DEVELOPMENT-CAMEROON: Are Women the Magic Bullet for “Electoral Apathy”?

A support network for women's political participation, is challenging head-on what it calls "electoral apathy", after noting a growing trend in electoral abstention.

KENYA: Proposed Constitutional Amendment Sets Back Women’s Rights

Lillian Mutuku, a 34-year-old mother of three, describes her home in Katine area, in Kenya’s Eastern province Tala, as a harsh place to live. The soil is poor, she says, the sun beats down mercilessly and vegetation is sparse.

SOUTH AFRICA: Gender Loses Out in Basic Education Crisis

With the 15th-year review of the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women taking place at the ongoing Commission on the Status of Women in New York, South African teachers and education experts say they fear that a special focus on the advancement of girls is getting lost amidst the growing levels of poverty in the country.

NAMIBIA: Female Hip-Hop Artists Challenge Stereotypes

African hip-hop prides itself on a more positive portrayal of women, but traditional cultural attitudes towards women still dominate the industry, say Namibian female rappers.

MALAWI: Patrilineal Inheritance Prevents Women’s Access to Land

Mercy Gondwe, 51, from Rumphi in northern Malawi, was married for 34 years. When her husband died in 2008, she assumed she would inherit the land they had been cultivating together since they got married. But this was not the case.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY: ‘We Will Demonstrate, As They Celebrate’

‘Equal rights; equal opportunities’ may be the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, but while women around the world celebrate, a group of Ugandan women are protesting against the suppression of their rights.

SOUTH AFRICA: Community Fears World Cup Will Cause Homelessness

While South African parliamentarians attended a swanky pre-International Women’s Day celebration at Cape Town’s International Convention Centre, a group of destitute women in decaying Kewtown, just seven miles away, worried about looming homelessness.

RIGHTS-SWAZILAND: Property Rights At Last for Women

A recent court ruling has finally given Swazi women the right to own and administer property in their own names.

AFRICA: “Women’s Decade”: Greater Attention to Implementation

Fears that the impact of the global economic meltdown would affect funding to various development areas have been rife. Already, several governments have cut their budgets for HIV and AIDS and bilateral and multilateral funding partners have done likewise.

SOUTHERN AFRICA: Women Traders Demand Support

Support for regional trade is one of the cornerstones of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). But the focus has been on large scale trade in goods and services, ignoring one important group trading throughout the region.

POLITICS-MAURITIUS: Plea for More Female Candidates

Sandhya Boygah considers herself a victim of male-dominated politics. In 2007, she was asked by her party, the ruling Labour Party, to step aside and allow a man to stand for the elected post she sought.

POLITICS-TOGO: First Female Presidential Candidate

Brigitte Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson, head of the opposition Democratic Convention of African Peoples party, is Togo's first female presidential candidate. But she has withdrawn from the electoral process.

EAST AFRICA: Women Want Visibility in Regional Union

As the East Africa Community (EAC) gradually moves towards a political confederation, women’s rights groups from the five member states are pushing for an East African Protocol on Gender and Development to bridge the gender gaps within the integration process.

Q&A: Creating Momentum for Women’s Participation

Women's movements have played a critical role in creating political space for female participation in politics around the world. In fact, there are more women in government today than ever before.

ZAMBIA: Scarcely Room for Women in Male-dominated Politics

Charity Mwansa, a former minister and member of parliament, knows just exactly what being one of the very few female politicians in Zambia means. When she left politics it had nothing to with not being able to do the work and instead had everything to do with the mad world of male-dominated politics.

SOUTH SUDAN: Women’s Eyes on the Political Prize


January marks the fifth anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which ended a bitter north-south civil war in Sudan. With important elections scheduled for April, women are debating and fighting for an expanded role in the new institutions of government.

SOUTH SUDAN: A More Gender Representative Leadership

As the general elections scheduled for April 2010 draw nearer in Africa’s largest country ravaged by a long drawn war, the scramble for political positions is rife as women struggle to make their presence felt.

SOUTH SUDAN: Women Perpetuate Culture of Submission

All day Rosalinda Duany sells vegetables from her stall at the local market, earning a living to feed her family while her husband spends his days idling with his friends. But when his days become too boring and he demands his conjugal rights, Duany wordlessly stops work just to oblige him.

SIERRA LEONE: Woman Breaking Traditional Walls in Chieftaincy Elections

A war is raging in the eastern part of the country, once the centre stage for battles during the 10-year civil war and the place where "blood diamonds" were once mined. But this time the war is not for diamonds, but about whether a woman has the right to stand for paramount chief in the local chieftaincy election.

POLITICS-AFRICA: Seeking a Democratic South Sudan

The atmosphere is heavily charged with political tensions, alliances are already in the offing, expectations are high and the pressure for the country to achieve a successful transition from an interim government to a democratically elected one is immense.

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.