Across Africa, women have less access to the internet than men. In Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania only 15%-28% of women own smartphones. Tinuade Adekunbi Ojo is a feminist political economist and director of the Centre for the Study of Race, Gender and Class at the University of Johannesburg. She researches gender inequality in digital…
Although access to safe drinking water in rural areas has risen from 50 to 60 per cent between 2015 and 2024, coverage in urban areas has stagnated. A new report has shown that despite progress in expanding access to water and sanitation over the last decade, one in four people globally still do not have…
More than two billion people worldwide still lack access to safely-managed drinking water, the United Nations said Tuesday, warning that progress towards universal coverage was moving nowhere near quickly enough. The UN’s health and children’s agencies said a full one in four people globally were without access to safely-managed drinking water last year, with over…
New York/Geneva — To mark World Water Week 2025, new report highlights persistent inequalities, with vulnerable communities left behind. Despite progress over the last decade, billions of people around the world still lack access to essential water, sanitation, and hygiene services, putting them at risk of disease and deeper social exclusion. A new report: Progress…
South Africa’s top banking executives and finance minister Enoch Godongwana have held discussions on the potential fallout if Washington were to impose sanctions on the country, according to a report by Sowetan on Monday. The talks, which took place at a recent Banking Association of South Africa board meeting, reportedly centred on concerns that US…
An unusual about-face that played out at the Food and Drug Administration over the last week illustrated the power of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, particularly with its focus on “natural” drugs. Last Thursday, the agency published a statement saying it had concerns about the safety and effectiveness of unapproved thyroid medications made from…
The Southern African Development Community (SADC), in partnership with the European Union (EU), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and the International Trade Centre (ITC), officially launched the Africa Trade Competitiveness and Market Access (ATCMA) SADC Programme on the margins of the 8th SADC Industrialization Week held in Antananarivo, Madagascar on 28th July 2025….
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, Kizito Zua, a farmer living in Arua, a city in northern Uganda, had earned his way selling his produce at the local market. In 2020, when lockdown rules were enforced in his area, he was no longer able to tend to his land. Left without a source of income, Kizito had…
Disrupted programming, journalists sacked from their jobs: the US government’s suspension of Voice of America (VOA), whose programmes were broadcast in all sub-Saharan African countries via over a thousand local partners, undermines access to reliable and diverse information. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns this major setback for the right to reliable information on the African…
UNICEF estimates that around 2.1 million children under the age of one, roughly 24 per cent, remain zero-dose, receiving no routine vaccines at all A new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has revealed that more than 14 million children around the world remain unvaccinated, with no access to…
