Afrique Sub-Saharienne

“We need to debunk the myth that Africa cannot be a source of health innovation,” says Kelly Chibale, director of the Drug Discovery and Development at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He believes there should be more African-led drug research so that the continent is not just seen as a place where international researchers carry out clinical trials.  

Chibale and his team helped identify a compound that could evolve into the first single-dose cure for Malaria. The compound will enter a phase 1 clinical trial next month and is the first of its kind to be developed in Africa. The compound, which seems to be more effective than chloroquine or artemisinin, could prove crucial at a time when drug resistance is becoming a threat in the continent and beyond

http://www.scidev.net/global/health/multimedia/african-antimalarial-health-clinical-trial.html


First African antimalarial to enter clinical trial

The Burmese pro-democracy leader won world-wide respect for her courage and resilience during her long imprisonment by the military government in Myanmar. But she's disappointed some people who think she should be more vocal in defence of other victims of oppression.  A radio essay by Jill McGivering, who's been following her career for decades.   

Aung San Suu Kyi and the disappointments of practical politics

[NAIROBI] Africa is said to be one of the fastest growing continents economically. But the continent still faces numerous challenges in addressing its developmental needs even as it strives to catch up with the developed world, according to IBM Africa’s Vice President, Kamal Bhattacharya.

In this podcast, SciDev.Net talks to him on the role of his organisation’s lab in data collection and analysis, and how this can translate into tangible solutions for Africa’s developmental challenges and policy making.

 “IBM opened this lab in Nairobi, Kenya, to help find solutions to the continent’s grand challenges in areas such as energy, transport, health and agriculture,” Battacharya tells SciDev.Net. He urges African governments to build local applications and solutions to the continent’s challenges.

IBM Research - Africa is the first commercial technology research facility on the continent conducting both applied and far-reaching exploratory research. According to Bhattacharya, the lab has been encouraging and strengthening an innovative culture, and building partnerships with businesses, research organisations, governments and universities across Africa and around the world.

For instance, IBM worked with Mobile Service provider, Airtell, to collect and analyse data on people’s perceptions of hygiene and Ebola in Sierra Leone.

This article has been produced by SciDev.Net's Sub-Saharan Africa desk.

http://www.scidev.net/sub-saharan-africa/data/multimedia/data-ibm-research-africa.html


IBM's Lab Role In Data Collection And Analysis

This week the UN released a report revealing that 17,000 homes and other buildings in part of the occupied Palestinian West Bank known as Area C are under threat of demolition by Israel. It reiterates the shocking vulnerability of Palestinians living in Area C, which covers 60 per cent of the West Bank and is under full Israeli control.

Life in Area C can be brutal for Palestinians. The UN reports that over 70 per cent of communities are not connected to the water grid, many have no electricity, and around six thousand people live within Israeli ‘firing zones’ used by the military. An Israeli-Palestinian NGO sets up small-scale renewable energy and clean water systems for Palestinians living high in the hills of Mount Hebron, in the southern West Bank. Elad Orian, the cofounder of Comet-ME, tells me “the Israeli authorities have been trying for a long while to drive these people off their land”. Withholding energy and water is part of this “political campaign”, he says.

The off-grid energy systems Comet-ME builds tap into this arid region’s intense sunshine and strong winds to produce clean, sustainable energy for homesteads and villages. As Orian explains in this audio interview, access to a small amount of energy each day can transform lives and livelihoods, particularly for women, who carry out the bulk of domestic tasks and who take care of cheese production that is the staple of livelihoods here. 


Battle for basic services in occupied Palestine

Dans son dernier rapport, l’organisation canadienne International Land & Forests Tenure Facility dénonce le peu de place fait à l'accord de Paris sur le climat ne prenne pas en compte l’importance des droits fonciers communautaires et de la gestion communautaire des ressources naturelles pour la réalisation de ses ambitieux objectifs. Alain Frechette, conseiller politique principal de The Tenure Facility, s'explique au micro d'Herman Houngbo.

Les peuples indigènes, laissés pour compte de l'accord sur le climat

In the podcast this week, a language map of the brain, listening for landslides a year after the Nepal quake, and the Soviet internet that never was.

Nature Podcast: 28 April 2016 – brain dictionary, Soviet internet and Nepal one year on.

This week’s ‘UN Gender Focus’ from the United Nations is presented by Janie Cangelosi.

