Before Bor B Primary School built latrines on the school grounds (pictured in background), students would leave during their break and not return. Credit:Andrew Green/IPS

By Andrew Green*
JUBA, Apr 4, 2012 (IPS) – Before Bor B Primary School built latrines on the school grounds two years ago, students would leave during their first break to head [...]

By Andrew Green*

Martha Borete Angela is a first-year students in a programme for midwives at the Catholic Health Training Institute South Sudan. / Andrew Green/IPS

JUBA, Mar 24 (IPS) – Martha Borete Angela’s gaze sinks to the ground as she admits neither of her two children was delivered by a midwife or doctor. The 28-year-old [...]

By Kristin Palitza

Maternal health is not a priority in Africa. / Kristin Palitza/IPS

ABIDJAN, Mar 21 (IPS) – Political instability, civil strife and humanitarian crises in Africa have over the past decades reversed countless maternal health development gains on the continent, health experts warn.

"African countries with good maternal health statistics are generally those that [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu

A Striga weed-infested maize field in Kenya’s Western Province. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

NAIROBI, Mar 18 (IPS) – While some maize farmers in Kenya’s Western Province are stilling living off the produce from last season’s harvest, Robert Oduor is counting his losses after the deadly Striga weed infested his one-hectare maize field.

"Previously, I [...]

By Charlton Doki

A Let's Talk listening group in Madhol Village in South Sudan. / James Amuda/NDI

JUBA, Mar 14 (IPS) – It is late afternoon and a group of men and women begin to converge under the shade of a huge mango tree in Yambio town, the capital of South Sudan’s western Equatoria state. [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu

Nancy Mweu, of Pamoja Radio, says she has been able to change the lives of women through her radio programme. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

NAIROBI, Mar 12 (IPS) – In a Kibera-bound mini-bus taxi, the driver changes the station just as he turns onto Ngong Road, kilometres away from the Kenyan slum. He [...]

By Miriam Gathigah

In Kenya's urban slums the lives of many children remain a continuous fight for survival. / Miriam Gathigah/IPS

NAIROBI, Feb 29 (IPS) – Each day after school, nine-year-old Nelly Wangui hurries home with a bundle of firewood balanced on her head. The paper bag in which she carries her schoolbooks sits precariously on [...]

By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar

Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed (c) said that the international community was committed to putting an end to the lawlessness in Somalia. / Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar/IPS

MOGADISHU, Feb 23 (IPS) – With an international meeting aimed at resolving the political crisis in Somalia set to take place Thursday, the local media [...]

By Mekonnen Teshome*

The newly completed African Union building in downtown Addis Ababa. / Mekonnen Teshome/IPS

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 21 (IPS) – Ethiopia says that the double-digit economic growth the country has experienced over the last seven years has started benefitting its majority by boosting their income and productivity in agriculture and small-scale businesses.

While the International [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu
 

Soon parents in rural Kenya will be able to receive the HIV tests results of their infants as soon as the relevant blood tests have been done. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

NAIROBI, Feb 20 (IPS) – Jesse Mtembe, a nursing officer at the Akithenesit Health Centre in Teso North, in Kenya’s Western Province, cannot [...]

By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar
 
MOGADISHU, Feb 15 (IPS) – As Somalia’s transitional government and various stakeholders meet Wednesday to discuss the inclusion of the country’s clans in the new government, women politicians have called for a greater role in the leadership of this East African nation.

Most Somali women have to provide for their families as the [...]

By Jared Ferrie
 

Soldiers patrol an oil field in Paloug, in South Sudan's Upper Nile state. / Jared Ferrie/IPS

JUBA, Feb 14 (IPS) – As Sudan and South Sudan meet for the latest round of negotiations featuring oil as a key issue this week, four ships loaded by Khartoum with southern crude are carrying their disputed cargoes [...]

By NAKURU, Kenya
 

Francis Muriu (c) explains to the chief (brown checked shirt) how a resident saved him when thugs raided his home and locked him in a house. / Daniel Sitole/IPS

Daniel Sitole, Feb 2 (IPS) – Using 140 characters or less, Chief Francis Kariuki in Kenya, has tweeted his way to reducing crime in his [...]

By Andrew Green*

During the Lord's Resistance Army's insurgency in northern Uganda, John Lacambel hosted a programme on Mega FM encouraging soldiers to return home. / Will Boase/IPS

GULU, Uganda, Feb 1 (IPS) – Radio Mega FM’s transmission tower rises from the centre of Gulu town, transmitting talk shows and the latest Ugandan radio hits to listeners [...]

By Wambi Michael

Dorothy Kabajungu, 50, has started a firewood business after obtaining a loan from a women’s bank. / Wambi Michael/IPS

WAKISO, Uganda, Jan 30 (IPS) – For most Ugandan women, obtaining a commercial loan to start a business has been very difficult. Many do not have the required collateral of land title deeds [...]