UNIFEM takes action worldwide to facilitate women’s participation in peace processes, increase the numbers of women in post-conflict decision-making, build their political influence, and make governance processes more sensitive to gender. In preparation for the Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on Democratic Governance in Africa: Strategies for Greater Participation of Women held in December 2005 in Arusha, UNIFEM commissioned a background report to document its activities in this area. This discussion paper outlines the agency’s contributions to enhance women’s political participation and integrate a gender perspective in post-conflict governance in Africa, focusing on Burundi, Liberia, and Somalia.

Women in Kenya's North Eastern Province (NEP) say they will not be able to play a more active role in politics unless concerted efforts are made to provide basic services in the vast and arid region. "Where is the time for politics if women there have to walk about 100 kilometres, or spend between seven and ten hours each day, to get water?" asked Sophia Abdi Noor, executive director of Womankind Kenya, a development organisation in the NEP. "Unless such basic matters are addressed, we cannot expect much in terms of women here participating in the political arena," she told IPS.

Describing the current low numbers of women in United Nations peacekeeping operations as “disheartening,” a United Nations-backed conference called for their number to be doubled every year for the next few years, saying this would not only improve the efficiency of peacekeeping but also its credibility.

As efforts intensify to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, developed and developing countries have committed themselves to new partnerships and aid modalities. This new aid architecture is designed to align aid to nationally-determined development priorities, to pool diverse aid sources into direct support to the national budget or to particular sectors, and to ensure greater stability and predictability in aid flows. Gender equality is central to achieving the MDGs and other development goals, making it important to ensure that aid structures target and monitor progress towards gender equality goals.

The study examines strategies adopted to increase agricultural growth and improve food security in Nigeria by empowering women engaged in agricultural activities. Initiatives to empower women have largely failed since they have not been supported by appropriate technologies. Women’s effective participation is further constrained by limited access to land, capital and education. Urban agriculture faces similar problems as the rural sector.

This paper sets the case of Rwanda’s male youth within the larger context of Africa’s urbanisation and burgeoning youth population. It investigates the pervasive images of male urban youth as a menace to Africa’s development and its primary source of instability. It then turns to the Rwandan case, examining the desperate conditions its young men (and women) faced before the civil war (1990-94) and 1994 genocide, as well as their experience of it.

Investing in women's leadership is advancing communities around the globe. Graduates of one non-profit's training programs share their stories and tell you how women's empowerment is saving lives.

"We stress with deep concern that in spite of the various commitments to action, the provision of resources and the promotion and protection of the human rights of African women and girls, given the devastating scale and impact of the HIV and AIDS pandemic on African women and girls, there is need for renewed urgent actions, at all levels and in all sectors, to promote and protect the human rights of African women and girls."

The Women PeaceMakers program is an eight week residency for women leaders who want to document, share, and build upon their unique peacemaking stories.  Selected peacemakers will receive roundtrip airfare, housing, and a small stipend to cover expenses for the eight-week residence (September 18 – November 11, 2006) at the University of San Diego in southern California.

According to UN estimates, the difference between the biological norm of 100 newborn girls to every 103 newborn boys and the number of women actually living leaves millions of women 'missing'. This demographic phenomenon may be due to: selective abortion and infanticide; less food and medical attention, as compared to males; and sexual offenders, 'honour killings', and domestic violence. This sustained 'deficit' of between 100 to 200 million women implies that 1.5 to 3 million women and girls die because of their gender each year.

Life-long champion of women’s rights Nnoseng Ellen Kate Kuzwayo died in Soweto in the early hours of yesterday, after a long illness. She was 91. Her son, Bobo, said Kuzwayo – until June, 1999, South Africa’s longest-serving parliamentarian – died at 2.30am in the Lesedi Private Clinic, to which she was admitted three weeks ago for diabetes- related complications. Kuzwayo was born on a farm in the Thaba Nchu district of the Free State on June 29, 1914, and is best known for her book, Call Me Woman, published in 1986 and winner of the CNA Book Prize.

Although legislation will go a long way in serving as a deterrent, women will remain vulnerable as long as cultural perceptions based on patriarchy remain unshaken. Cultural philosophies in relation to gender violence need a complete overhaul. Legislation can assist women in "visible" cases such as divorce settlements, inheritance, reported cases of physical violence, etc. But legislation can do next to nothing with "invisible" cases such as psychological violence and unreported cases of abuse.

Although a number of reports have indicated high levels of bride price-based violence in Uganda, the country has no laws or guidelines that specifically address bride price violations. According to a survey cited in the Uganda Poverty Eradication Action Plan 2004/5-2007/8, domestic violence and sexual harassment are some of the most frequently mentioned human rights abuses in Uganda. A Unicef survey in 1999 titled "State of World Children" carried out in 14 countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, ranked Uganda top with the highest reported incidents of domestic violence at 41 per cent of those surveyed.

