WCoZ has always advocated for peace and nonviolence in the country. However realizing the grave crisis that faces the country now WCoZ launched the “Conclude the Talks - We are Dying of Hunger Campaign”. On the 27th of October 2008, about 1000 women gathered near the venue of the SADC Troika Talks to demand a resolution of the crisis and send a message to the three political leaders and SADC Troika that the talks should be concluded urgently and efforts to restore Zimbabwe should begin henceforth.

Reflecting on his time as United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa (2001–2006), Stephen Lewis highlights the sustained failure to facilitate female leadership and offer effective protection for women perpetrated by UN agencies and African countries’ political leaders. Drawing on examples such as the complete absence of a single woman’s voice at January’s DRC peace negotiations, Lewis emphasises the widespread lack of opportunity for female leadership and representation. Just as he underlines the extent to which violations of the DRC’s resources have been inextricably linked to violations of the country’s women, the author argues that rape has become an essential strategy of war as a means of subduing entire communities. As a challenge to this cauldron of sexual violence, Lewis argues for the pressing need for a United Nations agency for women in order to begin to tackle issues of profound inequality, oppression, and abuse until now simply neglected.

Codou Bop, 2008-11-06

Codou Bop, coordinator of the Groupe de Recherche sur les Femmes et les Lois au Senegal, writes about the launch of the ‘Stop killing and Stoning Women!’ campaign by the Women Living under Muslim Law Network. She asserts the need to integrate campaign against gender violence within the broader struggle for basic human rights.

Engender is a registered NGO focused on strategic interventions in the intersecting areas of Genders & Sexualities, Human Rights, Justice & Peace. We are currently seeking to fill the contract position of Coordinator of an exciting project focused on Intersexuality. Please send CV with detailed covering letter, highlighting competencies in the required areas above, by Wednesday 19 November.

The report by Waki Commission is unprecedented in many ways, in that for the first time in Kenyan history; sexual crimes have not only been acknowledged but also given the prominence that they deserve. The report makes grave revelations regarding sexual crimes by indicating that they were “under-reported, under-investigated and insufficiently addressed.”

The tenth of this month marked the second anniversary of Abu Nawas which aims to fortify solidarity and provide support to the gay community in Algeria. On that special day this month, the Abu Nawas members intended to use the day to celebrate across ensuring belonging to the Arabic and Muslim world despite the sexual orientation which is largely despised in that environment.

Over the years, education has focused on access and parity — that is, closing the enrollment gap between girls and boys — while insufficient attention has been paid to retention and achievement or the quality and relevance of education. The primary focus on girls’ access to education may overlook boys’ educational needs. This approach also fails to confront the norms and behaviors that perpetuate inequality. This paper presents the Gender Equality Framework, which has been designed to address this inequality.

This sourcebook combines descriptive accounts of national and international experience in investing in agriculture with practical operational guidance on to how to design agriculture-for-development strategies that capitalise effectively on the unique properties of agricultural growth and rural development involving women and men as a high-impact source of poverty reduction.

In light of the 8th anniversary of the adoption of UN- Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security; on the second of November, a three-week virtual discussion on "Planning for Action: Good Practices on Implementing UNSCR 1325 on a National Level" will be held. Policy makers, governmental representatives and civil society actors from all over the world are invited to participate and exchange experiences, good practices and lessons learned on implementing UNSCR 1325.

A woman in Somalia has been stoned to death after an Islamic Sharia law court found her guilty of adultery. The woman was buried up to her neck and then pelted to death with stones in front of a large crowd in Kismayo.

Moremi Initiative for Women's Leadership in Africa (Moremi Initiative) recently launched its website as part of a re-introduction to partners and supporters. The new website provides an opportunity for visitors and users to learn more about our programs, partnership opportunities and critical issues affecting African women and girls as well as to get involved. Moremi Initiative was launched in 2004, with a mission to engage, inspire and equip young African women and girls to become the next generation of leading politicians, activists, social entrepreneurs and change agents.

On both occasions when Mary Atieno* gave birth in her home district of Suba, western Kenya, she knew that going to one of the health centres would be safer, but she was too afraid that the routine HIV test might reveal that she was HIV-positive. "I normally just deliver at home with the help of traditional birth attendants, because when you go to these modern government hospitals they put you through certain tests which reveal even your HIV status," Atieno told IRIN/PlusNews.

Women suffering from obstetric fistula in Malawi received free medical care to reverse their condition during the country’s Fistula Week. Between Oct. 12 and 18, the Malawian government, with technical and financial assistance from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), treated more than 130 destitute women who have no or little access to health care services.

This 32-page report looks at the impact of desertification on women around the world and their role in dealing with the problem. It examines the way in which women in particular are affected by desertification and highlights the role they play in the management of natural resources and drylands, as well as the constraints they face.

This 34-page report, published by CARE, presents 7 case studies from across Africa that focus on three types of threatened environmental resources: land, forests, and water. In each case women share their stories of how the loss or degradation of such critical resources has adversely affected their lives and what they are doing to address these problems.

Women must be empowered and respected, particularly by men, in the fight against HIV/AIDS, Nafis Sadik, United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in the Asia-Pacific region, has said at a poverty alleviation conference in Beijing, Reuters reports. According to Sadik, lack of respect for women is a primary reason for the spread of the virus.

The Women International League for Peace and Freedom invites you to a three day seminar on the subject of African women’s struggle to bring and maintain peace to their countries and region. This is a rare opportunity to hear a debate between African grass-roots women and British activists and policy-makers working on Africa.

Saio Marah, nine months pregnant and two days into labor, lay on a hospital bed and groaned loudly with each contraction. She had arrived at the rural hospital earlier on the back of a motorcycle, about the only public transport available in this muddy little town in the distant back-country bush of one of Africa's poorest nations. Now, in a dark and hot labor ward with rain blowing in the open windows and puddling on the floor, Marah grimaced as James Konteh slapped on rubber gloves and examined her.

The Eastern Africa Journalists Association (EAJA), an association that brings together journalists unions and associations in Eastern Africa, today published a regional report on "Gender Equality in the Media in Eastern Africa". The report is based on key gender planning concepts, namely Sex and Gender, Gender Equality and Gender Mainstreaming.

The second Pan-African film festival, intended to raise awareness of the various forms of violence committed against women in Africa, will open here on 26 November. Sponsored by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, the Government of Senegal, donors, non-governmental organizations and other partners, the festival is held on the occasion of the “International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women,” 25 November.