Into the 1990s, Malawi banned not only birth control, but sex education and even miniskirts. Now, attitudes toward contraception are changing under the pressure of climate change and rapid population growth.
On the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar, hundreds of households too poor and remote to have access to the electrical grid are getting low cost solar power for the first time, from a group of local female engineers trained by and Indian NGO. It's the first of several "solar mamas" projects planned for parts of rural Africa, and it's turning some traditional gender roles on their head.
The flooding has displaced nearly 200,000 people in Malawi, destroyed crops and brought fears of disease. In a region already prone to flooding, the future may hold even worse.