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How policies end: not with a bang, but a whimper Aid Thoughts Masimba Tafirenyika describes how dire the food security situation in Malawi has become: Once again Malawi finds itself in a tight spot. A food crisis set off by erratic rains, rising food prices and economic hardships is slowly unfolding. For the first time in several years, the country's ability to feed its citizens is at risk. Sadly and unexpectedly, Malawi has lost its hard-earned status as an agricultural success story — it used to produce enough maize for its people to eat and still provide a surplus to neighbours. Many are now wondering what went wrong and whether there could be lessons for other African countries. More than 1.63 million people, or 11 per cent of the population, are facing severe food shortages, according to the World Food Programme, a UN relief agency. Malawi needed $30 million to the end of 2012 to cover the shortfall. As Tafirenyika hints, this...

Somewhat less neglected tropical diseases Global development news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk What progress has been made, a year on from Big Pharma's promise to help eliminate neglected tropical diseases? A year ago, the leaders of some of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies arrived for a meeting in London, at Bill Gates's behest, and announced they would all do their bit towards fighting neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). On Wednesday, two reports give some idea of what has been achieved since, and it looks like a positive story. The companies have delivered 1.2bn treatments for diseases where treatments exist, which is an increase of 150m treatments on what they were delivering before. More to the point, perhaps, is that they delivered on every order made by a developing country. According to a report released by organisations including pharma, Gates and NGOs who were involved in the London meeting, 29 countries began...