Across the continent, there is new attention to the practical requirements of effective immunisation campaigns. Dr Seraphine Adibaku, head of Uganda's malaria control programme, says his country has already started raising popular awareness of the coming availability of a malaria vaccine, with the most recent meeting of officials from the ministry of health and developers of the vaccine and other stake holders held in May. 'We are conscious not to cause excitement because it can lead to undesirable consequences but we have to tell the people that a vaccine could be here sooner than later,' says Adibaku.

The global shortage of health workers is estimated at 4.2 million by the World Health Organisation (WHO), but the migration of doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists from poor to rich countries means the shortfall is not evenly distributed - of the 57 nations identified as having reached a crisis point, 36 are in sub-Saharan Africa. In some countries with fragile health systems and heavy disease burdens, over half of all highly trained health workers have left for job opportunities abroad. In some of the worst cases rural hospitals have been left with just one doctor and a handful of nurses to attend to thousands of patients. What has worked so far in addressing the problem? IRIN took a look at some of the push and pull factors behind health worker migration, and what countries are doing to address them.

'The Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) joins the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition in calling on this weekend’s Extra-Ordinary Summit of the Southern African Development Community focusing on Zimbabwe can lead to a peaceful, free, fair and legitimate democratic transition in that country. We fully endorse and support the Coalition’s call on the summit to put on public record minimum pre-conditions that Zimbabwe must meet in order to create an environment conducive to holding free and fair elections where violence and intimidation play no part and to inspire confidence in the people of Zimbabwe, in SADC and the wider international community.'

In an enigmatic U-turn, Algeria's political parties now support presidential term limits, just three years after they fought tooth and nail to defend the idea of an indefinite term for the chief executive. 'Algeria cannot stand aloof from globalisation and the systems applied in most countries, namely limitation of terms of office,' the National Liberation Front (FLN) said during a meeting of its Central Committee on Sunday (5 June) in Algiers. The majority of Algeria's political organisations, whether among the opposition or close to the government – Islamist, republican and secular – now advocate a return to the principle of limited terms of office as enshrined in previous Algerian constitutions.

South Africa's best-known cartoonist, Zapiro, could again be facing legal action by the African National Congress (ANC) following the publication of a new cartoon of President Jacob Zuma. In Zapiro's latest cartoon in the Mail & Guardian newspaper, published on June 10, Zuma is portrayed with his belt unbuckled, while ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe holds a woman depicting press freedom. 'Lady Justice' is also drawn, and shouts: 'Fight, sister, fight!!' The cartoon is a comment on the ruling party's Protection of Information Bill and the proposed media appeals tribunal.

Police in Bulawayo are still camped at a house used for meetings by Women and Men of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), following a raid on the premises, the organisation has said. It’s understood the police are after WOZA leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, as well as the owner of the house, who is not a WOZA member and is understood to be out of the country. 'Since the beginning of the year, 38 WOZA members have been arbitrarily arrested and 24 detained and charged under the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act. Threats were made that upon the eventual arrest of Williams and Mahlangu, they would be denied bail and imprisoned in the male prison,' a WOZA statement said.

Mobile phone users should not expect any further call price cuts for now. This is after Safaricom and Telkom Kenya got backing from the country’s top offices - that of the President and of the Prime Minister to suspend implementation of new termination rates. Safaricom and Telkom Kenya had warned that a further cut would have a negative effect on the sector’s profitability, risk of job losses, curtail new capital investments, reduce government revenue and competitiveness.

Ibrahim Foday, a reporter of The Exclusive, a Freetown-based independent newspaper, was on 12 June 2011, stabbed to death by unknown assailants in Grafton, a town in the outskirts of Freetown, where Foday lives. The Sierra Leonean authorities have not identified any suspects or disclosed possible motives for the murder, according to a release by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalist (SLAJ), on 13 June 2011. The SLAJ statement linked Foday’s death to an ongoing land dispute between Grafton and another town, Kossoh. Prior to his death the reporter had published a series of articles, on the dispute that the Kossoh people were not pleased with.

The roll-out of a revolutionary meningitis vaccination in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has dramatically cut transmission rates, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and if each country can find sufficient funds to co-finance the campaign, it will be extended to all 25 countries in the Africa meningitis belt by 2016, says the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI). In the 2010-2011 meningitis season, Burkina Faso has confirmed just four cases of meningitis A; Niger has reported four cases; and Mali none, according to WHO.

The Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF) has published a report on the sugarcane-to-ethanol project of the Geneva based firm Addax Bioenergy. The researchers found that 'many farmers in project affected communities have already lost their access to fertile lands, though Addax has provided community members with alternative farm lands and confined them to smaller lands, promises by Addax to plough and harrow the lands materialized too late in 2010.' Furthermore, the researchers observed that 'water has become an ever increasing problem for the communities as lands leased by Addax are currently being prepared and even at this initial stage some water bodies such as the "Kirbent" and "Domkoni" streams near the Maronko village in the Makari Gbanti Chiefdom have ceased to exist.'

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré has sacked all of the 14 governors of the country’s regions and promised to name replacements in due course. A statement on the State radio said the move followed a Cabinet meeting which was chaired by the President in the capital, Ouagadougou. Even though no reasons were given for the sackings, it is believed the action was in connection with the riots and military mutinies that have rocked the country for three months now.

Representatives from various organisations in the region and nationally agreed to submit a series of observations and demands to the finance ministers and central bank presidents of the Union of Nations of South America, UNASUR, during the first meeting of the South American Council of Economy and Finance. The meeting, due to be held in Buenos Aires, was suspended as the proliferation of volcanic ash forced the closure of airports.

A Casablanca court on 9 June sentenced opposition journalist Rachid Nini to one year in prison and fined him 1,000 dirhams (100 euros). The Al Massae editor was indicted in late April on charges of disinformation, attacking state institutions, public figures and the 'security and integrity of the nation and citizens'. Nini published a series of articles criticising Moroccan security authorities and other influential figures. In his writing, he cast doubt over the terrorist attacks experienced by Morocco and demanded the abrogation of the Terrorist Act.

The planned creation of a 26-nation African Tripartite Free Trade Area (FTA) will draw industrial investment to South Africa by making it a springboard for low-duty access to other parts of the continent, trade and industry director general Lionel October said. The proposed free trade zone will merge the three regional blocs covering southern, central and eastern Africa. These are the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), and the East African Community (EAC), which have a combined population of 580-million people.

South African President Jacob Zuma reportedly got into a verbal confrontation with Robert Mugabe, after the ZANU PF leader challenged him over the ‘inaccuracy’ of the Livingstone Troika resolutions. The Johannesburg Summit went on and ‘noted’ the decision of the Organ Troika in Livingstone, dealing a major blow to ZANU PF who had wanted the resolutions thrown out altogether. But the regional leaders also appeared to soften their language towards Mugabe.

Discriminatory laws and a largely homophobic society mean that men who have sex with men (MSM) in Kenya generally find it difficult to access HIV-related information and health services, but rural MSM have an especially hard time. When Kibet Kipsowen*, 30, a cattle keeper in Kenya’s Rift Valley Province, and his partner have sex, they use the oil-based jelly he applies when milking his cows; he’s never heard of a water-based lubricant, let alone used one. Health practitioners discourage the use of oil-based lubricants for anal sex, as the oil degrades condoms, increasing the likelihood that they will break. Studies have found that most African MSM use oil-based lubricants, heightening their risk of contracting HIV.

Amnesty International has said it backs the International Criminal Court's proposal to conduct the confirmation of charges hearings for the suspected post-poll violence sponsors (Ocampo Six) in Kenya. The rights organisation said the move, if successful, would bring justice closer to the victims who bore the brunt of the post election violence that left 1,133 people and 650,000 others uprooted from their homes.

Kenya goes to elections again in about a year’s time, but already concerns are being raised that there could be a repeat of 2007/2008 when a disputed presidential election left more than 1,000 dead and over 600,000 homeless. Some leaders have warned that political tension persists in Rift Valley, the region which bore the brunt of Kenya’s post election in 2008. Bishop Cornelius Korir cited the fact that some people have chosen not to spend the nights in their homes because of the tension. President Kibaki’s advisor on ethnic relations, Raphael Tuju, has blamed joblessness amongst the youth and the failure of the Kazi kwa Vijana programme as providing tribal lords with idle youth to recruit into their armies.

Tunisia's ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who fled to Saudi Arabia in January, is to go on trial in absentia on 20 June. Announcing the date, interim Prime Minister Beji Caid Essebsi said Saudi Arabia had not replied to requests to hand him over. Charges range from conspiring against the state to drug trafficking.

A new sex workers initiative in Botswana has included an LGBTI component in its programme. African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) is a Pan African movement and alliance for the rights of sex workers which was established in 2009 in Johannesburg South Africa, with a number of 105 sex workers from different countries in Africa. Sisonke Botswana, a sex work group currently housed by Botswana Network on Ethics Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA), joined ASWA and dedicated a week to the mapping of sex workers rights in Botswana with the aim to forming a coalition which will advance the human health rights of most key population (sex workers, transgender, MSM and drug users).