Food security is central to President Barack Obama's Africa policy, "the administration's top official for Africa," Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson, said in an interview with Reuters. "We want to see the food security initiative take on greater momentum as more African countries are drawn into this program," Carson said. The U.S. has committed $3...

The New York Times examines development and health improvements in Sauri, Kenya, which was the first Millennium Village in Africa, a project conceived by economist Jeffrey Sachs, which aims "to show that tightly focused, technology-based and relatively straightforward programs on a number of fronts simultaneously - health care, education, job training - could rapidly lift people out of poverty...

Imagine a mosquito-borne virus that has already infected millions of people in recent outbreaks in South and Southeast Asia, the islands of the Indian Ocean, Africa and northern Italy. Although seldom fatal, it causes highly painful arthritis-like symptoms that can linger for months or even years. It's capable of adapting to spread through a mosquito species common in much of North America...

Researchers at the University of York are leading an international effort to tackle problems such as traffic congestion, air pollution and road safety in Africa. They are coordinating an international drive to strengthen scientific and technological support to enable the implementation of sustainable transport policies in Sub-Saharan Africa...

ECOWAS, UEMOA Release Strategy For Reducing Poverty In W. Africa The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA) on Monday released a 204-page strategy paper aimed at reducing poverty in West Africa, the Guardian reports...

Controlling neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in developing countries would help improve the reproductive health and rights of girls and women in the poorest countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, according to a new editorial published November 24 in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases...

A warning from Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency about drought in northern parts of the country has raised "concern about food security not only in Africa's most populous nation but also in other parts of West Africa," Reuters AlertNet reports.

During a "keynote speech" Thursday at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, Bill Gates, cofounder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is expected to announce $120 million in grants "to promote dynamic, home-grown, sustainable agriculture in Africa and India,"

Researchers at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and the University of Liverpool will work with universities across Africa as part of a £30 million initiative to strengthen research into science and health on the continent. The Wellcome Trust initiative will see the formation of seven new international consortiums that will focus on developing and sustaining high quality research into the health and wellbeing of African people.