Source: VOA
Yaounde — Several hundred Cameroonian widows gathered in the capital, Yaounde, to observe International Widows Day by protesting traditional practices that wives are expected to undergo when they lose their husbands.
Cameroon's minister of women's empowerment and the family, Marie Therese Abena Ondoua, says traditional practices that violate the rights of widows are still practiced in parts of the country.
Source: African Development Bank
The African Development Bank-hosted Africa Climate Change Fund (ACCF) on Wednesday issued a third call for project proposals addressing gender inequality and climate resilience in Africa.
The call is for projects that will address men's and women's unequal access to the resources needed to adapt to climate change and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Projects should also support African countries' transition to gender-transformative, climate-resilient, low-carbon development, as well as the scale-up of access to climate finance.
Source: AlJazeera
In Nigeria, women whose husbands have died can face stigma, suspicion, and families determined to take away what little they have left.
Source: VOA
Blantyre, Malawi — Malawi's parliament has withdrawn an abortion bill from debate following opposition to the proposal to liberalize the country's law, which only allows abortions when the mother's life is at risk. Anti-abortion groups had urged the National Assembly not to discuss the measure, but activists who want abortion options expanded say they will fight on.
Source: Botswana Daily News
Gaborone — There is need to change strategies aimed at improving women's representation in decision making as current ones are not yielding desired results, says Minister of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs Ms Annah Mokgethi.
She said this at the recent launch of a Democracy Works Foundation Capacity Enhancement for Political Advancement of Women (CEPAW) project in Gaborone.
Source: CGTN Africa
Libyan experts have held a three-day discussion to review a draft law on combating violence against women, said the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL).
Source: The Conversation Africa
President Yoweri Museveni, who has led Uganda since 1986, has appointed a woman, Jessica Alupo, as vice-president and another woman, Robinah Nabbanja, as prime minister. He has also increased the percentage of women in the cabinet from 27% to 43%. This is the second time Museveni has appointed a woman as vice-president. Specioza Wandira Kazibwe served as vice-president from 1994 to 2003.
These appointments have provoked considerable debate in Uganda, reflecting both the constraints and the possibilities of women's rights reform in an authoritarian country. Freedom House ranks Uganda as a "Not Free" country. This is due to election violence and limits on political rights and civil liberties.
Source: Tunis Afrique Presse
Tunis/Tunisia — Women accounted for 30% of overall number of victims of violence last May, reads the annual report of the Social Observatory under the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES).
Source: Africa News
The women of the community of Ponta Zé Henrique in Guinea-Bissau may not be aware that Monday is International Women's Day. but they do know that if they do not produce salt, they will have nothing to eat.
Source: Nation
Female genital mutilation (FGM) will soon be criminalised in semi-autonomous north-eastern region of Somalia, Puntland.
Source: Front Page Africa
Monrovia — First lady Clar Duncan Weah was on Wednesday joined by her husband, President George Weah and top government officials to launch her 'She's You Personal Hygiene Initiative' in support of women and adolescent girls.
Source: ABC News
It began after Sabah Khodir said she saw a woman's social media post accusing a college student, Ahmed Bassam Zaki, of being a sexual predator and of blackmailing women.
Source: The Guardian
Vital services including grants financed by UK unavailable without identity cards, with women and the elderly worst affected.
Source: Daily News
PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday reaffirmed Tanzania's commitment in striking gender parity, saying the country was on track to meet the 50/50 threshold in leadership.
Source: The Guardian
It was when the phone started ringing with calls from worried mothers in Somalia that Ifrah Ahmed knew she was making an impact. The women told her their daughters had been bleeding for hours after undergoing female genital mutilation and asked what to do. Ahmed told them to seek medical attention, and probably saved lives by doing so.
Source: The Herald
Water is such a precious commodity in life and addressing the constraints women and young girls face in accessing and managing it, is important in the fight against gender based violence (GBV).
Source: UNFPA East and Southern Africa
North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo — Following the eruption of the volcano, Mount Nyiragongo near Goma, tens of thousands of women and girls are in urgent need of critical sexual and reproductive health services, including support to pregnant women, newborn babies and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (GBV).
Source: The East African
The political agreement signed in Somalia this past heralds not just a new democratic dawn but also one of equity and inclusivity by raising the quota of women in the formal political space to at least a third of the bicameral federal legislature.
Source: Front Page Africa
Monrovia — A conglomerate of human rights civil society organizations in Liberia under the banner Civil Society Organizations Human Rights Advocacy Platform (CSO-Platform) of Liberia in a report has indicated that the Government of Liberia needs to do more to implement the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Source: The Conversation Africa
Nigeria has very few women participating in politics. Only seven out of 109 senators and 22 of the 360 House of Representatives members are women. And only four out of 36 deputy governors are women. The country has never had a woman state governor. To create gender balance, the country's lower house - the house of representatives - is planning to create an additional 111 seats for women at the country's national assembly. Ogechi Ekeanyanwu, from The Conversation Africa, asked Damilola Agbalojobi, political scientist and gender specialist, for insights.