With pupils limping to school on empty stomachs and dressed in tatters, Malawi may not realise her ambition to increase the number of citizens who are able to read and write. Experts have always pointed at poverty as the main reason for the escalating rate of school drop outs. Many of the children are absorbed in the child labour market to help their poor families earn additional incomes to finance basic requirements.

Set up in 1985, Comic Relief exists to tackle poverty and promote social justice. In seven Red Nose Days, we have raised over £170 million, every penny of which is now hard at work helping some of the poorest people across the UK and in Africa. We are looking for experienced and enthusiastic people to join our Africa grants committee, which advises our Trustees on spending this money as effectively as possible.

Traffic police are the most corrupt, a new report on corruption reveals. Traffic officers were found to have developed numerous creative ways of soliciting for bribes, giving the entire police force a bad name.

High levels of corruption continue to persist in Kenya despite various efforts made to fight the phenomenon, according to two newly released reports.