Gender parity in education remains a distant prospect in 54 countries, including 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa as well as India and Pakistan, despite worldwide focus on Education for All, specially on girls’ education. Girls continue to face “sharp discrimination in access to schooling” in a majority of developing countries, even though slow but significant progress was achieved in the 1990’s, says the Global Education for All monitoring report for 2003/4.

Women’s health issues have attained higher international visibility and renewed political commitment in recent decades. While targeted policies and programs have enabled women to lead healthier lives, significant gender-based health disparities remain in many countries, begins this Global Health Council feature on women's health that looks at global disparities, HIV, maternal health, reproductive health and gender-based violence.

The Department for Gender and Peace Studies at the University for Peace is pleased to announce three new international courses that will be taught on the University’s main campus in San José, Costa Rica in 2004. Brief descriptions of the new courses may be found by clicking on the web link provided. The Department also invites you to look for more information about the courses and the Department’s other programmes, including an application form, at the UPEACE website: http://www.upeace.org. Additionally, you may contact the Office for Academic Administration directly at [email protected].

There are fears that men suspected of being gay in conservative Malawi will be placed under greater scrutiny - this as shockwaves from the recent consecration of a gay bishop in the United States make themselves felt in Africa.

The Anglican Church of Kenya has barred all its 28 dioceses from having any involvement with Gene Robinson, the new bishop of New Hampshire in the United States - and the first openly gay clergyman. Robinson's consecration on November 2 has threatened to split the global Anglican community.

A new report published by Minority Rights Group International (MRG), highlights the double discrimination faced by Twa women in the Great Lake Region of Africa, both as indigenous peoples, and as women. Twa communities have faced widespread discrimination, marginalization and violation of their rights in the region. Twa women additionally face gender discrimination, from both broader society and from within their own Twa communities.

The dispossession of widows - commonly referred to as 'property grabbing' - is one of the most prevalent and entrenched forms of violence that women experience in Malawi. This book presents findings of case-studies of Malawian women who have encountered dispossession of matrimonial property when their husbands died.

As the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights opens its 34th ordinary session in Banjul, The Gambia, African NGOs have called on it to question states over gross violations of human rights and have highlighted omissions in their state reports concerning indigenous peoples and minorities. Over 100 NGOs from across Africa attended an NGO Forum convened before the Commission during 3-5 November.

The horrors of land acquisition are experienced by mining-affected communities in a similar manner to - or perhaps more severely than by - communities affected by dams and other big projects. When mining leases are given, the immediate threat to local communities is displacement and land alienation, which are inevitable features of large-scale mining. Mining has multiplied the exploitation and degradation of women's rights. Historically and also in the existing legal framework in most developing countries, women have few if any legal rights over lands or natural resources.

Kenyan women are challenging a report by a state-appointed taskforce which, they say, has ignored issues that have contributed to their marginalisation. They say the 'Report of the Taskforce on the Establishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission' has failed to point out Affirmative Action (AA) as a solution to the gender inequality in the workplace.

The Network for Ecofarming in Africa (NECOFA) has produced a short paper profiling the role of Nigerian women in sustainable food production and food security and advocating greater efforts from national food and agriculture programmes to take account of women's expertise in this area. The report identifies a number of areas where the National Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS), which promotes ecologically and socially sustainable farming methods, has been successful in increasing the participation of women.

Researchers need to be aware of gender concerns and policy-makers need to look very carefully at the sex and gender implications of all research findings before deploying them in the development of services, according to a report from the Global Forum for Health Research. The report is a resource for researchers who wish to incorporate gender concerns into their work in systematic and appropriate ways.

Many women still face discrimination in accessing land, shelter and property rights despite policy and legal reforms. Tenure systems and contexts vary greatly in the different opportunities and barriers they offer to women. Changes clearly need to be made, but a better understanding of the way these complex tenure systems relate to the dynamic roles of women and men is required before the necessary options and impacts of achieving the changes can be fully understood.

Leaders of the Anglican Church in Africa have condemned the appointment of the first openly gay Anglican bishop. Archbishop Peter Akinola, leader of the Nigerian Church, said the consecration of Gene Robinson meant a "state of impaired communion" now divided the Church worldwide.

The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China propelled international concern and action on the role of media in perpetuating women's subordination. The Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) gave an overview of problems and issues surrounding women and the media and spelled out specific strategies for governments, media organisations, non-government organisations and other civil society actors. More than four years later, WomenWatch, an initiative of the United Nations to assess progress and obstacles on BPFA held an online-discussion. The discussion concluded that there have been few improvements in media portrayal of women both in advertising and news coverage.

This second issue of Feminist Africa, a publication of the African Gender Institute, affirms the relevance of frequently neglected cultural, ideological and discursive processes to feminist politics and knowledge production. While the theme of this issue embraces a wide range of inquiry, contributions focus on key subjects. The many taboos and distortions surrounding sexuality are uncovered through the emphasis on its intricate connections to politics, while sanctified identities are explored with reference to their constructed social meanings. The issue also examines women writers' creative expression as rich sources for expanding feminist resistance and social change.

Graca Machel has called for the amendment of the Parliamentary Protocol of the African Union to ensure at least two members from each country are women. "This is the only way that the change from the OAU (former Organisation of African Unity) to the AU can give a real chance to women to take their rightful place in the continent's decision-making," she told journalists on arrival in Nairobi on Tuesday.

Women were given a raw deal in the appointment of new Judges, the Federation of Kenya Women Lawyers (Fida) has said. Executive Director Ms Jane Kiragu said it was regrettable that only two women were considered for appointment in a list of 12. "The appointment is contrary to the spirit of the Narc manifesto which advocates that at least one third of all government appointments be women," she said.

The situation of Zimbabwe's women farm workers, always one of the most exploited sectors of the workforce, has been worsened by the current land reform programme, said a study prepared by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.

The Gender Unit at IDRC is launching a research competition on the theme “Decentralization and Women’s Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa.” The competition is to support empirical research that will document and analyse specific state decentralization reforms that have worked to promote women’s rights, and/or reforms that have created barriers to the protection and realization of these rights.