Africa

The process of knowledge production involves a series of steps and is influenced by several factors which impact upon the end result of the research in various ways. When the topic of research is sexuality such conditions and influences become surrounded by a greater number of implications, some with far-reaching consequences. Not only is this due to the fact that sexuality is generally regarded as a sensitive topic, if not a taboo, that must not be mentioned in public, but it is also a topic that poses difficult questions that the researcher must resolve or the very success of the project may be in jeopardy. This article reflects on key epistemological conversations and debates on doing research on sexuality in Africa. The authors are both anthropologists who have conducted research in urban areas of Mozambique on young people's sexuality.

 Prevention is a word that draws considerable controversy among AIDS experts. Billions of dollars have been poured into treatment programs and vaccine research, but prevention strategies - things like condoms, education, and clean needle exchanges - rarely receive comparable attention. Prevention does not require vast research capabilities. Its success is not dependent on feats of technical ingenuity such as refrigeration in remote, off-grid villages. But in Africa, prevention has nonetheless baffled the medical establishment. Meanwhile, the most recent in a long string of research disappointments have caused scientists to forecast a long wait for a vaccine breakthrough. In its absence, it is increasingly apparent that prevention will have to be at the forefront of any HIV/AIDS response.

An African lesbian group on Tuesday called on governments in the largely conservative continent to stop treating homosexuals like criminals.

The Coalition of African Lesbians is holding a conference attended by about 100 people in Mozambique to highlight discrimination against lesbians.

"Our main goal is that lesbian and homosexuality can no longer be seen as a criminal offence," the group's director and conference spokeswoman, Fikile Vilakazi, told Reuters. "You should not be arrested and charged for how you use your own body."

In the slums of Kibera, an area of Nairobi, it is hard enough getting a job if you live here and are able-bodied.

Joseph is partially blind, but doing well, running his own business selling wool and making intricate trinkets, necklaces, and lamp shades.

But he is the exception in a country which is more likely to shun the visually-impaired than to offer any help.

The African continent is one of the least connected - and when it is connected the costs tend to be higher than in most other parts of the world.

In May 2008, the Association for Progressive Communications released the results of the study - The Case for "Open Access" Communications - Infrastructure in Africa: The SAT-3/WASC Cable. The briefing report, written by Abiodun Jagun, summarises the results of the study, conducted in four African countries, Angola, Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal, which examined the impact of the SAT-3/WASC cable on communications markets.

The SAT-3/WASC cable is a submarine cable running from Portugal to South Africa, landing in a number of west African countries, including the four studied. It was built in 2002 by a consortium of communications companies in each of the countries that the cable lands, which were, at the time the cable was constructed, largely protected state-owned monopolies.

It emerged at a forum by CSOs to herald the UNCTAD conference that Sub-Saharan Africa in particular is experiencing a growing informalization of labour relations with dire consequences for women.

The character of employment in countries in the region is found in the informal economy where majority of women make a living, mostly in self-employment.

This has been described as one of the fallouts from economic globalization and highlights the gross global inequalities in incomes and living conditions, resulting in the exponential growth of the informal economy in many developing countries.

Is there a direct connection between empowerment and access to information and communication technologies? Patricia Litho interrogates this question through the CEEWA ICT project case study in rural Uganda. She examines the conceptualisation of empowerment, and its relationship with infrastructure, skills, connectivity, access and participation.

It is estimated that between 100-140 million girls and women worldwide have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM). At the current rates of population increase and with the slow decline in these procedures, it is estimated that each year a further 2 million girls are at risk from the practice. Most of the women and girls affected live in 28 African countries, and a few in the Middle East and Asia. They are also increasingly found in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States of America, mostly among immigrants from countries where FGM is the tradition.

Hot stuff or hot air? Is Liberia's Iron Lady, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, great because she is the first and only woman president on the continent, or is her unique position in fact beguiling?

She swept South Africa's most powerful women off their feet this week. She was here to deliver the sixth annual Nelson Mandela lecture and to encourage bilateral trade ahead of the establishment of South Africa's diplomatic mission in Liberia in the 2008-2009 financial years.

On Friday, at the Dialogue for Justice, at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs) in Johannesburg, she was hailed as a trailblazer and a bullet dodger; the one African woman who had the strength in a time of war, and amid incredible hostility, to campaign for the presidency of Liberia - in a man's world.

The 2nd Ordinary Session of the Conference of African Ministers of Health, meeting in Gaborone, Botswana, in October 2005, adopted this, the Continental Policy Framework on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights which was endorsed by AU Heads of State in January 2006. The Continental Policy Framework on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights addresses the reproductive health and rights challenges faced by Africa. This Maputo Plan of Action for the Operationalisation of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Continental Policy Framework seeks to take the continent forward towards the goal of universal access to comprehensive sexual andreproductive health services in Africa by 2015. It is a short term plan for the period up to 2010 built on nine action areas: Integration of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services into PHC, repositioning family planning, youth-friendly services, unsafe abortion, quality safe motherhood, resource mobilization, commodity security and monitoring and evaluation. The Plan is premised on SRH in its fullest context as defined at ICPD/PoA 1994 taking into account the life cycle approach. These elements of SRHR includes Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health (ASRH); Safe Motherhood and newborn care; Abortion Care1; Family planning; Prevention and Management of Sexually Transmitted Infections including STI/HIV/AIDS; Prevention and Management of Infertility; Prevention and Management of Cancers of the Reproductive System; Addressing mid-life concerns of boys, girls, men and women; Health and Development; the Reduction of Gender-based Violence; Interpersonal Communication and Counselling; and Health education.