A consortium of East African institutes is researching new seed varieties better suited to dry areas to combat the effects of climate change in the region. The partnership, comprising seven universities and institutes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, will also disseminate technical knowledge to agricultural extension services and farmers, and promote new insurance and financing schemes for building resilience to climate change.

The British government has denied a visa to Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesra, a leading LGBT activist in Uganda and the 2011 winner of the prestigious Martin Ennals award for Human Rights. She had been invited to open Foyle Pride in Derry, Northern Ireland, 24 August.

There are many challenges and obstacles facing developing countries in moving their economies to more environmentally friendly paths, says this paper from the South Centre. 'On one hand this should not prevent the attempt to urgently incorporate environmental elements into economic development. On the other hand, the various obstacles should be identified and recognised and international cooperation measures should be taken to enable and support the sustainable development efforts.'

The Berkman Center has released three new publications as part of their circumvention project. Over the past two years, the Center has carried out a number of research activities designed to improve our understanding of the knowledge, usage, and effectiveness of circumvention tools as a means to promote access to information online in repressive online environments.

Stiff competition in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to Africa has compelled SA to prioritise 'economic diplomacy' among a range of foreign policy measures designed to drive economic growth. This comes as SA is losing its prime position as the preferred gateway from which to do business on the continent. A draft foreign policy white paper released last week also proposes the setting up of a development agency targeting other African countries, saying the 'success of economic diplomacy will determine the extent to which SA can achieve its domestic priorities'. Regional integration, reform of the international trading system, and negotiating preferential access for African goods on international markets form the core of SA’s economic diplomacy.

More than four out of five men worldwide will be fathers at some point in their lives. Sonke Gender Justice, Instituto Promundo and MenEngage, joined by the Department of Social Development - South Africa, are excited to announce the launch of the MenCare campaign, a global fatherhood campaign to promote active and equal parenting. See for more information.

Over the years, we have been harassed, cajoled, insulted, discriminated against and referred to as beasts called inhuman, insane, sick, immoral and not upright thinking members of society.

This animated YouTube video compiled by the Praekelt Foundation presents an overview of the mobile technology landscape in Africa, with statistics and facts about mobile phones and their use on the continent.

The Telegraphs reports that Libya's rebel leader has promised to hand over power to an elected assembly within eight months of the collapse of Muammar Gaddafi's regime. sketching out the country's path to democracy, after the end of Gaddafi's 42-year reign, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, chair of the National Transitional Council, sought to draw a line under questions about the intent and the legitimacy of his un-elected council, which has become the de-facto government in the rebel-held east of Libya.

Jamaal Abdi, an eight-year-old boy at the Badbaado camp on the outskirts of Mogadishu, would like to have an education. He has his own dreams for the future. But since Abdi and his family arrived at Badbaado camp – the biggest camp for people displaced by the drought and famine in southern Somalia and home to nearly 30,000 people, mostly women and children – he has done nothing but sit around all day. But for Abdi, it’s nothing new. He’s never been to school.

South Africa’s progressive constitution and laws extend the same protections to unaccompanied minors (the term given to children who cross border without parents or adult care-givers) as to local children, but in practice they face immense bureaucratic hurdles and are often left to fend for themselves. Although no figures are available, Mmone Moletsale of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said that based on reports from their partners, South Africa was receiving an increasing number of such children, but still lacked an efficient system for dealing with them.

Liberia’s October 2011 general and presidential elections, the second since civil war ended in 2003, are an opportunity to consolidate its fragile peace and nascent democracy, says this report from the International Crisis Group. 'Peaceful, free and fair elections depend on how well the National Elections Commission (NEC) handles the challenges of the 23 August referendum on constitutional amendments and opposition perceptions of bias toward the president’s Unity Party (UP)... The most serious threats to security, however, are the persistence of mercenary activities and arms proliferation.'

A summit of Southern African leaders this week was unlikely to affect the political crisis in Zimbabwe given the lack of regional consensus on the issue, analysts said. The fragile power-sharing government between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai was expected to feature prominently when leaders from the Southern African Development Community meet on Wednesday and Thursday in Luanda, Angola.

After 30 years and over 20 million deaths in Africa alone, US researchers now report that early treatment of people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that leads to AIDS cuts transmission of the disease by over 96 per cent. Unexpectedly announced by the US National Institutes of Health on 12 May after a six-year clinical trial, the discovery that anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) can make people living with HIV far less infectious means that humanity finally has the tools to reverse the global epidemic. But, says this article from African Renewal, having the technology to curb AIDS, however, is not the same as having the political will to do so.

Fears are mounting that a cholera epidemic could spread rapidly among the hundreds of thousands of people living in often unsanitary conditions in Mogadishu after fleeing drought, famine and insecurity. In Mogadishu's largest health facility, Banadir Hospital, 4,272 cases of acute watery diarrhoea, a symptom of cholera, have been recorded so far this year, causing 181 deaths. (Random laboratory tests showed that 60 per cent of the cases also tested positive for malaria, according to WHO.)

Gender-based corruption in workplaces exists in Rwanda, reveals a new report published by Transparency Rwanda (TR), the civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption. The report is the first of its kind in Rwanda and reveals a number of challenges for the country. The study acknowledges that Rwanda has made impressive progress both in the fight against corruption and in the promotion of gender equality. However, 5 per cent of respondents personally experienced gender-based corruption in workplaces, 10 per cent perceive that the problem exists and nearly 20 per cent know someone who has been a victim.

'Politics, Religion and Power in the Great Lakes Region' covers the political, religious and power relations in the contemporary Great Lakes states: Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tanzania, Kenya and the Sudan. The work is important because of the nexus between these countries’ shared present and past - their political, socio-economic, cultural and historical aspirations.

When talking about ICTs and the relationship between informal online activists and civil society organisations, the key question, says this article, is: how can traditional civil society organisations capitalise from and build on an almost organic process, happening quite independently from them, without attempting to capture or institutionalise such processes, which would endanger their creativity and flexibility? Or put inversely: how can an undefined, motivated but oftentimes transient group of individuals best use the technical know-how of CSOs?

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In recent years Madagascar has experienced a slow, seemingly unstoppable decline of its fragile economy, that has put a strain on the lives of millions of Malagasy citizens. After two and a half years under the administration of the transitional government of Andry Rajoelina (half a presidential mandate), the economy has been ranked worst in the world by Forbes magazine; thousands have lost their jobs and a food crisis is looming in the southern region of the country. Food crises in the region have been recurrent over the past decade, but an independent United Nations expert has warned that the sanctions imposed on Madagascar have made the situation untenable from a food security standpoint.