A better understanding of a county’s political and social processes and entities that determine the extent and nature of investments in sanitation could catalyze a sharp increase in numbers of people with access, especially for the poor, according to a new report released by the Water and Sanitation Program.
In 2006 seven foreign ministers from Brazil, France, Indonesia, Norway, Senegal, South Africa, and Thailand initiated a dialogue on the inter-linkages between health and foreign policy, with a focus on how health matters to foreign policy and whether foreign policy can make a difference to health.
Many international statements have urged researchers, policy-makers and health care providers to collaborate in efforts to bridge the gaps between research, policy and practice in low- and middle-income countries. We surveyed researchers in 10 countries about their involvement in such efforts.
Gaps continue to exist between research-based evidence and clinical practice. We surveyed health care pro viders in 10 low- and middle-income countries about their use of research-based evidence and examined factors that may facilitate or impede such use.
The fonio-husking machine, invented by Rolex Laureate and mechanical engineer Sanoussi Diakite, is helping prevent a delicious, West African cereal from disappearing. His machine is liberating villagers, especially women, from the traditional, labour-intensive process of preparing fonio by hand.
Between November 2007 and March 2008, 18 children died from a rapidly progressive central nervous system disease of unexplained origin in a community involved in the recycling of used lead-acid batteries (ULAB) in the suburbs of Dakar, Senegal. The researchers investigated the cause of these deaths.
In West Africa two rice species (Oryza glaberrima Steud. and Oryza sativa L.) co-exist. Although originally it was thought that interspecific hybridization is impossible without biotechnological methods, progenies of hybridization appear to occur in farmer fields.
Africa is taking the lead in creating its own biotechnology agenda, according to researchers based at South Africa's Durban University of Technology and the University of Kwazulu-Natal.
