Southern Africa

Addressing toilet taboos to improve sanitation

TAMATAVE, 23 March 2012 (IRIN) - In Madagascar's east coast city of Tamatave, a local taboo against having a toilet in your house or on your land has complicated the task of trying to improve the region's dire sanitation situation. full report

ZIMBABWE: Using food rations to rebuild infrastructure

 MT DARWIN, 20 March 2012 (IRIN) - Kuziva Gore, a young communal farmer from Tsenga village in the parched countryside of Mt Darwin District, some 100km northeast of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, has no difficulty explaining how food rations can help to rebuild roads and bridges. full report

SWAZILAND: Diets downsized by financial crisis

 MBABANE, 16 March 2012 (IRIN) - It is 6am in rural Mliba in central Swaziland, and Melody Thwala and her seven-year-old granddaughter Thandi are busy with their daily task of harvesting wild `umbhidvo’ weeds before Thandi goes to school. Thwala will use what they have gathered to make a spinach-like dish to supplement the family’s one daily meal. full report

AFRICA: Reverse migration slowing urbanization rates

 JOHANNESBURG, 15 March 2012 (IRIN) - Twenty years ago, South Africa’s cities were braced for a massive influx of rural migrants following the scrapping of apartheid-era pass laws which had restricted black people’s movements. Cities such as Johannesburg and Durban have indeed grown, but not at the phenomenal rates projected and others have hardly grown at all. full report

MADAGASCAR: Tropical storm Irina claims 72 lives

 ANTANANARIVO, 7 March 2012 (IRIN) - Less than two weeks after being battered by Cyclone Giovanna, another violent storm has swept over Madagascar killing 72 people and leaving 70,000 homeless, according to the National Disaster Risk Management Agency. full report

AFRICA: Challenging the urbanization myths

 LONDON, 6 March 2012 (IRIN) - Africa's cities are growing at a frightening rate, as people flood from the countryside to the towns... It is a commonly held view, but a London-based academic, Deborah Potts, has been challenging this received wisdom, asserting that it is based on flawed data, and the rate of urbanization is much lower than people assume. full report

GLOBAL: Follow the fizz, save a life

 NAIROBI, 2 March 2012 (IRIN) - How is it that the world's most popular fizzy drink reaches even the farthest-flung corners of the planet, yet vast numbers of children in developing countries die for lack of one of the cheapest and most effective preparations known to medical science? full report

ZIMBABWE: A lean season ahead

 MUTOKO, 1 March 2012 (IRIN) - The maize growing on John Gapare's three-hectare plot in rural Mutoko, some 90km northeast of the Zimbabwean capital Harare, is of uneven height and yellowing, with some plants already wilting, and for the first time in nearly a decade the 50-year-old farmer is expecting a poor harvest. full report

ZIMBABWE: Child labour on the rise

 HARARE, 24 February 2012 (IRIN) - Widespread poverty, a lack of social services and poor enforcement of legislation are hindering efforts to eradicate child labour in Zimbabwe. full report

LESOTHO: Weather extremes threaten food security

 MASERU, 24 February 2012 (IRIN) - Lesotho is facing a food security crisis as changing weather patterns and poverty leave some smallholder farmers with no option but to abandon farming and sell their land. full report
Countries
Socialize

Other OCHA Sites
ReliefWeb
United Nations - OCHA
Donors
Canada
DFID - UK Department for International Development
Germany
Irish Aid
Japan
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
UAE
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation - SDC
IHC