Source: allAfrica

Strengthened environmental and social impact assessments can improve access to health and improve gender equality

As African countries undertake significant infrastructure development to transform their economies, it is critical that they take into account the impact of these capital projects on the health of workers and nearby communities, and on women and girls in particular, to ensure inclusive and sustainable growth.

Source: allAfrica

Men rule the roost in science and technology as women continue to battle against the glass ceiling.

It's still a man's world in African science. The marginalisation of women in science is not unique, though, to the continent. It is a pattern around the globe. It has been estimated that, on average, only 30% of science roles throughout the world are held by women.

Source: ONE

To commemorate World Refugee Day, ONE celebrates five powerful women who were once refugees but who over came various challenges and today stand as beacons of hope to many people all over the world.

 

Alek Wek

Fashion Super Model

Home country: Sudan

Country of exile: United Kingdom

Quote: "I have no problem with whatever the next big look is. Just don't try and tell me that only one look is beautiful."

Alek Wek is a world famous super model. As her child, she and her family fled the civil war in South Sudan for the United Kingdom. She was the first African to be featured on the cover of Elle Magazine.


Maryam Mursal

Musician

Home country: Somalia

Country of exile: Denmark

Quote: "We as artists are responsible if something wrong is taking place in our society. It's very important for us to speak up, even though we may have to do it with a double tongue. We have to speak out for our people."

Maryam Mursal is a renouned Somali musician who as a teenager, broke tradition and began singing professionally. Later in her music career, she criticized Somalia's then ruling government, and was banned from singing for two years, and made her living driving a taxi. During the civil war in Somalia, Mursal and her children moved to Djibouti, where she found asylum in the Danish embassy. She currently lives and works as a musician in Europe.


Nawal El Saadawi

Eqyptian Activist and author

Home country: Egypt

Country of exile: United States

Quotes: "Unity is power, without unity women cannot fight for their rights anywhere."
Nawal El Saadawi, an Egyptian feminist and activist endured months of imprisonment under the late President Anwar Sadat because of her writings. She lost her job and had to spend five years in exile. She continues to be one of the most prominent campaigners for women's rights in Egypt and the Arab world.


Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

Current AU Chairperson, politician

Home country: South Africa

Country of exile: United Kingdom

Quote: "The choice of African Union's theme this year [2015] is indeed an opportunity for us to demonstrate our commitment to the empowerment of African women to make it a reality rather than a mere statement."

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is a South African politican. In the early 1970s, Dlamini-Zuma became an active underground member of the (then banned) African National Congress (ANC). During the same year Dr. Dlamini-Zuma faced persecution and fled into exile. Dr Zuma is the first female chairperson of the African Union.

 

Yolande Mukagasana Clemence Evariste

Nurse, Human Rights Campaigner

Home country: Rwanda

Country of exile: Belgium

Quote: "Generalisations only favour the killers... I was saved by a Hutu."

Yolande Mukagasana Clemence Evariste is a Human Rights defender, author, and nurse. As a Tutsi, she managed to escape the Rwandan genocide and flee to Belgium, where she was granted refugee status in 1995. She has written a couple of books including "La mort ne veut pas de moi" ("Death Does Not Want Me")

 

Source: Spy Ghana

Sub-Saharan African countries will promote greater involvement of women in agriculture to enhance food security, rural incomes and ecological sustainability. 

Source: Premium Times
President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged by the Federal Capital Territory Women, Peace and Security Network, WPSN, to leverage on the United Nations Security Resolution, UNSCR, 1325 and increase the number of women that would be serving in his administration.

Source: This Day Live
Former First Lady of Ekiti State, Erelu Bisi Fayemi recently engaged an audience on gender issues in tertiary institutions.

It was a mixed audience of academics, students, public servants, community leaders and corporate executives. The purpose of the gathering was to figure

Source: The Namibian

The Namibian Defence Force (NDF) wants to consist of at least 30% women and so maintain Namibia's pioneering status in the creation of the United Nations Security Council's Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

Source: African Development Bank

The African Development Bank, in collaboration with UK-based One World Media, has just awarded the first 'Women's Rights in Africa' Media Award. On June 18, 2015 in London, the first award was given to journalist Rosa Rogers of Al Jazeera Television, for her report "Casablanca Calling". The award – designed to promote gender equality through the media – was presented by Joel Kibazo, the Bank's Director of Communications and External Relations.

Source:  The Eagle Online
Research findings show that there are 25 per cent fewer women than men online in emerging markets.

This is a clear indication of the gender gap that exists in the technology arena.

Source: UN News Centre 
In an effort to boost the global fight against the horrors faced by women and girls in zones of conflict worldwide, the United Nations General Assembly today approved by consensus a new resolution to commemorate 19 June as the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict.

Source: AlJazeera

"This is a place affected by river erosion," Azima's parents told her, explaining why she had to marry at age 13.

Azima (not her real name) lived with her parents on the banks of the Meghna River in Bangladesh.

Source: Pambazuka News

The mass violation of rights of women in Africa necessitated the creation of a legal framework that would unmistakably spell out their rights and advocate for protection of those rights by African states. The Protocol to the African Charter on Human Rights and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), better known as the Maputo Protocol, was 'birthed' in response to this call. It became the first women's rights legal framework for the protection of women rights in Africa.

Source: allAfrica

Seychelles President James Michel has described the African Union (AU) summit and its theme for this year in Johannesburg, South Africa as an opportune time for all the Heads of State and Government to put in place specific programmes that will empower women across the African continent in all aspects of development as well as moving forward by putting people at the centre of development.

Source: allAfrica

Yabo Yakubu had a dream of becoming a nurse. She developed interest in the profession right from her childhood after seeing how her community accorded respect to a female nursing officer that used to attend to sick persons in her area.

Yabo told Daily Trust: "I always admire the nurse and said to myself that I will be a nurse when I grow up."

Source: PRI
Sex columnist Dorothy Black says the "Life Orientation" program taught in South African schools is the closest the country gets to sex ed. It also includes nutrition, physical education and career guidance, a telltale sign that sexual education is far from being a priority.

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
It's a scandal that any family in a continent as rich as Africa, with its vast oil and mineral wealth, should be so poor they feel forced to sell their daughter, the African Union's (AU) goodwill ambassador on child marriage said.

Source: Daily News Egypt
“I Saw Harassment”, a non-governmental initiative countering sexual violence against women, led an awareness campaign Monday evening in one of Cairo’s dynamic districts in El-Korba, Heliopolis, by randomly addressing passers-by on the issue of sexual harassment.

Source: Daily Maverick
It's a rainy Youth Day in Cape Town, and on the top floor of a mid-town skyscraper, the youth are anything but idle. Around 20 young women are busily soldering, fiddling with circuits and clipping wires with pliers. In small groups, they are engaged in building Jiggy Bots: small robots that can be controlled in movement, light and sound.

Source: Seychelles News Agency

The Seychelles President James Michel has stressed the importance of active participation of women towards achieving economic development in Africa.

Michel made the statement when addressing his African counterparts and other delegates gathered at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on Sunday for the 25th African Union summit.

Source: VOA

The African Union’s 25th Extraordinary Summit ended in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Monday, with leader making a commitment to uplifting women.

President Robert Mugabe, who is also the rotating chair of the African Union (AU), brought the meeting of more than 50-heads of state and government to a close. 

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