Sub Saharan Africa

Women hoping to take up positions of leadership in Namibia still face an uphill battle, judging by the results of the just-ended Swapo-Party congress, Namibia's Press Agency Nampa reported.

Quite a number of people, especially those who champion the cause of women aiming for decision-making positions, had high hopes that former Swapo-Party Secretary-General Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana would succeed in becoming the party's first female vice-president, but this turned out not to be the case.

African women lawmakers on Wednesday robustly pushed for strategies that will see more women supported to assume leadership roles on the continent.

They also hailed Rwanda for being an African "miracle" and exemplary in promoting women representation in many spheres of leadership and decision making, especially in Parliament where women claim a world record majority (56 per cent) including the Speaker.

General Federation of Sudanese Women said it has immovable trust in the government and its institutions especially the highest legislative and monitoring power, the parliament.
The federation delivered a memorandum to the parliament regarding violence against women in line with the celebration of the national campaign to eliminate violence against women in the capital state and other states.

The three women sit around a table tackling their breakfast at a five-star city hotel. One in a black T-Shirt, a red skirt, white rubber shoes and with her hair held up in a bun by a red cloth.

The second sits in a black skirt and red T-Shirt and the third in a grey skirt suit and a red T-Shirt. Their T-Shirts read the same, 'use my ballot not my body' but that is not the only thing they have in common. All three are rape victims or as they prefer to be called, rape survivors; two of them having been raped in the violence the followed the last general elections.

Dr Michael Abu Sakara Foster, Presidential Candidate of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) on Wednesday said when elected his government would champion the cause of women in nation building.

He said "politicians must practice what they preach, and walk the talk..., as the CPP has demonstrated with its commitment to gender mainstreaming by electing a woman as the Chairperson of the party.

The Assistant Minister of Local Government, Botlhogile Tshireletso, has called for reservation of parliamentary seats for women in order to raise the voice of the distaff section of the National Assembly. Responding to President Ian Khama's State of the Nation Address in Parliament yesterday, Tshireletso sought to amend a bill by Okavango MP Bagalatia Aarone to make provision for reserving seats for women.

As little-known politician Fauzia Yusuf Haji Adan was sworn in as Somalia’s first female foreign minister and deputy prime minister on Monday Nov. 19, the stateswoman who hails from the unrecognised, self-proclaimed republic of Somaliland is tipped to become the country’s “Iron Lady”.

This is according to Adan´s political ally Mohamed Daahir Omar, who used to work closely with her in local Somaliland politics, in which he is currently active.

A gender parity advocate group, Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF), has mounted a vigorous campaign for women parliamentary aspirants in the Central Region, urging the electorate in the area to vote massively for women to represent them in Parliament.