ILRI researcher Marco Herrero is amazed by the ingenuity and adaptability of dryland farmers.

Agriculture must be viewed as a vital force in our global mission to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

In Mozambique, differences in rainfall contribute to higher levels of poverty in drier areas.

Poverty levels in drier regions range from 67 to 85 percent, said Professor Firmino Mucavele, Director for Academic Reform and Regional Integration at Eduardo Mondlane University. He was presenting his analysis of agriculture’s true contribution to the Mozambican economy.

From Cape Town to Cairo, Nairobi to Accra, the climate change story is not reverberating on the streets.

It is a story echoing in international conference rooms of five star hotels and in the boardrooms of elite non-governmental organisations. The few bureaucrats who understand the issues don’t usually come out of their boardrooms to debate the subject. And hence, the man on the street is completely out of the picture.

Small scale farmers across Zambia have had to stand by and helplessly watch their crops and livestock being destroyed because of the effects of climate change.

Most of the 60,000 small scale farmers belonging to Rodger Phiri’s association know exactly what climate change means – many have experienced it first hand.

“Making the health and rights of women a global priority is not only the right thing to do, it is smart economics,” write Thoraya Ahmed Obaid and Theresa Shaver.

NEW YORK – The neighbour heard Husan Pari’s screams and went to help her. She was about to deliver her baby. A traditional birth attendant tried her best, but the baby just would not emerge. The birth attendant refused to help anymore.

The risks of not acting on climate change are grim, writes Yash Tandon, Executive Director of the South Centre.

GENEVA – There is much to celebrate in the growth and development of the South in recent years, from the ability of certain Latin American countries to avoid dependence on the North to the growth of the economies of certain Asian countries whose increasing sovereign wealth is now being tapped to bail out distressed banks in the North.

Neglecting to provide for treatment for post-traumatic stress disorders can lead to new cycles of violence, says Joanne Sandler, Deputy Director of UNIFEM.

In post conflict settings, where new constitutions are agreed upon, national development plans and budgets drawn up, new laws adopted and institutions rebuilt, there is often a unique window of opportunity to advance women’s rights and gender-equality.

At the same time, because conflict generally brings about changes in existing gender relations…