This story was originally reported by Megan Rowling and edited by Laurie Goering for the Thomson Reuters Foundation. People are gaining access to electricity at a faster pace as governments ramp up efforts in India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Kenya – but the prospects for many African countries remain gloomy, international agencies said on Wednesday. Globally, those living without electricity dropped to about 840 million in 2017 from 1 billion in 2016, said a report tracking progress towards a global goal on...
Discrimination against sexual minorities in Kenya is costing the country up to US$1.3 billion annually, a report by a coalition of global businesses said, attributing the losses to missed tourism earnings, poor health and less employment of LGBT+ people. The report by Open For Business – an alliance of big companies including tech companies Google and Microsoft and Deutsche Bank – estimated anti-gay attitudes were shaving off up to 1.7% of Kenya’s annual gross domestic product (GDP). “A lot of the...
Sierra Leone has banned female genital mutilation (FGM) as part of a wider clampdown on initiation ceremonies by secret societies, a minister has confirmed. With nine in 10 girls cut, Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of FGM in Africa, according to U.N. data, and is among only a handful of African countries where the practice remains legal. Girls are cut during initiations into powerful secret societies – known as the Bondo – which wield significant political clout. The ban...
This story was originally reported by Kagondu Njagi and edited by Robert Carmichael for the Thomson Reuters Foundation. For the women of Tuluroba village’s self-help group, the goal was simple: use their combined savings to buy cattle, fatten them and sell them to the beef industry for slaughter. But there was a problem. “We had no land to graze the cattle. Nor could we obtain a loan from a bank to buy land, because as women we do not own title deeds,”...
This story was originally reported by Emmanuelle Landais and edited by Jumana Farouky and Sebastien Malo for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.     For centuries, women in West Africa’s cereal belt have relied on fonio, a small, nutty grain, to feed their families. Now, Adja Aissata Aya Ndiaye, a farmer in Kedougou in southeastern Senegal, thinks fonio could become a staple across the continent, and eventually around the world. “We want to take over the global market,” said Ndiaye, 62. Over in New York,...
This story was originally reported by Alina Paul-Bossuet for the Thomson Reuters Foundation and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). The United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change report (October 2018) highlights worsening food shortages as one of the key impacts of global warming. Tackling the monumental challenges set out in the report may seem like a mountain to climb, given the policy changes and rapid government action required. Yet, on her 4-acre farm on the foothills of Mount Kenya in Embu county,...
This post was originally written by Emma Batha. Editing by Claire Cozens for Thomson Reuters Foundation The Zambian slum of Chibolya is notorious for crime and drugs, but acrobat Gift Chansa wants to get the township’s youth hooked on a very different high – circus. Chansa is co-founder of Circus Zambia, the country’s first social circus, which provides disadvantaged young people with education and job opportunities while teaching them everything from unicycling and fire-eating to tumbling and juggling. The circus also runs...
This story was originally reported by by Isaiah Esipisu. Editing by Sebastien Malo and Laurie Goering for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.  When local authorities in eastern Kenya slapped a ban on trading charcoal earlier this year in an effort to save the region’s dwindling forests, charcoal producers worried their income would disappear. “It was a chilling announcement,” said Peninah Kilungya, 42, a mother of five with the bright red traditional fabric of the Maasai people tied around her waist. “We always turn to...
This story was originally reported by Kagondu Njagi. Editing by Zoe Tabary and Robert Carmichaelfor the Thomson Reuters Foundation.  When two university students knocked on the door of Lillian Kanari’s organic food shop in Nairobi, Kenya five years ago seeking work, she realised their web design skills could help her business solve one of its most intractable problems: food waste. Until then, most orders were placed over the phone – and that resulted in some customers complaining that what had been...
This story was originally reported by Edward McAllister, Editing by Anna Willard for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.  Until recently baobabs were only tapped for local use but in a major business shift a small network of producers and suppliers has pushed the fruit’s profile abroad Taerou Dieuhiou has been shinning barefoot up baobab trees in Senegal’s southern Casamance region to collect the oblong fruit since he was 15. Business has never been better. Inside the hard, green shell that dangles from the...