Every week, Rural Reporters collate reports on development in rural Africa and its environs. The reports include some of our top picks from recent must-read research, interviews, reports, blogs and in-depth articles which have been carefully selected to help you keep up with global issues. Here are some of the updates you may have missed from the previous week:
Unlocking Africa’s Rural Tourism Potential is Crucial – Minister
Mrs Elizabeth Ofosu-Adjare, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, has called for the need to unlock Africa’s rural tourism potential for the improvement of the lives of rural folks.
She said the sector had a tedious responsibility to unlock Africa’s rural tourism potential in order to create economic opportunities in deprived communities.
Mrs Ofosu-Adjare was speaking at the inauguration of the Ghana Rural Tourism Development Forum in Kumawu, in the Sekyere Afram Plains District of the Ashanti Region.
Selling Solar to Rural Africa is Emerging as a Hot Market
Will electricity in developing rural areas spread more like cell phones than land lines? These startups think so.
After years of fits and starts, startups and big businesses are finally starting to pay attention to the solar market in rural corners of the developing world.
Over the past few months, a number of high profile investors have backed startups selling solar panels to off-grid customers across regions like Africa, India, and East Asia. Meanwhile, big solar companies have created divisions focusing on rural customers in the same areas.
That this market is now starting to mature shows how solar is increasingly affordable to people who earn less than $2 daily. At the same time, it highlights how business can lead social development—electrification, in this case—in ways that some non-profits have failed.
Mozambique Gets $67m IFAD funding for Rural Empowerment
The Specialized United Nations agency, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has approved $67 million to support projects intended to empower the rural poor in Mozambique over the next three years, APA can report on Monday.The announcement was made Monday by the IFAD representative in Mozambique, Robson Mutandi during the annual review meeting of the Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP).
The programme was approved in 2011, and establishes a framework for the partnership between IFAD and the Mozambican government.
Ethiopia Soars Toward Gender Equality With Its First All-Female Flight Crew
It was an otherwise routine flight between Addis Ababa and Bangkok, except this one was making history. In November, Ethiopian Airlines commissioned its first flight crewed by all women, from the cockpit right down to maintenance.
It may seem like an easily overlooked feat, but for an African country that only adopted gender equality policies 10 years ago, the historic flight was one of many notable landmarks in the path toward bridging the gender gap.
Christmas Day Babies Top 900 in South Africa
Over 900 babies were born in South Africa on Christmas Day this year, with the highest number of tots recorded in Gauteng Province, the health authorities said Sunday.
According to official figures, some 213 babies — including 110 boys and 103 girls were born in Gauteng, the province that hosts Johannesburg, the country’s commercial capital.
In the Eastern Cape Province some 217 babies were born there, with 116 girls and 101 boys.
The province’s district with the highest number of births was OR Tambo with 52 births, the officials said.