Q&A: "Changing Stereotypes of Women Is the Starting Point"

For the last 10 days, experts from the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) have been reviewing the status of women's rights in 11 countries.

ARGENTINA: Kidnappings, Threats Target Child Rights Campaign

Youngsters involved in a network of social organisations working with street kids and disadvantaged youths, as part of its "Hunger Is a Crime" campaign, have been the targets of eight kidnappings and dozens of death threats in the last 16 months.

MOROCCO: New Law, But the Same Old Men

The new Moroccan family law was designed to give women equal rights in the family. But five years after its introduction, Moroccan women leaders say opposition to the law from politicians and within the judicial system persists, and the new law has not been able to change Moroccan mentality.

URUGUAY: Schoolgirls Access Computers but Can’t Shake Gender Stereotypes

The girls who attend the school of Villa García, a township on the outskirts of the Uruguayan capital, are still playing dolls and dress up - only now they do it on their laptop computers.

ZIMBABWE: Neglect Sanitation at Your Peril

A functioning public toilet has become a rare sight in Bulawayo. Across this southern Zimbabwean city of about two million residents, public toilets have all but stopped functioning, the buildings now more useful as platforms for graffiti and campaign posters than as public conveniences where people answer the call of nature.

Q&A: Brazil’s Lesson to the World: Invest in Family Farming

Kanayo F. Nwanze chose Brazil for his first official visit as the recently elected president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and was pleased to personally attest to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s commitment to family farming.

DEVELOPMENT-CUBA: Water Scarce at the 'Singing Frog'

Canta Rana, which somewhat ironically translates as "Singing Frog", is more than just a neighbourhood in this town in the drought-stricken eastern Cuban province of Holguín. Here, at the highest point in the area, which provides a view of the entire town and the sugar mill tower, there is a huge tank marked by rust, the passage of time and the scarcity of water.

RIGHTS-BULGARIA: Two Women Take on Defence Ministry

Two young women are suing Bulgaria's Ministry of Defence over gender discrimination in the mainly ceremonial, National Guard - a case that could go a long way in changing patriarchal social norms.

Q&A: Reality Fell Upon Us: Women's Voices Must Be Heard

Fifty-six percent of Rwanda's parliamentarians are women, a manifestation of the active role women have taken in rebuilding the country since the 1994 genocide.

HEALTH-INDIA: High Morbidity Mars Kerala Women’s Progress

While Kerala, in southwest India, enjoys enviable indices when it comes to health and human development, the state seems unable to shake off high chronic morbidity rates among its women.

Q&A: Agriculture Can Lead Poverty Reduction

Agriculture is vital to the economies of West and Central African countries, but poverty remains a reality in the region's rural areas.

HEALTH: Namibia Makes Strides in Paediatric HIV

While paediatric HIV remains a growing concern throughout Southern Africa, Namibian doctors have managed to put high numbers of babies on the life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) treatment with the help of an early infant diagnosis (EID) programme based on dry blood sampling.

ENVIRONMENT: Rich Nations Vulnerable to Water Disasters

The growing shortage of water - a perennial problem in the world's poorer nations - is expected to eventually reach the rich nations in the Western world.

COSTA RICA: Women Ageing Alone, Easy Prey to Looting

Though América Herrera may not ever know it, she has become the poster child for a growing practice in Costa Rica, which experts define as financial or economic abuse of the elderly.

ECONOMY-ANGOLA: Entrepreneurial Spirit Born Out of Necessity

"Amiga, amiga," the women shout out, "Apples, pears, pineapples..." their cries fading into the beeps and growls of the traffic noise.

POVERTY-SWAZILAND: Planning Oversight Halts Food Security Programme

A Food-for-Work programme, which cleverly aims to combat both environmental degradation and food shortages, has come to a halt due to lack of long-term planning.

POLITICS: U.N. to Live or Die by Its Policy Ideas

The United Nations has long been described - rather contemptuously - as one of the world's biggest talking shops.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Phoney Choice Between Life and Death

Failure to sustain funding for HIV/AIDS treatment programmes could lead to a rising number of deaths, particularly in Africa.

AUSTRALIA: Male Job Losses Rise as Families Count Costs

Despite concerns that female workers would bear the brunt of Australian job losses due to the global economic downturn, employees in the male-dominated manufacturing industry have so far been the hardest hit.

HEALTH-AFRICA: Where To Find A Million New Nurses?

If developing countries want to succeed in improving their health systems, they urgently need to decentralise them and shift tasks from doctors to nurses and community health workers, said experts at the Fifth International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Cape Town.

Q&A: Sanitation No Longer a Dirty Word in India

In India, many moons ago, nobody dared talk about toilets - a subject that was taboo, particularly at mealtime.