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Friday, November 13, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Gender
HEALTH-INDIA: Trained Birth Attendants Save Rural Mothers’ Lives
It was her fourth unplanned pregnancy, but Sani Jani still made it a point to have a monthly checkup at the nearest primary health centre – even if she always had to walk two kilometres to get there.EGYPT: Battle For Women Judges Half Won
There are "no obstacles according to Islamic sharia, the constitution or the law" to women serving as judges, announced one of Egypt’s main courts, the State Council, last week. But "there are currently practical obstacles," it affirmed.RIGHTS-FIJI: Law Enforcement Approach to Sex Work Falls Short
Two months after a new anti-prostitution law took effect, taxi driver Shiu Kumar says he sees fewer sex workers along Victoria Parade, the centre of Suva’s nightlife. But while this has had a negative effect on his nighttime fares, he is nevertheless happy about the law.
HEALTH-KENYA: Funding Threatens AIDS Prevention
Pregnant mothers who are HIV-positive could soon find it challenging to access life-saving HIV drugs because Kenya was denied 270 million dollars in funding from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.POLITICS: U.N. Panel Rejects Request to Reopen Bhutto Probe
A three-member U.N. commission, which has been investigating the 2007 assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, has flatly rejected a request to reopen the inquiry.SOUTH AFRICA: Teaching Girls to Report on the World Cup
For the nearly 50 million people of South Africa, the 2010 World Cup represents an opportunity to show the world its progress through sports. But for a new nonprofit organisation, soccer's biggest stage also offers an opportunity to publicise young women who tend to go unheard.
AFRICA: Growth Down; Unemployment Up
Due to the global economic and financial crisis, growth on the African continent dropped to an average of 1.6 percent in 2009, compared to 4.5 percent in 2008.
SOUTH AFRICA: Men Battle Gender-based Violence
When Mbuyiselo Botha decided to take the African National Congress League President, Julius Malema, to court for hate speech against women, he was confident from the start that the case had merit. But he also knew that this would be the most challenging test of his 15 years of gender activism.
DEVELOPMENT-INDIA: Banking on Women
Rinki Kumari’s white laminate-topped desk at the Bank of India’s branch here in Sahdeokhap village in eastern Bihar state is easily the busiest, with men, women and even children crowding around her.ZIMBABWE: Women Survive Political Violence Alone
Mary Pamire will never forget the day a group of men took turns to rape her.
POLITICS-COLOMBIA: Not Enough Just to Be a Woman
Noemí Sanín, the presidential candidate of Colombia's Conservative Party, who is running second in the polls, has a few advantages over her main rival, the right-wing Juan Manuel Santos, such as extensive experience in foreign relations and in running programmes for poor families and children.RIGHTS-VIETNAM: Law Leads Two Women Leaders to Different Worlds
Both chose the legal profession for their career path, and both are bent on fighting for more rights for the people. But the fortunes of Vietnamese women lawyers Tran Thi Quoc Khan and Le Thi Cong Nhan cannot be more different: One enjoys prominence in the National Assembly, while the other was just recently released from jail.
DEVELOPMENT: And How the Miracle Multiplied
Most of these women had never known what it is to have the dollar a day everyone speaks of. And last year, they were seen as good enough between them to be lent a billion and a half dollars.U.S.: Obama Criticised for Health Package Abortion Ban
The largest civil liberties group in the U.S. faulted President Barack Obama for signing an executive order on Wednesday that bans federal funds from being used for abortion procedures and revives funding for expired abstinence-only sex-education programming.
ARTS-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Women Dancers Can Fill Granaries
"Some said, how can women dancers tell us about climate change? Some said, how can dancers talk about planting trees? Others asked, how can women dancers build schools? But now the government says a drum has managed to fill our granaries, a dancer has managed to build schools."RIGHTS-UGANDA: Bearing the Pains of Double Discrimination
They endure stigma, discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but Ugandan women living with disabilities say the greatest challenge facing them centres on their reproductive health.
ARGENTINA: Homemade Portraits of Life Behind Bars
"I wanted to take a self-portrait, and I thought about keeping a straight face, but it came out all weird, with these very long arms," says Liliana Cabrera about the photo she took with a camera she made herself, out of a condensed milk tin, at a workshop in an Argentine prison.
PARAGUAY: New Police Units for Domestic Violence Victims
Police officers Juan Cantero and Karin Colmán are sometimes exhausted and depressed by the time they reach the end of their shift. But they quickly recover because they feel their work at a special new police unit for abused women and children in the Paraguayan capital is important.SRI LANKA: First Political Manifesto for Women Gets Good Reviews
Political manifestos are often met with cynicism and even ridicule, but Sri Lanka’s first such manifesto for women is proving an exception to the rule as rights activists laud its recent launch.SOUTH AFRICA: Ready To Tackle Human Trafficking?
The expected arrival of 350,000 football fans in South Africa for the World Cup in June has provoked fears of increased levels of human trafficking. A new study suggests that one major obstacle to preventing this is the lack of accurate information about the extent of the problem.
Q&A: “Honour Killings Happen in All Religions”
Thirteen women are murdered in "honour killings" by their own relatives every day, according to Rana Husseini, a human rights advocate and journalist who has devoted her career to fighting the barbaric and widespread practice.« 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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