The World Health Organization announced multiple commitments to drive change for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in all their diversity at the Generation Equality Forum, held last week in Paris. The WHO commitments focused on ending gender-based violence; advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights; and supporting health workers as well as feminist movements and leadership. These commitments shape a progressive and transformative blueprint for advancing gender equality, health equity, human rights and the empowerment of women and girls globally.
Source: Times of Zambia
ONE hot Sunday morning in April, 24-year-old Masuzyo Bupe (not real name) was excited as she looked forward to receive her once in a life time visitors in form of representatives from the family of the man who had shown interest to marry her.
However, her happiness was shortlived as her mother informed her that there would be no normal marriage negotiations or bride price for her because she was a woman living with disability.
Source: Front Page Africa
Monrovia — It is no secret that Liberian women face discrimination and marginalization in many ways. Deeply entrenched attitudes against women and girls, perpetuate inequality and discrimination against women in public and private life, on a daily basis. UN Women mindful of this fact has made it her mandate to shift the narrative by constantly engaging and supporting the national legislature through the budgeting process to use evidence-based analysis as a way of supporting the budget committee to take steps in ensuring budgetary allocations addresses gender gaps and ultimately issue around violence against girls, women and harmful practices.
Source: The New Times
Rwanda remained the world’s leading country with the most number of women in government positions, according to the latest edition of the ‘Women in Parliament’ report by the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Source: The East African
When Somalia's former Foreign Affairs minister Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adam announced her candidacy for president in the next elections, the reaction in Mogadishu was mostly muted.
Yet Ms Adam, from a prominent family of scholars, is not just testing the waters. She may well be testing the rigidity of an age-old culture.
Source: Equal Times
On 8 April 2021, hundreds of women gathered in Khartoum to rally against domestic and gender-based violence in Sudan. In what has been described as “one of the most historical displays of resistance since the 2018 December Revolution”, the March was held to draw attention to the Covid-related rise in violence directed at women and girls and to denounce gender discriminatory laws and patriarchal restrictions.
Source: Premium Times
The current bureau chief for the Guardian Newspaper in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Bridget Onochie, is the first female to attain such a position in the medium.
Source: The East African
Somalia is halving the registration fees for women candidates to encourage more participation in the upcoming elections.
Source: WHO
PRESS RELEASE
Source: Africanews
Dozens of feminist demonstrators on Saturday in Dakar, Senegal's capital denounced the justice system and the excessive tolerance towards violence against women in Senegal.
Source: Tunis Afrique Presse
Tunis/Tunisia — The Ministry of Women, Family and Seniors is considering the launch of a national societal dialogue on violence against women to put an end to gender-based crimes, Minister Imen Zahouani Houimel announced on Thursday.
Source: Namibia Economist
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy has laid bare the many inequalities that exist in our societies. The United Nations estimates that an additional 96 million people are expected to fall into extreme poverty in 2021, and that women will be disproportionately affected by the increase. This is unsurprising, given that women make up a large share of the globally poor - a phenomenon known as the feminisation of poverty.
In Namibia, according to the Multidimensional Poverty Index Report, multidimensional poverty is higher among households headed by women at 46% compare to households headed by men at 41%.
Source: Nation
An estimated 112 million more women started using mobile Internet for the first time last year across low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), says the 2021 GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report.
Source: Citizen
The swearing-in and subsequent release of the official portrait of our first female president wrote a great story both in our hearts and "herstory" books. Fate had it in store for Tanzanians that the country's very first female vice president would also become its first female president.
When images of the first Cabinet meeting circulated on social media, many women's rights advocates, myself included, felt that a female president wouldn't be happy with a male-dominated cabinet. Expectations were high that changes were in store, especially after some women's rights were trampled on in the past six years.
Source: The Standard
At 15, Dorcas Zvairewa realizes she is fast running out of friends. One by one, her peers are dropping out of school to either get married or nurse pregnancies.
With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, her circle of friends has grown even smaller as the devastating economic and social impact of the pandemic forces more girls into early motherhood.
Source: VOA
Yaounde — Several hundred Cameroonian widows gathered in the capital, Yaounde, to observe International Widows Day by protesting traditional practices that wives are expected to undergo when they lose their husbands.
Cameroon's minister of women's empowerment and the family, Marie Therese Abena Ondoua, says traditional practices that violate the rights of widows are still practiced in parts of the country.
Source: African Development Bank
The African Development Bank-hosted Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF) on Wednesday issued a third call for project proposals addressing gender inequality and climate resilience in Africa.
The call is for projects that will address men's and women's unequal access to the resources needed to adapt to climate change and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Projects should also support African countries' transition to gender-transformative, climate-resilient, low-carbon development, as well as the scale-up of access to climate finance.
Source: AlJazeera
In Nigeria, women whose husbands have died can face stigma, suspicion, and families determined to take away what little they have left.
Source: VOA
Blantyre, Malawi — Malawi's parliament has withdrawn an abortion bill from debate following opposition to the proposal to liberalize the country's law, which only allows abortions when the mother's life is at risk. Anti-abortion groups had urged the National Assembly not to discuss the measure, but activists who want abortion options expanded say they will fight on.
Source: Botswana Daily News
Gaborone — There is need to change strategies aimed at improving women's representation in decision making as current ones are not yielding desired results, says Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs Ms Annah Mokgethi.
She said this at the recent launch of a Democracy Works Foundation Capacity Enhancement for Political Advancement of Women (CEPAW) project in Gaborone.
Source: CGTN Africa
Libyan experts have held a three-day discussion to review a draft law on combating violence against women, said the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).