In a remarkable extension of technological leapfrogging, Somaliland will become the first country in the world to use iris recognition in a presidential election.
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.
Gilles Pison, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (MNHN)
There’s no reason why small families shouldn’t become the norm in Africa. But this will depend on improving education opportunities for women and improving birth control policies.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s record on women’s rights has been mixed.
REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri
The international media and her supporters continue to hoist Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf up as the matron of African women’s rights. But she does not deserve this title.
Protesters with opposing views face off at a ‘Free Speech’ rally in Boston.
AP Photo/Michael Dwyer
Rwanda’s vaccination programme for girls against HPV, the most common sexually transmitted disease was a huge success, thanks to implementation science.
Rwandan presidential candidate, Frank Habineza, waves to supporters.
Reuters/Jean Bizimana
With frequent irregularities, it’s easy to become cynical about elections in Africa. But polls are an essential component of the continent’s growing democracy.
A FARC member waves a white peace flag to commemorate the completion of their disarmament.
AP Photo/Fernando Vergara
African leaders need to up their health allocations to help the new World Health Organisation Director-General meet his health care targets for the continent.
Lake Kivu borders three African countries. With a surface area of 2060 km² it is almost the size of Mauritius.
Shutterstock
A global approach to African history complements the radical post-colonial histories, while also asserting the role of the continent in the world’s global pasts and present.
Rwanda’s first peat-fired power plant at Gishoma is currently running at 10.85MW.
Rwanda Energy Group/Twitter
The road to reconciliation doesn’t begin and end with truth commissions or trials. Change must occur at a systemic level, and communities must commit to rebuilding relationships.
It’s not enough for textbooks just to be present in a classroom. They must support learning.
Global Partnership for Education/Flickr
Textbooks in sufficient quantities are effective in improving the quality of education but in Africa language poses a problem to how pupils interact with the material they are taught.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame attending a 2016 climate change conference in Marrakech, Morocco.
Mohamed Messara/EPA
A Trump presidency brings into question America’s traditional approach to Africa, especially Rwanda. But a true shift in US foreign policy in Africa is not a priority for the Trump administration.
Mothers-to-be must go for dental check-ups early on in their pregnancies to ensure that they don’t develop pregnancy gingivitis.
Shutterstock
Up to 70% of women develop gingivitis during their pregnancy but not many seek dental treatment for bleeding gums. This could be detrimental for their babies.
A protest against President Joseph Kabila. The poster reads: “Kabila must leave without any conditions”.
Reuters/Francois Lenoir
Attempts to deepen democracy in Africa by limiting presidential terms to two have not entirely quashed a culture of entitlement to rule. Glimpses of it persist, much against citizens’ wishes.
The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame, remembers the 1994 genocide.
EPA
Plenty of African states bristle at the rest of the world’s eagerness to prosecute crimes committed on the continent. Some are finding other ways to do it.
A protestor uses grass to obscure his identity during a protest against President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term in Bujumbura, Burundi.
Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
The prospects for reconciliation are bleak. Formal gestures by the government to nudge the opposition parties to join an intra-Burundi dialogue have consistently failed.