Social welfare
RSS FeedSouth Africa: Design isn’t just about shiny objects
2012-02-01, Issue 568
Cape Town has been awarded the right to host the World Design Capital 2014 (WDC2014), but the City of Cape Town’s recent announcement that it will lead the management and coordination of WDC2014 threatens this vision, writes Gavin Silber of the Socia...
Uganda: Power hikes to last
2012-02-01, Issue 568
Power tariffs will remain high despite the anticipated commissioning of Bujagali Hydro Electricity Dam in July, State Minister for Energy Simon D’Ujanga said. The Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) last month increased consumer tariffs by 36 per ...
Global: One billion people still lack electricity, says report
2012-02-06, Issue 568
More than a billion people in the world still lack access to electricity, while another one billion have unreliable access stalling efforts for improving health, livelihoods and conserve the environment. Findings from a new research published by the ...
Malawi: Consumers have a right to fuel and forex black market
2012-02-06, Issue 568
The black market for foreign exchange and fuel is booming in the midst of an acute scarcity in Malawi. The shortage is so severe that even the Consumer Association of Malawi, an influential consumer rights body, has come out in support of the black m...
Burkina Faso: Ganzourgou, gold mine and child exploitation
2012-01-30, Issue 567
A dozen traditional gold mining sites have appeared in recent years in the province of Ganzourgou. Gold panners from all over flock there to work the sites, most often living in the greatest promiscuity, without any infrastructure for sanitation and ...
Angola: Southern Angolans demand own schools
2012-01-17, Issue 566
Masses of Angolan nationals that daily trek to Namibia for health and education services want their government to construct hospitals and schools in Angola to reduce their reliance on Namibian schools and hospitals. During a meeting recently by two A...
Senegal: Forced begging, time for change
2012-01-18, Issue 566
This short report examines the practice in daaras (Koranic schools) of sending boys as young as five years old out to beg for several hours a day. Often living far from home and in squalid conditions, talibés are frequently subjected to abuse if they...
Uganda: Parliament stops new power tariffs
2012-01-18, Issue 566
Parliament has directed the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) to halt a 47 per cent power price increase which was announced last week. Legislators on the parliamentary ad hoc committee on energy slapped a moratorium on the implementation of the...
Zimbabwe: Street vendors’ protest sparking a revolution
2012-01-19, Issue 566
There are some unlikely comparisons between the work lives of Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian fruit seller who sparked the Arab revolution, and Francis Tachirev, a fruit seller in Zimbabwe. Like Bouazizi did, Tichareva earns a modest living pushing h...
South Africa: Food prices pummel the poor
2011-12-13, Issue 563
Food prices, which increased by just 1 per cent last year, have increased by a whopping 10.6 per cent so far this year. Lower-income South Africans, who spend much more of their total earnings on food, are the biggest victims of this sharp increase i...
Morocco: Youth unemployment tops Morocco priorities
2011-12-20, Issue 563
Unemployed young Moroccan graduates hope that once new Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane assembles his government within the next few days, their situation may finally begin to improve. In its electoral platform, the Justice and Development Party (P...
Malawi: Urban poor hit by slew of price increases
2011-12-20, Issue 563
Devaluation, fuel shortages and economic mismanagement have conspired to push staple food prices to 'alarming levels' in urban areas of Malawi, where even catching a bus to work has become an unaffordable luxury for many, according to residents and a...
Africa: A new balance for social security
2011-12-20, Issue 563
This report from the International Social Security Association identifies, synthesises and interprets the most important recent developments and trends in Africa in social security. A key observation is that extending effective coverage for essential...
Mali: A poisonous mix
2011-12-21, Issue 563
This 108-page Human Rights Watch report reveals that children as young as six dig mining shafts, work underground, pull up heavy weights of ore, and carry, crush, and pan ore. Many children also work with mercury, a toxic substance, to separate the g...
Africa: Child nutrition crisis in Sahel region
2011-12-12, Issue 562
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that more than a million children in the Sahel region of West Africa were at risk of severe and life-threatening malnutrition over the coming year as a result of ongoing food shortages. UNICEF in a statement...
