Immediately following the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women, most countries adopted national strategies for mainstreaming gender into development initiatives. Non-governmental organisations embarked on a new formula for addressing gender inequality through the development of gender mainstreaming policies. This has been a generally accepted, undisputed approach to countering the feminization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in southern Africa, like many other regions globally. Mainstreaming has adopted a posh stance in development circles, indicating an overall solution to issues of concern.

This interactive CD-ROM offers access to poor women with limited reading ability. It is intended for rural African women entrepreneurs who have access to a computer through a telecentre, but no experience using one. The CD-ROM uses a simple browser navigating system with graphic interface and spoken text, in English and Luganda. Topics covered include building on assets, making money from a product or service, and expanding opportunities.

Algeria's government has failed to take needed measures to protect women from rape, beatings and widespread legal and economic discrimination, Amnesty International told a U.N. panel on Monday. "The government of Algeria has shown a lack of political will to ensure that women are protected from violence," it said in a report to the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

Sudanese women have remained conservative, covered and mostly out of power under the Islamist government which overthrew a short-lived democracy in a bloodless military coup some 15 years ago. Now, inspired by hope that democracy will follow a peace deal to end more than two decades of civil war in the south of the country, some women are throwing off conservative tendencies, defying the conventional preference for marriage over work and seeking roles in the flourishing world of Sudanese opposition parties.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (ACP-EU CTA), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) and the Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos) are inviting applications for the second round of the GenARDIS Small Grants programme. The 10 grants of 5,000 Euros is to address Gender Issues in Information and Communication Technologies for Agricultural and Rural Development in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) Countries.

"The follow-up committee on the Protocol informed us that the National Assembly of Benin voted unanimously in authorizing the ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) on the Rights of Women in Africa. The instrument of ratification must still be officially deposited at the African Union to be effective. Let us remind you that in addition of Benin, Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Nigeria in West Africa are in the same situation. When the deposits will be done, the total of ratification will be ten (10), of which five from West Africa. The Protocol will come into force thirty days after the deposit of the fifteenth (15th) instrument of ratification."

A new publication, Pathway to Gender Equality, outlines how CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action can be used as a lens to understand and address the gender equality dimensions of the MDGs, which in turn can help to ensure that the pursuit of the MDGs is based on principled conviction and results in effective development. This publication offers three ways to enhance the synergy between CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action, and the MDGs.

This Amnesty International report attempts to explore some of the underlying reasons for violence against women. Evidence gathered by Amnesty International in recent years supports the view that conflict reinforces and exacerbates existing patterns of discrimination and violence against women. The violence women suffer in conflict is an extreme manifestation of the discrimination and abuse women face in peacetime, and the unequal power relations between men and women in most societies. The report shows some of the ways in which conflict affects women, and the many different roles which women play in conflict. Women are not only victims and survivors, but also activists, negotiators, peace-builders and human rights defenders.

In Zambia, the battle for equality between men and women is being waged on many fronts - not least concerning the sentences handed down by courts. The trial of Chrystal Denn is a case in point. In the course of her turbulent five-year marriage to Trevor, a professional football player, Chrystal suffered extensive spousal abuse. Her husband beat her up, both at home and in full view of others. After a failed suicide attempt, Chrystal finally killed her spouse in the course of an argument, in 1999. A judge sentenced her to life imprisonment for murder.

Women'sNet is a networking support programme designed to enable South African women to use the internet to find the people, resources and tools needed for women's social activism. Since its inception, Women'sNet has successfully implemented a number of projects as part of its mandate to support South African women in harnessing ICTs to facilitate women's empowerment through networking and special projects.

The International Women's Media Foundation has called for applications to the Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship, a new program that supports women journalists who report on human rights and social justice. The fellowship combines research opportunities at MIT's Center for International Studies and other Boston area universities with reporting opportunities at The New York Times and The Boston Globe.

The Africa Social forum conducted an African Court of Women’s lives and livelihoods, which offered through testimony, expert analysis, poetic visuals, dance and drum, the situation of women in this violent globalised world. Rabia Abedelkrim from FAMES/ENDA, Senegal explained that the role of the judiciary was not to mimic the courts but to articulate new concepts in dispensing justice. “Testifiers were going to speak with their bodies,” she said.

