Source: Devex In the past 60 years or so, we have seen capitalism reach its peak. We have seen the socialist economies fall away and move rapidly toward capitalism. This has undoubtedly brought unprecedented wealth and prosperity in many parts of the world and to many people. At the same time, millions — if not billions — have been left behind.
Source: Mmegi Online Dr Dorcus Mompati said this when officiating at the second annual Northern Women's expo, which was held at Adansonia Hotel.
Source: Ghana Web
Global leaders have called for the prioritization of sexual and reproductive health rights in the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
Source: The Point
The West African Journalist Association (WAJA) has conducted a three-day training workshop for Gambian journalists on gender reporting held at the TANGO conference hall.
Source: Biztech Africa
Keeping Africa’s women and girls in the education system and orientating them to careers in science, and giving them easy access to new technologies are among the challenges of the African Renaissance. Furthermore, the education of women and girls is a matter of justice and equality in the aim of maximising a nation’s development.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Tunisia’s legislative elections, scheduled for October 26, 2014, are a significant step in the country’s transition to democracy. Three years after its first free elections, to select a National Constituent Assembly in charge of drafting a new constitution, Tunisia has consolidated the protection of human rights in important ways.
Source: The Guardian
Economically empowering women benefits community as businesswomen reinvest profits in social goods, says trade head
Source: Daily Maverick
There are only a few countries in Africa where abortion is legal. In the next few weeks, Mozambique will become one of them, with President Armando Guebuza expected to sign a new bill into law. It is a major victory for women's reproductive rights in Mozambique, and an important legacy for the president as he prepares to step down next month.
Source: Daily News Tanzania
ON Monday, this week, the Draft Committee of the Constituent Assembly (CA) completed its work and officially presented the corrected version of the new Constitution for endorsement through voting.
Source: BBC News Africa
Sitting before a big screen with a list of key bullet points, women are busy taking notes about how to become Tunisia's next political leaders.
Source: Magharebia
Opposition activists with Morocco's Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) gathered in Casablanca recently to focus on women's rights.
Source: The point
Media practitioners at the WAJA training workshop last Wednesday called on female journalists to hold on to the profession, despite challenges they face.
Source: Ethiopian Radio & Television Agency
The Governments of Ethiopia and Finland, together with UN Women, organized a High-Level Ministerial Meeting on "Women's Right to Land - the Development Impact" in New York on Tuesday.
Source: The Guardian
Nairobi's high court convicted Jackson Namunya Tali of helping a Kenyan woman to obtain an abortion illegally, which led to her death. IQ4News reports
Source: The New York Times
Two years ago, when Jyoti Pandey, a 23-year-old Indian physiotherapy intern, was gang-raped and fatally beaten by six men on a bus in New Delhi, there was a moment of soul searching among South Africans.
Source: Tunis Afrique Presse
"47% candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections are women with only nearly 12% are heads of list," Secretary of State for Women and Family Affairs Neila Chaabane said Monday.
Source: Zawya
Nouakchott - Dr. Fatimetou Mohamed-Saleck, a key contributor to ICT (Information Communication Technologies) development in developing countries and Mauritania, with her prior experience with International Telecommunication Union, and a professional background in Information Technology, will contest the election for the post of Deputy Secretary-General (ITU). Mauritania has declared its intent to participate in the upcoming top-management elections of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which, through its Plenipotentiary Conference 2014, will elect its next Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General.
Source: Spy Ghana
Ms Comfort Agyemfra of Dynamic Women Organisation, an NGO, on Friday asked women to refuse dependency on their male counterparts and rather enter into self-sustaining entrepreneurship and skills training that would earn them jobs.
Source: BBC
Police in central Afghanistan are searching for a man who allegedly cut off part of his wife's nose with a kitchen knife.
The woman, thought to be 20, is in hospital. Officials say the man has reportedly assaulted his wife before.
