Urban air pollution is reportedly responsible for nearly 1 million annual deaths worldwide. The burden of disease from air pollutant exposure may be greatest in growing urban populations in the developing world, but risk assessment is often impeded by lack of exposure information at the local level in many urban settings. Dionisio et al. (p.

Nearly one sixth of the global population is malnourished. The problem is particularly acute in tropical Africa, where constant or recurrent food shortages affect over 30% of the population

Impacts of climate change vary from region to region. The 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) mentions that drier areas will be affected by more droughts while the rainfall regime, in general, will become

This paper provides a rationale for defining extreme poverty as a combination of income poverty, human development poverty and social exclusion. It briefly discusses the implication of treating this combination as union or intersection of the three sets of people, suffering from these three types of poverty.

An African initiative to improve the regulation of clinical trials on the continent has launched a new strategy to safeguard children involved in such research. Adele Baleta reports from Cape Town.

A lack of progress in forest-tenure reform is hindering action to stop deforestation and alleviate poverty among some of the world's poorest rural peoples. The failure to ensure land rights for local communities-particularly indigenous peoples and women-in the forests of Central and West Africa will impede efforts to stop deforestation.