J. Michael Halderman, a Berkeley-based consultant whose work focuses on rural development and environmental issues, talks about why African pastoralists need more advocacy.

Generations of experts have dedicated their careers to finding ways to make sure children around the world have enough to eat. As Beth Hoffman reports from Uganda, some are turning to an overlooked bird to provide food and income.

My last night in Sierra Leone was a memorable one. I guess I made such an impression on one of the youth groups that I interviewed in Waterloo that they decided to show their appreciation by hosting a send-off party for me and my guides. Mind you, these are youths from a rural part of the country who often can’t afford to finish school, who don’t have anyone supporting their organization, who have to struggle for everything. Yet they plan this big celebration just for us.

The Africa Reporting Project’s One Question series continues with UC Berkeley Ph.D candicate Nathan McClintock, who facilitated a discussion about urban agriculture.

On Friday, we travel to Kono in the eastern part of the country. It is known as the breadbasket of the country because of its rich diamond resources. How do you know you’re in Kono? You can feel the bumpy roads along the way to the district.

Juliet Torome, a Kenyan-born reporter, writes about a new trend in urban farming throughout many African countries: absentee agriculture.

Land conflict in Liberia–What’s a woman in Liberia to do when she’s kicked off her land by a returning male family member?  When a representative from the Catholic Peace and Justice Commission educates villages on new Liberian laws, which grant land rights to women, an almost 4-year old family dispute is resolved.  Shown through multimedia [...]

I’m starting to feel right at home. We spent most of the day Wednesday in Waterloo, in the Western Area Rural District, where we met with three youth farming groups. They all had interesting stories and seemed very determined to get their projects off the ground. But they all mentioned one similar problem: Because they were women’s groups, they were all dealing with the issue of getting young girls out of prostitution.

The journey to Sierra Leone was long. I left California Tuesday afternoon and, after two layovers, I finally arrived at my destination the next evening. It really didn’t start to sink in that I was heading to Africa until our plane began flying over the Sahara. All I remember seeing was vast areas of sand, with layers of blue and orange coating the horizon. The nice lady sitting next to me described it as an “ocean of brown.” I would concur.

We launch our One Question series today with a Q&A with Patrick Vinck, our speaker for the week, who spoke about how to understand and achieve food security after conflict in Africa.