Foreign-funded development projects, backed by millions of dollars, make big promises. Pulitzer Center grantee Ameto Akpe tracks the impact of US maternal health interventions in Bauchi State and examines whether the results live up to donors’ stated objectives.

Like many things in Nigeria, what might seem like simple ineptitude on the government’s part is actually the absence of political will. Other ambitions appear to distract from a response that would value the lives of citizens.

What do candy crush and cervical cancer have in common? Well, nothing except, both can now be ‘screened’ on a smartphone.

In any case, the results have been predictable. Instead of creating jobs, the Nigerian economy has shed half a million of them since Buhari took office, swelling the already bloated ranks of the unemployed to 13.3 percent. The current dollar exchange rate for the naira is about 455 to 1, compared with 260 to 1 around this time last year. Food prices have reportedly doubled across the country, forcing millions of people to go hungry as a famine looms in the north.

The nature of anti-Americanism is undoubtedly complex and dealing with the barriers it creates would take a combination of pacification and public relations efforts; if American aid truly aims to change hearts and minds, understanding the true dynamics of the prevailing feelings is crucial to moving forward.

In Nigeria, speed limits appear to be viewed as mere suggestions, lanes are flexible, driving against traffic is routine and if you are caught, a little money can make all your troubles go away.

Most of Nigeria’s vast oil wealth comes from the Ogoni region, also known as Ogoniland. Companies like Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil have made billions of dollars in oil revenue and have, in turn, enriched one Nigerian administration after the other, yet the Ogoni people live in extreme poverty.

Style meets activism? It is fashion like you have never seen before at the 2014 AIDS conference in Melbourne Australia, as Brazilian designer Adriana Bertini showcases a few pieces from original designs inspired and made entirely from condoms.

There is a saying in Nigeria—“For many live by the riverside, but wash their hands with spittle.” Nowhere is this truer than in Makurdi, a state capital in Nigeria, a country that accounts for about 8.6 percent of U.S. oil imports.

Early this year, the thirty-five-year-old mother of four was part of training sessions organized by the Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) project. This initiative empowers communities to keep boreholes working. Participating communities also receive free work tools worth an estimated $350.

It’s a beautiful sunny afternoon. Queen and her sister Jennifer wash their clothes in the polluted Benue River that flows just a short distance from their home in the Wadatta area, a district in Makurdi, Benue state. Beside them two young girls happily take a bath, giggling and whispering to each other.

The trail expands out in all directions as we find commercial water tankers parked all around the facility, filling up on a resource so scarce in a town waiting too long for access to safe drinking water.