GHANA: Slow progress on oil policy

ACCRA Thursday, February 04, 2010 (IRIN) - Ghana needs to do more to ensure that revenue from oil production, due to start later in the year, successfully reduces poverty and avoids a “resource curse”, according to civil society leaders worried that safeguards are either inadequate or absent.

AFRICA: Rotavirus data must propel immunization - experts

DAKAR Wednesday, January 27, 2010 (IRIN) - Health experts hope the release of data showing the success of rotavirus vaccine will help compel policymakers to ensure all children will be immunized.

How To: Track the scent of life

JOHANNESBURG Tuesday, January 19, 2010 (IRIN) - The best search and rescue workers have stamina, a phenomenal sense of smell, and sharp hearing - they usually also have four legs.

AFRICA: Crackdowns on gays make the closet safer

NAIROBI Tuesday, January 19, 2010 (IRIN) - More than two-thirds of African countries have laws criminalizing homosexual acts, and despite accounting for a significant percentage of new infections in many countries, men who have sex with men tend to be left out of the HIV response.

WEST AFRICA: Learning how to stop children dying

DAKAR Thursday, January 14, 2010 (IRIN) - UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) “accelerated child survival programme” in 11 West African countries did not save significantly more lives than in areas that were not targeted, says an evaluation published in The Lancet this week - but analysts say this does not mean UNICEF was doing the wrong things.