SciDev.Net
A tool designed to help policymakers choose the best Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to replace the UN’s Millennium Development Goals when they expire next year has been launched by an international organisation that promotes global sustainable development. [Read More]

Tanzania Daily News
The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Seif Rashidi, officially launched the Public Private Health Forum (PPHF) on April 24, this year, at New Africa Hotel in Dar es Salaam. [Read More]

SciDev.Net
I must confess that I had never really made an explicit connection in my mind between a country’s social and economic development and the number of graduates holding a PhD or ‘doctor of philosophy’ degree. But my perspective on this shifted somewhat when, in April 2013, the Carnegie Cooperation of New York invited SciDev.Net to collaborate on an initiative aimed at “developing and retaining the next generation of African academics” — in this case, scientists and scholars with both research and teaching responsibilities at university level. [Read More]

African Development Bank
On average 40-60% of public expenditure goes to social spending in Africa, which calls for improved governance, and voice and accountability in social spending. In order to foster and sustain progress in human development, African countries need to focus on results for the money that they spend on social services. Parliamentarians play a pivotal role in resource allocation, ensuring delivery on results and enhancing accountability in social sectors. [Read More]

SciDev.Net
Traditional methods of ‘scaling’ information and communications technologies are flawed, says Christopher Foster. [Read More]

The Lancet
Following The Lancet Neonatal Survival Series in 2005, this Every Newborn Series presents the clearest picture so far of the ongoing slow progress in newborn survival, provides new focus beyond survival, and combines research and reality in countries to set target for post-2015 to ensure that every newborn has a healthy start in life. [Read More]

The Lancet
Data for the causes of maternal deaths are needed to inform policies to improve maternal health. We developed and analysed global, regional, and subregional estimates of the causes of maternal death during 2003—09, with a novel method, updating the previous WHO systematic review. [Read More]

African Development Bank
The African Development Bank's (AfDB) Annual Meetings 2014 commenced in Kigali on May 19. A ministerial visit to healthcare centres in a rural area was organised to coincide with this event. The visit highlighted the importance of rural electrification through the use of renewable energy sources. Electrification of remote healthcare centres is particularly important in efforts to improve maternal and child health across Africa. The link between energy and maternal and child health is the core theme of the first two years of "Sustainable Energy for All" (SE4ALL) Decade (2014-2024), a decade launched in Africa at the AfDB's Annual Meetings. [Read More]

The Lancet
Remarkable financial and political efforts have been focused on the reduction of child mortality during the past few decades. Timely measurements of levels and trends in under-5 mortality are important to assess progress towards the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4) target of reduction of child mortality by two thirds from 1990 to 2015, and to identify models of success. [Read More]

Devex
The U.S. Agency for International Development, with help from National Security Advisor Susan Rice, announced Thursday a new “multi-sectoral nutrition strategy” which aims to reduce by 2 million over five years the number of chronically malnourished and “stunted” children worldwide and also to keep acute malnutrition below 15 percent in places experiencing humanitarian crisis. [Read More]