Source: Desmoinesregister
As we gather to celebrate World Food Day and look out on a bountiful harvest in the breadbasket of Iowa, my continent of Africa is suffering its worst drought in a generation.
Source: Un Women
This week, UN Women marks three UN observances that reflect women's key role in development, beginning with International Day for Rural Women on 15 October, World Food Day on 16 October and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October.
Source: News Nation
The UN Security Council has favoured doubling the number of women in peacekeeping operations over the next five years as it emphasised the need for peacekeeping missions to take into account gender considerations and the rights of women.
Source: The Namibian
THE recent killing of sisters Jacqueline and Cecilia Kauseua is an extreme example of how women are treated in "a community dominated by male power and sexism."
Source: International Bussiness Time
Women are the cornerstone of the rural economy, especially in the developing world. They bear the greatest responsibility for food production, producing more than half of all food in the world and growing 80-90% of the food in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet despite this, women are all too often left out of consultations that directly impact their lives, such as decisions on policies, development interventions or education programmes.
SOURCE: Daily Mail
Breast ironing - the brutal flattening of a young girl's developing chest to 'protect her from rape and sexual harassment' - now affects 3.8 million women around the world, according to a UN report.
SOURCE: UN WOMEN
More than 77 per cent of women in Mali live in rural areas, according to the 4th general population and housing census (RGPH 2009). Although they have very little control over resources, including land and credit, they represent 49 per cent of the active farming population and are behind 70 per cent of food production.
To address factors that hinder women's economic and social development, UN Women and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), launched an initiative entitled "Support for the Economic Independence of Women in Rural Mali Facing Food Insecurity and Climate Change". In 13 pilot units across three regions of Mali (Koulikoro, Ségou and Mopti) and around Bamako, women received training and solar- and gas-powered equipment allowing them to produce and market local products.
SOURCE: CNN
Singing and dancing as she performs in a school assembly, Younis looks for all the world like a typical Kenyan teenager, with a beaming smile and a grey and maroon uniform.
There's little outward clue to the trauma she's already been through in her 13 short years. When she was just nine years old, Younis's parents arranged for her to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather, in accordance with local Samburu tradition.
SOURCE: AllAfrica
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection or (MGCSP) has reaffirmed its commitment to working with international and national actors to take seriously the call to commit to putting adolescent girls at the center of sustainable development in the country.
According to the ministry, the surest way of achieving such is by investing in high quality education, skills-training, access to technology, as well as other learning initiatives that prepare girls for life, jobs and leadership.
SOURCE: Herald
Our Children, Our Future In the 1950s, '60s and '70s, my maternal grandmother gave birth to seven daughters and one son. Back then, my grandfather made a decision to send all seven of his daughters to school -- a decision which was met with scorn and ridicule in his community. What sane man would waste money educating a girl? Fortunately, this did not deter my grandfather.
Sixty years later, the effects of that decision by my grandfather have reverberated through generations, and has impacted the lives of all his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren and hopefully generations to come.
As Zimbabwe joins the rest of the world in commemorating the International Day of the Girl Child, under the theme "The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030", I stop and ponder -- if the education of my mother has had, and continues to have, such a tremendous impact on my life, imagine how our collective national effort in educating all girls today will help shape Zimbabwe in 15 years and beyond?
SOURCE: AllAfrica
Change may be grindingly slow, but results like Ethiopia's self-help groups 'multiplying like yeast' are worth a wait. Over the years I've frequently been a source of amusement to my wife Emma, but rarely more so than when I came home from work at DfiD one day a decade ago and recounted to her a particularly mortifying interaction I'd had with the IT department. My computer had gone on the fritz during a password update, and in order to resolve it I'd had to tell the tech support guys my old password over the phone - while a senior official was in the room.
SOURCE: TheGaurdian
The rights of women in Africa have become an issue of importance especially towards the close of the last century. The African continent in the 21st century can be said to have gone through a renaissance, a rebirth through the flow and transfer of information and increased communication as a result of global technological advancement.
SOURCE: Open Democracy
Gender is a matter of international peace and security. The anniversary of SCR 1325 provides a platform to reclaim the actions and power of women to shape global peace and security in new ways.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Maternal and newborn deaths in Sierra Leone have soared since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as fear of being infected and mistrust of health workers deter pregnant women from giving birth in health facilities, researchers said on Tuesday.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
When Sokhna Aminatou Sarr started menstruating, as a young girl in Senegal who had not yet reached her teenage years, her mother warned that she would become pregnant if she went near any boys.
Source: All Africa
The UNICEF Girl Education Project Phase 3 (GEP3) enrolment campaign seeks to enlist about one million girls in school in five northern states, the UNICEF Chief Field Officer in Katsina State, Shehu Mohammad, said yesterday.
Source: Ghana Web
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MoGCSP) says as the country reflects on the achievements of the past 15 years of the Millennium Development Goals and the planned Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the next 15, it is an opportune time to consider the importance of social, economic and political investment in the empowerment of adolescent girls.
Source: Un Women
Fifteen years ago, in October 2000, the United Nations Security Council adopted the historic resolution 1325 (2000), drawing attention to the differential impact of armed conflict on women, their exclusion from conflict prevention and resolution, peacekeeping and peacebuilding, and the inextricable links between gender equality and international peace and security.
Source: Leadership
The UN Women Executive Director, Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, on Monday reiterated call for full participation of women at peace talks and negotiations.
She advocated that women should also be part of decision-makers in more inclusive processes.
Source: Graphic
The First Lady, Mrs Lordina Mahama, has called on all stakeholders in the health sector to intensify their efforts and work together to address challenges associated with the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV and reproductive health needs of girls and mothers.