My Nest

It has been 20 years since the first female condom came on the market but over 13 years since Malawi launched it, as the only female-initiated preventive measure against unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Female condoms remain largely marginalised and inaccessible in Malawi even when studies show that there is some high level of awareness and acceptability in the country. Nevertheless, most Malawian women cannot use it because it is neither available to them nor do they have the knowledge on how to use it. Factors such as pricing, lack of funding, high illiteracy rate, cultural and religious belief exacerbate the low use of female condoms. At only K50 a man gets a three pack of condoms while at the same price a woman gets a pack of two female condoms. In contrast, the male condom enjoys wider promotion and accessibility, despite the fact that its use in achieving safer sex almost entirely depends on the cooperation of the male sexual pa

The Malawi delegation that attended the meeting At its first-ever meeting held on Monday June 23 2014 held in Nairobi Kenya, which is known as the “the environmental capital of the world,” United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) elected office bearers who will constitute the Bureau of the Assembly. The Environment Assembly becomes the universal body and replaces the Governing Council, which had limited members. In his welcome remarks, outgoing Governing Council President, Hassan Abdel Hilal who is Sudan’s Minister of Environment, Forests and Physical Development said UNEA represents a “ground-breaking platform for leadership in environmental policy and is set to make strategic decisions, provide political guidance and promote a science-policy interface.” The first and newly elected UNEA president Oyun Sanjaasuren, reminded delegates at the conference of the grave global environment and development challenges that stem from an increasing global population which is no

A cross section of the first TAAFA fellows--pic courtesy of Atayi Babs Sellina Nkowani, in Nairobi Kenya The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) has launched Media academy for African Journalists reporting on Climate Change and environmental issues dubbed "The ACCER Awards Finalists Academy (TAAFA). The launch of the academy took place at Milele Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. The first bunch of TAAFA fellows are the 21 African Journalists who have been shortlisted from 309 entries received from across Africa. The Secretary General for PACJA Mithika Mwenda, said that as part of the recommendations of the 2013 Judging Panel, they have redesigned the training and capacity building programmes to ensure that it does not end as an event but as a continuous process that will ensure that they truly build the capacity of journalists in Africa as well as keeping them glued to the climate change and environmental reporting. In their report during the inaugural edition of ACCE