Mauritian researchers build a leishmaniasis wound patch from sugarcane waste
Cutaneous leishmaniasis scars close to 1 million people a year, and the dressings used to treat the open wounds it leaves have lagged behind the drugs used to treat the infection itself. A team at the University of Mauritius has built a new one out of sugarcane fibre, the country's oldest industrial waste product.
Traditional climate knowledge in Fiji and Vanuatu proves vital for climate adaptation
Coastal communities in Fiji and Vanuatu have read weather, protected coastlines, and managed fisheries through knowledge passed down for generations, none of it written down. A University of Fiji study spent eight months recording it before it disappears, and found one village already facing the choice climate change is about to force on many more.
Zimbabwe's climate-resilient crops vital for Africa's food security
Climate change is pushing Zimbabwe's conventional crop value chains toward failure across all five of the country's agroecological regions. Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology is betting on vegetables that grew wild for generations, now bred, seeded, and sold back through a farmer network 430 strong.
The $2,000 Prosthetic Problem African Labs Are Solving for Under $50
A faulty imported prosthetic can cost an amputee $2,000 to replace. A South African university lab and a British charity's pilot in the Gambia are both now producing custom-fitted replacements, printed from a patient's own scan, for a fraction of that.