Nine years ago, a small group of infectious-disease experts gambled on an unorthodox strategy to make a much-needed—and affordable—vaccine for Africa. Last Monday in Burkina Faso, it paid off in spades with the kickoff of a massive campaign to immunize 20 million people in three African countries against deadly meningococcal meningitis by the end of December.

Malaria has been eliminated from over 40 countries with an additional 39 currently planning for, or committed to, elimination. Information on the likely impact of available interventions, and the required time, is urgently needed to help plan resource allocation.

More than a billion people spread across 54 countries inhabit Africa, the world's second largest continent. People from Kenya to Ghana, from Sudan to Zambia, from Uganda to Lesotho are under threat from dam building.

The Asian green revolution trebled grain yields through agrochemical intensification of monocultures. Associated environmental costs have subsequently emerged. A rapidly changing world necessitates sustainability principles be developed to reinvent these technologies and test them at scale. The need is particularly urgent in Africa, where ecosystems are degrading and crop yields have stagnated.

Potential interactions between food production and climate mitigation are explored for two situations in sub-Saharan Africa, where deforestation and land degradation overlap with hunger and poverty.

First affordable and effective weapon against killer meningococcal meningitis A rolled out in Africa.