Gender

Smart Planning for the Global Family

By Lester R. Brown
When it comes to population growth, the United Nations has three primary projections. The medium projection, the one most commonly used, has world population reaching 9.2 billion by 2050. The high one reaches 10.5 billion. The low projection, which assumes that the world will quickly move below replacement-level fertility, has population peaking at eight billion in 2042 and then declining.

ARGENTINA: Banking on Women’s Experience

By Marcela Valente
Argentina's president is a woman, Cristina Fernández, and the country has one of the highest percentages of women lawmakers in the world. But women also have other leadership roles, outside the political system.
Night picking at Gramacho. Credit: Courtesy of "Waste Land"

Films Shrink Global Problems Down to a More Human Scale

By Elizabeth Whitman
"It's bad to be rich at the height of fame with your morals a dirty shame," says Valter pointedly as he bumps along in the back of a pickup towards Jardim Gramacho, the largest landfill in the world, located in Brazil.

KENYA: Feisty Politician Enters Presidential Race

By IPS Correspondents
Martha Karua fears nothing and no one, and when her adversaries look back at her long track record in politics, they must get nervous. This previously staunch supporter of Mwai Kibaki resigned as justice minister in 2009, and will challenge all comers for the presidency at the head of her own party next year.

Nigerian Women Stand Up to be Counted

By IPS Correspondents
As Nigeria tries again to begin its staggered general elections on Apr. 9, spare a thought for the women who will be putting themselves forward as candidates in an overwhelmingly male field.
One in six South Africans struggle with a mental disorder. Credit: Charlie Sperring

SOUTH AFRICA: The Invisible People

By Jamie Elkon
Since psychiatric care was decentralised last year in South Africa, patients have been moved from hospitals into community day hospitals that don't have the appropriate resources to deal with mental illnesses. As a result, many of society's most vulnerable have slipped through the cracks in the system and now walk the streets like invisible people.

In Cambodia, Women Fear Death at Childbirth

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
Death haunts women in this Cambodian village at a moment of happiness - when they give birth.

ZIMBABWE: Fears for Next Generation of Women Leaders

By Ignatius Banda
Zimbabwe's veteran women politicians fear there are no younger women coming up through the ranks to replace them. Measures to improve women's representation have achieved little and young women are absent from the traditional entry points into politics.

ZIMBABWE: Backlash Against Women in Politics

By Ignatius Banda
"Women in Zimbabwe are largely seen as a huge demographic to be exploited by politicians who seek our support," says Ntombikayise Mswela. "But when we take to the streets to demand respect and our rights from the same government we are thrown into prison.
Malawian cotton bales on their way to the market. Credit: Claire Ngozo/IPS

AGRICULTURE: Malawian Cotton Farmers Ecstatic Over High Prices

By IPS Correspondents
An ardent listener to the radio, small-scale cotton farmer Mercy Kaduya from Chikhwawa in Nsanje in southern Malawi has just heard on the international news segment that cotton prices have hit a record high on the international market.

Women Turn Spotlight on Haiti’s Silent Rape Epidemic

By IPS Correspondents
Some 14 months after Haiti's earthquake, activists say there is an ongoing epidemic of rape and gender-based violence (GBV) in the country's more than 1,000 squalid displaced persons camps, where nearly a million people are still awaiting permanent housing.

BOTSWANA: Women in Politics – A House Divided… But Determined

By Alma Balopi
"The Botswana Caucus for Women in Politics has failed to realise the objectives it was intended for, but we will not give up on it just yet," says Margaret Nasha.

ZAMBIA: Women Resume Struggle for Representation Ahead of Elections

By Lewis Mwanangombe
Zambians head to the polls sometime before October and civil society groups are working hard to ensure their voices are heard. Groups which were excluded during the 2005 elections and the National Constitutional Conference that began in 2007 are mobilising to ensure they are not excluded.
The 34 women taking the course hope to one day operate a sugarcane harvester like this one. Credit: Mario Osava /IPS

BRAZIL: Women Workers Determined to Ride the Wave of Mechanisation

By Mario Osava
"She's crazy" said most of the husbands and other family members of the 34 women who decided to become operators of sugarcane harvesters in the southern Brazilian state of São Paulo, attracted by the opportunity of better pay and encouraged by the growing mechanisation of the industry.
Solar panel installed in the village of Sholani. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS

PAKISTAN: And Then There Was Light

By Zofeen Ebrahim
Hasan Ibrahim’s tea stall is the busiest place in the sleepy, sand-dune covered village of Sholani, proof of the economic and social change the arrival of electricity has ushered in.

Women in Garment Factories Help Cambodia Out of Poverty

By Marwaan Macan-Markar
Cambodia’s rise out of poverty continues to depend on the nimble fingers of young women like Khiev Chren.
Given a free hand, women like this Kenyan farmer are proving resourceful and wise managers of land and resources. Credit: ICRISAT

KENYA: Women Hold the Key to Rural Prosperity

By Isaiah Esipisu
John Kyalo Mulwa couldn't support his family from his six hectare farm, so he quit farming to open a bar. But he turned the land - and decision-making on it - over to his wife. Turns out she's a better farmer than he ever was.

UGANDA: Bicycles at the Heart of Empowerment Scheme for Rural Women

By Justin Hyatt
The bicycle has become a symbol of hope for hundreds of women in Uganda who have been trained in repairing one of life’s favorite transport modes.

MEDIA: It’s Still a Man’s World, Especially at the Top

By IPS Correspondents
Long known as a "boy's club", the worldwide media industry continues to struggle with gender equality, with new research showing women are still underrepresented in the majority of newsrooms across the globe.
Mary Ellen Iskenderian Credit: Courtesy of Mary Ellen Iskenderian

Q&A: “Microfinance Is Much More Than Just Credit”

By Kanya D'Almeida
A day after U.S. assistant secretary of state for south and central Asian affairs Robert Blake appealed to the Bangladeshi government to reconsider its dismissal of 70-year-old microfinance guru Muhammad Yunus from the Grameen Bank, IPS spoke with the president and CEO of Women's World Banking (WWB), currently the most comprehensive network of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the world.
Olofsson with members of the Nfumo Yatho community project. Credit: Courtesy Linette Olofsson

MOZAMBIQUE: Linette Olofsson – A Life Spent in Politics

By IPS Correspondents
There is no way one can have a conversation with Linette Olofsson without being dragged into her collection of images about her community agricultural project in central Mozambican Province of Zambezia.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
*#*