In 2005, Nelson Mandela gave his now famous speech at the Make Poverty History rally in London’s Trafalgar Square, and called on world leaders to make poverty history. Addressing a staggering crowd of 22,000 people, Nelson Mandela, along with Bob Geldof, outlined the three demands that underpinned the Make Poverty History campaign, carving the way for the eradication of extreme poverty to be realized. He said: "The steps that are needed from the developed nations are clear. The first is ensuring...
This story was originally reported by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani and edited by Claire Cozens for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.  Whenever the all-female Nigerian biker group D'Angels hit the streets, people would stare in amazement at the sight of women on motorbikes. So they made up their minds to use the attention for a good cause. Enter the Female Bikers Initiative (FBI), which has already provided free breast and cervical cancer screening to 500 women in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos. This August, D'Angels...
This blog is co-authored by Razaq Fatai, Fiona Robertson and Anita Okemini of ONE’s policy team. For nearly a decade, Nigeria’s government has indicated interest in increasing its focus on agriculture, with the aim of ensuring food security and sustainable development. There are obvious reasons for doing so, as agriculture accounts for about a quarter of the country’s GDP and nearly half of its workforce. Aside from representing the largest share of non-oil exports in Nigeria, agriculture has the...
Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than half of its 17 million people living on less than $1.25 USD a day. For the past five years, Mali has experienced a multi-dimensional political and humanitarian crisis, driven in part by internal conflict and terrorism. Mali’s food security has been rocked in recent years by recurring disasters, including erratic rainfall, drought, and a military coup that triggered a political and security crisis. Although peace negotiations were...
Makoko has the dubious honour of being dubbed the world’s largest floating slum: up to 300 000 people are said to live here – in full view of every person stuck in the notorious Lagos traffic on Third Mainland Bridge. Some view the settlement as an eyesore, and there have been repeated attempts to move parts of the community, sometimes by force. The air is prickly with tension when we arrive. We learn that a community dispute erupted in violence...