Languages
Sunday, November 15, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Gender
VIETNAM: Sex Selection Skews Sex Ratio
Vietnam is something of a regional leader when it comes to gender equality. There are laws against domestic violence and discrimination, and very high female literacy.
NIGERIA: Divorce a Tool To Relegate Women
The high rate of divorce in Kano state, northern Nigeria has become a worrisome phenomenon. Six months ago, an organisation of widows and divorcees tried to stage a massive march through the city of Kano to draw attention to their situation.NIGERIA: Kano’s Women Still Seeking a Champion
Hajiya Altine Abdullahi cut a chastened figure in February. She was planning a million-strong march of widows and orphans through the streets of the northern Nigerian city of Kano.SPORTS: Women Carry a New Punch
Thanks to Clint Eastwood's blockbuster film 'Million Dollar Baby', his heroine Hilary Swank helped raise significantly the profile of women who climb into the boxing ring.HAITI: Export Workers Await Overdue Wage Increase
Following the recommendation of President Rene Preval, the lower house of the Haitian Parliament voted Tuesday to raise the minimum wage in the assembly sector from 1.29 dollars (70 gourde) to only 3.20 dollars (125 gourde) per day, rather than the 5.12 dollars (200 gourde) which had been demanded and passed.
ZIMBABWE: Small-Scale Farmers Gearing Up to Take Cotton Buyers on
Zimbabweans like to believe that there is strength in numbers, which is the idea behind a local non-governmental organisation’s attempt to organise small-scale rural cotton farmers in cotton producer associations.
RIGHTS-UGANDA: Women Score Victory Against Gender-Based Violence
Women are celebrating a hard-won victory for gender rights after intense public protests led to today’s re-arrest of the country’s police boss – a self-confessed wife-killer.
ANGOLA: Teenage School Programme Gives Drop Outs Second Chance at Education
Free primary education for all is an Angolan government policy, but unfortunately this has not translated into a reality that sees all children receiving education.
RIGHTS-GUATEMALA: One Arrest in Gender-Killing Epidemic
"Femicide," or gender-based murder, has reached epidemic proportions in Guatemala. But at least for Rosmery González - one of the more than 700 Guatemalan victims of this crime in 2008 - justice is finally being done with the arrest of her alleged killer earlier this month.MEXICO: States Tighten Already Restrictive Abortion Laws
Alejandra Gómez is facing prosecution in the southern Mexican state of Puebla for having an abortion. The 20-year-old's case is symptomatic of a wave of anti-abortion legal reforms adopted by a number of states in this country.
DEVELOPMENT: Soaring Population May Swamp Anti-Poverty Goals
The U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), already undermined by the global financial crisis, are expected to take another hit - this time from rising population growth.
RIGHTS-PARAGUAY: NGO Offers Girls a Way Out of Sexual Exploitation
Claudia was 13 years old when she came to the capital of Paraguay from her small rural town. Just a few weeks after her arrival she was wandering the streets of downtown Asunción, a victim of sexual exploitation.URUGUAY: Countryside Offers Different Kind of Tourism
Uruguayans and tourists from other countries escape the stress of city life and learn about rural living on once prosperous dairy farms and picturesque small farms near the city of Colonia in western Uruguay, where families have found a new livelihood – and way of life – in "agro-ecotourism".COLOMBIA: Spying on Human Rights Defenders
"Coming to Colombia is to enter a world that is always intense, captivating and heart-wrenching at the same time," Susana Villarán, a former member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), wrote in April 2008.HEALTH: Why Is Viagra Popular and the Condom Controversial?
Why is the popular drug Viagra so praised for its virtues, while the condom is vilified by conservative religious groups among others the world over?ARGENTINA: Safe Shortcut to Sidestep Illegal Abortion
Tired of calling for the decriminalisation of abortion - the leading cause of maternal death in Argentina - a network of women's rights activists launched a telephone hotline to inform women on a safe abortion method that requires no medical intervention: the use of a pill to terminate pregnancy.
RIGHTS-AFRICA: Elusive Justice for Victims of Gender-Based Violence
Florence Mukambi will always bear the brunt of the country’s post-election violence.Q&A: ‘It’s Not Difficult to Bring About Social Change’
Geeta Rao Gupta, president of the Washington-based International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW), explains to TerraViva's Johanna Son why gender needs to be weaved more tightly into the response against HIV and AIDS.COLOMBIA: Indigenous People Troubled by U.S. Military Presence
The head of Colombia's biggest association of indigenous people is concerned that allowing U.S. troops to use military bases in his country will signal a regression to former times when the United States exercised control over Latin America, while a native activist warned of an increase in the number of cases of sexual abuse of young indigenous women by foreign soldiers.POPULATION: UNFPA Partners With Faith-Based Groups
The United Nations has realised that if it wants to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, it will have to partner with like-minded faith-based organisations (FBOs).ASIA: Prescription for HIV/AIDS Pandemic – Social Justice
The prescription that thousands of participants effectively issued at a just- ended AIDS conference here was clear: It is time to fight social and political inequities so that the medical gains in curbing HIV and AIDS can work with maximum efficacy.« 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.
The Week with IPS
NEXT STOP - SDGs
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
