Source: The Citizen 

Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in on Friday as Tanzania's first female president after the sudden death of John Magufuli from a heart condition called atrial fibrillation.

Source: Daily Trust

Solace has come for abused women and girls in Lagos State and Nigeria at large as a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Centre for Children's Health Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE) in partnership with Hearts 100 Initiative recently opened a shelter named 'Hearts of Hope Shelter' for victims and survivors of Gender Based Violence (GBV).

Source: Nation 

The potential to transform Africa's economies and speed up development in the coming decade lies in lighting and powering the continent. But, more importantly, and often overlooked, is that this potential also lies in efforts to integrate women into energy projects.

The energy sector is one that has historically been male-dominated. From all sectors of the workforce, more so at the executive level, to the trajectories of transmission, distribution and redistribution, the sector disadvantages women. This requires challenging.

Source: New Era Live

This International Women’s Month, the Coca-Cola Company and its partners are proud to celebrate exceeding their 5by20 goal by enabling the economic empowerment of more than 6 million women around the world. About 34% (just over 2 million) of those women enabled by the 5by20 program live and do business in Africa. 

Source: The Guardian 

Milestone ruling follows campaign for justice after township violence in wake of 2019 presidential elections. 

The supreme court of Malawi has ordered that police authorities pay compensation to 18 women allegedly raped by officers during post-election violence two years ago.

Source: The Guardian

Calls for recovery plans to address unequal burden of looking after children to advance equality and ‘because it makes fiscal sense’

The childcare crisis is at a “tipping point”, threatening to reverse decades of women’s economic progress, according to a new report published on Monday.

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

Cairo — Under the new personal status law, a male guardian would sign the marriage certificate, rather than the bride

Source: The Point

A renowned Gambian rights activist cum commentator has observed that the country's laws are not strong enough in protecting women and girls, thereby exposing them to sexual and gender-based violence.

Source: Angop

Angola has defended the participation of women in peace processes, considering this to be crucial in the quest for sustainable solutions to conflicts and in dynamic changes involving world pacification and security.

Source: FOROYAA 

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) remains a practice in The Gambia despite the ban by the State.

There is a law criminalizing this traditional practice, which has been declared medically harmful. However, many Gambian women who are standing against this practice said the Government should do more in terms of implementing the law.

Source: Ministry of Information, Eritrea

Encouraging effort is being exerted with a view to strengthening the economic and educational capacity of women. The comment was made by Ms. Senait Mehari in an interview she conducted with Erina in connection with 8 March, International Women's Day.

Source: Capital News

The Kenya Parliamentary Caucus on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Business now want gender issues and protection of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) survivors prioritised in all sectors.

Kenya Parliamentary Caucus Chairperson Gideon Ochanda who is the Member of Parliament for Bondo said combined efforts and a multisectoral approach is needed in fighting the menace, while emphasising on the need to human rights.

Ochanda pointed out that GBV has greatly contributed to rising cases of mental health in the country hence the need to address it.

Source: Botswana Daily News

Kanye South MP Dr Lemogang Kwape has underscored the need for all to take part in eliminating all forms of gender-based violence (GBV) as it robbed individuals of their human right.

Dr Kwape, who is the Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation, said this recently when giving a keynote address at a seminar organised by Peculiar Dreams Organisation aimed at raising awareness on GBV.

Describing GBV as a serious problem that had lasting and harmful effects on individuals, families and communities, he said the goal was for all to take part in preventing it.

Source: Ghanian Times

Cases of Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) in the Volta Region have risen to alarming heights in the wake of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

A total of 932 of such cases were recorded in the region in 2020 as against 512 in 2019.

This represents an increase of more than 82 per cent over the period.

Source: The Conversation Africa

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women in Nigeria. There were 31,955 new cervical cancer cases in West Africa in 2018, and Nigeria accounted for almost half (14,943). There were also 10,403 deaths (28 deaths every day) from cervical cancer in the country in the same year.

Source: The Herald

Certainly, women constitute more than half the world's population, yet their involvement in electoral and governance processes where decisions regarding their lives are made remains marginal in many countries.

Zimbabwe is no exception, especially at local government level.

However, the Central Government continues to show political will through the enactment of various pieces of legislation chief among them the National Gender Policy (NGP) of 2013 to 2017 which was later revised and unveiled on 6 July 2017.

Source: African Arguments

International organizations have consistently reported grave human rights violations committed since the outbreak of conflict in Darfur in 2003. Five years on, according to the UN, at least 300,000 people had been killed and 2.5 million had been displaced. Since then, the people of Darfur have continued to suffer extrajudicial executions, unlawful killings of civilians, torture, rape, kidnapping, destruction of villages and property, looting of livestock and property and destruction of livelihoods.

Now 17 years later, and despite the December 2018 revolution in Sudan and the establishment of the Transitional Government in April 2019, the situation remains insecure. Even after the popular protests that ousted former President Omar al-Bashir and the Islamist regime, attacks on civilians and incidents of violence still occur. Women still experience rape and sexual assaults; their bodies are still being utilized as a battleground.

Source: Oil in Uganda

At the center of the effects of the COVID19 pandemic were/are the women and young girls in the mining communities of Namayingo district in eastern Uganda, whose social and economic activities were far adversely affected by the restrictions to prevent the spread of the pandemic compared to their male counterparts. These women and girls were initially involved in the supply of food to the mines, gold panning, selling protective gear, managing lodges some of which were among the first activities to be restricted to limit congestion in the mines. From time to time, the women and girls also were involved in taking supplies to neighboring islands and at times across the borders. All such activities were affected by the closure of borders and limitations on transport options.

Source: Front Page Africa

Campaigns to increase women's representation in political representation to 30 percent are picking up steam again in the country with Deputy Speaker J. Fonati Koffa promising to robustly advocate with his colleagues and support the Women Legislative Caucus for its passage.

Source: The Namibian

Justice minister Yvonne Dausab last week introduced sweeping proposed amendments to the country's domestic violence law, which could improve the government's response to cases of domestic and gender-based violence (GBV) and protect victims against intimidation.

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