Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
At midday in Abimbo village on the Kenyan shore of Lake Victoria, 32-year-old Rachel Atieno is busy spreading out her silver cyprinid fish to dry in the sun. Atieno, a mother of five, has sold the fish since her husband died 10 years ago leaving her to support her family. With no other income, she was left with no option but to trade sex with the fishermen for a share of their catch. Sex-for-fish, known locally as "jaboya", is common practice in Abimbo village in western Kenya's Siaya County and throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
The Makerere University academic Dr Stella Nyanzi has been released on bail after a four weeks behind bars. The don is facing cybercrime related charges. The Buganda Road Court on Wednesday granted Dr Nyanzi a non-cash bail of $2,857 (Ush10 million), with sureties of similar amount. She is accused of cyber harassment after allegedly referring to President Yoweri Museveni as a "pair of buttocks" on her Facebook post.
For most of her life, Saida Soukat’s days were filled with the routines of the farm, working the fields and minding the cattle. A recent Tuesday found her doing something far different, though, speaking before a group of women during their biweekly protests to demand a halt in the state-sanctioned privatization of traditional tribal collectives, called the Sulaliyyate lands.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Some of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted three years ago by Islamist Boko Haram militants refused to be part of a group of 82 girls freed at the weekend, a mediator involved in the release said on Monday.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Kenya will double maternity leave to six months from three if a bill before parliament is passed in a bid to boost the health of mothers and babies.
As the sun’s morning rays stretch across the sky, a long line of women carrying bundles of firewood on their heads walks past the Sipepa Rural Hospital in remote western Zimbabwe. They proceed to the hospital’s backyard where close to 900 villagers have lived in tents since their homes were destroyed by flooding after a tropical storm, Dineo, hit in February.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Boko Haram militants have released 82 schoolgirls out of a group of more than 200 whom they kidnapped from the northeastern town of Chibok three years ago in exchange for prisoners, the presidency said on Saturday.
Women in Zimbabwe have few political role models. Former vice-president Joice Runaida Mujuru made history in 2004 when she became the first – and so far the only – woman to join the country’s presidium, a standing executive committee. Today, out of 26 government ministers, only four are women.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
In the small maternity ward of a run-down health clinic in Delft, a half hour drive from Cape Town, the wooden benches in the waiting area are filled with young women and girls from the poor surrounding townships.
Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Women's Wing has expressed gratitude at government's decision to sign the SADC Gender Protocol following the review.
Uganda and Tanzania trail behind the rest of the East African countries on the score card sheet when it comes to the implementation of gender policies and law, a new study reveals. The report titled: "The EAC Pilot Gender Barometer and Challenges in Information Gap" score card is largely based on how citizens perceive governments in terms of existence of laws and policies and their effective implementation.
Members of Parliament and human rights activists have asked government to enforce the laws in the mining sector to protect the right of women in the sector. The MPs and other stakeholders said women in the minerals sector face a lot of challenges, which need to be addressed
As part of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2017, we're recognizing six entrepreneurs who demonstrate the positive role women are playing in creating opportunities and preparing the region for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Diane Shima Rwigara on Wednesday declared her interest to run for the Rwandan presidency, becoming the first female independent candidate. In her manifesto, the 35-year-old said she will work to eradicate poverty, champion free speech, and provide health insurance for all Rwandans.
UN Women will launch a publication titled “Shaping the international agenda: Raising women’s voices in intergovernmental forums” at a high-level event in New York on 2 May, 2017.
Savings groups popular in rural areas of developing countries - in which people pool money for saving and borrowing - empower women, increase business investment, and provide greater access to financial services, according to a new three-country study released in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Patricia Munabi is the Executive Director of Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), a women’s rights organization in Uganda. From 2010 - 2012, FOWODE was supported by UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality to implement gender-responsive budgeting at a local and national level in Uganda.
Source: DAILY NATION
Hundreds of rights campaigners from 150 women's organisations from 35 African countries converge in Nairobi on Wednesday to discuss, among other things, how far governments have delivered on gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.
The Economic Commission for Africa on Thursday participated in the International Telecommunication Union’s Girls in information and communication technologies (ICT) celebrations in Addis Ababa, with ECA professionals joining other distinguished guests in training and sharing personal stories with girls from various Ethiopian schools on how they made it in a male-dominated field.
Source: Times Higher Education
This week, we hosted a series of events in Lagos to mark the centenary of Soas, University of London. We are using the centenary celebrations to promote the critical role of education in contributing to female empowerment in Africa, including a panel discussion on closing the education gap on that continent, and leveraging female education to improve development.