Adult education programmes developed for or by indigenous communities rarely address gender inequalities. Programmes often aim to promote indigenous people’s rights, including bringing together communities who are actually differentiated along lines of gender, class and age. Despite their commitment to adjusting unequal power relations, course designers rarely mention gender.

This publication is World Vision’s briefing paper to the 50th Commission on the Status of Women. It focuses on World Vision’s work to empower and advance the status of women and girls while assisting the entire community in realising its full potential. The paper presents a compilation of articles from World Vision’s gender and development, relief, and advocacy experts in the Sudan, Uganda, Ethiopia, United Kingdom, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, and the former states of the Soviet Union. They focus on the challenges and promising practices for the advancement of women and girls in the areas of education, health, work, and those trapped in situations of violence.

“In every world region, minorities and indigenous peoples have been excluded, repressed and, in many cases, killed by their governments," said Mark Lattimer, executive director of the nongovernmental organisation Minority Rights Group International (MRG) at a press conference in January 2006. The event was the launch of the first edition of The State of the World’s Minorities Report, compiled by MRG with the assistance of various United Nations agencies.

The recent plane crash in the Marsabit District of Kenya in which fourteen of our must senior government officials perished while on a peace making mission serves to illustrate that women have continued to be marginalized in conflict resolution ventures; all the fourteen passengers were men.

This is not surprising at all, considering that men occupy 90% of senior government positions; and the affirmative action is yet to reach our august house. It is well documented that even at international forums, women have continued to be locked out from the negotiation table when peace accords and agreements are being made.

This puts to nonsense the various declarations (Windhoek Declaration); plan for actions (Nambia Plan of Action of Mainstreaming Gender Perspective in Multidimensional Peace Support Operations) and legal frameworks ( UN Security Resolution 1325 (2000) which lay down intrinsic details to be followed to ensure gender mainstreaming in peace processes.

The reality on the ground is that what the right hand gives, the left takes away, albeit inadvertently. A good example is the UN Security Resolution 1509 that created the UN Mission to Liberia (UNMIL). One of the mandates of the mission was to ensure that it paid particular attention to vulnerable groups such as ‘refugees, returning refugees, returning persons, women, children, and demobilized child solders’. (

This scenario has been replicated in other UN peace missions all over Africa. It is said that everywhere in the world, men make war and men make peace. Women on the other hand sit on the side lines and wait.

Here in Africa, so long as women fine tune their expected role of ‘vulnerable victims of war’ everybody will be happy; the war mongers watching from vantage spots behind battle lines for cease fire offers to start pouring in; the international press who are only too happy to shoot and beam sorry images; and a fatigued international humanitarian machinery.

Once the ball is set rolling, American dollars and peace negotiators will pour in from all corners of the globe and before long the war monger is catapulted from being a rebel without a cause to the revered title of ‘peace maker’. He will be flown into neutral grounds and booked into five star hotels as peace talks continue for months on end; in the meantime, women will be given food aid.

Meetings with government officials will be called in which village elders (all men) will be invited. Settlements in form of goats, sheep and cows will be reached and everybody will be happy.
With everything settled and agreed on, the peace makers will be flown back home in army helicopters and a group of transported and jubilant women will be waiting to receive him with song and dance.

If truth be told, not many women participate in these peace talks; the assumption being that they are not equipped with sufficient negotiation skills to maneuver their way around a predominantly masculine environment.

For a courageous woman who may want to join the peace talks at the grass root level, her venture will prove to be a Herculean task. She will find cultural prejudices and gender role stereotyping coming in to thwart her noble cause. First she will be viewed as a stranger to the community whose alliance may lie elsewhere.

Secondly she is assigned a role where her value is that of natural care giver and nurturer who must be shackled to the private domain of communal life; she cannot transcend the cultural dichotomy and ascend into the public domain which is a reserve for men.

Even the odd militant woman activist will learn that gaining entry into the negotiation room is no guarantee that she will have a voice, vote or even a seat on the negotiation table.

Whatever settlements are reached after these peace talks do not translate into gains for many women; the ugly scars of war and trauma continue to haunt them.

"The Sex Worker Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) is horrified by the brutal murder of Paarl Sex Worker, Ellenore Leander. Leander was stabbed 19 times. The suspect is in custody and will appear in the Paarl Magistrates Court for a bail hearing."

Feminist Africa is a free online journal published twice a year that aims to provide a forum for progressive, gender research and feminist dialogue focused on the continent of Africa.
Contact Feminist Africa on [email][email protected] for more information.

A just-concluded research in Kasese district has revealed that hundreds of women and girls silently suffer a maternal health problem called obstetric fistula. Obstetric fistula is a hole that develops between the bladder and the birth canal or between the rectum and the birth canal or both, resulting in uncontrolled and continuous leakage of faeces and urine. The community-based research, was conducted by a Kasese-based NGO, God Hope Foundation for Rural Development in collaboration with Women's Dignity Project (WDP) of Tanzania. According to the research team leader, the condition was typical among the poor who cannot access emergency obstetric care.