Representing organisations and social movements from Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Ecuador, Paraguay, Thailand, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and the United States, who have come together in São Paulo from 17 to 19 November 2008. We fundamentally disagree with the strategy to promote agrofuels: in our opinion, agrofuels are not driving development, nor are they sustainable. This strategy represents an obstacle to the necessary structural changes in our system of production and consumption, in agriculture and in the energy matrix, changes that pose real solutions to the challenges of climate change.

Sex workers in Southern Africa are subjected to widespread human rights abuses, according to a report released today by the Open Society Institute. Rights Not Rescue: A Report on Female, Trans, and Male Sex Workers’ Human Rights in Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa documents the experiences of sex workers and their efforts to protect their rights despite overwhelming challenges.

High food prices and cuts in food aid to HIV-positive people are forcing relief organisations in Burkina Faso to take another look at local foods to keep people healthy. "We are all working with sustainability in mind, and we cannot always continue to rely on external support," said Dr Joseph Aimé Bidiga, who runs the health division at the national AIDS control council, CNLS.

A new health data system has been introduced to rural parts of Sierra Leone, where lack of electricity and widespread illiteracy has prevented authorities and UN agencies from collecting reliable data about infant mortality and other health indicators. The method: Counting stones

Ministers from across the developing world say they want to take control of their own health research agendas as part of a wish list presented at the Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health yesterday (19 November). Launching the much-awaited 'Call to Action' at the closing event of the Forum they said they want to prioritise policies dealing with research for health and improve coordination between ministries so that their respective countries can have more ownership of research.

The first five years of a large-scale antiretroviral programme have resulted in excellent, sustained rates of virologic suppression, CD4 cell count increases, and improved clinical outcomes among adults in Botswana, according to a study reported in AIDS. The Botswana Antiretroviral Treatment Program (commonly known as MASA, from the Setswana word for "new dawn") began providing free access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in January 2002 through Princess Marina Hospital in the capital city of Gaborone.

Zimbabwe’s doctors have sketched a picture of a health system that has collapsed with hundreds of people dying from a cholera epidemic which has now crossed the border into South Africa. Limpopo Health Department spokesperson Phuti Seloba confirmed that 81 people were being treated at Mussina Hospital with three deaths recorded so far.

Testing infants at risk of HIV as soon as possible, and treating those infected with the virus immediately, dramatically enhances their chances of survival and reduces the likelihood of devastating disease progression in their early life.

Puzzled by a section of prostitutes in Majengo slums who had managed to resist HIV infection even after being exposed to it, a group of scientists decided in 1987 to understand why this was the case. This amazing finding made them follow these women keenly for over five years to find out what made them tick.

In major nightclubs in Nairobi, a new phenomenon is taking shape: the number of male sex workers is on the rise as more men turn to the act as away of eking a living. While many people have associated Mombasa with men who sell anal sex, it is emerging that Nairobi is now a hot-spot for this business. Men who engage in this act for commercial reasons are easy to come by than was the case in the past, says Dr Joshua Kimani, whose research work has enabled him to come into contact with some of them.

Lesotho's drive to test all of its citizens age 12 or older for the virus that causes AIDS fell short of its goals, both in carrying out the program and in safeguarding the rights of those tested, said Human Rights Watch and the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa in a new report.

Today's food and financial crises have, in tandem, triggered a new global land grab. "Food insecure" governments that rely on imports to feed their people are snapping up farms all over the world to outsource their own food production and escape high market prices. Private investors, hungry for profits in the midst of the deepening financial crisis, are eyeing overseas farms as an important new source of revenue.

The use of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) to protect children from malaria has risen six-fold in the past seven years, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust. Despite this success, however, 90 million children still do not have access to this simple protective tool, and remain at risk from the life-threatening disease.

In an era where global food prices have rapidly risen the objective of this report is to examine the link between food inflation in South Africa and agricultural food imports into China. Our hypothesis is that these burgeoning Chinese imports are at least one of the factors behind rising global food prices, and this is having a direct impact upon South African import prices and, consequently, domestic food prices.

Over 500 people from Mauritius, Madagascar, Reunion Island, the Comoros and Seychelles attended the seventh conference on AIDS in Indian Ocean, and shared their growing concern over the impact of AIDS in their respective countries. The Indian Ocean region has been much less affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic than countries in neighbouring Africa, but this could be changing, delegates at the conference in Mauritius from 10 to 12 November heard.

Ten people have been confirmed dead and two are hospitalised following an outbreak of meningitis in north-central Ghana. The disease broke out on 25 October in Yaw Bronya farming community in the Ashanti Region, 250km north of the capital Accra. Local authorities have closed down schools and banned all public gatherings. “We are treating this as an epidemic,” the head of the Ashanti regional health directorate, Mohammed Bin Ibrahim, told IRIN.

Starving Zimbabweans have stormed lorries carrying food across the border with South Africa. Ten 30-tonne vehicles carrying private imports of the staple maize meal at the Zimbabwean side of the Beit Bridge border post were besieged by hundreds of Zimbabweans desperate for something to eat. Witnesses said that the crowd ripped the stolen bags open to stuff the uncooked cereal into their mouths.

A new study looking into Uganda's high child mortality rate concludes that the "vast majority" of under-five children deaths are easily preventable, only needing relatively low-expense prevention programmes. The "2007 Uganda Child Verbal Autopsy Study", just released by the US agency Measure DHS and the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, documents grave failures by the Ugandan health sector to address the country's high child mortality rates. Most could have been saved by easy, low-cost means.

Police have arrested a hospital technician on charges of conducting unauthorised and unsupervised chemotherapy drug trials on cancer-suffering HIV/AIDS patients in a hospital in southern Malawi. Investigations are underway into six deaths among 20 patients being treated for AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma at St Luke's Hospital near Mount Malosa.

Nearly 20% of patients in an HIV treatment programme in Kenya have suffered major interactions between their HIV drugs and other prescribed medicines, a study has found. In half of these cases the result of the interaction was to significantly lower the levels of antiretrovirals in the blood. The retrospective survey of patient case-notes in the AMPATH (Academic Model for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS) found that altogether 30% of patients had suffered major or minor consequences from drug interactions.