South Africa: Exploring the impact of climate change on children
2011-11-27, Issue 559
Climate change will exacerbate the existing vulnerabilities of children in South Africa, unless mitigation and adaptation strategies are child-sensitive and implemented in a timely manner, UNICEF said. ‘Exploring the Impact of Climate Change on Child...
Swaziland: Government fails to pay Aids orphans
2011-11-17, Issue 558
Swaziland's government has failed to pay more than $10m (£6.3m) in grants to Aids orphans because of its financial crisis, an IMF official has said. Swaziland has the world's highest HIV/Aids rate, leaving some 69,000 orphans. The IMF's Joannes Monga...
Global: The global social crisis
2011-11-21, Issue 558
This UN Report on the World Social Situation explores the ongoing adverse social consequences of the ongoing financial crisis. The global economic downturn has had wide-ranging negative social outcomes for individuals, families, communities and socie...
Africa: Sub-Saharan sanitation targets 'two centuries away'
2011-11-21, Issue 558
It will take two centuries for sub-Saharan Africa to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, according to NGO WaterAid, which calls ...
Global: UN panel calls for global ‘protection floor’ with income security and health services
2011-11-08, Issue 557
With more than five out of every seven people in the world lacking adequate social security, a high-level United Nations panel has called for guaranteeing basic income and services for all, not only as a means to ensure peace and stability but also t...
Malawi: Fuel price hiked by average 27 per cent
2011-11-08, Issue 557
Malawi has increased fuel prices by an average 27 per cent, a move likely to trigger broader inflation in the southern African nation that has already seen violent protests this year because of the dire state of the economy. Fuel shortages and the so...
Malawi: No social safety nets for the poor
2011-11-09, Issue 557
Reflecting on the fact that significant segments of the population are fundamentally excluded from society due to poverty and inequality, the 2010 Ibrahim Index of African Governance recently handed Malawi an abysmal score of two out of 10. There is ...
Swaziland: Struggling to pay salaries, says finance minister
2011-11-10, Issue 557
Cash-strapped Swaziland will struggle to pay civil servants' salaries this month, Finance Minister Majozi Sithole told AFP, as the tiny kingdom slips deeper into crisis. 'We will do our best to pay at the end of November but it is difficult. We have ...
Swaziland: Will social services continue?
2011-10-18, Issue 553
Swaziland’s parliamentarians are questioning the purpose of a social safety net covering children, the elderly and the disabled. One dismissed it as little more than a public relations exercise, but in the teetering economy the recipients often depen...
South Africa: Investigating refuse collection in informal settlements
2011-10-19, Issue 553
The Social Justice Coalition (SJC) has observed that refuse collection in informal settlements is often irregular and of very poor quality. Refuse is often left rotting for days or weeks, contributing to the spread of disease. All refuse collection ...
DRC: The lasting effects of war on children
2011-10-17, Issue 552
According to the 2009 United Nations Human Development Index, almost 80 per cent of households in this Central African nation now live on less than two dollars a day. Child poverty is estimated to be even higher, says the United Nations Children’s Fu...
South Africa: Shots fired over Cape housing development
2011-09-28, Issue 550
Battles between backyarders and informal settlement residents over the allocation of houses at Makhaza’s Ithemba Labantu housing project in Cape Town flared up again last week, resulting in shots fired by a backyarder believed to be defending himself...
DRC: Old and unloved
The struggle for the elderly in DRC
2011-09-19, Issue 549
It is not uncommon for elderly people on the streets of Goma, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (CRD), to be mistreated by their families. Unable to look after themselves due to a lack of income, most elderly people live with their children, where ...
Kenya: Pipeline explosion sparks slum safety debate
2011-09-26, Issue 549
Survivors of last week’s fire that killed more than 100 people in a Nairobi slum say they are lucky to be alive. As the government works to help and compensate those affected, the explosion ignites fresh debate about the safety of slums....
Nigeria: Growing 'prosperity' churches
2011-09-13, Issue 547
An increasing number of Nigeria's 70 million Christians are following so called 'prosperity teachings' - the belief that prosperity is a blessing. Services are held in mega-churches, with millionaire pastors preaching the word. Tomi Oladipo reports f...
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