Thirty-two parliamentarians at the 7th sub-regional workshop on capacity building of the Network of African Women Ministers and Parliamentarians from seven SADC countries (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) on capacity building advocacy, leadership and resource mobilisation recommended the creation of a network of opportunities and platforms to empower women. Women are profoundly affected by decisions related to development that are made without consulting them.

The United Nations envoy to Liberia has called for an end to violence against women, while stressing that security is paramount for everyone throughout the West African nation as it works to rebuild after a brutal 14-year civil war. Special Representative of the Secretary-General Alan Doss made his remarks as he handed over a new UN-built police station to the people of Kronowroken, Webbo District, in River Gee County, along Liberia’s border with Côte d’Ivoire.

August has proven to be a perilous months for gays in Nigeria and Cameroon, where large-scale arrests have taken place, and in Uganda, where gay activists have gone into hiding after government ministers called for their arrest.

Many studies have recognized the importance of improving the status of impoverished women. This UNFPA workshop report describes a number of approaches used to date to empower women economically, including microcredit. The report includes a review of the literature on women's economic empowerment and a summary of presentations from the workshop.

Though Southern Africa is seeing increasing opportunities and rights for women, protection from gender violence continues to be elusive for those engaged in sex work. Some people even argue that sex workers cannot be victims of rape at all. Moreover, when they are victims of violence or sexual assault, few receive help from police or health services. Many turn to drugs or alcohol.

The yams in the family plot were ripe when Elizabeth Igwenagu's husband died. But at the end of the one-week-long burial rite, his family harvested the entire crop of the thick, potato-like tubers, a staple starch in southern Nigeria. In many African societies, women's rights to land and property are tenuous and dependent on males. Although legislation may guarantee equality among men and women, family matters are often managed under customary law, which evolved to retain property within the family and under male control.

Experts are warning Senegalese men who have sex with men not to get caught up in the hype about male circumcision after recent research indicated that the procedure could offer some protection against HIV, and are urging them to keep using other means of protection. In 2006, the results of three studies, one each in South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, showed that the risk of HIV infection was up to 60 percent lower among circumcised men. However, these studies were specific to heterosexual interaction.

In its mission to educate policy makers about the existence of LBT women in Africa and to tackle the myth that homosexuality is unAfrican, The Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL) is planning to publish a book that will document lived experiences of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women in the continent. As part of CAL’s research project, the book will “increase lesbians’ political voice in the continent, create a platform for expression and help eradicate homophobia.” This is according to CAL director, Fikile Vilakazi.

This paper by the UN Millennium Project analyses the need to reform abortion laws and policies in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on maternal health, gender equality and poverty reduction. The paper reviews existing international agreements which support access to safe and legal abortion including the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Programme of Action, and the actions of international bodies, governments and non-governmental organisations in promoting women’s access to safe abortion.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) can make sex painful, complicate childbirth, lead to urinary tract infections, enable the transmission of HIV -- and induce a host of other ills. So, promising to fight this practice should be a winning strategy for someone hoping to be elected to parliament this Saturday in Sierra Leone - where about 90 percent of girls and women undergo FGM, according to rights watchdog Amnesty International.

Kenya's parliament will soon debate a constitutional amendment bill to improve female representation in the legislature by creating 50 special seats for women. At present, only some eight percent of parliamentary posts in the East African country are occupied by women. The bill is scheduled for discussion Aug. 14, to be adopted or rejected in its entirety the same day. Over 2,000 women from across Kenya will be present at parliament to lobby legislators to vote for the bill.

The International Lesbian and Gay Association, ILGA, would like to join the South African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities, to condemn the brutal killing of Sizakele Sigasa (34 years old) and Salome Masooa (23 years old) from a township in Johannesburg. On Sunday 8th July they were found murdered in a nearby field in Meadowlands.

As SADC Heads of State and Government meet for their annual Summit in Lusaka, Zambia in mid-August, one of the expected outcomes is the adoption of the Protocol on Gender and Development. The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development will provide a legal and institutional framework for the region to accelerate implementation of the commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment. A Protocol is the most binding of SADC legal instruments.

After a steep increase in the 1990s, and several years of plateauing, South Africa's HIV prevalence may finally have entered a phase of decline. The first evidence of this downward trend comes from the government's 2006 National HIV and Syphilis Survey, which tested more than 33,000 pregnant women at antenatal clinics in all nine of the country's provinces.

Making Governance Gender Responsive (MGGR)" is a generic course that can be adapted and modified to suit the needs of the different countries in Asia-Pacific. The initial training module was developed by the Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics (CAPWIP), with funding support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through its Asia-Pacific Gender Equality Network (UNDP-APGEN) and the Regional Governance Programme for Asia and the Pacific (UNDP-PARAGON). The training will take place from November 12-19, 2007.

The Africa Women Peace Makers Program (AWPP) is a Program of International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and is committed to showcasing Africa as a beacon for peaceful co-existence by enhancing the capacities of Africa women peace makers to promote gender sensitive active non-violence. The Africa WPP intends to hold a Training of Trainers (ToT) is to deepen participants’ skills in gender and nonviolence training and education, in order strengthen their capacities to spread the work of WPP through empowering women at the grassroots.

Ministers for gender and women’s affairs from southern Africa have endorsed the contents of a Gender Protocol that would make regional decisions on gender equality legally binding for the first time.

The number of girls and women who undergo female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) has declined in Ethiopia's Southern Regional State, and could be reduced further if stronger penalties were enforced, an NGO leader said. "Previously people did not even mention FGM/C; it was a taboo," said Bogaletch Gebre, executive director of Kembatta Women's Self-Help Centre, a local NGO engaged in educating the public in Kembatta, Alaba and Tembaro zones.

Women in Politics Support Unit (WIPSU), a Zimbabwean non-governmental organisation, is leading a campaign for the achievement of gender parity in choosing candidates for office, while a new report by human rights advocacy organisation Amnesty International shows women are increasingly becoming victims of political repression.

With a view to highlight the impact of hate crimes against lesbian women in South Africa, gay rights groups have invited concerned members of the public to a protest action on 9 August –Women’s Day at Meadowlands. Calling for an efficient and effective investigation on the murders of Sizakele Sigasa and Salome Masooa, Positive Women’s Network (PWN), Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW), the Joint Working Group and the recently established alliance for the 07-07-07 campaign, will picket, read messages of solidarity and deliver a memorandum to Meadowlands police station commander.