Officials of both the World Bank and the African Union (AU) on Monday in Addis Ababa launched the World Development Report 2011 published by the World Bank. Sarah Cliff, World Bank representative, and Ramtane Lamamra, the AU commissioner for peace and security, represented the two bodies at the occasion.
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is expected to soon ratify amendments to four laws presumably intended to create a more competitive and transparent political climate in Egypt.
Source: UN WOMEN
During Nigeria’s last leg of elections for governorship seats and State Houses of Assembly on 26 April, UN Women will monitor the polls for violence against women in real-time.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
LET it not be said that those wags at the United Nations don't have a sense of humour. Given the task of finding an office for the organisation's new women's rights body, they found some space in the Daily News building, otherwise known as the home of Superman.
Source: Human Rights Watch
Dozens of Ivorian refugee women and girls recently arrived in eastern Liberia say they have had to engage in sex to get adequate food, shelter, or money, Human Rights Watch said today. The Liberian government, the police, and United Nations agencies should take urgent measures to protect and assist vulnerable women and girls, including rapidly building protected shelter and helping them get sufficient and appropriate food, Human Rights Watch said.
The residents of eight villages in Darfur will be among the first in the arid Sudanese region to have easier access to water under an initiative backed by the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID).
Source : Plus News
Desperate and displaced, some Burundian women will do anything, including have unprotected sex for money, to escape the dreadful living conditions in the Bujumbura suburb of Sabe, where more than 480 families of internally displaced persons (IDPs) have lived for several years.
Source: UNHCR
Gender-based violence and the quality of health care and schooling were among the top concerns raised by refugee women in the latest round of UNHCR consultations that ended over the weekend in Zambia.
Source: IPS
For 12 years now, the women around Tsangano in Malawi's southern district of Ntcheu have put together their tomato harvest, selling some 20 tons at the outdoor markets that abound in Lilongwe, the capital. But they have very little to show for their hard work.
Source: Mail & Guardian
Boys are smarter than girls, scientists are nerds, and science is so hard that girls can't cope with it ...
These are among the gender myths the Academy of Science of South Africa (Assaf) wants to demolish. This week it launched a major advocacy programme to attract more girls into science and related fields.
Source: UNFPA
As a child growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then, Zaire), Yvette Mulongo regularly watched as neighbours and friends lost their mothers. She noticed the gaping hole left in families by the death of a mother.
Source: IRIN
The small 10m by 15m garden behind Agnes Oroma's house in northern Uganda's Gulu district is much more than a hobby garden; according to HIV-positive Oroma, it is one of the main reasons she is in good health.
Source: Alernet
Imagine you're a U.N. peacekeeper driving along a dirt road surrounded by dense forests on each side in the conflict-hit region of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Source: IRIN
Violations of human rights are on the increase in northeastern Central African Republic (CAR), with aid workers expressing concern for protection of civilians amid renewed clashes between government troops and the Convention of Patriots for Justice and Peace (CPJP) rebels - one of the few groups that has not signed a peace agreement with the government.
Source: BBC
The majority of Ethiopia's population live in rural areas and when they are ill many do not seek medical advice, but a new government programme hopes to change this at a local level.
The controversy over sexuality in Africa today rests essentially on the legality or acceptability of sexual practices that deviate from the norm.
The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has called for more women and black candidates to apply for judge vacancies.The JSC yesterday announced the names of candidates it had recommended to President Jacob Zuma for various vacant judge positions.
The Federation of African Media Women in Zimbabwe (FAMWZ) says there is lack of gender sensitivity in Zimbabwean media. FAMWZ said female media practitioners continued to be trampled upon, with very few women to date having managed to get into the higher echelons in the media fraternity.
Ongoing violence in the Middle East and North Africa, from Libya and Yemen to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, is taking a heavy toll on the lives of young people, the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today, urging all parties to do more to ensure the protection of children in the region.
(Geneva) - Dozens of Ivorian refugee women and girls recently arrived in eastern Liberia say they have had to engage in sex to get adequate food, shelter, or money, Human Rights Watch said today.