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Friday, October 30, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
Women & Economy
Moving Towards a Food-Secure Ghana
In Dundo village in Nyankpala district, Northern Ghana, 10 women are busy weeding a rice field on a piece of land donated to them by the village chief.
MALAWI: Women’s Education the Path to the Presidency
On an elegant veranda adorned with a red carpet, Malawi's Vice President Joyce Banda recalls how her childhood friend Chrissie Mtokoma was always top of their class and how she struggled to beat her. But now decades later Banda is a likely contender for the country's presidency in 2014, while Mtokoma lives in poverty.
SOUTH SUDAN: Women Aim to Protect Their Rights in a Young State
As South Sudan maps out its economic future at the South Sudan International Engagement Conference (IEC) this week in Washington, women from the new country called on donors to invest in projects that ensure women benefit equally from development plans.
NIGERIA: Fearing the Floods – Sleeping with One Eye Open
The women of Makoko, a low-lying slum close to the Lagos Lagoon along Nigeria’s Atlantic coast, always sleep with one eye open. Many live in fear that when they go to sleep at night they will wake to flooded homes and business.
HONDURAS: Indigenous Cooperatives Cultivate Success
Thanks to the quality and freshness of their produce, indigenous Lenca farmers in western Honduras are regular suppliers of seven supermarket chains. This year they won the National Environmental Prize, in the community initiatives category.
UGANDA: Deforestation Robbing Communities of their Income
From a distance, Bugala Island in Lake Victoria is a patchwork of green and brown. The pattern is a result of dense forest retreating in the wake of recently planted palm tree plantations.For Big Financial Institutions, Profit Trumps Women’s Rights
This year, for the first time, the World Bank dedicated its 2012 annual flagship World Development Report to women as indispensable players in the global economy and launched a media campaign to "think equal".To Women’s Rights, Financial Institutions Pay Lip Service Only
On day seven of "the 16 days of activism to end violence against women" campaign, women's rights organisations around the world are asking what the biggest international financial institutions (IFIs) are really doing to protect women's rights, which are under daily assault.
Q&A: “Gender Budgets Help You Think About People”
Gender responsive budgeting (GRB), a U.N. Women tool to curb inequality, "helps you think about people...and to use resources in a more effective manner," says Lorena Barba.ARGENTINA: Women Build New Opportunities in Cooperatives
Forged in the 2001-2002 social and economic crisis, cooperatives in Argentina are becoming a fast track to women's participation in what were traditionally regarded as male spheres.
Activists Tie Occupy Movement to Global Gender Rights
On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Nov. 25, a group of feminist organisations will unite to launch a campaign calling for an end of the "immoral and unethical economy of Wall Street" against women and people of colour.
UGANDA: Single Mothers Left Behind in Flooded Swampland
Life in Bwaise – a slum on the outskirts of the capital of Uganda – has never been easy. But increasingly erratic rains over the last three years have brought constant floods to the former swampland. Residents who can afford to are moving out, leaving the poorest – often single mothers and grandmothers – behind.
Microcredit – Women Demand More Than Incomes
Microcredit can help a woman to have an income. It can, for better or worse, also transform gender equations in the public and private spheres.
China Will Need Many More Singles Parties
In a country of 180 million single people and a growing gender imbalance, tens of thousands of people across China went looking for love on Singles’ Day Nov. 11. But events on the day may only have helped point to the continuing and growing difficulty of being single.
ARGENTINA: Women Gain Budget Know-How
"After so many years of feminist activism, we still hadn't realised that you need money to get things done. When I finally understood that, it was like seeing the light. It was a whole new avenue to explore," Argentine activist Noemí Chiarotti told IPS.
MALAWI: No Social Safety Nets for the Poor
In Mbedza village, a remote rural community in southern Malawi, Fedson Feston beams an infant’s awkward smile and swings his tiny arms up towards the face of his mother. Four months old, Fedson is too young to know how lucky he is to be alive.
GHANA: No Pensions for Majority of Elderly Women
On the grubby edge of Old Fadama, Accra’s infamous illegal slum settlement, 67-year-old Mariana Sayitou sits under a parasol and tends to her livelihood – selling several dozen kola nuts and a few piles of bagged beans to passers-by.
Q&A: “Food Is Not a Business, But a Human Right”
Rural women and small-scale producers play a key role in providing food security and food sovereignty, but many large multinational corporations threaten that progress by undermining populations' independence when it comes to food.
Q&A: ‘Soil is Key to Global Warming, Food Security’
Luc Gnacadja, in his second three-year term as executive secretary, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), is widely seen as delivering on his commitment to manage the world's drylands.
SOUTH KOREA: Drylands Meet Deserts Gender
Delegates to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification’s (UNCCD) meeting underway in this South Korean city are convinced that women, though affected most by desertification, hold the key to addressing hunger through land regeneration.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Women Call the Shots on Mega Copper Mine
Whether the world’s largest open-cut mine on this island territory of Papua New Guinea (PNG) will resume copper and gold production, after being mothballed for 22 years, will depend on how satisfied matrilineal landowners are with the proposals.« 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.
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