Thanks to a voucher scheme, more women are taking advantage of professional healthcare services in five trial-programme areas in Kenya. The idea is to boost the capacities of existing healthcare facilities by ensuring that poor patients have the purchasing power to buy the services they need. Experience of five years shows that output-based aid makes sense.

When shopping for food, ever more consumers in rich nations pay attention not only to prices, appearance and flavour. They also consider environmental and social aspects. Therefore, certifications of organic production, fair-trade practices or regional origin often lead to a premium in the marketplace and can benefit small-scale farmers.

An entrepreneur is someone who undertakes an enterprise, owns and manages a business with a vision to making a profi

Poverty is more than just material deprivation, it is a state of mind – says writer Martin Kämpchen, who

Microcredit schemes in India have recently caused scandal. The media blame them of causing over-indebted clients to commit suicide. Such reporting is overblown, but Indian microfinance certainly is in a mess.

Radio is still the most important mass medium in sub-Saharan Africa. Due to political liberalisation, the media landscape in many countries has become substantially more diverse since the 1990s.

The international community is hardly making progress on making safe water available to all. More awareness, better management and long-term cooperation could make a difference.

The people of Zimbabwe have to cope with a difficult political situation, but they also face many other problems daily. Climate change is making entire areas of land infertile and may halve crop yields by 2020. Zimbabwe

Harmony marked the end of the climate summit in Canc

Cinpharm manufactures generic drugs in Cameroon. Its first products were distributed to the market in October. In the medium term, the company also plans to export to its neighbouring countries in UDEAC, the Economic Community of Central African States.