Angela Merkel has put women’s empowerment on the G20 agenda this year. But the only way to fill the looming skills gap is for G20 members to lift their game on getting girls into school, argue Barry Johnston and Taylor Royle from the Malala Fund.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Girls' school attendance in East Africa almost doubles when students of both sexes are taught about sex, relationships and money, a charity said on Monday, highlighting how the attitudes of boys influence the educational success of girls.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Nearly half of the world's working age women have a job or are looking for one, compared to 76 percent of men.
Source: AllAfrica
South African National AIDS Council did not include decriminalising sex work in its HIV strategy plan. On Thursday, sex workers demonstrated during Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa's speech at the South African National AIDS Conference in Durban. Ramaphosa is chairperson of South African National AIDS Council (SANAC).
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Stigma and rejection from their communities after returning home from armed groups are driving former girl soldiers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo back into the militias, where they are prey to violence and sexual abuse, a charity said on Monday.
The situation is all too common…a young girl is looking to fill a void left by an absent or abusive father, and an older man seizes the opportunity to offer comfort and gifts – at a price. The term ‘Sugar Daddy’ is an awfully sweet-sounding way to refer to men who leverage their power and wealth to bait young girls into a sexual trap.
Source: newsdeeply.com
About three years ago, when 49-year-old Margaret Gaceke started leaving crop residue in her fields following harvests, people in her village were horrified at what they saw as laziness.
Source: newsdeeply.com
“He said, ‘If you cry, I’ll kill you,’” Agnes says. “He clasped my throat so I wouldn’t scream, threw me to the ground and raped me.” The shy, anxious 18-year-old lowers her eyes and touches her throat. She’s barely said a word in two months.
Sabah Adam is a rarity in Sudanese media: one of the few women who has managed to reach the top of her industry. As the former chief editor of the Citizen daily newspaper, Adam was only one of two female editors in the country when she held the position.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Activists behind an app designed to assist doctors document evidence of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo aim to go beyond obtaining justice for rape victims and collect data which could help secure prosecutions for war crimes.
As Salom Tsoka drives the one-hour journey to work each morning concerns about his two sons, aged three and six, haunt him: will his youngest son have an asthma attack today? Will the childminder watch out for them? Is he parenting the kids the way their mother would? And the more he thinks about them, the more he thinks of his wife, Elita.
Source: The Herald
Female legislators have expressed concern over delays in the promulgation of laws that protect minors from being forced into early marriages. They said this at a meeting organised by Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA) and the Legal Resources Foundation (LRF). The parliamentarians said there was need to align marriage laws with the new Constitution.
Source: AllAfrica
Monrovia — Religious leaders from all parts of the country have met in Monrovia to discuss the proposed bill for legislation currently at the Liberian senate, titled the Domestic Violence Act. The bill strategically address issues of Domestic Violence Act (DVA) of which Article 16.21 focused on the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). At the day long dialogue the religious leaders committed to using their various platforms to create the necessary awareness and education about the draft legislation.
Source: newsdeeply.com
Despite strong evidence of the important role that women play in peace, security and sustainability, their representation in politics across Africa is mixed. While Rwanda has 61% women in parliament, the highest in the world, the United Nations reports that several countries have seen a regression of women elected to parliament in several countries, especially those with no quotas.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
After Marcia Madeya's husband died his brothers accused her of witchcraft, stole her fruit trees, crops and goats, and shared them out between his other wives. Kicked out by her in-laws, the mother-of-three sleeps in the open, eking out a living by selling fruit and dolls on the roadside in this remote corner of eastern Mozambique.
Source: somalia.unfpa.org
More than 1000 community members in Hargeisa, Somaliland have committed to work towards advocating for the total abandonment of female genital mutilation (FGM) in the region. The community members made the commitment after IRADA, a local non-governmental organisation, carried out a community outreach event on May 15, 2017 at Sheikh Nur Camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Hargeisa. UNFPA Somalia provides IRADA with technical and financial support.
Source: ipsnews.net
The shouts can be heard from a distance as one approaches Domboshawa, 30 kilometres northeast of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare.
Many Samburu women in Kenya’s north had come to fear lions, but now they’re taking up the conservation cause – and demanding the same training and opportunities as men.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Building a network of African women leaders in fields ranging from business to politics could galvanise female leadership across the continent and boost peacebuilding efforts and good governance, the head of U.N. Women said on Tuesday.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Women and girls may resort to exchanging sex for food, shelter, or money to meet their daily living needs for themselves and their families in order to survive another day.