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Thursday, November 12, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Gender
MEXICO: Gender Violence Hits Behind the News
Amalia is an indigenous Maya girl from a rural community in southern Quintana Roo, on Mexico's Caribbean coast. She is 11 years old, and in August became the youngest mother in the country when she gave birth to a baby girl, 51 cm long and just under three kg.
U.S.: Prisoners of Abuse
Sharon White remembers the breaking point vividly. She was 21 years old and had been married to Andre for a little over a year. Looking back, she describes their life together as "a nightmare. Every day was a fight."
No Glass Ceiling in Dreams of Women Workers
"There are no ceilings in our dreams; we want to transform young women, tell them there is a way for them to be happy," says Elza Santiago, a resident of a "favela" or shantytown in Brazil who defines her mission as "mixing feminism with work."
Haitian Women Struggle to Keep Hope Alive
"I'm going to do everything possible to raise my daughter. My daughter is my future. And I can see my future in her," says Mirlene Saint Juste, a rice merchant in the Opoto market of Gonaives in northern Haiti.
Women Make Their Mark on South American Politics
If Brazilian voters elect a woman president next month, what might have appeared to be isolated developments in Chile and Argentina would start to look more like a trend in the southern countries of South America.
BRAZIL: Small-scale Palm Oil Production Is Women’s Work Too
"This isn't women's work," they told her. But Benedita Nascimento is now one of the most outstanding success stories of a family farming programme involving palm oil production in Brazil's eastern Amazon jungle.SINGAPORE: Films Show Other Side Of Migrant Workers
Migrant workers may be what one filmmaker calls a "socio- political hot potato" in Singapore, but that is precisely why a film festival opted to showcase the plight of workers who often remain faceless although they are vital to the city- state’s everyday life and economy.
WHO – Maternal Deaths Fall
The number of women dying from pregnancy related causes around the world is falling. Sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the most dangerous place for pregnant women, despite recording a 26 percent reduction in maternal mortality rates.SOUTH AFRICA: CSOs Urge Binding Commitment on Socio-Economic Rights
A grouping of six civil society organisations (CSOs) has called on the South African government to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Michelle Bachelet’s Appointment to Head UN Women Widely Applauded
A level of enthusiasm seldom expressed at United Nations appointments welcomed the naming of former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet as the first head of UN Women, the new agency created to raise the profile of gender and women's issues.Women, Children Top U.N.’s Anti-Poverty Agenda
All eight of the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are critical to development, but numbers four and five on child and maternal health are the real priority areas for this year. That was the main takeaway from a series of briefings with U.N., NGO and country officials in which IPS participated this week.
DEVELOPMENT: Cambodia Mulls Affirmative Action for Women
Cambodian authorities must take sweeping measures to boost the number of women who sit in parliament if the country is to meet a key part of its global commitment to gender equality, advocates say.Kenyan Women Sceptical Over Constitution’s Promise
Charity Karemi operates a pay-phone booth and sells mobile phone scratch cards in a Nairobi suburb east of the capital. She has mixed expectations of the benefits she will gain from Kenya’s new constitution.U.N. Climate Body Urged to Take Lead in Gender Focus
Two weeks before the 2010 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) review summit at the United Nations, concerns are being raised that gender equality is still largely divorced from efforts to address climate change, even though women have a critical role to play in solving - and are often most affected by – the problem.U.N. Weighs Sanctions Against Perpetrators of DRC Mass Rapes
The U.N. Security Council is considering leveraging sanctions against the perpetrators of the mass rapes that occurred last month in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) following a meeting held on the recent violence Tuesday.
ANGOLA: More Mothers Survive Childbirth
As darkness falls on a cool evening in Luanda, a group of women sit huddled under threadbare blankets outside one of the city’s few maternity hospitals. "I have to be here," Paula Silva, 45, said, shivering slightly.COTE D’IVOIRE: More Births Attended By Skilled Attendants
As she leaves the community health centre in Abobo-Baule with her newborn baby, Abiba Tahoué is doubly satisfied.
INDIA: Handicrafts Give Rural Women A Helping Hand
With her arms loaded with flowers and leaves, Mohini Indrawan negotiates the dusty village track leading up to her house in this northern Indian state, pausing now and then to exchange pleasantries with a passing acquaintance. Her spending a few hours away from home each day was once labelled "immoral", but Indrawan is now hailed as a role model for other women./UPDATE*/: Further Victims Identified in DRC Mass Rapes Case
Twenty-eight minors have been documented as victims of last month's four-day raid of more than a dozen villages centred around Walikale, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), U.N. officials told reporters here today. Children, including one 12-years old boy were identified. The Walikale victim toll has risen to over 240.
FILM-CUBA: “I Fought for This, But Not Just to Be a Housewife”
Mavi Susel, the first transsexual in Cuba to undergo sex reassignment surgery, back in 1988, has found herself trapped in the traditionally assigned gender role of a housewife.PHILIPPINES: Criminal Ban, Stigma Drive Unsafe Abortions
"I felt scared. When I looked around, all the mothers had finished giving birth, while I was still there. The blood that flowed from me had already dried and caked onto my body," Lisa, a 19-year-old married mother of three, says, recounting her experience in post-abortion care at a public hospital here in the Philippine capital.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Women make up half the world's population, but don't nearly share half of the world's wealth, well-being and opportunity. Two-thirds of the world poor are women, disproportionally exposing women to precarious living conditions, disease and unmitigated natural disasters. The media, meanwhile, remains a male-dominated sector in much of the world, contributing to women's voices lacking a crucial amplifier to put their concerns on political agendas and unleash the development potential of their ingenuity. Rather than then stereotypical victims of local and global forces, women are also organizer, innovators, conservators and community builders. These are some of their stories.
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