African countries need more support from the private sector in order to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which include important development targets like poverty reduction, and improved health and education. Governments cannot do it alone, development and economic experts told delegates at the MDG Review Summit, which took place in Cape Town, South Africa, from 3-4 May.

Farima Samake, a widow living in the village of Gwelekoro in the south of Mali, regrets obeying her husband when he took their first daughter out of school to take care of her younger brother. 'Her father decided it and I didn’t refuse,' says Farima. 'Now she is married in another village not far from here. I think our decision has been an injury to her because if she had studied her life could have been different.' Farima didn’t oppose the decision because the law dictates that a woman must obey her husband. 'In all the villages of this region, girls get married at 15 or 16, even if they go to school,' she says. 'Their parents must ask the husband to let their daughter attend school once she is married.'

Organic Agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved.

Following World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, Reporters Without Borders has taken a look at the breaches of freedom of news and information in Nigeria during the first quarter of 2012. During the period in question, Reporters Without Borders recorded: the murder of one journalist, the killing of another with no proof that it was linked to the victim’s work, nine assaults, seven arrests, three journalists threatened, four instances of seizure of equipment or deletion of files, three cases of access to information being cut off, three court cases against journalists and news organisations, the closure of a press centre and a media outlet’s premises vandalised.

The two weeks since Egypt's abrupt cancellation of a Mubarak-era gas-export deal with Israel have seen an exchange of indirect threats and warnings between the two countries, culminating in an apparent Israeli military build-up on the border of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. 'In recent days, Israel appears to have begun preparing for military deployments on its southern border,' Tarek Fahmi, head of the Israel desk at the Cairo-based National Centre for Middle East Studies, told IPS.

South Africa’s LGBTI community has reacted strongly against a statement made by ANC MP and Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA (Contralesa) president Patekile Holomisa on the rights of gays and lesbians. Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW) questioned whether the National House of Traditional Leaders knew that their comments constitute hate speech. In a press release FEW added, 'As the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) community we are enraged that traditional leaders are making such careless statements. It is such a betrayal when a body that is supposed to protect the rights of people turns around and proposes an amendment of those very rights to exclude people from the constitution. We have a constitution to protect the rights of everyone, not just those of the majority.'

This report examines the impact of the cancellation of Global Fund Round 11 funding and subsequent changes in Global Fund policies and practices relating to HIV and drug use programmes. It focuses on how future HIV and harm reduction programming will be affected by the Global Fund’s current funding crisis given the very low existing levels of funding for such programming.

High Court orders South African authorities to investigate crimes against humanity committed by state officials in Zimbabwe.

South Africa should investigate whether officials in neighboring Zimbabwe are responsible for human rights abuses there, a judge said Tuesday 8 May in an order that has grave political and practical implications. The ruling handed down in a Pretoria court Tuesday by Judge Hans Fabricius was the first under South African statutes spelling out its international law obligations. Human rights lawyer Nicole Fritz, whose South African Litigation Centre joined the Zimbabwean Exiles forum to bring the suit, said human rights groups have documented cases of torture and other crimes in Zimbabwe. Under Tuesday's order, she said, investigators from a country with a strong legal framework now will be able to hold Zimbabwean officials responsible for crimes allegedly committed during that country's political meltdown.

One day after being sworn in on 2 April, Senegal’s new President Macky Sall reversed months of public denial of the hunger affecting over 800,000 of his people - part of the Sahel-wide crisis affecting 16 million inhabitants - by calling on partners to help the country get food to those in need. UN agencies and NGOs are struggling to raise enough money to get programmes working so they can catch up with the steadily rising number of hungry people.

The faltering economies and tighter budgets of Europe and America, the traditional providers of development financing, have left organizations and communities wondering where the continued funding of their development projects will come from. In this special report on the Peace and Conflict Monitor website, veteran fundraiser and development guru Jürgen Carls reviews the remaining instruments and possibilities for north-south financing, and argues that the solution may be in a completely new approach to fundraising - an approach based on longer term relationships between funders and recipients, characterized by trust, openness, honesty, commitment, and international cooperation.

'We want to make it clear that we want to have good working relationship with all progressive or potentially progressive forces. However, this does not mean that we can accept being oppressed within our own struggle.'

Malawi's NGO Gender Coordination Network has expressed concern over low female representation in President Joyce Banda's cabinet, in which out of 30 ministers and deputies, only eight are female. The organisation’s chairperson, Emma Kalia, has been quoted as saying that the low representation of female ministers in the new cabinet is contrary to the Southern African Development Community and Africa Union regulations that call for equal opportunities between men and women.

Sudanese war planes have launched renewed air strikes against South Sudan, violating a UN resolution to end weeks of a bitter border conflict. 'The Republic of Sudan has been randomly bombarding civilian areas,' said Southern army spokesperson Kella Kueth, who said the air strikes hit the border states of Upper Nile, Unity and Western Bahr el-Ghazal on Monday and Tuesday (7 and 8 May). It was not possible to independently confirm the reports of bombing and Sudan has repeatedly denied it has bombed the South.

Members of the clergy and some human rights activists in Kenya have raised their objections to recommendations that homosexuality be de-criminalised in the East African country. The recommendations are proposed in a report on safeguarding sexual and reproductive health rights. The report is as a result of a public inquiry that had been set up by the commission to examine the extent and nature of violations of the two rights.

The UN refugee agency has launched a repatriation programme for tens of thousands of refugees who want to return to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from neighbouring Republic of the Congo. In a low-key start to the operation, a small convoy of boats took 79 refugees down the Oubangui River from the town of Betou in Republic of the Congo (ROC) to Dongo in northern Democratic Republic of the Congo's Equateur province. UNHCR and senior officials of the two countries are expected to take part in a formal ceremony later.

Ghana’s health authorities officially declared a cholera outbreak in the country April. According to the country’s health service, as of 24 April 2012, over 1,570 cases and 21 deaths have been recorded in the Greater Accra and Eastern regions. This outbreak is linked to poor sanitation conditions and migration from affected regions to other regions.

A special summit of West African leaders held in Dakar, Senegal, agreed to dispatch a regional force to Mali if the interim government officially makes the request. 'The conference instructed the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) to prepare the standby force for immediate deployment as soon as Mali asks for it,' a statement issued at the meeting said.

The army has dismissed allegations that Uganda is propping up rebel groups in Sudan. The allegations, which have lately become a staple in mainstream Sudan media is, according to the Uganda government, a deliberate ploy by Khartoum to 'deflect attention from the daunting challenges it is facing.' According to the Sudan government, Uganda is giving assistance to the Justice and Equality Movement rebels who have been engaged in mortal combat with Khartoum for the last 10 years, together with SPLM-N rebels in Unity and South Kordofan areas.

Last week, a new Land Matrix 'land grab' database was released at a big World Bank conference on land. On paper, says one academic, they have a strong methodology and very strict criteria about projects that are to be included, but some projects involved China are listed even though they were exaggerated or never came to fruition.