DEVELOPMENT: Women Chiefs Change Indian Villages

The villages of Ranmala, Nandagane, Shirgaon and Mengdewadi, in Pune, Sangli and Satara districts, western India, have one thing in common.

SOUTH AFRICA: Hard Lessons for Small Business on the West Coast

The sound of sewing machines fills the room with a low, continuous hum. A handful of women sit behind the machines, their heads bent in concentration on their work.

INDIA: Teacher Training For Gender Sensitive Schooling

Four years ago, the National Council of Educational Research and Training, a premier educational institution, laid down a new curriculum, radically changing the content of textbooks, particularly in social sciences, in Indian schools.

DEVELOPMENT: South-South Cooperation at 30-Year High

As the United Nations commemorated its sixth annual 'U.N. Day for South-South Cooperation' Friday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon singled out the growing new ties among developing countries that go far beyond trade and investments: education, science, agriculture, medicine, health services and information technologies.

HEALTH-EUROPE: ‘Czech Attitudes to HIV/AIDS Risky’

Complacency and ignorance over the risks posed by HIV and AIDS are threatening to send infection rates soaring in the Czech Republic, health authorities.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Zenawi Stands Alone In Copenhagen

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says Africa must compromise and be flexible towards other countries, if the U.N. Climate Conference ending on Dec. 18, is to reach an agreement.

NEPAL: Widows Break Tradition – Wear Red

Bhagwati Adhikari was a teenager when she was married off to a village boy of the same caste. Just a few years later when she was in her early 20s, she became a widow. Her husband, who worked as a security guard in Kathmandu, was murdered. Adhikari was left alone to support her family.

Q&A: South Is No Longer a Peripheral Actor

There are broad prospects for developing countries to build on complementarities and leverage South-South Cooperation for development, according to Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, Ambassador of Qatar to the U.N.

RIGHTS-TANZANIA: ‘I Feel Like Less of a Woman’

In the darkest corner of the room, under the clamour of twelve women’s voices, sits Ghati Chacha*, she can barely be heard. Her newborn suckles as she speaks softly about how she refused female circumcision.

US: Reconsidering War on Drugs

As the war on drugs moves closer to home and a new administration presents new ideas, policymakers in Washington are taking notice of 30 years' worth of ineffectual drug policy and beginning to think about different ways of addressing the northward flow of narcotics.

POVERTY-ZIMBABWE: Multiple Appeals to Support Zimbabweans

While food is readily available in shops and some political and economic stability is returning in Zimbabwe, vulnerable groups such as children and people living with HIV and AIDS still face a shortage of food.

CLIMATE CHANGE: Adaptation Funds Must Reach Africa’s Women Farmers

One of the key components of global action on climate change will be measures to adapt to changes that are already unavoidable. The Global Gender and Climate Alliance argues that specific attention be paid to the needs of women.

POLITICS: Zimbabwe Blasted for Condoning “Sexual Terror”

Zimbabwe’s ruling political party has been accused of launching a "widespread and systematic campaign of rape and sexual terror" aimed at intimidating opponents and voters in the troubled African nation, according to a new report released here.

GENDER: U.N. Women’s Treaty Weakened by Slew of Reservations

A landmark U.N. treaty on women’s rights, which will be 30 years old next week, is in danger of being politically undermined by a slew of reservations by 22 countries seeking exemptions from some of the convention’s legal obligations.

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.