Source: The New Times
Empowered with a needle and thread, Rwandan women, Emelienne Nyiramana and Therese Iribagiza have changed their lives.
Source: The Swazi Observer
Plans to establish the first ever Women's Bank in Swaziland are progressing well, chairperson of the Swaziland Women Economic Empowerment Trust (SWEET) Sibongile Mdluli, who is also the deputy governor at the Central Bank of Swaziland said yesterday.
Source: The Guardian - Poverty Matters Blog
Deaths in childbirth would drop further if the bank cut fees and expanded grants in its spending on reproductive health
Source: IPP Media
President Jakaya Kikwete has said time has come for the adoption of concrete actions in the efforts to end violence against women.
Source: Nairobi Star
Women in Narok county have urged the government to stop advertisement companies from using women images exposing parts of their bodies on billboards.
The right of women to participate in political life is guaranteed by several international conventions, but transforming an abstract right into a reality requires hard work on the ground, says a new study released here.
Women leaders across the 47 Kenyan counties have resolved to mobilize their counterparts in the grassroots to lobby for greater inclusion in processes that promote sustainable development in the country.
Across the Middle East, countries are witnessing parliamentary changes under newly-installed governments which have been credited as a result of the Arab Spring.
Source: All Ghana News
Ghana is to join the global community to celebrate the International Women’s Day with an art exhibition and special concert at Alliance Francaise on March 8.
Kelly Askin has just returned from South Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo where she witnessed the ongoing work of a mobile gender justice court that has been operating in the province with the support of the Open Society Foundations. Here's what she found:
"It is only when women start to organize in large numbers that we become a political force, and begin to move towards the possibility of a truly democratic society in which every human being can be brave, responsible, thinking and diligent in the struggle to live at once freely and unselfishly."
The head of the United Nations entity mandated to promote gender equality today highlighted the role of quotas to accelerate women’s political participation, adding that more hands-on measures are needed to achieve significant progress on this issue.
Opportunities from the Arab Spring to boost the low number of women in parliaments are being missed, while globally the average number of female politicians inched up half a point last year to 19.5 percent, an organization of parliaments said on Friday.
Source: Rwanda Focus
While the entire world will celebrate Women's Day next Thursday, in Rwanda it will mark the start of a month-long campaign to promote women's emancipation.
Source: The Herald
The 56th Session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) started on February 27, 2012 in New York with participants grappling with the economic status of rural women. The theme for the CSW 2012 session is "Empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges".
Source: Tunisia Live
Hizb Ettahrir, a legally unrecognized Islamist party, is organizing an international conference for women under the name, "Caliphate, a bright example for the rights and political role of women." The conference is to be held on March the 10th, in Carthago Hotel, in the northern suburbs of Tunis. Only women can attend the event.
Source: Tanzania Daily News
Tanzania has recorded immense success in the "We Can" campaign that was launched in the country in 2008 and has spread to several regions.
Source: MONUSCO
As part of the International Women's Day commemoration on 8 March, the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ministry for Gender, Family and Children, in partnership with the United Nations System, is planning to organize the fourth Women Entrepreneurship Fair around the theme: "Let Us Invest in Rural Women and Young Girls for a Brighter Future".
Source: East African Business Week
A new World Bank report has unveiled mistreatment of business women involved in cross-border trade by the border officials.
The report on the theme "De-fragmenting Africa: Removing Barriers to Trade in Africa" is a result of investigations on the constraints and conditions that cross-border traders undergo in conducting business.
Source: StarAfrica
The East African Community Secretariat in collaboration with German Agency for International Co-operation (GIZ), East African Sub-Regional Support Initiative (EASSI) and Arusha Municipality have jointly organized a series of activities to mark Gender Week from 5-9 March, 2012 in Arusha, Tanzania.