Soaring food prices are making life hard for people everywhere. In Mexico, many families are taking the fight against the global food crisis into their own hands. 

Despite being rejected by society since birth, millions of so-called "Untouchables" in India are beginning to win the battle against the prejudice that has denied them basic human rights for centuries. 

Water scarcity has become one of the world's greatest challenges. In less than 20 years, nearly two billion people could face shortages. But Azerbaijan, which sits between Europe and Western Asia, has come up with an ingenious solution to its water crisis by looking to its past for inspiration. 

Decades of oil drilling in Ecuador has devastated huge swaths of the Amazon rainforest and its wildlife, threatening to destroy the ancestral homes of native tribes and their culture. But some of these indigenous people are finding a way to balance development and conservation. 

Rape is a weapon that costs nothing, but it can cause as much damage as a bomb. We travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to interview Dr. Denis Mukwege, one of the few doctors in the country willing to treat rape survivors, to discover the truth behind one of the world's greatest unreported evils. 

Cervical cancer kills more than half a million women worldwide every year, and is the leading cause of female cancer deaths in the developing world. New low-tech screening programs have begun to reduce cancer deaths but campaigners like Sarah Nyombi, a politician in Uganda, want to see more.

The Advance Market Commitment scheme, formulated by the GAVI Alliance, aims to provide more vaccines to the developing world by fixing their price over a 10-year period. Is it going to deliver, what will be the result, and how did global health institutions and the big pharmaceutical companies manage to agree on such a deal? 

Eight years after the fall of the Taliban, targeted violence against women in Afghanistan is back at an alarming level. Women of all ages are enduring brutal physical and sexual abuse in their own homes. A few lucky ones find their way to one of only six shelters in the country. We visited one of them. 

Throughout the world, access to safe drinking water is the most critical element of sustained good health. Clean Water focuses on the highly successful efforts of one humanitarian organization, East Meets West, to bring safe drinking water to rural communities in Vietnam -- led by staff member Richard Brogdon, a Vietnam war veteran who has special reason to help the local Vietnamese community.

In the Islamic state of Mauritania, women who have been raped often end up in prison. About 60 percent of women who come forward with allegations of sexual violence are accused of Zina, or a crime against morality. It is therefore unsurprising that most choose to remain silent. Fatima M'Baye, the first female lawyer in Mauritania, is part of the movement to blunt the harsher aspects of Sharia, and also help women overturn their convictions. 

The Mid-Magdalena region of Colombia is one of the most macho parts of Latin America, a place where violence against women is a casual part of everyday life. But change is coming. One of the "change-makers" is Judge Esperanza Gonzalez, a woman in her late 40s who is seeking to bring justice for females both inside her courtroom and out. 

Massive investment, modern agricultural techniques, regulated irrigation ... the American-owned Dominion Farms development in Kenya sounds like a model example of collaboration between Africa and the West. But local farmers disagree, and are campaigning hard to have their dissenting voices heard.

What impact are the Millennium Development Goals having on inhabitants of Kibera, a massive shantytown in Kenya? This film about local midwife Silva Adhiambo examines some of the tensions that exist between aid organizations and the people they are trying help.

The key to preventing malaria deaths often involves small changes made at a community level. This film follows a local health information worker in Tanzania as he teaches local people about mosquito nets and the importance of using a medical clinic rather than traditional healers.

In Iran there are different entrances and sections for men and women on public buses: women sit at the back, men at the front. Except on Farahnaz Shiri's bus. She's the first female bus driver in Tehran, and everything on her bus is vice-versa. She is the governor and the only lawmaker of her own little society. But what do her passenger's think? 

Food security is a pressing issue for millions of people worldwide. But one South African project demonstrates that, with a little guidance, local people can often produce their own food in a healthy, environmentally sound way, with additional benefits like economic growth and empowerment of the community.