Human geography

An international, nonprofit, nongovernmental institution that seeks to improve the wellbeing and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world and to help achieve a humane, equitable, and sustainable balance between people and resources. The Council conducts biomedical, social science, and public health research and helps build research capacities in developing countries.

At a time when people in the developed world are enjoying longer lives, citizens of the world's poorest countries (LDCs) are still expecting to live comparatively short lives.

ABOUT 1,200 Makerere University students and lecturers have tested for HIV. The self-testing campaign was organised by Fight Against AIDS (FAA) and facilitated by International Air Ambulance (IAA), who offered 10,000 HIV test kits and T shirts. The tests started on February 4 and ended on February 18 at the Afro-Stone Bazaar at Makerere. Testing was free of charge.

Rock stars, movie actresses and heads of state have shined a bright light on global poverty in the past year, often highlighting the particular burden on women, but a report from the United Nations released this week painstakingly details the huge gaps in data needed to understand how poverty - in all its ugly guises - affects women.

The World Health Organization's headquarters and its Regional Office for Africa convened an Africa regional meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, on September 19 to 21, 2005, on the topic of hormonal contraception and HIV acquisition.

Half the world's population will live in cities in two years, the U.N. chief said Wednesday, adding that the number of elderly people is rising rapidly, prompting a need for economic and social changes.

Fertility in South Africa has been falling for almost four decades. The 2001 South Africa Census offers the opportunity to reflect on this decline, and to assess the trajectory and patterns of fertility in the country, among its population groups and in its provinces. Analysis of the data in the 2001 census shows that fertility among all four main population groups continues to fall, and that the national level of fertility is now below three children per woman. The rate of decline indicated by the estimated levels of fertility is a continuation of the long trend of gradually declining fertility. The 2001 census was the second conducted in a postapartheid South Africa. The first, which was conducted in 1996, is regarded as the most reliable and accurate enumeration of the South African population since that in 1970. The comparison of fertility levels and trends estimated from these two post-apartheid censuses provides valuable checks and comparisons that further enhance our understanding of fertility dynamics in the country.

This study is the first attempt to assess the effect of the new rural allowance on the motivation and movement of health professionals working in rural areas. Although methodologically limited, the study gives some indication of the likely impact of the funds allocated by Treasury, namely that almost one-third of health professionals working in rural areas say that they have changed their career plans next year as a result of the new allowance. It is difficult to assess whether this is the effect of the RA alone, or in combination with the SSA. Further evaluations will be necessary to assess the longer-term impact of these strategies.

Good news from the United Nations Population Division: The world's population, now about 6.3 billion, is expected to peak in 2050, at 9 billion down from the previously predicted 12 billion.