Ivory Coast

The third edition of the conference on investment in tourism and hotels in Africa will be held on Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 January, in Abidjan, with the theme "Africa Deserves Beauty"

It kicked off in Abidjan Football for Schools, an ambitious programme run by FIFA that combines sport and education; it is the first country in West Africa and the fifth on the continent to join the programme that seeks to make football more accessible

The first edition of the 'Festival of the Regions' to be held in Côte d'Ivoire next April with the aim of valorising and communicating the country's cultural diversity was announced and presented

A very small goal, no goalkeeper and a pitch the size of a handball court: in Ivory Coast there are people who dream of seeing the popular maracana, a kind of six-a-side football born on campuses some 50 years ago, become an Olympic sport

The Côte d'Ivoire Red Cross launched the 'second chance' education and health project at the Bouna youth centre to help reduce illiteracy and poverty rates among women

Young people go back to school this week knowing that those with a grade point average of less than 8.5 out of 10 will be excluded at the end of the year, an old measure resurrected by the authorities in the hope of raising education general standard

"Superphone", a new mobile phone designed and assembled in the country, helps illiterate users overcome difficulties; thanks to a voice control system, users can now access information in 50 African languages

Former Ivorian first lady Simone Gbagbo formally launched her political party three years before the presidential elections, to date the sole candidate and president of the MGC, Movement of Capable Generations

The Government reached an agreement with the trade unions for a 'five-year social truce' in the public sector in exchange for increased bonuses and payment of back wages to civil servants

Celebrations for the 62nd anniversary of independence were marked by the weighty absences of former presidents Henri Konan Bédié and Laurent Gbagbo, who did not respond to an invitation extended by current Head of State Alassane Dramane Ouattara