The Next Empire All across Africa, new tracks are being laid, highways built,ports deepened, commercial contracts signed—all on an unprecedented scale, and led by China, whose appetite for commodities seems insatiable. Do China’s grand designs promise the transformation,at last, of a star-crossed continent? Or merely its exploitation? The author travels deep into the heart of [...]

Water and Sanitation: Ethiopia

Donna and Philip Berber are the founders of A Glimmer of Hope Foundation. Aptly named, the foundation’s mission is to aid the rural poor of Ethiopia in lifting themselves out of poverty. The foundation’s principles reflect the belief that justice, equality and dignity are everyone’s birthright and where you are born should not determine whether [...]

Water – another global ‘crisis’?

2 February 2009 By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website Sharper, more intense rains may reduce the water available to farmers If you look at the numbers, it is hard to see how many East African communities made it through the long drought of 2005 and 2006. Among people who study human development, it [...]