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: 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).
Source: The Conversation Africa
President Yoweri Museveni, who has led Uganda since 1986, has appointed a woman, Jessica Alupo, as vice-president and another woman, Robinah Nabbanja, as prime minister. He has also increased the percentage of women in the cabinet from 27% to 43%. This is the second time Museveni has appointed a woman as vice-president. Specioza Wandira Kazibwe served as vice-president from 1994 to 2003.
These appointments have provoked considerable debate in Uganda, reflecting both the constraints and the possibilities of women's rights reform in an authoritarian country. Freedom House ranks Uganda as a "Not Free" country. This is due to election violence and limits on political rights and civil liberties.
Source: Tunis Afrique Presse
Tunis/Tunisia — Women accounted for 30% of overall number of victims of violence last May, reads the annual report of the Social Observatory under the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES).
Source: Africa News
The women of the community of Ponta Zé Henrique in Guinea-Bissau may not be aware that Monday is International Women's Day. but they do know that if they do not produce salt, they will have nothing to eat.
Source: Nation
Female genital mutilation (FGM) will soon be criminalised in semi-autonomous north-eastern region of Somalia, Puntland.
Source: Front Page Africa
Monrovia — First lady Clar Duncan Weah was on Wednesday joined by her husband, President George Weah and top government officials to launch her 'She's You Personal Hygiene Initiative' in support of women and adolescent girls.
Source: ABC News
It began after Sabah Khodir said she saw a woman's social media post accusing a college student, Ahmed Bassam Zaki, of being a sexual predator and of blackmailing women.