News stories by Friday Phiri

Africa contributes the least to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it faces some of the world’s most severe climate-related health impacts. Several realities define the continent’s climate and health landscape – increased infectious diseases, air pollution, death, disruption and pressure on health systems through heatwaves, floods, droughts and storms.

LISBON, May 26 (IPS) - It is often said that the quality of seed determines the quality of the produce and, consequently, the sustainability of the entire agricultural value chain, influencing everything from crop yields to nutritional value.

NDOLA, Zambia, April 27 (IPS) - In the bustling Chifubu constituency of Ndola, the provincial capital of Zambia’s mineral-rich Copperbelt Province, 31-year-old Victoria Bwalya is usually among the early risers, cleaning and setting up for the day in her restaurant business.

UNITED NATIONS, October 9 (IPS) - The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN’s body on climate science, has over the years, repeatedly and steadily reported on the science of global warming leading to the changing climate with visible impacts.

ADDIS ABABA, September 25 (IPS) - At the Second Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 8-10 September, African leaders committed to the climate and health nexus and their desire to advance climate-resilient and adaptive health systems on the continent.

BONN, Jun 20 (IPS) - In recent years, there has been growing evidence of how climate change is impacting human health in several ways.

BONN, Jun 11 (IPS) - There is a rapid realization that climate change is impacting health, which is why the recently adopted World Health Organization's Climate Change and Health Resolution is considered pivotal.

LUSAKA, May 08 (IPS) - For most families in Zambia, April is traditionally a month of plenty—it is typically the beginning of a harvest season for various food and cash crops. Both fresh and dried maize, groundnuts, pumpkins, and a whole variety of both traditional and exotic food crops are usually in full supply and readily available for consumption, supporting household food security and nutrition.

LUSAKA and PEMBA DISTRICT, Zambia, Jan 15 (IPS) - It is early Saturday morning and Planeta Hatuleke, a small scale farmer of Pemba District in Southern Zambia, awakens to the comforting sound of rainfall. As the locals say, the "heavens have opened" and it is raining heavily after a prolonged dry spell. 

PEMBA, Zambia, Jul 26 (IPS) - Jennifer Handondo, a small scale farmer of Choma district in southern Zambia, plants food crops such as maize mostly for her family's needs. Because of uncharacteristically high temperatures and low rainfall during the planting season in March, the divorced mother who single-handedly supports her three children, has not been able to harvest as much as she usually does. So she has diversified into selling seedlings of neem, Moringa and other medicinal trees.