Poor childhood conditions, such as exposure to poverty and stunting, are associated with long-term disadvantages to health, education, social adjustment and earnings.
Former Chadian leader Hissene Habre being escorted in to stand trial at the Palais de Justice in Dakar, Senegal in 2015. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 2016 by judges of the Extraordinary African Chambers for crimes against humanity, rape, sexual slavery.
EPA/Stringer
There are fears that the withdrawal of countries from the ICC would mark the end of international criminal justice in Africa. This need not be the case.
A farm employee walks through a soya bean field in northern Uganda.
Reuters/James Akena
Frederick Baijukya, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) et Fred Kanampiu, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
Increasing legume production can turn the tide for African farmers who struggle with poor soils, declining farm yields and worsening nutrition in one fell swoop
A policewoman carries a Burundi flag during a protest against President Nkurunziza’s decision to run for a third term.
Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
The competition between the two authoritarian regimes has become a fact that, given the regional context, is here to last. It justifies repression and indefinitely postpones democratic expression.
Young Kenyan entrepreneurs hard at work. Such enterprise must be encouraged.
Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
African governments and businesses must do more to assist young people by creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem to support them. Without this support, all of their potential may stutter and die.
Distribution of cash can be useful for delivering child care.
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Unscrupulous politicians are adept at using regressive story lines that feed insecurities. That could be dangerous ahead of South Africa’s hotly-contested municipal elections.
Some countries in Africa are well placed to follow the path of development pioneered by a number of Asian countries.
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It’s important to interrogate the key factors that pushed countries from Third World to First World status in the 20th century. Asia’s experiences hold many lessons for Africa.
The key to Rwanda’s agricultural success is good partnership between nongovernmental organisations, the private sector and the government.
Sam Thompson/DFID Rwanda
Despite numerous challenges, Rwanda has made significant agricultural strides.
In the 1990s Paul Kagame of Rwanda, along with Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, were considered the democratic darlings of Africa.
Reuters/Hereward Holland
Africa’s democratic promise of the 1990s has lost its shine. Hopes for accountable rule have faded in Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda. All have blocked the path to meaningful popular empowerment.
Grassroots protesters are questioning the logic of export-led ‘growth’ and renewed fiscal austerity pushed through the ‘Africa rising’ narrative. They want policies that meet their basic needs.
Investment in science and innovation is needed to help build Africa.
Kate Holt/Africa Practice/Flickr
Successful economies are led by innovation and driven by knowledge. For Africa to advance, it needs to make more substantial investments in its research and development sector.
The cases of two women who died in childbirth in two different parts of Uganda are being used in a Constitutional Court battle forcing the government to fulfill its healthcare obligations.
Rwanda’s experience shows that the ‘Green Revolution’ is not as transformative as it is made out to be.
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The modernisation of agriculture has been touted by economists and the IMF as a way of reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. But caution about the benefits of the Green Revolution is advisable.