2003, their lives changed. On that day, the community won a court battle to regain their land, and mineral rights to diamonds worth billions. Upholding …
marine boom: An unprecedented census of marine life is reporting three new fish species a week on an average. In the first interim report of the census, an international team of scientists predicts that as many as 5,000 unknown fish species may be lurking in the waters. By the time …
tanzania has become the first African country to start producing a new type of long-lasting bednet that could help significantly reduce deaths from malaria. The bednet is made from specially designed polyester that incorporates insecticide into the material's molecular structure. Unlike a conventional bednet, which needs to be sprayed with …
researchers have recently discovered that one of the foremost victims of global warming is Africa's Sahel region. As per their study, the devastating drought that plagued the region in the 1970s and 1980s was caused by an increase in sea surface temperature, and not environmental degradation as was previously implied. …
Global warming and its impacts on climate have made climatologists study climate patterns of the past so that they can reasonably predict the weather of the future. Tree-ing analysis (dendrochronology), ice-core studies and historical records, lake sediments and speleothems (cave deposits) are used the world over to understand past climatic …
The first day of a multilateral conference involving most of the world’s nations is usually spent on procedural matters. So it was at Cancun, Mexico, where the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was held from September 11 to September 14, 2003. After the usual ceremonial inauguration, …
At Cancun (“snakepit” in Spanish), it was widely expected that negotiations on agriculture would make or break the talks. However, delegates were quick to point to two other issues as equally damaging: (a) the manner in which the Cotton Initiative was methodically dismissed by the US; and (b) the poisonous …
Last year's controversy about food aid from the us containing genetically modified (gm) materials appears to have left African nations wiser. Fourteen countries from the southern part of the continent have agreed upon a common strategy to manage gm products. The guidelines were formulated at a meeting of the Southern …
What kind of ripples were let loose by the breakdown of talks? Celso Amorim, Brazil's minister of external relations and leader of the G-22 group, felt that the lack of engagement (of developing nations) in the Singapore issues, which mirrored the lack of engagement (of the developed world) on agriculture, …
