Tour operators used to sell Burkina Faso as a joint trip to Mali. With Mali now off-limits following the north’s takeover by Islamist militants, the bottom has fallen out of regional tourism. Read the full story here. Published on Baobab, The Economist, 19 December 2012. Continue reading Staying Away: How Mali’s crisis killed tourism in Burkina Faso
In 2009, a minor revolution took place at the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC): with new evidence emerging about the feasibility of eliminating onchocerciasis (better known as river blindness), the organisation decided to change its focus from control to elimination of the disease by 2025, with major implications for all stakeholders. Read the full story here. Published in The Guardian’s Global Development Professionals’ Network, … Continue reading River blindness: from disease control to elimination
Domestic visitors used to make up 40% of visitors at Cape Coast Castle, Ghana’s famous slave fort. Now it’s 70%. Domestic tourism, like everything else in Ghana, is booming. Hitting the road is now the thing to do amongst young Ghanaians: find out more about those I recently met during a trip in Ghana in this piece for the BBC’s From Our Own Correspondent. You … Continue reading Of crocodiles and slave forts: domestic tourism in Ghana
The development community is finally talking about how best to fight NTDs but more consensus and practical action is needed. Read the full story here. Published in The Guardian, 27 November 2012. Continue reading Putting Neglected Tropical Diseases in the Spotlight
It’s been a tough couple of years for Malian artisans: since security started deteriorating in the north, tourists and professional buyers have stopped coming. But Burkina Faso’s arts & crafts fair SIAO is providing a lifeline for struggling craftspeople. Read the full story here. Published in Think Africa Press, 12 November 2012. Continue reading SIAO: Crafting a recovery for Mali’s artisans?
Up to three million women in sub-Saharan African and South Asia could soon benefit from a simplified, more accessible contraceptive injection, it was announced at the Family Planning Summit in London on 11 July. The new contraceptive, depo SubQ Provera 104, was developed by a partnership comprising of the UK Department for International Development (DFID), US aid agency USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, … Continue reading Women to get access to innovative contraceptive
Nearly 19 million people are short of food in the Sahel. This is the third major food crisis to hit the region in seven years: there must be better ways of keeping famine at bay. Read the full story here. Article published in The Economist on 6 July 2012. Continue reading The Sahel: Hungry Again
Madagascar conjures up images of leaping lemurs, primeval rainforest and idyllic shores. But few people think of the island as a gastronomic destination. Thanks for successive waves of migrants, who all brought with them a little something from home, Madagascar is queen of the fusion genre. Read the full story here. (UK residents will need to use a proxy server to read the article.) Published … Continue reading Of Madagascar’s culinary wonders
As water becomes scarcer in Morocco, authorities are turning to desalination not just for drinking water but for industry and agriculture too. Read the full story here. Published in The Africa Report, April 2012. Continue reading Morocco turns the sea taps on
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London has just launched a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene in east Africa. Incredibly, it is the first of its kind on the continent outside of South Africa; about time, say its new graduates. Read the full story here. Published in Economist.com. Photo courtesy of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Continue reading Tropical medicine teaching in Africa, finally
