Source: Zambia Daily Mail International Labour Organisation (ILO) assistant director-general and regional director for Africa, Aeneas Chuma, has urged countries to tap into women's tremendous potential as economic forces.
Source: The Star The Government has allocated Sh400 million to finance the sanitary towels programme in primary schools in the country, Cabinet Secretary for Education, Prof. Jacob Kaimenyi has said.
Source: Sudan Tribune South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, has called for girls to have equal opportunity to education in the country. "When we talk about education, we must have to offer similar rights to our children without isolating our young daughters from equal access to education," Kiir said.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation In Ethiopia, girls are abducted on their way to school, raped and then married to their captors. In Ghana, they are married to traditional priests and become "slaves to the gods" to pay for their family's sins. In Cameroon, girls are promised in marriage to settle debts while still in the womb.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation Economic inequality is deeply rooted in gender inequality. Yet, most economic policies put forward by governments and other institutions continue to fail at addressing the particular ways in which their actions negatively affect women and girls; and reproduce poverty and exploitation around the world.
Source: Zambia Daily Mail About 200 women entrepreneurs from all the 10 provinces in Zambia have converged at Mulungushi International Conference for a national women jubilee expo running under the theme, 'Women as change agents for national development and prosperity'.
Source: Voice of America U.N. Human Rights experts are expressing concern about the widespread violence and discrimination to which women in conflict-ridden Central African Republic and Syria are subjected. C.A.R. and Syria are two of eight countries examined by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which monitors States Compliance to existing rules.
Source: Al-Warham Weekly
Reem Leila reports on the National Council for Women's strategy to combat sexual violence.
Source: New Era
Women in Keetmanshoop have grabbed the opportunity to become part of the mass housing initiative by learning how to construct houses from ground level all the way to roof level and are even installing the plumbing and electrical wiring of the houses they build. The Women in Construction initiative has received at least five of the 320 houses to be constructed during the first phase of the mass housing project here.
Source: NDTV
Women and children are being kidnapped by armed gangs and forced to work as sex slaves in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Wednesday.
Source: The Herald
Zimbabwean women have a huge and raw appetite to succeed and make a difference in the nation. This is a conclusion I have reached after attending several seminars and workshops and also interacting with women at all levels in society.
Source: Ghana News Agency
President John Dramani Mahama has appointed 17 women to serve as Ministers of State, Deputy Ministers and Regional Ministers, in the final list announced by government.
Source: The New Dawn
The Government of Liberia has backed Liberian women's quest to have access to information in the country.
Source: Vanguard
One of the major challenges rocking the northern part the country is the problem of out-of-school children. Even though the government of Nigeria has increasingly recognised the right of children to education and development, efforts by respective state governments in the north have not necessarily translated into equitable advantage for the out-of-school children in the region.
Source: Ghana Web
The Moremi Initiative has launched the 2014 MILEAD Fellows Leadership Institute to train young women to develop their talents to create a change in their societies. Twenty-eight young women from 26 different African countries, including Sudan, Benin, Gambia, South Africa, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Ghana, are participating in the programme.
Source: AP News
An Egyptian court sentenced seven men to life in prison on Wednesday for sexual assaults on women during public rallies in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square, in the first such heavy sentences since the government vowed to crack down on rampant sexual violence.
Source: The Zimbabwean
Zimbabwe's prisons have not been spared the effects of the patriarchal society, with both guards and inmates on the receiving end of gender discrimination.
Source: New Era
The Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration , Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, wants women not only to lobby for the speedy implementation of gender equality but also to prove to the world that this will in general not disadvantage Namibians.
Source: Al Jazeera
Mobile and internet technology can help African women become more financially independent. In the past two decades, there has been a lot of talk about the transformative power of technology in society, yet little attention has been paid to an emerging digital gap.
Source: New Internationalist
This month the UK government will be hosting its first ever Girl Summit in a bid to mobilize domestic and global efforts to end – within a generation – female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage (CEFM). This isn't going to be easy, given the wide-spread occurrence of these practices, and the economic and societal pressures that continue to undermine gender equality in many countries. Globally, nearly three million girls and women a year are at risk of FGM.