The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) in collaboration with its partners the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research Trust (WLSA), the SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF), and HIVOS are convening a regional roundtable meeting on reinvigorating and sustaining a vibrant women’s movement in the SADC region.

It was still dark, not yet 4am. But outside Letenk'iel was moving already, rekindling the fire from the overnight embers. Inside the mud-walled hut, her husband Gebremariam coughed. Then as the first birds were heard, he swung his legs over the side of a bed made from rough rope strung across a wooden frame.

Zimbabwe women call for stiffer penalties for domestic violence offenders. With 90% of Zimbabwe's domestic violence targeting women, women groups have been pressuring their government to enact The Domestic Violence Bill, first dismissed 10 years ago.

The International Rescue Committee seeks a Regional Gender Based Violence Program Manager for its West Africa programs, to be based in Abdijan, Cote d'Ivoire.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has decried the inadequate representation of women within the leadership of the trade union federation and its affiliates. Speaking at Cosatu's 9th national congress in Midrand, he said: "We have not done very well when it comes to women.

The election of 100 women among the 321 members of Parliament in Uganda is something to celebrate. Possibly even more significant, an all time high of 18m represent counties where women competed with men. Affirmative action has worked though women remain in the difficult position of meeting conflicting expectations and loyalties.

"Women are born to live and not to die", declared Mozambique's former first lady, Graca Machel on Saturday. Machel, who currently heads one of Mozambique's best-known NGOs, the Community Development Foundation (FDC), was speaking at the opening session in Maputo of a meeting of African Women Leaders, and she was referring to the high rates of maternal mortality in Africa.

The problem of limited access to contraceptives is taking centre stage at an African Union (AU) meeting currently underway in Maputo. Since Monday, health experts have been holding talks in the Mozambican capital about a plan of action that seeks to provide comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services across the continent.

Zambian elections on 28 September are on course but for lack of women representation, which is down from five years ago. Just 103 women are contesting against 606 men for the 150 parliamentary seats available, according to figures from the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ). This represents 15 percent women representation in the polls. Unless all women candidates are elected, which is unlikely, the proportion will be lower when the final results are announced.

ABA-Africa is currently seeking community based mediation and anti-gender based violence specialists to provide training for Liberian NGOs and to develop effective legal aid services for rural populations in Liberia.

The International Rescue Committee currently seeks a Gender Based Violence and Masculinities Consultant for its Liberia program in Montserrado, Nimba and Lofa to lay the foundation of IRC's Male Involvement: Part of the Solution project. This will include developing a long-term plan in collaboration with the Government of Liberia, training facilitators responsible for forming and leading men's groups in communities of operation within 3 counties.

Eight female African Journalists have scooped different awards this year at the second Gender and Media Awards (GEM) while three went to men. Four awards were taken by Zimbabweans, two by South African, and Swaziland and Seychelles each grabbed one. The competition was highly contested compared to the last summit of 2004 with 187 entries from 13 submissions. 108 female journalists and 79 male journalists entered submissions in 11 categories.

Human traffickers make good business taking poorly educated girls from Nigerian villages to toil as domestic workers in the sprawling urban throb of Lagos. But the girls, some as young as five years old, see little or none of their earnings. Tonia Ayo-Ola, 19, has worked for three months without a day off. Each morning she is up by 6 a.m. preparing breakfast for her "master".

Despite the phenomenal progress that the country has posted in various fields of endeavour, particularly on the social front as society pursues its relentless drive towards modernity and sophistication, Zimbabwean men remain, for the most part, deeply steeped in superstition and myths.

Eight out of the 11 newly elected women MPs were sworn in during the plenary chaired by Speaker Edward Ssekandi. Former Lira Municipality MP Ceclia Ogwal, took the spotlight during the ceremony. Ogwal, popularly known as the 'iron lady,' had lost her seat in the last parliamentary elections to Jimmy Akena, son of former President Milton Obote.

"....Today, half of all international migrants-95 million-are women and girls. Yet, despite substantial contributions to both their families at home and communities abroad, the needs of migrant women continue to be overlooked and ignored."

I found the Pambazuka News Special edition on Women and Trade very useful. I'm teaching a course at the University of Ottawa on gender, development and globalisation, which includes a session on trade and gender. I look forward to the appearance of the French version of this issue on the PZ site, so that I can direct my students to it.

The rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has agreed to release 'non-combatants', including women and children they are holding captive, a top United Nations officials said. "I was pleased that the LRA have promised to release non-combatants and other abductees - women and children," Jan Egeland, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said in the southern Sudanese town of Juba on Monday (September 11).

An initiative, which is a forum for women activists working in the area of women rights and development seeks essentially to empower the Nigerian women folks politically, especially in the forth-coming national elections slated for 2007 was launched by the Women Unity Forum (WUF) in Lagos on September 11.

The number of women who die during birth is still high, the State of Uganda Population report, has revealed. "Maternal mortality has remained stable and high at 505 deaths per 100,000 live births. The majority of maternal deaths occur outside hospital indicating delays in seeking care," the report says.