After years of devastating crop failures due to drought and erratic rainfall, smallholders in Kenya - who comprise the bulk of the country’s farmers - are increasingly taking up irrigation to boost their yields.

In the largely semi-arid coastal district of Kilifi, a group of over 1,000 small-scale farmers have formed an association through which they pool money, approximately US$4 each, for the purchase of irrigation equipment like pedal pumps, watering cans and water pipes.

With the number of people in Africa’s urban centres expected to grow rapidly in the next few decades, municipal waste and its disposal could pose a variety of logistical and public health challenges. Now, researchers at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa, are examining how to convert organic waste into biogas, which would alleviate disposal problems and help poor residents, particularly those in informal settlements, save on energy costs. 

Aid agencies say water and food provision has improved in four camps housing more than 105,000 refugees from Sudan's Blue Nile State, but flooding, disease and an influx of additional refugees pose new threats. 

Recent deadly clashes in Kenya stem from widespread economic frustration, chronic impunity and the ambitions of politicians seeking office, according to analysts and activists.

As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay noted, the timing of the latest clashes on the coast is alarming.