Brussels, 16 April 2012 - A new partnership between the EU and UN Women set up to strengthen cooperation between the two organizations on their work on empowering women and gender equality, was today signed by High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/ Vice President of the Commission Catherine Ashton and Commissioner for Development Andris Piebalgs, with Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women Michelle Bachelet.
It may well be termed A Tale of Two Joyces, or Joices, if you choose to, two individuals same name, same gender, same generation and almost similar stumbling blocks.
Political party members have been advised not to discriminate against women vying for top leadership posts in the country.
Source: Shabait.com
The women inhabitants of Foro sub-zone expressed that the health services they receive from the health center is contributing in ensuring their health and that of their children.
Today, there are only eight women heads of state – representing slightly more than five per cent of the total. This seems extraordinary in the second decade of the 21st century. The global average of women holding parliamentary seats remains under twenty per cent, which is well below the thirty per cent target set in the Millennium Development Goals. At the current rate of progress, that target will not be reached globally before 2025, and long beyond that in many countries. That is too long for women and the world to wait.
Source: Open Democracy
In conversation with Jessica Horn, a leading Malian women's rights activist identifies the roots of the crisis in Mali, and the opportunistic use of the crisis by Malian and international Islamic fundamentalists to gain a popular foothold in the north of the country.
Source: the Star
Nairobi has been selected as the headquarters of the Global Plan for Elimination of HIV among Children and Keeping their Mother Alive.
Source: The Star
It is estimated that 7,700 women die each year in Kenya from pregnancy related complications. This translates to 21 women dying each day or one woman every hour from preventable causes, making the need to address safe motherhood a human rights imperative.
Source: IPS News
As Malawians celebrate Joyce Banda’s appointment as president on sites, like Facebook and Twitter, the increased use of social media in Malawi comes full circle as her new government takes office.
Source: SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) on Wednesday teamed up with a key Egyptian activist in the UK for a seminar on human rights and the power of the public.
Source: Vanguard
"Oh my God, what sort of temptation is this, please young lady, cover your buttocks. You are making me feel uncomfortable, exposing it." "Oga what is your business with my 'backside'; wetin your eye find go there, abeg no just disturb me again, unless both of us go put leg for the same trouser inside this bus."
Source: Radio Dabanga
Relatives of rape victims reported on violent attacks on female camp residents from North, South and West Darfur.
Source: World Bank
With the Millennium Development Goals falling due in 2015, three Nigerian states—Adamawa, Nasarawa and Ondo—are rolling out bold healthcare reforms that will focus on results at public health facilities. The reforms signal improved care for over 9 million people, of whom nearly 4 million are women aged 15-49 and children under age five.
Source: Daily Maverick
When the Malawian government dithered in announcing President Bingu wa Mutharika's death on Thursday, anxious citizens feared the worst. A struggle for power would plunge Malawi even further into turmoil. But now as Joyce Banda assumes Mutharika's mantle -- and with it the country's woes -- she is also tasked with managing the expectations of Malawians.
Since winning the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, Leymah Gbowee has found herself juggling the increased responsibilities of global activism and caring for her six children. She told Observer Women and Family last week that the platform the award has granted her is inundated with public speaking engagements, which has compounded her work as a global peace and women’s right campaigner.
Source: HuffinghtonPost
Egregious gender inequality still exists globally despite of substantial national and international measures that have been taken towards gender equality. Only four out of over 135 nations have achieved gender equality including Costa Rica, Cuba, Sweden, and Norway. Yemen was scored the lowest across all dimensions. Measures of gender equality include access to basic education, health and life expectancy, equality of economic opportunity, and political empowerment. Although there have been evident progresses, many alarming issues regarding gender discrimination still prevail today; therefore, total gender equality must be made a global priority as a fundamental step in both human development and economic progress.
Source: ThisDayLive
Women In Technology In Nigeria (WITIN), an advocacy group for the less privileged women in society, has called for greater participation of women and girls in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Nigeria. Addressing journalists at the weekend in Lagos, Chairperson of WITIN, Mrs. Martha Omoekpen Alade who is passionate about female involvement in ICT, said WITIN had commenced the involvement of women participation in ICT, with a target to train over 10,000 women and girls in ICT development by 2013. According to her, “the disparity between the men folk and women in Nigeria in having access to basic ICT services has led to gross limitation of Nigerian women in their quest of becoming a major economic bloc in the African sub-region.”
Mrs Juliana Azumah-Mensah, Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) on Wednesday said, the mandate for gender equality and women’s empowerment remained relevant to the socio-economic development of the country. She said issues of women and children were not only important but critical to the development of every nation.
THE issue of maternal health is a thorny one that easily pricks the emotional nerves of many women and men in Zimbabwe. Many times stories of how women have been ill treated in public hospitals have been told. Some women have had to endure the agony of being detained for failure to pay maternity fees. This has been done to force their husbands to pay at least half the money required by hospitals. For others, the solution is sneaking out, an experience that is stressful and difficult to forget.
Source: AhramOnline
Egyptian women’s lives are enriched by the social and economic pressures they have to face on a daily basis; the intimate details of their personal struggles have been beautifully portrayed by the young filmmaker Hanan Abdallah in her first documentary In the Shadow of Man.