Source: Irin
Instead of joining militias or idling at street corners, the youth in Garowe, the regional capital of the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, are learning skills to help them earn a living, officials said.
Source: Plus News
Asha* is in a polygamous marriage, and while she would like to protect herself from HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, the message from the preachers at her local mosque in the Burundian capital, Bujumbura, is that condoms promote adultery.
Source: UN News Center
Secretary-Ban Ki-moon today underlined the huge benefits societies reap from ensuring that girls and women have access to education, saying the opportunity to acquire knowledge creates a new generation of mothers who in turn raise educated and empowered young women.
"Education sends a message – a message of confidence and hope. It tells that child; you have a future; what you think matters," Mr. Ban said at the launch of the Global Partnership for Girls' and Women's Education at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Source: UNESCO Media Services
A Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education will be launched at a high level forum to be held at UNESCO Headquarters on Thursday 26 May (13:30h Room I)
A group of parliamentarians committed to population and development issues have called on governments meeting at the G8 summit in Deauville, France, to invest substantially in protecting girls, addressing the challenges posed by the world’s population dynamics, and fulfil existing financial pledges, particularly in the areas of health, population and human rights.
Source: UN News Center
Visiting health workers in Ethiopia today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spotlighted the progress made in improving the health of women and children, while also stressing the need to do more to avoid needless deaths.
Source: AWID
The revolution of the 25th of January, 2011 was not born out of the moment, but was the result of a long struggle of all political and civil forces in Egypt. Women participated in all phases of this struggle and bore serious risks to confront the former regime and its security armory. This year, the 25th of May comes after the great revolution in which women participated to its success. Today marks the day in which women paid the price on the day of the referendum to amend article 76 of the constitution in 2005.
Across Africa, cell phones are rapidly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. From an isolated rural village, a business owner can make a bank deposit through her phone; a farmer can access current crop prices; and an expectant mother can learn about antenatal care.
Source: IPS
In an open space near her home in Makoko, a crowded suburb of the sprawling city of Lagos, Latifat Agboola sits in the midst of bags of charcoal, attending to her customers. Some of them call her "the charcoal woman with the dirty job, but she sees herself as a businesswoman on the rise.
Source: All Africa
Reports reaching The Chronicle indicate that women in the three northern regions of Ghana grow older more easily than those in the south, due to uncontrolled birth practices.
Source: South Africa Department of International Relations & Cooperation
Speaking at the re-launch of the ANC Women’s League in 1990, the visionary leader of the historic people’s movement - the African National Congress - Oliver Reginald Tambo unequivocally expressed that “women themselves have to organize and act so as to bring about the changes in attitudes amongst both men and women”
Source: Pambazuka
Members of Uganda's ninth Parliament were sworn-in this week, with female representation in the House reaching an all-time high. Women in the East African country are now sitting in 35 per cent of 375 available MP seats, up from the previous 30 per cent.
Source: Peace X Peace
Interview with Amany Mufta Ismail by Anna Therese Day. In late March, 29-year-old Libyan student Eman Al-Obeidy caught the world’s attention when she burst into a Tripoli hotel to inform Western media of her alleged detention, torture, and rape at the hands of Gaddafi’s forces.
Source: UNICEF
UNICEF is concerned about the situation of children and women in the southwestern province of Bas-Sassandra in Côte d'Ivoire. Weeks of clashes near the town of Soubré have triggered population displacements and prevented UN aid agencies from accessing affected people to deliver life-saving assistance.
Source: PlusNews
Rwanda is in the third and final phase of testing a vaginal ring containing antiretrovirals, which, if successful, could provide an important female-controlled method of HIV prevention.
What are the Millennium Development Goals?
Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions.United Nations agencies in Nigeria, including the UN Women and the United Nations Development Programme have pledged their support for Nigerian women in their quest for better representation in government ahead of the local government elections in the country.
The Nigerian government needs to increase its investment in the education of women if the country is to achieve its dream of development. The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Josephine Anenih, said at the weekend in Ilorin.
The systematic use of sexual violence along with torture, cruel and degrading treatment – such as the common use of flogging - continue to be one of the major security threats and tools of repression targeting women and communities all over Sudan. Amel Gorani reports on those who are daring to speak out.
Public lecture delivered by UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet at the London School of Economics, London, 17 May 2011.