Africa: Indigenous Women Fight for Their Future, Their Land, Rights & Self-Determination

Throughout history, Indigenous Women have made remarkable contributions to forwarding the aspirations of their communities for self-determination. Amid the compounded burdens they… Read more »

Africa: Gender Rights - Resistance Against Regression

Global progress on gender rights has slowed almost to a halt. After decades of steady progress, demands for the rights of women and LGBTQI+ people now play out on bitterly… Read more »

Ghana: How a Program in Ghana to Create Green Jobs Can Be a Lesson for U.S. Mayors & Across the Globe

For the past eight years, Chiso has collected waste as part of Accra's informal waste management sector. Since arriving in Ghana from Nigeria, he has earned enough to allow him and… Read more »

Nigeria: State Fails to Stem Kidnapping for Ransom Crisis in Nigeria

Lilian Eze still shivers when she recalls the frequent attacks by kidnappers in the Kaduna community she once lived in, in north-central Nigeria. In February 2022, she fled with… Read more »

Nigeria: From Gas to Ash - the Struggle of Nigerian Women Amidst Surging Cooking Gas Prices

One sunny mid-morning in Omu-Aran village, a community in Kwara State, North Central Nigeria, Iyabo Sunday sat beside a firewood stand observing her pot of beans with rice (a… Read more »

Africa: No God but Greed - Slavery and Indifference

At Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen there is a great painting made in 1797 by the Danish Golden Age painter Jens Juel. It depicts one of Denmark's richest merchants at the… Read more »

Nigeria: Call for Scaled Up Funding for Much-Needed, Successful Joint Program in Nigeria

Nigeria is home to 15 percent of the world's out-of-school children. More than 7.6 million girls are not in school, and only nine percent of the poorest girls in the country are in… Read more »

Africa: Trapped and Trafficked - Fishers Tell of Forced Labor Horror

"The thing is that when you come from an African country, they know that you're basically trapped," says Noel Adabblah. Read more »

Ghana: It's Time to Align Climate Finance and Social Justice, Says Youth Climate Activist

During his childhood, Joshua Amponsem spent a lot of time in his dry rural community collecting water from the streams. ''It was normal,'' the co-director of the Youth Climate… Read more »

West Africa: Deforestation, Encroachment Threaten West Africa's One Health Plans

Thirty-three years ago, Bala Amerasekaran - a Sri Lankan by birth - visited Freetown, Sierra Leone. Since then, the West African nation has been his home, where Amerasekaran has… Read more »

Ghana: Peacekeeper Cecilia Erzuah Promotes Gender Equality By Example

Cecilia Erzuah was torn between two opposite career paths at the end of university. The week she was supposed to begin military training, her professor offered her a position as a… Read more »

Nigeria: Women Challenge 'Colonialist' Patriarchy

Bukes Saliu wakes up very early every workday to beat the gruesome Lagos traffic to head to a job quite unusual for a woman to engage in Nigeria. She is a forklift operator in one… Read more »

Liberia: Carbon Colonialism Has No Place in Liberia's Forests

The fate of Liberia and its forests are entwined. Yet a new climate change deal, set to be announced at the UN climate change talks in Dubai this November, would drive a wedge… Read more »

West Africa: 'Investing' Key to the Prevention of Military Coups - UN

The United Nations says increased investment in the Sahel region will assist in preventing military coups. This after military officers in Gabon announced a seizure of power from… Read more »

West Africa: What Niger's Coup Says About U.S. Security Assistance in the Sahel

In what has become an all too familiar phenomenon, U.S.-trained security personnel have been implicated in the July 26th coup that deposed Niger's democratically elected president,… Read more »

Senegal: Democracy in the Balance?

Civic space is deteriorating in Senegal ahead of next February's presidential election. Recent protests have been met with lethal violence and internet and social media… Read more »

West Africa: Russia Upstages Neo-Colonialist France in West Africa

Going back to the 16th century and continuing through the late 1960s, France was described as the world's second largest colonial power--just behind the British Empire. Read more »

West Africa: France, Russia, Ecowas in Battle for Soul of West Africa

On July 26 2023 a man named Colonel-Major Amadou Abdramane, flanked by soldiers with military fatigues, appeared on Niger's national television to announce the execution of a coup.… Read more »

Nigeria: How Nigeria's Legal System Is Failing to Safeguard Widows' Rights

In February this year, Chichi Okonkwo not only lost her husband but was stripped of everything they owned together. Her husband was severely injured in a car accident about a month… Read more »

Niger: Humanitarian Aid Efforts Continue in Niger Despite Military Coup

Nicole Kouassi, the UNDP resident representative in Niger, is constantly faced with the challenge of coordinating aid delivery to 4.3 million people in need. On Wednesday, Kouassi… Read more »

Mauritania: Supporting Conflict Prevention & Social Cohesion in Mauritania

Deep in the heart of Southeastern Mauritania lies the district and town of Bassikounou, nestled on the border with neighboring Mali, over 1,200 kilometers from the capital city of… Read more »

Sierra Leone: Cloud Lingers Over Sierra Leone's Election

People went to the polls in Sierra Leone on 24 June to pick a president, parliament and municipal representatives. Results were quickly announced and the president sworn in for a… Read more »

Africa: Celebrity Chefs Enlisted to Put Climate-Hardy Millets Back On the Menu

Get yourself a nice big pot full of water, dice some onions and throw in the meat of your fancy, followed by chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, dried okra powder, garden eggs and… Read more »

Nigeria: Questions Arise About Youth Commitment to Democracy After Nigerian Elections

As Nigeria's newly-elected president Bola Tinabu seems to be making his mark by undoing many of his predecessor's policies - another battle is being waged in the courts between him… Read more »

Liberia: Palm Oil - Innovative Approach to Sustainable Development Policy and Investment

Oil palm has brought significant benefits and prosperity to Liberia. The export of crude palm oil is a major source of foreign exchange earnings for the government. The palm oil… Read more »