Margaret Mungherera →
Leading Ugandan psychiatrist and advocate for health professionals. Born in Jinja, Uganda, on Oct 25, 1957, she died from colon cancer in Chennai, India, on Feb 4, 2017, aged 59 years. Read more.
Civil society groups set advocacy targets for AIIB →
Just over a year since the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank launched, civil society groups across Europe and Asia say their initial wariness toward the bank has deepened. CSOs are concerned about both the way the China-backed bank has rolled out key initial policies and what is actually included in those documents. Read more.
Global Fund programs shut down as Tanzania cracks down on LGBT community →
As the government revises guidelines for services to key populations, HIV prevention and treatment programming for MSM are put on hold. Read more.
Surviving the "underground" economy →
It has been 15 years since South Africa introduced its first proposed quotas to encourage the mining industry to hire women. The quotas, which were included in the country’s draft mining charter, were a marked change in a country that once prevented women from even entering the industry.
Some elements are still missing, though — including the enforcement of sexual harassment policies, which researchers say continues to fuel inequalities and can put the lives of women working underground at risk. Read more.
Insecurity jeopardizes South Sudan famine relief →
In the wake of the United Nation’s declaration of famine in parts of war-torn South Sudan, humanitarian agencies are scrambling to deliver emergency assistance for the 100,000 people currently facing starvation and the more than 1 million more who are on the brink of it. These efforts could be stymied, however, if access issues in the war-torn country continue to prevent aid workers from reaching the people most in need. Read more.
Frontline: Responding to Malawi's health needs →
An interview with Patrick Phiri, the health coordinator for the Malawi Red Cross, who is based in the country's capital, Lilongwe. Read more.
New era for health in the Gambia? →
Gambia's new president has stated that maternal and child health will be his first priority and experts are hoping for a new focus on health in the country. Read more.
HIV prevention advocates push Global Fund for more data →
The Global Fund has pledged to re-energize HIV prevention and, in line with that commitment, civil society groups are calling on the Fund to offer more explicit data on how much it spends on these efforts. That includes not only overall expenditure data, but also granular information, like spending at a country level and spending on specific interventions. Read more.
Somali refugees under pressure to repatriate after U.S. ban →
A U.S. executive order pausing the refugee program and barring nationals from seven countries from entering the United States for 90 days could endanger thousands of Somalis who had been cleared for resettlement, aid agencies and humanitarian workers warn. Read more.
The politics of security in Germany →
A country threatened by terrorism grapples with its dark history of surveillance. Read more.
Update: I spoke to Seán Moncrieff as part of his daily news program on February 9. Listen here.
The ICC is flawed. Is it still Africa's best hope for justice? →
More than 11 years after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Dominic Ongwen’s arrest, and nearly two years after he was captured and transferred to The Hague, his prosecution finally began in December.
Ongwen’s will not be the only trial unfolding over the coming months. The years since the unsealing of the warrant against him have been rocky for the ICC, which has been accused of reinforcing global power dynamics and targeting geopolitically weak states, particularly in Africa. These were among the reasons three African countries—Burundi, South Africa and Gambia—cited in late 2016 when they announced they would begin the process of withdrawing from the statute that created the court. More are threatening to follow.
During this particularly fraught moment in the ICC’s history, Ongwen’s trial promises to keep many of these issues at the fore. And it could be used either to reinforce the court’s necessity or further undermine its legitimacy, especially on the African continent. Read more.
A new platform for smallholder farmers →
Digital technology has long been touted as the key to helping smallholder farmers around the world overcome barriers that have kept them trapped in poverty, though initial innovations did not always deliver on this promise. Now developers of digital tools for agriculture are trying to refine their offerings, focusing on products that farmers want to use and that align with their priorities. Read more.
Is Sudan coming in from the cold? →
One of the more unexpected decisions to emerge in the waning days of Barack Obama’s presidency was his move last week to ease U.S. sanctions against Sudan that have been in place for nearly two decades. The move to open up Sudan’s economy might encourage the reforms that 20 years of sanctions have not. Read more.
More global attention for tuberculosis →
Two high-profile initiatives were launched late last year, each designed to shore up the response to the global tuberculosis epidemic. Read more.
In an apparent crackdown, Tanzania government raids NGO meeting on reproductive rights →
Mysterious visitors started drifting in on the second morning of a mid-December training for Tanzanian reproductive health providers. First, organizers said, a woman entered the conference room of the Dar es Salaam hotel, announced herself as a BBC journalist and took a seat. Then unidentified men started coming and going.
“It should have been a big red flag for us,” said Nguru Karugu, health and rights consultant for the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa, a human rights-focused grant-maker that organized the meeting.
Despite the interruptions, organizers continued the sessions helping representatives from eight different NGOs chart development strategies. Their organizations had been selected for the training because they provide health services to key populations — vulnerable communities such as sex workers and men who have sex with men, who often face discrimination in public facilities. Though local NGOs, organizers said some of the groups receive funding that originates with major bilateral donors, including the United States.
As the participants broke up for lunch, non-uniformed security officials swarmed the hotel, according to organizers and witnesses. Together with the unexplained attendees, they shut down the meeting and detained eight of the participants.