New interviews detail horrific atrocities in war-torn Congo where victims and rapists gave firsthand accounts to a British filmmaker.
Source: IPP Media
Former US President George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush are expected to host a summit on the crucial role of African first ladies in promoting women's empowerment to be held in Dar es Salaam on July 2 and 3 this year.
Source: Daily Observer
Most women have enormous unexploited potential; they bear almost all responsibility for meeting basic needs of the family, yet some are systematically blocked to access relevant information, make informed choices to fulfill this responsibility due to fear of the consequences of empowerment.
Source: New Times
Women have been urged to break silence and report gender and domestic violence challenges they face as an effective way of dealing with the vices which are still rated high in the country.
Source: New Times
Stella*, a senior two student, recounts to Women Today a truly horrendous story. Her class leader told the 17-year-old that it was her turn to mop the school offices that day. The routine task turned into a nightmare for the young girl.
Source: The Point
This is part of the UNFPA and Gambia Government 2013 funded programme being implemented by the Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices affecting the health of Women and Children - GAMCOTRAP.
Source: Democratic Alliance
I will today write to the ANC Chief Whip, Dr Mathole Motshekga, to request that he disciplines ANC MPs, John Jeffreys and Buti Manamela, for their sexist and chauvinist attacks on the Leader of the Opposition, Lindiwe Mazibuko, in Parliament this week.
Source: IPS News
When the United Nations launched its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) back in 2001, two of its primary objectives were to halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 and promote gender empowerment worldwide.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister of Zimbabwe, has rejected a plan by President Robert Mugabe to hold an election on July 31, accusing the country's leader of violating the constitution.
Source: AllAfrica
With just over 930 days to the December 2015 deadline of the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, Nigeria and other developing countries have been urged to strive to ensure universal access to reproductive health services and commodities.
Source: Standard Media
The relative calm in Somalia is beginning to bear fruits as the country begins formulating and drafting its first National Gender Policy with a workshop aimed at exploring and developing gender-sensitive policy whilst providing a framework to the government that will encourage and enforce gender equality.
The Portfolio and Select Committees on Women, Children and People with Disabilities have raised concerns about the lack of adequate funding for the National Council on Gender-based Violence.
Source: BBC
A woman in rural Ivory Coast has been called to a meeting under the shaded veranda of the local chief's house to defend her right to inherit her husband's property.
Barely in her forties, she sits quietly with her head down; the town chief in the small village of Guinkin, close to the Liberian border, is doing much of the talking.
Occasionally she speaks up to give her side of the story: "My name is Helene Tiro.
"I lost my husband two years ago and I don't know where to go with my children," she explains, beginning to look desperate.
"My husband's brothers have sold all the farmland. I even don't know where to find food for my children."
Everyone looks at Mrs Tiro, somewhat stunned - not at what she is saying but the fact she is saying anything at all.
It is unusual for a woman in these remote rural areas to have such confidence to speak out against her own family.
"Today I am looking for a way to take back my land and feed my children," Mrs Tiro finally says defiantly.
She adds that she has seven children and no access to the land she has farmed on every day since she got married more than 20 years ago.
Her husband was among the more than 3,000 people who died during the six months of violence that erupted after the 2010 presidential elections when incumbent, Laurent Gbagbo, refused to step down.
Mrs Tiro not only lost her husband, but her means of earning her living too.
Marriage law row
Her story is not uncommon in Ivory Coast where tradition and culture dictate a woman's role in the family.
Last November, President Alassane Ouattara - who took power following Mr Gbagbo's capture in April 2011 - dissolved the entire government over an argument about amending the marriage law, which specified that men were the head of the household and so in charge of assets such as land and property.
After the president appointed a new prime minister, the bill was passed making women joint heads of the household.
But this has done little to change centuries of patriarchal traditions and cultures in rural areas.
"Today our law makes no distinction between men and women for the acquisition of properties," explains Maitre Kone Mahoua, the vice-president of the Association of Female Lawyers in Ivory Coast.
"But in rural areas some beliefs and customs still have an impact," she says.
Ms Mahoua describes how "women are weak because they are the ones for whom dowry is given", and that they, too, are seen as "property of the man".
It is not unusual in some African countries for the women and children to be handed over to the husband's family if he dies - the woman sometimes being "obliged" to marry another male member of the family in order to keep her children.
"We need to start sensitising our sisters in the rural areas so that they can have the same rights as men," she says.
Women across the world face inequalities when it comes to land ownership.
They produce nearly half of the world's food but in some countries they own as little as 2% of the land, according to figures from the United Nations.
As world leaders meet in Northern Ireland next week for the G8 summit, issues around land ownership are expected to be high on the agenda.
The UN and development charities claim if more women are given land and property rights, more food will be produced, reducing hunger.
Farm conflicts
As well as strong traditions, women in Ivory Coast have faced another barrier to land ownership - war.
In times of conflict, women enjoy even fewer land and property rights.
Hundreds of thousands of Ivorians have left their homes in the past 10 years of instability.
As people fled, the rich, fertile soil they left behind was quickly occupied.
Women like Mrs Tiro lost their husbands, sons, brothers and with them, their homes and livelihoods.
"The land issue has been a problem for a long time but the last crisis made it a lot worse," says Batio Etienne, the town chief of Guinkin.
"There are now many land problems," he says.
And as the refugees return, the number of land disputes increases and so does the violence.
Chief Etienne says that people are prepared to fight and die over land that has been in their families for generations.
"If our children don't have any land to farm on, what will they do in the future?"
The meeting to discuss Mrs Tiro's case is just the first of many.
Land conflict dominates life in the west of Ivory Coast - a rich cocoa-growing region that has been home to some of the worst violence the country has ever seen.
The town chief says it is likely Mrs Tiro will end up sharing the land with the man who bought it from her husband's family.
It is not ideal but he says nobody wants to see this argument turn violent.
"If my husband's family refuses what can I do?" says Mrs Tiro.
"I cannot resort to violence. I can't do anything as a woman."
In Libya, business support networks for entrepreneurs in general, and for women entrepreneurs in particular, are weak.
Source: IPS
When she was nine years old, Jane Meriwas, a Samburu from the Kipsing Plains in Kenya's Rift Valley region, was considered of no use by her father. After all, nine of his goats had been eaten by hyenas under her watch.
North Darfur has announced its total commitment to empowering rural women through microfinance programmes as an ideal way of expanding production in the state.
Source: Gender Links
"My mother forced me into early marriage. She did it so my husband could help her with salt and sugar. During the marriage, my husband frequently beat me. My mother always said I had to get used to that pain because that's what marriage means," recalls 15-year-old Lucy.*
Source: Gender Links
group of regional NGOs have condemned recent utterances made by Zambia's Minister of Defence, Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba, suggesting that 'beating a wife is a sign of love' and 'mild' forms of violence against women are acceptable where he comes from.
Source: Tanzania Daily News
WITH 12 aircrafts, 40 pilots and daily flights, Coastal Travels is probably the largest airline in the country in terms of equipment. At a tender age of 35 years, the airline's Chief Instructor for Pilots, Captain Maynard Mkumbwa, with accumulated 12,300 flying hours, has been tasked to oversee the pilots' adherence to professional standards.
Source: Daily trust
As part of its efforts at sensitizing Nigerians on issues of maternal and child health, the National Council of Women's Societies in Nigeria (NCWS) has rolled out plans to take campaigns to the 774 local governments in the country.