Aichetou, a 14-year-old girl, lives on the outskirts of Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, in Africa’s Sahel region. Every day, she makes a difficult trek through the sand to get to a school with no drinking water or sanitation, where she barely learns, owing to a lack of textbooks and trained teachers. And she is not alone: tens of millions of schoolchildren worldwide face similar circumstances, while 262 million children and youth are not in school at all.

The world has made impressive strides in reducing extreme poverty, but that progress has slowed considerably in recent years. The problem is clear: eliminating extreme poverty requires tackling inequality.

We have shockingly witnessed Ethiopian artists seeking donations and financial support to cover emergencies such as medical or funeral expenses time and again. Most of them are either unable or unprepared to cover such costs which in turn have led many of them to untimely death, and public disgrace. If the art community could plan and negotiate affordable insurance coverage, they can avoid both ill-fated consequences. In a country of rich art collections and profound artists, underwriting suitable insurance for art and artists could indeed be in high demand.

Residents of Addis Ababa experience the hustle and bustle of their metropolis on daily basis. Its main roads are becoming a popular place for hundreds of small vendors, bravely facing dual challenges: getting hold of the ever-elusive and reluctant customer, and save themselves from the baton-wielding cops, chasing them wildly.

If there are sectors that have witnessed significant growth over the past decade, the broadcast industry is at the forefront. A country with only a few state-affiliated broadcasters for long witnessed the proliferation of dozens of radio and television broadcasters in the decade.

Despite its low purchasing power, Ethiopia, a country with more than one hundred and five million people, has one of the biggest market potentials in Africa. The consumer, however, is not very well taken care of. As the saying goes, consumption is life. When consumption and the patterns involved are affected, the intricacies of consumer protection come into the picture.