Rural News Africa: Top Stories of The Week

More than half of the African population live in rural communities, yet prominence is placed on report from urban communities.

To correct this deformity, Rural Reporters was created to bridge the information and development divide between the urban and rural communities in Africa.

We do this by reporting under-reported events that affect rural communities.

While some of these stories are not necessarily based on rural locations, they are sometimes those that can improve the lives of rural dwellers in Africa directly or indirectly.

Without further ado, here are the top stories from rural Africa that made headline this week.

 

Rural Development

Africa’s Largest Wind Farm To Bring First Electricity To Rural Homes

Construction has begun on the €625m (£490m) Lake Turkana Wind Power development in Kenya, the largest wind power project in Africa to date.

Matthias Vinard, Mott MacDonald’s project manager, said: “Once operational, LTWP will provide approximately 15% of total power generation in Kenya, equivalent to approximately 330,000 households.”

Read More: http://www.eaem.co.uk/news/africas-largest-wind-farm-bring-first-electricity-rural-homes

 

Women

Lack Of Funds, Not Skills, Hinder Women Empowerment In Rural Africa

From my experience, I realised that the major challenge faced by these women in rural area is not lack of skills nor ability, but poor access to funding. Government truly needs to come up with loan schemes for women in under developed communities. It would help build a stronger family, a stronger nation. It would foster business growth and development because when you invest in a woman, she feeds herself, her family, her community and her nation. Women need every support and it would not be a bad idea if every local government area operates loan scheme for entrepreneur women.

Read More: http://ruralreporters.com/lack-of-funds-not-skills-hinder-women-empowerment-in-rural-africa/

 

Trained Traditional Birth Attendants Answer To Reducing Maternal Mortality?

A huge banner at the Ministry of health, Division of Reproductive Health, boldly says that no woman should die while giving birth in Kenya. While giving life should be a moment of intense happiness, childbirth in most cases is associated with pain, injuries, complications and even death. Research portrays a grim situation of the state of maternal mortality in Kenya. That 21 women die daily while giving life or as a result of pregnancy just shows how far we are from realizing MDG 5.

Read More: http://ruralreporters.com/kenya-trained-traditional-birth-attendants-answer-to-reducing-maternal-mortality/

 

Health

Ebola Cases ‘Surge’ In Rural Sierra Leone

Ebola is spreading up to nine times faster in parts of Sierra Leone than two months ago, a report by the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI) said.

On average, 12 new cases a day were seen in the rural areas surrounding Freetown in late October, compared with 1.3 cases in early September, the report said on Sunday, a nine fold increase.

“While new cases appear to have slowed in Liberia, Ebola is continuing to spread frighteningly quickly in parts of Sierra Leone,” the AGI report said

Read More: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/11/ebola-cases-surge-rural-sierra-leone-2014112221854603455.html

 

Education

South Africa: Rural teachers may lose allowance

The controversial rural incentive allowance could be scrapped by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education as it “perpetuates unfairness” among teachers and was increasingly becoming a financial burden, the education portfolio committee heard on Thursday.

The incentive was introduced in 2009 by the national Department of Basic Education to encourage teachers to teach critical gateway subjects such as maths and science in “hard to teach” rural schools

Read More: http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/rural-teachers-may-lose-allowance-1.1777208#.VF6e9PnF_fI

 

Arts &Life

Rwanda Singer, Kizito Mihigo Pleads Guilty to Terrorism, Murder Charges

Singer Kizito Mihigo has pleaded guilty to all five charges levelled against him in a terrorism trial before the High Court.

Kizito is jointly accused with three others of forming a criminal gang, aiding the formation of a criminal gang, conspiracy against the established government or the President of the Republic, complicity in a terrorist act, murder and conspiracy to murder.

Kizito had agreed to mobilise youth in the country and form a group to be called “New Generation for Revolution” that would operate from Tanzania, while Kizito was to fly to Europe where he would make a declaration calling for an uprising in Rwanda.

Read More: http://allafrica.com/stories/201411070195.html

 

 

Agribusiness

Young Women Mobilize Local Development Through Sustainable Aquaculture in Rural Malawi

While youth comprise about 70 percent of the population in Malawi, most of them contend with poverty and HIV/AIDS and lack access to the necessary opportunities to empower and change their lives.

Realizing the potential in Malawi’s young people, the Kawjo Foundation has charged the youth with the management of the Integrated Agriculture-Aquaculture (IAA) project in the Lilongwe district. IAA is a sustainable agricultural strategy that allows rural communities to adapt to erratic weather causing rainfall shortages by increasing the long-term availability of water. IAA—one of the prioritized adaptation strategies within Malawi’s National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA) established in 2006—promotes sustainable farming and food security in the region by allowing farmers to adapt better to climate change. The project, Scaling up Adaptative Capacity of Rural Communities to Climate Change through Innovative Integrated Agriculture Aquaculture (IAA), has been in operation for two years.

Read More: http://gender-gap.net/content/young-women-mobilize-local-development-through-sustainable-aquaculture-rural-malawi

 

How Farmers Can Attract Funding

Jeande Dieu Mbarushimana, a cattle keeper from Nyabihu District, has for the past two years been trying to secure a loan using his animals as collateral without success.

He says banks do not want to lend to farmers “because farming is risky” to finance.

“Government is encouraging us to embrace commercial farming methods to increase production, but we can’t do much without funding from banks,” Mbarushimana said on the sidelines of the farmers meeting in Kigali last week.

 

Burkina Faso: climate change, land grabs, and revolution

The economic tensions between local producers and international powers that have contributed to the revolutionary dissatisfaction with the establishment in Burkina Faso can be found in virtually any country subject to the harsh and cruel conditions of the global land grab and the crisis of climate change.

The revolution in Burkina Faso represents a crucial break, summoning the revolutionary leaders of past generations to maintain a legacy of popular control

Read More: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2621757/burkina_faso_climate_change_land_grabs_and_revolution.html

 

 

 

Busayo Sotunde is a prolific writer with special focus on Business, Entrepreneurship, Reproductive Health and other development issues in Africa. Her articles have been published by different outlets including Investing Port and Ventures-Africa.com. She has a penchant for reading and sustainable development. Follow Busayo on Twitter @BusayomiSotunde
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