Source: IPS
In 1991, the share of seats held by women in the Ethiopian parliament was under 3 percent. Today it stands at 38 percent, almost twice the ratio of women in the United States Congress. Experts say when women are better represented in government office, the gains are likely to spill down and improve the lives of all women.
Source: UN News
The dire warning from António Guterres is laid out in a policy brief which details how the new disease is deepening pre-existing inequalities which are in turn amplifying its impacts on the lives of women and girls.
In the visitors’ books of Eshowe’s many guesthouses and hotels, tourists inspired by verdant sugar cane fields and blossoming trees write about “a corner of Eden”.
Locals and specialists know the small town set high among the rolling hills that run along South Africa’s eastern coast for another reason.
In Kenya, Always pads use a cheap material that causes irrituation for many. In Europe and the US, they don't.
For more than three decades, Procter & Gamble had a near monopoly in Kenya’s sanitary pad market. Its “Always” pads are most likely the first brand girls become familiar with, long before they even know what menstruation is. Over time, the name has also become synonymous with superior quality. Consumers feel they have no reason to try other brands.
Source: GroundUp
The Covid-19 pandemic will affect women in specific and distinct ways. It may amplify existing gender inequalities and may especially affect women who survive on the peripheries of the economy.
Source: africanews
The COVID-19 pandemic is set to exacerbate pre-existing gender inequalities and the virus’s impact will disproportionately affect women, according to the United Nations Population Fund in Sudan.
Source: 263Chat.
The Zimbabwe Gender Commission has called on the government to prioritize the needs of women and persons with disabilities during the ongoing national lockdown meant to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Being free to refuse sex is key to women's empowerment, UNFPA says.
Source: UNCTAD
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is not gender neutral, as it affects men and women differently. Therefore, we must not be gender blind in our responses to the pandemic, or else women will carry a disproportionately higher economic cost than men.
Globally, women are more vulnerable to economic shocks wrought by crises such as the coronavirus pandemic.
Source: The Guardian
Charity warns loss of services caused by lockdowns could result in millions of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions.
Almost half of women and girls living in more than 50 countries around the world are not able to make their own decisions about their reproductive rights, with up to a quarter saying they are unable to say no to sex, a new survey has found.
Source: All Africa
The Portfolio Committee on Women has called on households to stand together and help each other, especially women, children and disabled people who remain vulnerable to Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) during the 21-day lockdown period.
Sierra Leone has overturned a ban on pregnant girls attending school, the government said Monday, adding that it sought to build a state that embraced every citizen.
As the coronavirus snakes its way around the world — canceling events, shuttering offices and suspending classes — some health experts worry that the crisis could put women at a disproportionate risk, exacerbating gender, social and economic fault lines.
Source: BBC
As more than 25 million people are placed on a two-week lockdown in parts of Nigeria in a bid to curtail the spread of coronavirus, poor people in congested neighbourhoods are worried about how they will cope, writes the BBC's Nduka Orjinmo from the commercial capital Lagos.
Source: Al Jazeera
In a "good month", about 100 girls will be brought by their families to Halima Hirsi's* underground clinic in Nairobi to be subjected to female genital mutilation (FGM).
Families come here from all over the world, willing to pay $150 a time for their daughters to be cut.
"The Somali diaspora are good people for my business," says Hirsi, 69, the manager of the clinic, who also carries out procedures.
Source: All Africa
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is still widely practised in the African country of Djibouti. Despite efforts by the government and development agencies to curb this practice, culture, tradition and religion continue to slow down progress.
Source: United National Population Fund
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages around the world, governments are taking unprecedented measures to limit the spread of the virus, ramping up health system responses and announcing movement restrictions affecting millions. But amid these efforts, policymakers must not lose sight of the vulnerabilities of women and girls, which have been exacerbated by the crisis, says a UNFPA guidance note released today.
Source: World Economic Forum
Senegal's start-up scene is dominated by men, the laws are complex and the taxes are high - all reasons why talented businesswomen from the West African nation shy away from creating companies, said entrepreneur Seynabou Thiam.
.Source: All Africa
The Darfur Consultative Women Forum demands security and peace, protection of (displaced) people, restructuring of the security system and weapons to be collected as top priorities in North Darfur.