Eritrea has taken steps to control tobacco use. Its 2004 proclamation aims to curb consumption, as do higher tax rates on cigarettes and other tobacco products. However, in spite of these measures, tobacco consumption is increasing.
Obesity in South Africa is becoming a major public health issue for the country - nearly 60% of adult women and 31% percent of adult men are either obese or overweight.
While the Arab World has enjoyed substantial economic progress, there has been little improvement in ensuring equitable access to health care. In most countries, the majority of people have limited access to basic health services.
Failed and fragile states are attracting global attention; however, they sit at one end of a spectrum of states struggling to instill order and authority. Citizens in these countries want security and representation.
More than half of the residents of Nairobi, Kenya, live in informal settlements, or slums, under difficult conditions.
States that have successfully exited violence and embarked on a process of development have often started with strong political settlements, or elite pacts. These sometimes take the form of peace agreements, or electoral coalitions.
Alcohol is one of the key risk factors for the exceptionally high levels of interpersonal violence in South Africa's Western Cape Province. It is also an important contributor to disease.
West Africa has been identified as a new lucrative market by the tobacco industry.
While much national and international attention has focused on the rise in post-electoral violence in Kenya since the 1990s, the fact that a considerable part of that violence was gender and sexual in nature has gone largely unnoticed.
In the drylands of East and Southern African, pastoralists are facing degrading environments due to increased population, climate change, and agricultural policies.