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EU budget deal freezes foreign aid spending
After tense negotiations in Brussels, European leaders reached a historic budget-cutting deal on Friday – but appeared to have spared foreign aid.The consensus reached today could have potentially negative consequences on the ability to achieve global anti-poverty goals, especially in Africa,” said Natalia Alonso, head of Oxfam’s EU office.
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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In Microsoft’s ‘4Afrika’ launch, a surprising game-changer
In the next three years, the Microsoft Afrika Initiative aims to “help place tens of millions” of smartphones in the hands of African consumers, bring 1 million small and medium-size African businesses and nonprofits online, train 100,000 African university graduates (and find jobs for 75,000 of them), and pilot low-cost wireless broadband in Kenya using “white-space” spectrum.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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‘Tsunami’ of Diseases Waiting to Hit
A tsunami is looming on the horizon and the world is unprepared for it. This one won’t be a massive wall of water but a tidal wave of non-communicable disease – cancer, heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, among others – and experts say the international community needs to act fast to keep it from crashing.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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TB vaccine trial disappoints
The first tuberculosis (TB) vaccine to be tested for efficacy in infants in more than 40 years has proved ineffective as a TB booster shot, but it may have laid the groundwork for the next phase in TB vaccine research.The world has relied on the Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine against TB for over 90 years, despite recent controversy over its efficacy. In clinical trials, effectiveness estimates have ranged from 80 percent protection to none at all; the reasons for these differences are not yet understood.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- public health
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Healthcare Initiative to Train 1 Million Health Workers for Rural Africa
Across sub-Saharan Africa, community health workers using mobile phones and broadband access to sophisticated medical resources are delivering health care to where it is most needed, among the rural poor. A new campaign aims to greatly expand that effort by training, equipping and deploying one million health care workers by the end of 2015, reaching millions of underserved people.At the World Economic Forum today, Rwanda President Paul Kagame and Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez joined Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs in announcing the campaign, which will be overseen by a steering committee at the Earth Institute and will be run through the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (www.undsdsn.org) as part of its Solutions Initiative.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Kenyans Prioritizing Mobile Phone Over Food, Transport
NAIROBI — A recent study commissioned by the World Bank suggests that increasing numbers of Kenyans in the poorest socioeconomic group are foregoing food and transport or opting for cheaper alternatives, to buy credit to use mobile phones. Mobile phones were once considered luxury goods in Kenya. But with decreasing prices, people of all socioeconomic levels have come to rely upon them for both personal and professional needs.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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WEF: Africa’s Growth March to Continue in Stride
There is good news from Africa. The continent is witnessing the second fastest economic growth, and according to knowledgeable sources it may grow even faster in 2013. What is more, currently Africa accounts for 14 sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) with a total amount of USD114 billion in 2009, representing 3% of global SWFs, and that share is expected to increase in future with the establishment of new SWFs.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- infrastructure
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In Central Mali, MSF Staff Bunkers Down, Clamoring for Access
The day after it called for military leaders to unblock access to crucial roads in central Mali, the majority of Médecins Sans Frontières’s staff remained on lockdown, unable to provide medical care and services to those in need.
- Categories
- Health Care
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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