AFGHANISTAN: Gov’t and Donors Fail to Protect Women’s Rights

Attention over the past week has focused on United States President Barack Obama’s decision to "surge" troop levels in Afghanistan to 30,000 and begin a drawdown in 18-months, but a new report calls attention to the failure of the Afghanistan government and international donors to protect women’s rights.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Greenhouse Gases Endanger Public Health – EPA

Twelve years after the climate change meetings in Kyoto, a much changed U.S. will show up at the Copenhagen conference this week, and, following recent developments in Washington, their ability to offer and agree to international climate actions has likely never been higher.

DEVELOPMENT: Afro-Uruguayan Women Find Their Own Way Home

Contrary to popular belief in Uruguay, the capital city’s black population is no longer concentrated in neighbourhoods like Barrio Sur, Palermo and Cordón, which were historically home to the majority of African descendents and remain heavily steeped in Afro-Uruguayan culture.

Q&A: Gender Missing in Climate Agreements

Women are known to be innovators when it comes to responding to climate change. The question is how to ensure that the role of women and gender equality are reflected in climate change agreements.

DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Collaborating on Sustainable Solutions

Mauritian experts are helping set up cogeneration systems to feed the hunger for electricity in Tanzania, Zambia and elsewhere. An example of how appropriate technology can be applied to problems common to countries in the global South.

Q&A: South Must Harmonise To Take Advantage of Common Interests

Fifty-five years after the Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung, Kwame Nkrumah's exhortation to the developing world to unite for socioeconomic transformation remains resonant.

MEDIA-ARGENTINA: Fighting Stereotypes of Slums ‘From the Inside’

A group of local residents from Villa 1-11-14, a slum on the outskirts of the Argentine capital, put out a magazine aimed at breaking down the stereotypes propagated by the mainstream media, which associate neighbourhoods like theirs only with drugs, crime and marginalisation.

NICARAGUA: A Month of Free Fun and Games for Poor Children

More than one million poor children in Nicaragua will enjoy a massive Christmas celebration this month, complete with recreational activities and presents, organised by the government of President Daniel Ortega. But the opposition is criticising the project as populist and eccentric.

GENDER: Zimbabwe Basket Fund Takes Off

A basket fund aimed at increasing the economic participation of women in Zimbabwe, has been relaunched after a start which faltered due to the delayed appointment of the new government earlier this year.

INDIA: Mobiles For Gender Empowerment

The Indian Government should consider providing mobile phones at a subsidy to women from the bottom of the pyramid since it helps improve their status and welfare, says a recent report.

Q&A: Africa – High On Political Empowerment, Low On Education

"It is clear that there are huge discrepancies within Sub-Saharan Africa, but overall the region is doing extremely well in terms of political empowerment," says Saadia Zahidi, head of the Women Leaders and Gender Parity Programme at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in a telephone interview from Geneva.

AFRICA: Campaign to Unite Against Malaria Kicks Off

Growing up in Cameroon, Joseph-Antoine Bell and his friends used to think that by playing football they could get rid of malaria.

SENEGAL: Farmers Anxious About Aid

As part of a project to support community initiatives and fight poverty in South Senegal, the Sédhiou Local Development Fund received a donation of agricultural equipment worth more than half a million dollars in a bid to reverse the region's dramatic drop in agricultural production in recent years.

PERU: Women Workers Forced into Informal Economy

In Peru, 51 percent of all jobs are generated by the informal economy, a sector that has a female face, as more than 60 percent of the women workers in the country are forced into informality, with only 15 percent having health coverage and a mere four percent enjoying retirement benefits.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Women Facing Increased Risk

Dominican organisations focused on the rights of women are bringing in assistance from all over Latin America to aid them in their fight against Article 30 in the recently approved constitution which states that the right to life is inviolable from conception until death.

DEVELOPMENT: Global Challenges Require Innovative Partnerships

The High-level United Nations Conference on South-South Cooperation kicked-off here Tuesday, with U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Asha Rose Migiro calling for practical solutions and reinforced South-South and North-South partnerships to address the demands of our "deeply interconnected world."

ENVIRONMENT: Tree Plantations Are Not Forests, Women Activists Say

Touted as "harvested forests," single-crop tree plantations are fast encroaching on the native forests and grasslands of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, affecting the environment and the lives of local communities, rural women say.

Q&A: Forging New Paths to Sustainable South-South Cooperation

Countries from the South are assuming leading roles in decisions on global issues ranging from economic recovery to food security, climate change and HIV/AIDS.

Q&A: ‘You Have To Be Educated To Be A Leader’

Traffic flowing in and out of her office, each interruption addressed with effortless calm, the nurse in charge of Hospitalisation and Immunisation at Nyamata Health Center in Bugesera District, is a confident woman in her element.

WORLD AIDS DAY: Children Still Falling Through the Cracks

While most HIV-positive people in the Western world can gain decades of good health thanks to increasingly effective drug regimens, in the developing world, nearly a third of children born with HIV are still dying before their first birthday.

WORLD AIDS DAY: Groups Urge Repeal of “Antiquated Colonial Laws”

On the heels of a new report by UNAIDS that the HIV virus is now infecting Caribbean men and women at an equal rate, activist groups are urging regional leaders to eliminate laws that further the stigmatisation associated with the deadly virus.