In the last two decades, democratic politics and practices have taken a significant leap in Africa. Many countries have enthroned competitive multiparty democracy, and the political space has been gradually liberalised with political parties and civil society organizations receiving a new lease of life. Ethno-regional diversities have also been given political expression and accommodation. Marg...

The present study employs recent World Bank data to shed light, in a global context, on the transformation of income and inequality changes to poverty reduction for a large number of countries in sub Saharan Africa (SSA). The study begins by shedding light on SSA’s progress on poverty. Next, it presents data on how various African countries have fared on poverty incidence relative to other coun...

The approval in July 2001 by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) of the “New African Initiative” and a commitment soon afterwards by the world’s richest countries (G8) to launch a detailed development plan for Africa over the next year, can justly be regarded as a major boost for South African President Thabo Mbeki’s vision of an “African Renaissance” as the cornerstone for an “African Cent...

At an individual level Helicobacter pylori was associated with the occurrence of gastric cancer but in some African and Asian countries its prevalence runs with low gastric cancer rates, the so-called African and Asian enigmas. We assessed whether the association between gastric cancer and H. pylori prevalence at an area level is modified by the level of exposure to fruits and vegetables, alcoh...

This paper concerns monitoring the contiguous tropical forest biome that spans six central African countries (Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of Congo). The author offers a general overview of biological characteristics of central African forests, introducing a starting point from which to analyze regional approaches to biological...

In 2001, African leaders adopted the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and pledged to take responsibility for the future of their continent and establish a new relationship with their development partners. This note provides background information on NEPAD. It also highlights some of the achievements of NEPAD over the last ten years and identifies the key development challenges f...

Road traffic crashes and injuries constitute a major health, economic and developmental challenge for many African countries. With only 4% of the world's motor vehicles, African roads witness more than 10% of the world total collision fatalities. With further motorisation, the number of road traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities are expected to grow. This study updates on the status, trends,...

OBJECTIVE To assess the progress made towards meeting the goals of the African Regional Strategic Plan of the Expanded Programme on Immunization between 2001 and 2005. METHODS We reviewed data from national infant immunization programmes in the 46 countries of WHOs African Region, reviewed the literature and analysed existing data sources. We carried out face-to-face and telephone interviews ...

Africa has the highest disease burden in the world and continues to depend on pharmaceutical imports to meet public health needs. As Asian manufacturers of generic medicines begin to operate under a more protectionist intellectual property regime, their ability to manufacture medicines at prices that are affordable to poorer countries is becoming more circumscribed. The Doha Declaration on the ...