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Thursday, May 14, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Women & Economy
Climate Change and Family Planning – Twin Issues for LDCs
The reproductive rights agenda, from improving women’s access to education to systematic family planning to reducing birth rates and combating poverty, has become a cornerstone of most industrialised nations’ development policies toward the least developed countries (LDCs), comprised primarily of sub-Saharan African states.‘More Indian Working Women Aborting Motherhood’
A young professional in India’s burgeoning IT hub Gurgaon, a major satellite city of national capital New Delhi, Manideepa Moitra works as a software content writer not just to make a living but to secure a career in the demanding sector that catapulted India on the global outsourcing industry map.
While Men Go Drinking, Women Go Fishing
Climate change may have led to declining water levels in Genda Village in Zambia’s Eastern Province, but Mercy Mwanza and the women here discovered there was a positive side to it and found a new way to earn a living.
Caught Between Diarrhoea Bugs and Arsenic
Achieving the Millennium Development Goal of providing access to safe drinking water for its 160 million people by 2015 is a tough call for Bangladesh, which is caught between arsenic contaminated groundwater and diarrhoea-causing microbes in its ponds and rivers.
Q&A: Women Farmers Are Key to a Food-Secure Africa
While women constitute the majority of food producers, processors and marketers in Africa, their role in the agricultural sector still remains a minor one because of cultural and social barriers.
Q&A: Skipping Lunch to Afford a Mobile Phone in Africa
On a continent of over one billion people, where half the population have mobile phones, the use of mobile communication and internet technologies is crucial to boost development in Africa.
Women of the World Unite for Rights
The world’s recent financial and political upheavals have not been kind to women. In Libya’s Tripoli, female suicide rates increased tenfold during the revolution, while dismal job prospects have young Greek women abandoning their career aspirations, participants in a global forum on women’s rights said over the weekend.Economic Crisis Hits Gender Budgeting
Worldwide, women are largely responsible for managing family budgets, controlling 65 percent of global spending. But, women’s needs are often ignored when it comes to government budgeting, delegates at an international meet in Turkey's largest city observed.
U.S.: Only Four-Fifths of Men’s Pay for Women
Forty-seven years after the Equal Pay Act was signed into law, women in the United States are still struggling against wage discrimination in the workplace.
Q&A: Increasing Investment Opportunities in Africa
More than three years after the start of the global economic crisis, which has had a considerable impact on African trade, investments and gross domestic product, investment prospects on the continent are increasing.
Not for a Woman in Amman
Two young women in brightly coloured hijabs and tight jeans stand on the edge of a freeway as cars whiz by. They watch the traffic, heavy in Amman where car ownership is skyrocketing by 10-15 percent a year. When there’s a break in the steady flow of vehicles, the women hold hands and race across the road.
“A New Dawn Rises over Malawi”
It would be too simplistic to think that Malawi’s problems have ended with the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. But it is an opportunity for newly appointed President Joyce Banda, who is also leader of the opposition People’s Party, to step up and offer a new and more responsive style of leadership.
Brazilian Women Are the World’s Happiest
Money may not buy happiness – but it has helped make women in Brazil become the happiest, most optimistic women in the world, according to a study.
Q&A: How to Analyse a Budget’s Impact on Female Empowerment
Tools such as "gender markers", which screen budgets and resources dedicated to promoting gender equality, are proving critical to improving the effectiveness of monetary support that seeks to empower women and girls.
Following the Money Trail in Gender Financing
Promising methods of tracking aid funding intended to improve women's and girls' livelihoods also offer the possibility of revealing whether donors and policymakers are walking the walk when it comes to gender financing.Quake Empowers Japanese Women
Devastating as the Tohoku earthquake was it gave the local women of the remote region an opportunity to come into their own and take on leadership roles in an essentially patriarchal country.
Poverty Encourages Early Marriages in Tajikistan
When she was 16, Kibriyo Khaitova’s parents told her that if she didn’t marry, she’d soon be a spinster. So, like many girls from Tajikistan, Khaitova married a man her family found for her. Now 20, she has two children, no husband and is fending for herself.Little Money to Promote Gender Equality in Eastern Europe
Despite pushes from international bodies such as the United Nations (UN) or the European Union (EU) to promote gender equality in Central and Eastern Europe, access to funding for such initiatives remains largely conditional upon national governments’ willingness to embrace this agenda.
KENYA: Microloans, Greenhouses Help Women Cope with Climate Change
At Gakoromone Market in Meru, in Kenya’s Eastern Province, Ruth Muriuki arrives in a pickup full of tomatoes and cabbages despite the scarcity of rainfall in the area, thanks to the greenhouse technology she uses on her farm – and microcredit.
U.N. Meet Holds Governments to Account on Women’s Equality
In 2008, delegates meeting for the annual U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) agreed that much greater investments in women and gender equality were a critical – and overlooked – aspect of sustainable development.
KENYA: Microloans, Greenhouses Help Women Cope with Climate Change
At Gakoromone Market in Meru, in Kenya’s Eastern Province, Ruth Muriuki arrives in a pickup full of tomatoes and cabbages despite the scarcity of rainfall in the area, thanks to the greenhouse technology she uses on her farm – and microcredit.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Around the world, women make great contributions to different economies. From the field of business, to carrying the bulk of unpaid care, women are essential to economic growth. However, due to gender inequality, women face economic discrimination. Taking many forms, including disproportionate wages, greater exposure to vulnerable employment, and reduced economic opportunity, this inequality continues to curtail economic development. Yet women continue to work past these obstacles and reduce this disparity, furthering economic empowerment. These stories help to identify women’s economic struggles, and those that are working towards empowerment.
The Week with IPS
NEXT STOP - SDGs
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
