If women farmers were given more tools and resources, the number of hungry people in the world could be slashed by 100 to 150 million.
Ethiopia called today from the General Assembly not only for immediate aid to help the 13.3 million victims of drought and famine in Somalia and elsewhere in the Horn of Africa but also for the “even more crucial” means to achieve sustainable development in the region.
Moammar Gaddafi famously surrounded himself with a personal coterie of female bodyguards during the decades he ruled Libya. But it was more a sign of his eccentricities than a real commitment to equality for women in this conservative Islamic society.
Source: IPS
MIDRAND, South Africa, Sep 30, 2011 (IPS) - African women who bear the brunt of the continent’s conflicts now demand to play a defining role in peacekeeping.
Next Wednesday September 28, scores of women from all over the country will flock to Freetown to talk to the UN about peace in Sierra Leone. The event takes place at the Taia Hotel Resort, Lumley Beach during the UN Open Day.
Source: IPS
"Please God, make my breasts disappear." Joyce Forghab used to pray the same line every night during the month she was suffering from breast ironing. The shocking practice, carried out by a quarter of mothers in Cameroon, is meant to reverse female sexual development.
Source: UN News Centre
28 September 2011 – Newly independent South Sudan is among 34 countries awarded grants today by a United Nations that seeks to end violence against women, along with another first-time recipient, Iraq.
Source: Gender Across Borders
Earlier this year, 28-year old Abigail Agborku became pregnant unexpectedly. Already a struggling mother of three, she sought to terminate her pregnancy. But something went wrong. She didn’t get the right advice, didn’t have adequate access, and didn’t know where to turn. She ended up in the hands of a quack, as too many women do, and died soon after.
Source: The Star
The Bill to amend the Constitution has been published, providing for extra seats to ensure that there are no more than two-thirds from either gender in the National Assembly or Senate. This is similar to the CoE's suggestion, rejected by the Parliamentary Select Committee in Naivasha. Like the provision for counties in fact.
Source: Times of Zambia
Zambia has come a long way in trying to achieve social, economic and political development. Several initiatives have been put in place by many stakeholders, all aimed at addressing the development challenges that this country has faced.
Source: IPS
"Every quarter, more than a hundred women with fistulas – including many younger than 20 years old – are admitted for surgery in Maniema province," says nurse Julie Mawazo. "The number of affected women who don't have the means or awareness to come in must be far greater."
Source:Daily Nation
Kenya has been praised for passing laws and policies that promote gender equality.
Source: IPPMedia
Recently, an NGO - Kivulini – that fights against women’s discrimination and gender violence released the findings of a study which show that more than 48 per cent of women in Tanzania are subjected to various forms of discrimination and violence.
Sesedzai Rupuwu owns nothing except the tattered clothes that are neatly packed in her small, faded suitcase.
It is time to challenge the conventional explanations of gender based violence. Patricia Daley argues that it can only be understood in association with contemporary geo-economic forces and the Central African experience of modernity.
Zambia has come a long way in trying to achieve social, economic and political development. Several initiatives have been put in place by many stakeholders, all aimed at addressing the development challenges that this country has faced.
The United Nations should select more women to serve as mediators in conflicts and during political transitions, Liechtenstein told the General Assembly today, calling on the entire international community to do more to promote the participation of women in conflict prevention and resolution.
Talibouya Ka, Muslim leader (imam) of the Omar Kane mosque in the Medina neighbourhood of the Senegalese capital Dakar, encourages his followers to procreate as much as they can. “There are imams who are for family planning, but I am not. I tell worshippers they need to increase the size of the global Muslim family.”
UN Women Executive Director Remarks at USAID and DFID event on “MDG Countdown 2011: Celebrating Successes and Innovations” New York, 21 September, 2011.
Source: UN News adio
The President of Brazil has become the first ever woman to open the General Assembly’s main annual debate, the so-called general debate.