February 12
South Africa: Water in the Dams, but South Africa's Taps Are Dry - Essential Reads On a History of Bad Management
It's become a common refrain in South Africa: there's no drought, dams and reservoirs are full, but the taps are dry. Read more »
February 11
Sudan: Sudan's Latest Peace Plan - What's in It and Does It Stand a Chance?
US president Donald Trump's advisor on Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, announced in February 2026 that Washington and three Middle East states - Saudi Arabia, Egypt and… Read more »
Africa: Public Healthcare and Contracting Out - Can It Work? Global Review Presents Some Answers
Universal health coverage - ensuring everyone can get quality, affordable healthcare when they need it - is one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. Read more »
South Africa: Cape Town's Wildflowers Are a World Treasure - Six Insights From a New Checklist
Cape Town, in South Africa, is famous for its dramatic mountains and coastline, but its greatest treasure lies in the plants that carpet its slopes and valleys. Table Mountain… Read more »
Nigeria: Why the U.S. Can Destroy Terrorist Camps in Nigeria, but Not Terrorism - Security Scholar
US military airstrikes on Islamic State-linked militants in north-western Nigeria on Christmas Day 2025 attracted global attention. The focus was on the international legal… Read more »
February 10
Africa: Women's Control Over Fertility Is Linked to Education, Money and Digital Access - Study of 16 African Countries
Many married women in sub-Saharan Africa don't have the freedom to make decisions about their sexual and reproductive health. Global data show that only 37% of women in the region… Read more »
Ghana: Activists in Ghana Are Forcing Extractive Firms to Account for the Harm They Cause - Corporate Abuse Study
Ghana has a long history of resource extraction that has caused socioeconomic and ecological harm. The mining of gold, stones, sand and salt has displaced people, polluted the… Read more »
Africa: Taxing Africa's Informal Economies - Technology's Promise and Pitfalls
Changes in the development finance world - especially the sharp drop in foreign aid and fewer cheap loans for low-income countries - have pushed taxation back into the spotlight. Read more »
South Africa: South Africa's Biggest Opposition Party Will Head to Municipal Elections With New Leaders - What Does It All Mean?
Speculation continues about why John Steenhuisen announced that he would not be available for re-election as the federal leader of South Africa's Democratic Alliance (DA) at the… Read more »
February 09
Ghana: Clergy Wives in Ghana Can Be Powerful - but It Takes Constant Bargaining With Men
There is a story in the Bible of a sick woman who held on to the cloak of Jesus amid an impenetrable crowd. She did get her healing, as Jesus immediately felt the loss of power… Read more »
South Africa: South Africans Are Leaving the Electricity Network - but Are Solar Mini-Grids a Fair Solution?
South Africa's electricity system is changing. After years of blackouts until 2024, the state-owned energy company Eskom is being unbundled into smaller companies, and the sector… Read more »
Africa: African Climate Science-Policy Has a Serious Blind Spot - the Slowing Atlantic Circulation
The climate fiction movie The Day After Tomorrow, released in 2004, popularised the devastating effects of sudden climate change on planet Earth. The plot dramatises the… Read more »
Africa: Children's Views Are Rarely Sought By Researchers - We Found a Way to Do It
Adults think we know what is best for children. We have responsibility for them - feeding them, clothing them, educating them, protecting them, loving them - but we also assume… Read more »
February 08
Mozambique: Mozambique Floods - Why the Most Vulnerable Keep Paying the Highest Price
When floods submerged parts of Mozambique after heavy rains in 2000, a baby girl was born in a tree, where her mother clung as the Limpopo river waters rose. The baby was nicknamed… Read more »
Africa: Heat With No End - Climate Model Sets Out an Unbearable Future for Parts of Africa
People often think of a heatwave as a temporary event, a brutal week of sun that eventually breaks with a cool breeze. But as the climate changes globally, in parts of Africa, that… Read more »
Africa: Connecting Home Solar and Electric Vehicle Batteries to the Grid Could Boost South Africa's Clean Energy and Strengthen the Electricity System
South Africa has committed to reaching phasing out human-caused carbon pollution by 2050. To get there, it needs to push as much renewable energy as possible into the national… Read more »
East Africa: East Africa's Dismal Football Record Doesn't Match Its Passion - What Needs to Happen
East Africa loves football. From the streets of Nairobi and the markets of Kampala to the beaches of Dar es Salaam, the passion for soccer is an undeniable current running through… Read more »
February 05
South Africa: South African Novelist Lauretta Ngcobo Is the Subject of a Tender and Urgent New Film
Lauretta Ngcobo, who passed away in 2015, left a singular and impactful literary legacy in South Africa. Even in a life of exile and resistance to apartheid and white minority rule… Read more »
Sudan: Countries Need Higher Education to Rebuild After Conflict - Study Finds Foreign Aid Isn't Going Where It's Needed
Higher education institutions are frequent casualties in violent conflicts. In Palestine, Ukraine and Sudan, to mention only a few recent examples, university campuses have been… Read more »
Southern Africa: A Giant Star Is Changing Before Our Eyes and Astronomers Are Watching in Real Time
For decades, astronomers have been watching WOH G64, an enormous heavyweight star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy visible with the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere.… Read more »
South Africa: New Rugby Rules for South African Kids Aim to Keep Them Safe - What Does the Research Say?
Children in South Africa are back at school after their summer holidays. My son, aged five, has just started school at Wynberg Boys Junior, a school based in Cape Town's southern… Read more »
February 04
Cameroon: Anti-Poverty Programmes Can Change How People See the State and Each Other
When floodwaters washed away Woudou Oumar's home in northern Cameroon, he and his family lost not only shelter but hope. Then a government-supported cash transfer arrived. "The… Read more »
Sierra Leone: Sierra Leoneans Who Live Off the Sea Don't Trust Farmed Fish - but Wild Fish Are in Decline
At dawn in Tombo, one of Sierra Leone's largest fishing towns, small-scale fishers begin landing fish from the sea. A portion of the catch is sold at the landing sites, while the… Read more »
Africa: Grazing and Digging Put Some Herbivores At Greater Risk From Toxic Elements in Soil - New Research
If you've watched a giraffe browsing in the tree canopy, a white rhino meandering across open grassland or a warthog shuffling around on its knees in South Africa's Kalahari… Read more »
Zambia: Zambia's Farmers Are Working in Dangerous Heat - How They Can Protect Themselves
Farming is central to life in Zambia, with about 60% of the country's labour force relying on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihood or income. Seasonal rains shape planting and… Read more »
