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.
Lilongwe — In an interview with an Aljazeera news anchor, the newly sworn-in Republic of Malawi President, Joyce Banda said "my election (in 2009) as the vice president and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberian president) shows that Africans have grown in democracy [and] they have confidence in both women and men in leading them. Africans have decided that the time is now that women can also participate in leadership."
Source: IRIN News
DADAAB, 11 April 2012 (IRIN) - A mix of cultural practices, such as early and forced marriage, as well as child labour, are depriving girls of education in the Dadaab refugee complex in eastern Kenya.
Source: TheWashingtonPost
Source: Daily Trust
Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina has decried the alarming rate of rape cases across the country.
Source: The Sowetan
THE ascendency of Joyce Banda to power in Malawi is an achievement, but it may not necessarily mean much for the women of that country beyond the symbolism.
Source: Women's E-News
After years of repression, Aicha Dhaouadi is serving parliament for the Islamist party. "Try to know us more," she says to those who suspect a veneer of moderation. Last of three profiles of women playing active roles in post-revolutionary Tunisia.
Source: Africa Review
In 100 years or so, we shall look back in shame at how we treated womenfolk. People will wonder how generations like ours could be so blind to the obvious; so slow in setting right what is blindingly wrong. And I am indicting all of today's generation, be it Ugandan, European, American, or otherwise.
Source: Ghana Web
Peoples' Dialogue on Human Settlement, a non-governmental organisation, on Tuesday called on journalists to promote the rights of women to acquire and own property to make them less vulnerable to homelessness.
Source: VOA
Malawi's new president originally rose to prominence as a women's rights advocate. But Shereen Essof, a regional coordinator for feminist group Just Associates in Southern Africa, says President Joyce Banda may not be able to continue the battle for gender equality in the same way as president.
Source: Radio Dahanga
An armed group loyal to the government raped two displaced women from camp Bear Dagig of Sirba locality in West Darfur on Monday.
Source: Vanguard
Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Zainab Maina, has expressed concern over the prevalence rate of sexual violence against women, noting that such violation was the second most prevalent violations against women in Nigeria.
Source: Vanguard
No fewer than 10,000 less privileged women are to benefit from a free cervical cancer screening being organised by the wife of the Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission, TREM, Dr. Peace Okonkwo.