September 13, 2022
South Africa: Obesity Costs South Africa Billions. We Did the Sums
Globally, it is widely acknowledged that obesity-related conditions and their complications add hugely to healthcare costs and productivity losses. In turn this adds a large burden… Read more »
Ghana: Ghana's Efforts to Employ Young People and Regrow Forests Could Work Better
Deforestation has been an issue of global concern for many years. Deforestation is a major environmental concern because of its adverse effects on ecological sustainability,… Read more »
South Africa: South Africa's Increasing Water Stress Requires Urgent Informed Actions #AfricaClimateCrisis
Progress has been made since 2015 on a global scale in terms of increasing access to water of an acceptable quality and to sanitation services. But 2 billion people still lack… Read more »
September 01, 2022
Africa: Seahorse Fathers Give Birth in a Unique Way, New Research Shows
In seahorses and pipefish, it is the male that gets pregnant and gives birth. Seahorse fathers incubate their developing embryos in a pouch located on their tail. Read more »
September 05, 2022
Africa: The PPE Used Throughout the Covid-19 Pandemic Is Getting Tangled Up in Wildlife
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, masking has been one of the key public health measures put in place to combat the disease. Since March 2020, billions of disposable surgical masks… Read more »
August 10, 2022
Africa: Cigarette Advertising Aggressively Targets Kids in Low - and Middle-Income Countries, a New Study Finds
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. Read more »
August 11, 2022
South Africa: Marikana Massacre - South Africa Needs to Build a Society That's Decent and Doesn't Humiliate People
On 16 August mine workers, activists and no doubt a few politicians will gather on the now infamous rock outcrop near the former Lonmin Platinum mine in Marikana, North West… Read more »
Africa: Mature Students in Universities Face 3 Kinds of Barriers - Here's How to Address Them
Since the onset of the pandemic, many colleges and universities have reported record numbers of applications from mature students - adults who return to school on a part- or… Read more »
Africa: Monkeypox Vaccines - What's Available and Why They Aren't a Silver Bullet
In July 2022 the World Health Organization declared the recent current monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency. Since the start of the year thousands of cases have been… Read more »
Tunisia: Former President Bourguiba Did a Lot for Tunisian Women. But Was He Their Emancipator?
Tunisia's National Women's Day is often associated with Habib Bourguiba, the country's first president, who pursued the policy of state feminism. Bourguiba ruled the country for 30… Read more »
Africa: Why Doesn't Monkeypox Have a New Name Yet?
As monkeypox vaccination programs roll out and health authorities release information about how to reduce the spread of the virus, progress on another aspect of the outbreak is… Read more »
South Africa: The Right to Food - Activism and Litigation Are Shifting the Dial in South Africa
Even before the pandemic and the recent global rise in food prices, millions of South Africans were hungry. In 2019, nearly 18% of households could not access enough nutritious… Read more »
August 10, 2022
South Africa: Flipper Traces Reveal the Presence of Ancient Seals On South Africa's Coast
The world's largest and heaviest living carnivore is not a big cat, a bear or a wolf: it's the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina). Bulls of this species can be 5 metres long… Read more »
Africa: What's Wrong With the Fourth Industrial Revolution
The "Fourth Industrial Revolution" is a term coined in 2016 by German economist Klaus Schwab. It's used to describe the technology revolution that the world is going through. But… Read more »
July 12, 2022
Africa: What Does It Mean to Be a 'Person'? Different Cultures Have Different Answers
Opponents and proponents of abortion rights often frame their positions in terms of two fundamental values: "life" or "choice." Read more »
Africa: Africa Is a Treasure Trove of Medicinal Plants - Here Are Seven That Are Popular
Plants have directly contributed to the development of important drugs. The antimalarial treatment artemisinin, pain medication morphine, and cancer chemotherapy taxol are just… Read more »
West Africa: Herder-Farmer Conflict in the Sahel Needs a New Description - Why 'Eco-Violence' Fits
The Sahel - a 5,000km long strip of the African continent stretching from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea - has become the most neglected and conflict-ridden part of the planet.… Read more »
June 28, 2022
Africa: Cooking With 'Dirty' Fuels Affects Women's Mental Health #AfricaClimateCrisis
About 2.6 billion people - nearly half of the global population, most of them in Africa, Asia and central and south America - rely on biomass fuels, like wood and charcoal, or… Read more »
June 24, 2022
Nigeria: Nigeria's Latest Lithium Find - Some Key Questions Answered
High-grade lithium has been discovered in Nigeria. In 2019 the total production volume of lithium, not high grade, in Nigeria reached 50 metric tons This is small compared to… Read more »
June 02, 2022
Africa: Should We Protect Nature for Its Own Sake? for Its Economic Value? Because It Makes Us Happy? Yes #AfricaClimateCrisis
As spring phases into summer in North America, with trees flowering and birds migrating, nature seems abundant. In fact, however, the Earth is losing animals, birds, reptiles and… Read more »
June 05, 2022
South Africa: Covid Left South African Pupils Far Behind in Maths and Language Skills
Learning to read, write, count and calculate forms the basis for all other learning in school and beyond. Pupils start to learn these basic skills in the first three years of… Read more »
Africa: The Award-Winning African Documentary Project That Goes Inside the Lives of Migrants
For far too long the west has been telling stories about and talking on behalf of Africa. However, a new slate of 25 documentary films by African filmmakers called Generation… Read more »
June 03, 2022
Ghana: A Root Cause of Flooding in Accra - Developers Clogging Up the City's Wetlands #AfricaClimateCrisis
Ghana has six designated Ramsar sites. These are wetlands designated under the criteria of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, an international treaty that seeks to protect them. In… Read more »
May 31, 2022
South Africa: Here's How Much Learning South African Children Lost in the Pandemic
When a state of disaster was declared in South Africa in 2020 in response to the COVID pandemic, a hard lockdown was instituted and schools were shut. This was followed by varying… Read more »
South Africa: ANC Policy Papers Touch On Key Issues Facing Agriculture and Land Reform in South Africa
The latest policy discussion document published by the African National Congress (ANC) presents a positive change from the ambiguous agriculture policy the South African governing… Read more »