Although such mutilation is rare in Afghanistan, reports of violence against women are increasing.
Last year the country's Human Rights Commission said violence against women rose by almost 25%, compared with 2012.
The names of the couple have not been released but police in Daykundi Province say the man attacked his wife after a heated argument.
"The husband cut his wife's nose with a kitchen knife," said Muhammad Ali Atai of the Provincial Crime Branch in Daykundi.
"Police transferred her to hospital. But her husband escaped from the area and is still at large."
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The woman's family has not commented on what happened and details are sketchy.
'Removed her fingernails'
Zakia Rizai, the head of Daykundi's Women's Affairs Department, told the BBC that the woman had been the victim of severe domestic violence in the past.
"Her husband was a violent man," she said. "We saw evidence that he had removed her fingernails. Once, she was kept locked inside a room without food or water for a week."
Cases of women being mutilated by male relatives are rare in Afghanistan but not unknown.
Last year, the BBC reported on the case of a 30-year-old woman called Sutara in Herat who spoke to reporters from her hospital bed.
She said she became engaged to her husband when she was just 11 and that he became addicted to heroin while working across the border in Iran.
Her husband wanted to sell her jewellery to buy drugs, she says. When she refused to hand it over to him, he knocked her unconscious, then stabbed her and cut off her top lip and her nose with a knife.
This latest case comes against a background of growing violence against women.
One reason behind the increase could be that more women are reporting abuse and the media is more likely to report their cases.
But analysts say many such crimes involving domestic violence still go unreported.
Some women are simply too frightened to speak out. Others may not trust the police to treat them fairly or have confidence that the justice system will support them if they do.
Source: AllAfrica
By Halimatou Ceesay
Did you know that there is a Declaration put together by the African Union on Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment called the "African Women's Decade 2010-2020"?
Well, it has been in existence for four years now and it is all geared towards improving the lives of African women.
Energizing the African women's movement, and mentoring young women leaders and professionals, both in Africa and the Diaspora to be champions on gender equality and women's empowerment; implement the AU parity principle in line with the AU gender policy, and ensure targets for equal opportunities for women in decision-making positions, in the political, legislative, Judiciary and Executive are achieved.
Work with the African Union Peace and Security Department (PSD), the Peace and Security Council (PSC) and the Panel of the Wise in relation to United Nations Security Council Resolutions: 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889, with particular focus on Violence Against Women (VAW), peace building and reconstruction.
Moving Africa from Commitments to Action
The African Women's Decade was launched in Nairobi, Kenya, in October 2010.
The Decade is an opportunity to integrate and strengthen linkages in the work on women's human rights, integrate women's social, political, economic and cultural rights in a single agenda.
It is also an opportunity to show the multiplier effect that achieving all these rights has for women and society at large.
To the greatest extent possible, the goals of the Decade should be linked to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which are the primary yardstick for progress in Africa.
The ideology behind this is not that women are being left behind by development, but that development on the continent is slowed by the exclusion of women.
As the continent experiences a wave of increased fundamentalism, the Decade can also be used as a critical space to foster dialogue on progressive views on culture, traditions and religion, as a catalyst for accelerated realization of women's rights.
The decade additionally provides an excellent platform for the women's movement to work together and reach out to other constituencies, to tell our stories, celebrate victories and achievements, and project our own images of African women and girls to Africa and the world.
The Ten Themes for the African Women's Decade (2010-2020)
1. Fighting Poverty and Promoting Economic Empowerment for Women and Entrepreneurship
Attain decent work for women and equal opportunity in employment, promotion, and movement towards parity at the work place.
Create employment and services by supporting women entrepreneurs particularly in informal sectors, including small medium enterprise (SME), medium enterprise (ME) and grow them to big businesses.
2. Agriculture and Food Security.
Achieving food security and fighting hunger.
Increase women's access to agricultural land, farm inputs, credit, technology, extension services, irrigation and access to water through water harvesting, boreholes etc.