She brings you the following stories:
- Geneva takes diplomatic approach to gender equality 
- Health needs of women and children in conflict zones neglected 
- Future “catastrophic” unless climate action is taken

UN Gender Focus: gender equality, SDGs and climate change

This week’s ‘UN Global Perspective’ from the United Nations is presented by Dianne Penn.

She brings you the following stories:
- UN embraces concept of “sustaining peace” 
- 60 million people worldwide affected by El Niño phenomenon
- Palmyra archeological site has “maintained its integrity and authenticity” 


UN Global Perspective: focus on peacebuilding, El Niño and Palmyra archeological site

Le Niger a aussi été victime de la distribution d’épreuves du Baccalauréat en ligne. Pour les responsables nigériens, le véritable danger des activités illicites sur Internet réside dans l’impact sur le secteur de l’éducation.
Ousmane Moussa Tessa, enseignant-chercheur en mathématiques, à l’université Abdou Moumouni de Niamey et membre du West and Central African Research and Education Network, (le Réseau d’Education et de Recherche de l’Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre) estime par ailleurs que les opérations financières sur Internet constituent un risque majeur pour des pays africains, peu préparés à faire face aux défis posés par la sécurité informatique.

Le BAC estampillé Facebook au Niger

Au Congo-Brazzaville, l’Internet sert également de vecteur à diverses formes d’activités criminelles.

Ainsi, en juin 2015, les autorités ont dû annuler les épreuves du bac, après que celles-ci se furent retrouvées sur la toile.

Des milliers de lycéens ont par la suite provoqué d'importants dégâts à Brazzaville, en manifestant leur colère contre l'annulation des épreuves du baccalauréat, avant d'être dispersés par la police.

Emery Patrice Dissoumou est président du chapitre congolais d'Internet Society.

Cyber-triche au Congo-Brazzaville

L’Office central de répression de la cybercriminalité (OCRC) est une unité spéciale de la police béninoise. Depuis sa création en mai 2013, l’OCRC a enregistré en 3 ans plus de 600 plaintes ayant conduit à l’interpellation de 1024 personnes dont la majorité a été confiée à la justice. Le montant global du préjudice causé par les 600 plaintes est de 1,937 milliard de FCFA. 

Le Commissaire Nicaise Dangnibo qui dirige l’unité fait le point.

Le Bénin, QG de la cyberarnaque en Afrique de l'Ouest

For most people a doctor is probably the first port of call when it comes to informFor most people a doctor is probably the first port of call when it comes to information about how to keep in good health. Still, much guidance gets broadcast by the media, and in developing countries the radio remains a major source of public health advice.

But just how much is the impact of the mass media? Do they save lives, and at what cost? 

For five years, the West African country of Burkina Faso has been a testing ground for a media campaign designed to answer these elusive questions using the gold standard of scientific study, a cluster-randomised clinical trial. The trial targeted child mortality, treating the media as any other health intervention and measuring lives saved after three years of continuous radio programming with information about behaviours that can prevent disease, such as taking a child to a health centre.

SciDev.Net spoke to the project’s leader, Roy Head, CEO of the social enterprise Development Media International. Head explains the rationale behind the study and offers a preview of the results, due to be published later this year. 

The interview was recorded on 23 February at the 2017 ISNTD Festival organised by the International Society of Neglected Tropical Diseases in London, UK.
ation about how to keep in good health. Still, much guidance gets broadcast by the media, and in developing countries the radio remains a major source of public health advice.

But just how much is the impact of the mass media? Do they save lives, and at what cost? 

For five years, the West African country of Burkina Faso has been a testing ground for a media campaign designed to answer these elusive questions using the gold standard of scientific study, a cluster-randomised clinical trial. The trial targeted child mortality, treating the media as any other health intervention and measuring lives saved after three years of continuous radio programming with information about behaviours that can prevent disease, such as taking a child to a health centre.

SciDev.Net spoke to the project’s leader, Roy Head, CEO of the social enterprise Development Media International. Head explains the rationale behind the study and offers a preview of the results, due to be published later this year. 

The interview was recorded on 23 February at the 2017 ISNTD Festival organised by the International Society of Neglected Tropical Diseases in London, UK.

http://www.scidev.net/global/health/multimedia/mass-media-save-lives-the-evidence.html

Do mass media save lives? The evidence is in

SciDev.Net podcasts look at key global development issues and the ways in which science can have a positive impact on equitable and sustainable development and poverty reduction. 

First African antimalarial to enter clinical trial

SciDev.Net

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