Topic description and stories

Cambridge researchers have long worked with African colleagues on issues that matter not just to the continent but to the world.

Young girl in Nepal

Sustained, purposeful investment key to ‘leaving no girl behind’, either in education or beyond

19 Oct 2023

A UK-funded programme to support out-of-school girls in low-income countries has significantly enhanced their learning, confidence, opportunities and...

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Drone shot in front of a spinning weather station, Free State, South Africa

Death tolls from climate disasters will ‘balloon’ without investment in Africa’s weather stations

14 Aug 2023

Investment in ‘hydromet systems’ using technologies from AI to SMS would provide a nine-to-one ROI in saved lives and assets across African nations...

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Honey badger eating honeycomb

Birds and honey badgers could be cooperating to steal from bees in parts of Africa

29 Jun 2023

The tale of two charismatic species cooperating for mutual benefit has captivated naturalists for centuries – but evidence has been patchy...

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Young children in Ethiopia

COVID has 'ruptured' social skills of the world’s poorest children, study suggests

30 Nov 2022

Two interlinked studies, involving 8,000 primary pupils altogether, indicate children lost at least a third of a year in learning during lockdown.

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3d digital image corona virus on planet Earth in Africa

Scientists publish first real-world data from Africa looking at immune response to AZ/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine

11 May 2022

Scientists have released the first real-world data from Africa on the effectiveness of two doses of AstraZeneca/ChaAd0x-1 COVID-19 vaccination...

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Children leaving school in Ale, Ethiopia

Poorly conceived payment-on-results funding threatens to undermine education aid

30 Mar 2022

Analysis of a results-based-financing programme for education aid in Ethiopia finds that multiple aspects of the arrangement were unfit for purpose...

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Raise the floor: education that works for everyone

24 Jan 2022

The evidence that convinced the international community that putting disadvantaged children first creates education systems that work for everyone.

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The chemist who saved a restaurant and launched a vision for Africa

13 Jan 2022

David Izuogu’s ambition is to establish a research institute in his home country of Nigeria. But he isn’t waiting until he realises his goal to help...

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Earliest human remains in eastern Africa dated to more than 230,000 years ago

12 Jan 2022

The age of the oldest fossils in eastern Africa widely recognised as representing our species, Homo sapiens, has long been uncertain. Now, dating of...

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Running water

08 Nov 2021

Meet social enterprise founder, Francesca O'Hanlon whose tech start-up is partnering with local plumbing businesses to bring clean water to...

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Pangolin trafficking: Iceberg tip of Nigeria's illegal trade revealed

04 Nov 2021

New findings on Nigerian-linked pangolin seizures suggest that current global estimates for trafficking of the animal are far too small, say...

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Britain's first colonial anthropology experiment revealed

12 Jun 2021

A new exhibition at MAA examines the pioneering ethnographic archive assembled by Britain’s first colonial anthropologist, Cambridge alumnus...

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