I wanted to share the Chilala case with and ask you for ideas on a continental land rights campaign for women. The facts are as follows:

"Mrs Chilala was widowed. She and her husband had occupied customary land on which they built brick houses. After her husband died, she refused to be inherited by her brother in law and since one of her sons was willing to stay on at the homestead she decided she would stay and not return to her natal home. Her in laws then decided to bury deceased relatives on her premises. To date there are 16 graves at this old woman's homestead. The matter went before the Lands Tribunal (which is ranked at the same level with the High Court but is a specialized Court) and the tribunal ruled that this is not a matter within their mandate and ordered that she pays legal costs to the tune of K50,000,000 (equivalent of US$12,000) she is over 70 years old”.

I know that there is land reform taking place in most of Southern Africa (not sure about the rest of Africa) but can we use this case for advocacy and also do something for this woman. Note we are working with the Justice for Widows and Orphans to seek redress. ([email protected])

This highly successful four-week online course from The Network University will run from January 24 till February 18, 2005. This course brings together worldwide expertise on the relationship between gender and conflict transformation. This course will empower women to become key agents in conflict transformation. The course uses a variety of interactive methods that stimulate thinking and exchange.

Uganda's government must do what it can to protect children and women from violence, while the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) must immediately and unconditionally stop abducting, killing and exploiting Uganda's children, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said last Thursday. UNICEF said that in the district of Gulu alone, an estimated 840 abducted girls returned home this year. About thirty 30 percent had already become mothers.

Prior research has shown a strong correlation between HIV infection and a history of intimate partner violence, particularly among young women. However, the role violence plays in the sexual relationships of young people in Sub-Saharan Africa is not well understood. This study in Tanzania, published in the December 4 edition of International Family Planning Perspectives, concludes that the association between HIV and violence identified among young people in prior research may be partially explained by their experiences with infidelity and forced sex in their intimate partnerships. HIV prevention interventions that fail to take into account the infidelity, violence and forced sex frequently involved in youth's sexual relationships will have a limited impact.

In commemoration of the 2004 World AIDS Day, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the National Action Committee on AIDS in collaboration with the United Nations Theme Group on HIV/AIDS organised a one day national conference in Nigeria on the theme: 'Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS'. The conference was designed to raise awareness among the Nigerian populace as well as policy makers on the ways in which women's inequality helps fuel the transmission of HIV and increase the impact of AIDS. The conference served as a forum for examining the gender dimensions to the HIV/AIDS pandemic as well as seeking lasting solutions in Nigeria. It was attended by 158 participants comprising of representatives of government agencies, HIV/AIDS support groups, civil society organisations, faith-based organisations, development agencies and media organisations. Read the statement issued at the meeting by clicking on the link below.

After the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Godelieve Mukasarasi returned to her village from a refugee camp with one goal in mind - to pick up where she left off months earlier. The social worker's house was destroyed. Some of her family members were killed. But her objective was to help others in her situation. She was in Canada recently to accept the John Humphrey Freedom Award, presented by the Montreal-based human-rights group Rights and Democracy. She said it was the genocide in Rwanda that prompted her to focus on the promotion of women's rights and the rights of women in such conflicts.

Lesotho's government aims to give women full legal equality and property rights within a year in one of the handful of African states where women remain legally inferior to men. Women in the mountainous kingdom - one of the world's poorest countries and entirely circled by South Africa - can vote, work and hold public office, but they are legally minors, subordinate to their husbands or fathers.

"Last Wednesday, twenty women with disabilities converged at United Disabled Persons of Kenya (UDPK) offices along Waiyaki way at Kabete Orthopaedic workshop to share and exchange views on violence against women with disabilities. The stories and experiences shared were just indescribable. Women with disabilities are the most violated in the society, and yet the violations are so secret that nobody seems to know except the victims themselves. Women with disabilities are an integral part of the society. In many, respects too, we have been disadvantaged by the reality of their impairments as well as owing to unwarranted discrimination by the rest of the society. We have been excluded from the mainstream socio-economic activities, no wonder a high proportion of women with disabilities are amongst the poorest."