Source: Aswat Masriya
Chairwoman of the National Council for Women, Mervat al-Talawi, has welcomed a decision by the Ministry of Interior to establish a body allocated to combat violence against women.
Talawi expressed hopes that the decision will be enforced soon, considering it an initial step towards addressing the growing phenomenon of violence against women.
The Lagos State Government on Friday said it had just employed 70 women as truck drivers, as part of efforts to empower women in the state.
Source: The New Vision
As Uganda counts a 40% reduction in AIDS-related deaths in the past decade, the Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) wants Government to levy a special tax on alcohol and cigarette to fund HIV programmes.
Source: The Standard
Villagers from Goromonzi's Yafele area have said their livelihoods are under threat following the encroachment of urban developments into their area.
The residents have formed Simukai Rural Residents Trust,
Our failure to give women in certain parts of the world the ability to decide the timing and number of their children is deeply damaging — not just for the women themselves but for societies, too. Lifting the obstacles is not something that can be tackled half-heartedly.
Source: Business Day Live
THE Johannesburg-based Southern Africa Litigation Centre branded Thursday a dark day for women in Lesotho after the mountain kingdom's Constitutional Court upheld a section of the Chieftainship Act that denied daughters the right to succeed to chieftainship.
This is in sharp contrast to South Africa's 2008 Constitutional Court ruling that recognised the right of a 66-year-old woman to become chief of her Limpopo tribe.
Source: Indiaeducationdiary.com
Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smt. Krishna Tirath signed the fifth India Brazil South Africa (IBSA) Women's Forum Resolution, here today. Also signing the resolution were Mrs. Lulama Xingwana, Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities Republic of South Africa, and Mrs. Maria do Carmo Godinho Delgado, Secretary of Evaluation of Policies and Economic Autonomy of Women, on behalf of the Minister, Chief of the Secretariat of Policies for Women, Presidency of the Federative Republic of Brazil.
Source: The Star
WOMEN MPs have asked President Uhuru to reconsider his decision of scraping the Ministry of Gender.
Kenya Women Parliamentary Association has said changing the Gender ministry into a department will undermine issues touching on women.
"There is need to retain the ministry because eliminating will be for our gender war," Kewopa chairperson Cecily Mbarire said.
Source: New Vison
Over 170 women groups have benefited from the Community Driven Development (CDD) programmes of Kampala Capital City Authority, (KCCA) the executive director, Jennifer Musisi, has said.
The groups in all the five urban divisions of Kampala are mainly women groups which secure funding from the authority under the CDD to improve their businesses. KCCA earmarked over sh800m for the programme.
Source: New Vision
The high dropout rate among primary school going girls needs urgent intervention, women activist have demanded. The activists are also concerned about the soaring numbers of women who die daily in pregnancy-related complications in the country.
The activists raised the concerns in a meeting held in Kampala.
Source: Daily Trust
Otunba Basirat Nahibi is the Founder /President of Women Advancement for Economic and Leadership Empowerment in Africa (WAELE/ARCEFA), an organization in 46 African countries and all states of the federation including the FCT. In this interview, she speaks on women's political participation, and mentoring among others. Excerpts.
AFRICA: New Study Finds Little Progress in Meeting Demand for Contraception in the Poorest Countries
Source: Guttmacher Institute
A new study by the Guttmacher Institute finds that within the developing world, the poorest countries are lagging far behind higher-income developing countries in meeting the demand for modern contraception. Between 2003 and 2012, the total number of women wanting to avoid pregnancy and in need of contraception increased from 716 million to 867 million, with growth concentrated among women in the 69 poorest countries where modern method use was already very low.
Source: The Observer
A women's fish farming project that emphasises conserving biodiversity on Lake Victoria, has been hailed by the UN Development Programme Administrator, Helen Clark.
The project, in Kigungu village in Entebbe, incorporates waste disposal and water pollution and minimizes loss of biodiversity. Jane Nakitto, the general secretary of the 30-member group, says before they started fish farming, they were mining sand from the lake and cutting down trees.
Source: Namibia Economist
The National Art Gallery in partnership with Victims 2 Survivors, UNAIDS and UNDP will host a national exhibition titled "Unite to end Gender-based Violence (GBV)" from 28 June to 02 August at the gallery's premises in Windhoek.
The exhibition seeks to raise public awareness on the severity of gender violence and ignite action to prevent and end all forms of gender violence. In Namibia, violence is a serious issue with women being disproportionately affected.
Yesterday was the deadline for nominations for Executive Director of UN Women. The candidates will succeed the organization’s first head, Michele Bachelet, who resigned suddenly in March to return home and stand for election to Chile’s presidency. At least six candidates are rumored to be under consideration.
The First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Mrs. Sia Nyama Koroma, has said in Freetown that access to energy is an integral instrument in the empowerment of women in the Mano River Union and Africa as a whole.
Speech by Lakshmi Puri, UN Women Acting Executive Director, during an interactive panel discussion on “Sharing Best Practices and Lessons Learned for Prevention and Prosecution in the Implementation of the Global Plan of Action” at the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on the United Nations Appraisal of the Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons on 13 May 2013 at the General Assembly in New York.
Source: UN WOMEN
Saran Keïta Diakité is a lawyer in Mali and President of the Malian branch of the NGO Working Group on Women Peace and Security (Réseau Paix et Sécurité des Femmes de l’Espace CEDEAO). As the Donor Conference on Mali starts in Brussels, in her own words she speaks about the atrocities occurring in her country,
Source: New Dawn
Authorities of the Liberia National Police (LNP) have strongly blasted junior officer Rufus Kortee assigned in Saniquillie, Nimba County, for speaking with the media over a reported rape matter linking three personnel of the Emergency Response Unit (ERU).
The Maasai tribe of Kenya and Tanzania has long been a beacon of traditional culture to many Africans – and for Westerners on safari through Maasai Mara, Samburu or Amboseli, a familiar face.