Source: Times of Zambia
THE ascendance of Mrs Joyce Banda to the high office of President of Malawi in line with the provisions of the central African nation's constitution, following the death of Dr Bingu wa Mutharika, has renewed hope for a continent steadily breaking with past practices that have long cast it in poor light.
Source: AfricaScienceNews
The international community should rally behind efforts to expand access to modern birth control options among women of child bearing age in sub-Saharan Africa. Such efforts will accerelate attainment of MDG 4 and 5 on infant and maternal health respectively,transform economies and sustain social and political stability.
Melinda Gates,the Co-chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation joined a growing army of advocates championing for universal access to contraceptives inorder to empower women in poverty stricken corners of the globe who are often denied this critical service. Speaking to a global audience through a live webcast,Melinda reiterated that family planning will be accorded significant attention within the Gates foundation core programs. The mother of three who is married to Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman and a consumate philanthropist was categorical that expanding access to familiy planning services among African women could leapfrog the continent to greater levels of prosperity.
Family planning despite the moral and religious controversies it generates can not be wished away in the 21st century. Melinda said that”a billion people use birth control without hesitation.They use it because they want the power to plan their own lives and to raise healthier,better educated and more prosperous families.” She regretted that birth control still elicits enormous opposition from the conservative sections of society. Some people think contraceptives are a code for abortion,which they are not.Some people are uncomfortable because contraceptives have to do with sex,” Melinda remarked.
She added that as a result, birth control has almost disappeared from the global health agenda.The victim of this paralysis are the people of Sub-saharan Africa and the poorest parts of South Asia. Access to modern contraceptives is still a mirage in many African countries where 60% of women who desires to avoid pregnancy are not using them due to poverty,infrastructural hiccups and social-cultural barriers. Melinda Gates observed that 66% of Germans and and 64% of Thai population use modern birth control options while a partly 10% 0f Nigerians and 2% of Chadians have access to effective family planning tools. She decried appalling stock outs of safe and affordable birth control options such as injectables in health centers across Africa.
“Women need an injection every three months,but every time they go to the clinic,the shelves are empty.This situation is common across the African continent”Melinda intoned.
Providing African women with modern contraceptives will transform societies,boost economies and reduce maternal and infant mortalities.Melinda noted that many parts of the world have reached the threshold in providing birth control pills to women of child bearing age. She stressed that because in region after region parents have again and again decided to have smaller families,there is no reoson to believe that African women have innately different desires from the rest of the women in the world. Back tracking on family planning reverses gains made on women empowerment,endangers countries` economies and is a drawback to social progress. Melinda was categorical that birth control will provide sustainable solution to high maternal and infant deaths,poverty and under-development in Africa.
She cited the case of a young businesswoman in a Nairobi slum who has settled for three children and is optimistic about her future since she can pursue her business interests without being encumbered by unmanageable number of children.“This is the same mental calculus hundreds of millions of women have gone through,and the evidence proves that these women have it exactly right.They are able to give their children more opportunities by exercising control over when they have them,” said Melinda. She revealed that the East Asian economic miracle was largely triggered by greater uptake of modern cotraceptives.
Couples in the Asian tigers gave birth to fewer children whom they provided better nutrition,quality healthcare and education. “When families in Sub-saharan Africa are given the opportunity to make these decisions,it will help spark a virtuous cycle of development in communities across the continent,” Melinda remarked. She challenged the international community to inject fresh momentum towards efforts aimed at achieving universal access to modern family planning services among women in resource constrained African nations.
Source: IPS
It would be too simplistic to think that Malawi’s problems have ended with the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. But it is an opportunity for newly appointed President Joyce Banda, who is also leader of the opposition People’s Party, to step up and offer a new and more responsive style of leadership.
Source: Open Democracy
“We are not women, we are Egyptians”. That is what a young woman in Tahrir Square said to me on 25 January 2012, celebrating a year of the Revolution, when I enquired about the group of women she was with.
Source: Open Demcracy
On the face of it, Libya’s was a very male revolution. Covering the armed rebellion in the east of the country, I came across thousands of young men firing their Kalashnikovs into the air and talking excitedly about the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi. Their sisters, they told me, were at home. The National Transitional Council, the political body which formed itself in March 2011 to represent the rebels internationally, was composed almost entirely of men. Yet, when I returned to Libya last September to research my book Sandstorm; Libya in the Time of Revolution ↑after the fall of Colonel Gaddafi, I learnt that behind the scenes, women had been playing a crucial and largely unreported role.
Source: Tanzania Daily News
WITH a Doctor of Medicine Degree from the University of Dar es Salaam, and a PhD in Human and Environmental Studies from Kyoto University, Japan, Dr Marina Njelekela stands out as one of the most successful women in Tanzania, in terms of achievements.
Source: Daily Trust
Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina, has called on women to live up to their responsibilities of grooming their daughters, supporting them to grow and encouraging them to reach their full potentials.
Source: Radio Dabanga
A militia loyal to the government raped two displaced women from Armenkol camp of Sirba locality in Western Darfur.
Source: Sudan Tribune
Sudan's opposition leader, Hassan Al-Turabi, on Friday said he wishes a female candidate would succeed him at the helm of the Popular Congress Party (PCP).
Source: Times Colonist
Prominent women's rights campaigner Joyce Banda was sworn in as Malawi's president Saturday, becoming southern Africa's first female head of state and raising hopes for a fresh start in the small, poor nation after the death of her mercurial predecessor.
Source: Daily Trust
Column - Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Women and Children (Part 2)
Source: RNW
Still an infant in April of 1994, Jeanette, doesn't remember when Rwanda descended into the quickest and bloodiest genocide since the Holocaust. She never knew her father, nor did she ever meet her two aunts, three uncles or grandparents. All of whom killed in the massacres.
Source: The Star
The Pwani Gender Based Violence Network has challenged Kenyans to make efforts to end the vice.
Source: Vanguard
Domestic violence is as old as man. It often occurs in the privacy of the home. Because a man's home is often referred to and regarded as his "castle", whatever a man does within the privacy of the home has often escaped the scrutiny of the public, yet it persists.
Source: scidev.net
Female sex workers in low- and middle-income countries are nearly 14 times more likely to become infected with HIV than other women in these countries, according to a literature review by US scientists.
Source: Saturday Post Online
THE government should ensure that all sexually active people have access to affordable and easy health services on family planning, says WILSA.
Source: AlertNet
The March 11 acquittal of the only military officer charged in the "virginity tests" trial is a blow for any hopes of accountability for the abuses women have experienced at the hands of the Egyptian military over the past year, Human Rights Watch said today. The military has failed to investigate and punish credible claims of other instances of violence by its members against women, including the beating and torture of women demonstrators by military officers on March 9 and December 16, 2011.
Source: WNN
Following several weeks of military intervention by the Kenyan Defense Forces against Somali extremist militia groups, Somali women have become easy targets for rape and physical assault. But physical assault can also come from home and can also be psychological.
Source: Pambazuka News
We celebrate this year's International Women's Day (IWD) under the slogan "Connecting Girls, Inspiring Futures". This slogan is taken from the internationally agreeable logo, which embodies a lot of contents in support of women and their rights all over the world; the slogan was chosen particularly as the youth group in our country is considered as the largest among the population, exceeding 65 % of the total population.