Creating more opportunities for young women and girls to work and earn money is a possible solution to early marriages. Subsidising secondary education to keep poorer girls in school is another.
Kenya needs to develop effective cancer testing and treatment options.
Olivier Asselin/Reuters
There is an urgent need for affordable cancer treatment services, lower drug costs, better equipped facilities, favourable national cancer policies and specialist doctors in Kenya.
Somaliland’s shift to use iris recognition in a presidential election stems from distrust in the voting system.
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In a remarkable extension of technological leapfrogging, Somaliland will become the first country in the world to use iris recognition in a presidential election.
Robots are advancing exponentially while human learning occurs at a much slower pace.
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Uganda’s primary healthcare system needs to be strengthened to provide long term care for older people with chronic conditions.
South Africa has the ability to meet national food requirements but for this to happen serious reforms in its agriculture sector are needed.
Paulo Whitaker/Reuters
To stimulate innovation in the agriculture sector education and training is in dire need of substantial reform for greater integration, cooperation and accountability.
A 3D depiction of HIV which attacks T-cells in the body.
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A South African child, who has been in HIV remission for nearly nine years, could help researchers understand how to make remission possible for millions of other HIV positive people.
Biomedical innovations can work with traditional methods like x-rays to guide doctors’ decisions.
Reuters/Adriane Ohanesian
African countries need to start producing and developing their own medical devices. Suitably skilled biomedical engineers are needed for this sort of innovation to take root.
Using research evidence to implement development goals isn’t just a technical process.
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Linking policymakers with research relevant for implementing the SDGs is difficult. But building strong relationships between them and researchers is a good place to start.
Striking Kenyan nurses take part in a protest in Nairobi.
Reuters/Baz Ratner
A strike by Kenyan nurses points to the country’s failure to manage the devolution of responsibility for health care from national to county governments.
A cellphone based hearing test could be helpful in developing countries where screenings are needed.
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In most developing countries hearing services are not available at primary healthcare clinics and those who need it the most are not screened for hearing loss.
Africa has focused on tackling undernutrition caused by low calorie diets.
IFPRI
Policy choices made by Senegal, Ghana, Rwanda, Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Togo over the past 15 years have led to significant reductions in child undernourishment.
Data shows gender disparities in networking.
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The low share of women revealed in this data is problematic for two reasons: a lack of diversity, and what it shows about women’s participation in the social network of informal collaboration.
Changes in climatic conditions have led to an increase in malaria in East Africa.
Adriane Ohanesia/Reuters
Malaria is a major public health problem that affects 106 countries globally. A rigorous and systematic approach to predict and control malaria transmission is needed.
It’s speculated that the natural host of the Marburg virus are Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus).
Seregraff/Shutterstock
Activists often face intransigent regimes and ruthless warlords. But women can use traditional insights into femininity and motherhood for political mobilisation and resistance.
Health authorities in South Africa have launched an investigation to find the food source that has resulted in an unprecedented increase in listeria cases across the country.
Tackling local diseases like rabies could help health authorities identify new outbreaks more easily.
N. Bastiaensen/World Organisation for Animal Health
By tackling local threats and controlling existing diseases, countries are able to build the capacity needed to deal with future emerging disease threats.
People who unexpectedly lose a loved should be identified early enough and appropriately counselled.
Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters.
The unexpected death of a loved one is a traumatic experience. It’s important to identify high risk individuals to provide counselling and social support.
The prevalence of malaria infection in sub-Saharan Africa today is at the lowest point since 1900.
Penn State/Flikr
The history of malaria prevalence in Africa is a long term cycle of highs and lows. However, there’s been little change in the high transmission belt that covers parts of West and Central Africa.
Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
Principal Medical Scientist and Head of Laboratory for Antimalarial Resistance Monitoring and Malaria Operational Research, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
Professor and Programme Director, SA MRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - PRICELESS SA (Priority Cost Effective Lessons in Systems Strengthening South Africa), University of the Witwatersrand