UN Women Tanzania has partnered with Tigo Tanzania, under Honora Tanzania Public Limited Company, to empower and equip young women and girls with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and digital literacy skills.
BLUE NILE STATE, Sudan – Haleema Ibrahim, 36, walked a few minutes back to her home in the village of Shanisha, in Sudan’s Blue Nile State, carrying a basket of freshly ground grains from a newly built flour mill.
“We used to walk long distances to grind our grain,” Ms. Ibrahim told UNFPA, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency. “Women and girls faced harassment along the way – we had to run fast to avoid it, often spilling most of the flour.”
Like many rural villages, hers is not well connected to basic public services, and it usually falls to women and children to walk for miles to reach flour mills, water pumps, and other essentials. For 36-year-old Salma, who arrived in Shanisha to escape the conflict raging in her hometown of Khartoum, the remote location presented its series of safety concerns.
“I accompanied my daughter to grind grains. It's an exhausting journey,” she said. “There was no grinder in our village so we had to travel to a distant town, where people harass us on the streets.”
Women and girls in Sudan are bearing the brunt of the war's impact: Journeys to hoped-for havens are arduous, mothers carrying children on their backs, confronting violence, coercion, poverty, and hunger.
In many places, the displaced find themselves sharing the same struggles as their hosts: Food and clean water are scarce, access to health services is almost non-existent, and tensions are rising. Sexual violence, harassment, abuse, and exploitation have become rampant, both where fighting is ongoing and in communities where displaced people are arriving in search of safety.
Treading a dangerous path
As the economic and security situation spirals, access to health and protection support is crumbling with it. The UN estimates that 4.2 million people across Sudan are at risk of gender-based violence as the conflict continues and access to health and protection support crumbles.
“I used to go to the mills and had countless problems,” said Om Kolthom, a 40-year-old woman from Khartoum. “Once I came across six men who demanded money for passage.”
Instead of concern for their welfare upon their return from the trip to the mill, women said they often faced scrutiny and criticism from family members. “They ask questions like, 'What took you so long?' and ‘Why did you lose half of the flour?’” Ms. Ibrahim told UNFPA.
The threat of sexual violence for women and girls in Sudan is pervasive to the extent of being normalized. Speaking with a UNFPA-supported community protection network seeking to lessen this exposure to abuse, many expressed the need for closer, safer, and more accessible basic services – including mills, so they could still feed their families yet safeguard their bodily autonomy.
It’s a call that was heeded: The mill is the first to be installed by UNFPA in Sudan and is so far serving some 30,000 people in Shanisha. UNFPA Representative in Sudan Mohamed Lemine said, “This project is an example of how women and girls drive the planning process of our programs.”
UNFPA has undertaken many similar projects in other humanitarian contexts – such as ensuring bathroom facilities in refugee camps are well-lit and distributing whistles and torches with dignity kits containing underwear and menstrual pads.
For Om Kolthom, the intervention has been a relief. “With this new mill, we can send even the youngest person at home to grind the grains. It takes less than 5 minutes now."
People-centered programming
With the risk of sexual violence all too often undermining women’s and girls’ very ability to survive as well as their sexual and reproductive health and rights, holistic, survivor-driven initiatives can be key.
Thanks to partners such as the European Union, across Sudan UNFPA has established five new community protection networks in the Al Jazirah, West Darfur, Red Sea, and Northern States and is supporting 167 active networks across the country.
Multiple safe spaces and temporary clinics have also been set up, serving women and girls from both displaced and host communities. These offer specialized support and response to gender-based violence, including post-rape kits, sexual and reproductive health assistance, psychosocial services, and referrals to advanced care.
Since mid-April 2023, more than 6 million people have been forced to flee their homes in Sudan due to the ongoing conflict. Of those, 4.8 million are displaced within the country, more than three-quarters of whom are women and girls of reproductive age.
As the crisis in Sudan only becomes more entrenched, there is an urgent need for ramped-up funding and response to protect the safety and rights of women and girls who are acutely vulnerable to violence and abuse.
Some 145 women have died while giving birth, while 1 066 stillbirths were recorded between 2018 and 2021.
Source: Kenyans.co.ke
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has been asked to take action against Tigania East Member of Parliament Mpuru Aburi and Meru Deputy Governor Isaac Mutuma over alleged vulgar utterances they made against Governor Kawira Mwangaza.
Source: IPU
Tulia Ackson of the United Republic of Tanzania has been elected as the 31st President of the IPU by the IPU’s Governing Council, its main decision-making body made up of parliamentarians from around the world.
Liberia achieved another significant milestone recently in its relentless battle against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as former practitioners from Nimba County, in northern Liberia, relinquished traditional tools they once used to perform FGM, symbolizing an end to this harmful practice in that part of the region.
At least 20 Sudanese women and girls are reported to have been “abducted and held in inhuman, degrading slave-like conditions”, according to UN Human Rights spokesperson Liz Throssell. In a briefing at Geneva’s Palais des Nations on Friday, she expressed her deep alarm at these reports, urging for the captives’ release, and for them to be provided with the necessary medical and psychosocial support.
Zimbabwe’s recent election has exposed weak gender policies both at the political party and governmental levels as women were sidelined despite the fact that they make up more than half of the 6.5 million electorate.
Viana — The Minister of Social Action, Family and Woman Promotion, Ana Paula do Sacramento Neto, on Wednesday said the academic and professional training are the key elements to empower young women and teenagers.
The Chief Medical Director of MeCure Healthcare Limited, Dr. Adeniji Adeoluwa, weekend raised the alarm that 23 percent of Nigerian women suffer from breast cancer, saying 140,000 people are likely to have the disease annually.
Only one in three citizens think their government is doing a good job of promoting gender equality.
Only one in three citizens think their government is doing a good job of promoting gender equality.
In an emotional testimony presented before the Committee of Presidential Affairs, female opposition Members of Parliament are demanding transparency and accountability concerning incidents of police brutality they endured in April 2023. These brave lawmakers have come forward with distressing allegations of physical abuse at the hands of police officers.
SWAKOPMUND – Minister of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare Doreen Sioka said tackling the under-representation of women in the National Council continues to be an ongoing battle.
- I had the privilege to speak at the UN Security Council open debate last week on Women, Peace, and Security (WPS), an important opportunity to reflect on the urgency of this work and why women’s rights must be central to addressing any conflict or crisis.