Zambia

Two Kenyan school boys play soccer. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/teachandlearn/2861273492/sizes/l/in/photostream/">Teachandlearn (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

UK retailer John Lewis is the latest to implemement a buy one, donate one program in Africa - with a twist

A small African company that got its seed money from a grant has just received a major endorsement. Alive & Kicking will now have their brand, Balls for Africa, sold by a major retailer in the UK.

A Riders healthcare worker. Photo: <a href="http://www.riders.org">Riders for Health</a>

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The missing link in African health systems? The auto mechanic

Twenty-four years ago, Barry and Andrea Coleman saw women in labor being carted to hospital in wheelbarrows. Today their organisation, Riders for Health, mobilizes 3000 health workers with reliable transportation and ensures 12 million Africans have access to health care.

With new data transmitters, African hand pumps can keep the water flowing. photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2944066423/sizes/o/in/photostream/">World Bank Photo Collection (Flickr)</a>

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Another job for Africa's mobile phones: Fixing water pumps

First money, then medicine, now water: What problems can’t the mobile phone solve?

The Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic is a plan to deliver medical services by water to reach populations that would otherwise be restricted by their landscape. Photo courtesy LTFHC.

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Floating clinics, rolling medics: In Africa, the hospital goes to you

For those who live in some of the most challenging landscapes in rural Africa, two innovative models are expanding the distribution of health care to ensure consistent aid—a boat and a truck.

Women farmers in Africa produce over 60 percent of all food crops. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cimmyt/5352940723/in/photostream/">CIMMYT (flickr)</a>

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In Africa, female scientists should power female farmers, group says

Women comprise 43 percent of the world’s farmers. In Africa, it’s 80 percent. Women plant, harvest, process and sell their crops, but men continue to dominate agricultural science and research. This may be about to change.

Within a few years, cheap sorghum-based beer might be the newest gift of the Nile to drinkers and farmers alike. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tattoodjay/3499979468/in/photostream/">Photo: Tattooed JJ (Flickr)</a>

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Will sorghum beer become Africa's first macrobrew?

With barley beer priced out of reach and homebrewed banana beer sending people to the hospital, SABMiller is testing a new ingredient for its African alcohol: sorghum.

Zambikes team members at the factory in Zambia holding one of their bamboo bicycles. Photo:<a href="http://www.new.zambikes.org/index.php">Zambikes.org</a>

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Zambikes makes bamboo bicycles to fix social and economic problems in Africa

*This article was republished by The Christian Science Monitor.*

The African Growth and Opportunity Act has generated many jobs in the clothing manufacturing sector, especially for women. Photo: Jenny Bussey Vaughan/Mercy Corps

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The Uncertain Future of Africa's Transformative Free-Trade Deal

Most Americans may have never heard of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, but their closets probably contain at least one article of clothing imported as part of it.