Insights from the World Bank GROW Expo Despite women contributing nearly 40% of Africa’s GDP, they receive less than 7% of private equity and venture capital funding–and only a fraction of that reaches women-led SMEs. At the recent World Bank’s GROW Expo in Uganda, the Graça Machel Trust’s Afrishela Fund challenged this disparity with a…
Devastating funding cuts from international donors are hitting countries hardest affected by HIV — but many are showing remarkable resilience and determination to keep progress alive. The 2025 Global AIDS Update released on Thursday by UNAIDS – the global body’s agency fighting AIDS and HIV infection – warns that a historic funding crisis now threatens…
If you have ever been woken up by a 3am database outage (or worse, a security breach tied to an overlooked SQL patch), you are not alone. SQL Server is the backbone of many business-critical applications. However, as deployments span on-premises, cloud and edge environments, maintaining everything securely, optimally and compliantly is a growing challenge….
United Nations — United Nations member states this week reiterated their commitment to the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity–at a time when world powers are failing to meet these obligations. On the 20th anniversary of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, the UN held a Plenary Meeting to discuss…
Abuja, Nigeria — Africa’s persistent trade finance gap–now estimated at over $420 billion–poses a critical threat to the continent’s industrial ambitions, job creation, and sustainable economic transformation. But the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is proposing a comprehensive solution to close this gap and build a more sovereign, resilient, and inclusive African financial ecosystem. The Bank’s…
Anna Camp defended the age gap between her and girlfriend Jade Whipkey after the couple made their red carpet debut last week. Camp commented on a post from PinkNews on Instagram, which highlighted an 18-year age gap between the actor and Whipkey. “Thought I’d jump on here since I follow @pinknews and just say I’ve…
United Nations — Although access to mental health and psychosocial support services is considered a fundamental human right by the United Nations (UN), hundreds of millions of people experience limited or inadequate access to mental health and psychosocial support services. On June 6, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO)…
The southern African country of about three million people is not only the continent’s top performer, but also the only African nation to break into the top 10 worldwide, a milestone fuelled by its unprecedented leadership configuration. Namibia is Africa’s most gender-equal economy, closing 81.1% of its gender gap and ranking eighth globally in the…
Sub-Saharan Africa ranks sixth in terms of the global gender gap, with a current score of 68% according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). In its latest Global Gender Gap Report 2025, released this week, the WEF notes Sub-Saharan Africa displays wide variation across countries, but its success stories demonstrate that progress is possible in…
