IPS Interservice: Women

Syndicate content IPS Inter Press Service - Women: Leading the Way
It has become increasingly obvious that a future without poverty, hunger,AIDS and illiteracy depends on the empowerment of women -- especially in developing regions where they produce most of the food but own almost none of the land, and many women lack even basic human rights. Ten years after governments promised equality -- and ten years before a key deadline to lift at least half the world's poorest people out of misery - - women and men together are asking what must be done to make the voices of this silenced majority finally heard.
Updated: 19 min 24 sec ago

DEVELOPMENT: Change Comes To Villages in Uganda

19 min 24 sec ago
KAMPALA, Dec 1 (IPS) - In her village they call her ‘councillor’. But Jenipher Namugwere is no ordinary councillor elected by the people to represent them in the local council.
Categories: Global News

DEVELOPMENT: Rights In Times of Crisis

19 min 24 sec ago
DOHA, Dec 1 (IPS) - For the past three decades, indebted developing countries have been forced by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to deregulate financial and labour markets, privatise national industries, abolish subsidies, and reduce social and economic spending.
Categories: Global News

Q&A: "How Are We Going to Sustain Gender Approaches?"

19 min 24 sec ago
CAPE TOWN, Nov 29 (IPS) - The negative aspects of Africa's experience with structural adjustment programmes beginning in the 1990s have been well-documented -- facing high debt loads, African governments agreed to liberalise their economies, privatise public enterprises, and sharply reduce social spending with often painful effects on the most vulnerable.
Categories: Global News

POLITICS-KENYA: Taking Up a Women's Agenda

19 min 24 sec ago
NAIROBI, Nov 29 (IPS) - The first woman from the Muslim majority island constituency of East Lamu to contest for a seat in Kenyan parliament, Shakila Abdalla is determined to give voice to the country's poor and marginalised.
Categories: Global News

UGANDA: On the Global Market Track to Prosperity

19 min 24 sec ago
KAMPALA, Nov 28 (IPS) - Uganda's finance ministry has ambitious plans to reduce the country’s donor dependence. With foreign funds accounting for almost 50 percent of the national budget, officials believe a slew of measures announced in the 2008/09 budget could bring that down to about 30 percent.
Categories: Global News

POLITICS-MOZAMBIQUE: Few Women Mayors This Term

19 min 24 sec ago
MAPUTO, Nov 27 (IPS) - Bad news for women: of the eight women running for mayor in Mozambique's municipal elections held on Nov. 19, only three won. Overall, 114 candidates ran for mayor in 43 municipalities.
Categories: Global News

POLITICS-GHANA: The Fruits of the Future

19 min 24 sec ago
ACCRA, Nov 26 (IPS) - The upside: three political parties selected women as vice-presidential candidates in the general elections of Dec. 7, the first time ever in Ghana’s history. The downside: the parties are small and have no real chance of victory.
Categories: Global News

CUBA: Films that Tackle Touchy Social Issues

19 min 24 sec ago
CIENFUEGOS, Cuba, Nov 26 (IPS) - "Viviendo al límite" (Living to the Limit), a documentary by Cuban filmmaker Belkis Vega that follows the lives of five HIV-positive people, will be shown for the first time on Cuban television this week, four years after its release.
Categories: Global News

RIGHTS: Gender Violence "Pandemic" Highlighted at U.N.

19 min 24 sec ago
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 25 (IPS) - Activists and U.N. officials called on governments to take stronger action to end violence against women Tuesday, with at least one out of every three women around the world having been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime -- with the abuser usually someone known to her.
Categories: Global News

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Marching Against Machismo

19 min 24 sec ago
SANTO DOMINGO, Nov 25 (IPS) - Raising their voices in agreement with the declaration over the loudspeaker that "machismo kills", hundreds of Dominican women, carrying banners and roses, ended a march through the streets of Santo Domingo Tuesday in front of the Supreme Court Building, protesting the rising level of murders of women.
Categories: Global News

RIGHTS-AFRICA: No More Excuses on Gender Violence

19 min 24 sec ago
ADDIS ABABA, Nov 25 (IPS) - As the world marks the twenty-seventh International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, United Nations figures indicate that in the course of her lifetime, one in every three women is beaten, coerced into sex or abused, by a relative or acquaintance. In Africa, concerns continue to be raised over poor legislation and enforcement to protect women and girls from harm.
Categories: Global News

RIGHTS-AUSTRALIA: Abortion Decriminalised But Stays Controversial

19 min 24 sec ago
MELBOURNE, Nov 25 (IPS) - While pro-choice groups have welcomed the recent decriminalisation of abortion in Victoria -- Australia’s second most-populous state, where around 20,000 abortions are believed to be performed annually -- anti-abortionists have vowed to continue opposing termination of pregnancies.
Categories: Global News

RIGHTS: Domestic Workers Often Prisoners in a Gilded Cage

19 min 24 sec ago
WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (IPS) - On the eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, a New York-based human rights watchdog group called on the governments of the world to protect domestic workers.
Categories: Global News

CHILE: Women Trade Unionists Find their Own Voices

19 min 24 sec ago
SANTIAGO, Nov 24 (IPS) - "When you have a social role, you become aware that you have a right to freedom of thought, that you can question the way things are," 44-year-old Chilean trade unionist Sonia Sagredo, who represents seasonal agricultural workers, told IPS.
Categories: Global News

DEVELOPMENT: After Accra, Some Action

19 min 24 sec ago
LONDON, Nov 24 (IPS) - The cynics do not exactly have a pleasant surprise waiting for them, but there are indications that the Accra Agenda for Action could be leading to the beginning of some action on gender equality in aid.
Categories: Global News

POLITICS-MALAWI: Elections Get Ugly For Women

2 hours 19 min ago
LILONGWE, Malawi, Nov 24 (IPS) - Malawi’s primary elections are getting ugly for women candidates. Shoving, derogatory songs and being pelted with stones are just some of the intimidating tactics aimed at discouraging women from contesting the primary elections that will select candidates for the parliamentary polls in May 2009.
Categories: Global News

POLITICS: Decentralisation, a Double-Edged Sword for Women

2 hours 19 min ago
MEXICO CITY, Nov 24 (IPS) - Decentralised governments have often been presented as a formula for strengthening democracy and citizen participation, and giving women greater access to power. But experiences like that of Eufrosina Cruz, who was denied the right to run for mayor of her Oaxaca village, on the argument of "uses and customs" of her indigenous community, show that this is not always true.
Categories: Global News

INDONESIA: Quota Ensures More Women Candidates in 2009 Polls

Sat, 2008-11-29 13:30
JAKARTA, Nov 24 (IPS) - After 20 years as an activist, in which she campaigned to shape social and economic policy in Indonesia, Binny Buchori is setting her sights on a new career -- as a politician.
Categories: Global News

GENDER-AFRICA: "Where Is The Money?"

Sat, 2008-11-29 13:30
ADDIS ABABA, Nov 22 (IPS) - "Investing in women pays off. It is an effective means to reduce poverty and accelerate the achievement of the rest of the MDGs," says Danish minister for development cooperation Ulla Tørnæs.
Categories: Global News

RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Helpless Against Honour Killings

Fri, 2008-11-28 04:31
KARACHI, Nov 22 (IPS) - By appointing as cabinet ministers two politicians known for their anti-women views, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has stirred up a storm of protests from rights activists and prominent personalities who believed that an elected government would help their country emerge from feudalism.
Categories: Global News