In Africa, corruption dirties the water

NAIROBI, 14 March 2013 (IRIN) - Collusion among government officials, unscrupulous water vendors and large farm owners results in diverted water supply lines, misappropriated funds, and failure to implement laws on protecting water sources from encroachment and pollution. These are just some of the ways corruption is denying millions of poor people in Africa access to safe and clean drinking water, experts say. full report

African migrants pay high prices to send money home

JOHANNESBURG, 27 February 2013 (IRIN) - New data from the World Bank has revealed that African migrants pay more to send money home to their families than any other migrant group in the world. full report

Mali a “wake-up call” for drug trafficking, says think tank

ACCRA, 5 February 2013 (IRIN) - At the launch of a Ghana-based Commission on the Impact of Drug-Trafficking on Governance, Security and Development in West Africa, its chair, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, said the situation in Mali should serve as a “wake-up call” to the perils of allowing organized crime to escalate out of control. full report

In Brief: Staples, not export crops, key to tackling Africa’s poverty – report

NAIROBI, 18 January 2013 (IRIN) - Africa could reduce its poverty levels faster by focusing more on the production of staples rather than export crops, according to a study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). full report

HEALTH: How we live and die

LONDON, 14 December 2012 (IRIN) - We all know we are going to die, but how and when it happens depends largely on who we are and where we live. We think we know the major risks - perhaps malaria or AIDS-related diseases in Africa, or stroke, cancer and heart disease in North America and Western Europe. But, in fact, patterns of mortality and morbidity are rapidly changing around the world. full report

WEST AFRICA: Defining piracy in the Gulf of Guinea

LONDON, 10 December 2012 (IRIN) - In July last year President Boni Yayi of Benin sent a worried letter to the UN secretary-general. His country was being threatened by the activities of pirates, who were scaring shipping away from the ports on which his country's revenues depend. He wanted international help of the kind which had been deployed against piracy off the coast of Somalia. full report

IDPs: African IDP Convention comes into force

NAIROBI, 6 December 2012 (IRIN) - The African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) 2009, also known as the Kampala Convention, came into force on 6 December; it is the world’s first legally binding instrument to cater specifically to people displaced within their own countries. full report

HEALTH: Breaking out of the cold chain

DAKAR, 20 November 2012 (IRIN) - Health workers currently immunizing thousands of children and young adults against Meningitis A in Benin are currently doing so without having to spend days preparing ice packs and sourcing generators and fridges to load on trucks because the vaccine has now won approval for being kept at up to 40 degrees Celsius for as long as four days. full report

SECURITY: Is Africa's maritime strategy all at sea?

JOHANNESBURG, 22 October 2012 (IRIN) - The African Union’s (AU) deadline for securing the continent’s territorial waters - the world’s last major geographical region without a maritime strategy - has been set at 2050, a target that may prove untenable. full report