Women have a one-in-30 chance of dying in childbirth in northern Sudan, with higher rates in areas of the south, according to the UN. While data was available for the north, it was nonexistent in the south due to the absence of a government there to collect information centrally, Dr Michaleen Richer of the UN Children's Fund told IRIN.

New findings on maternal mortality by WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA show that a woman living in sub-Saharan Africa has a 1 in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy or childbirth. This compares with a 1 in 2,800 risk for a woman from a developed region. These findings are contained in a new global report on maternal mortality released by the three agencies.

At 50, Nyende Namisi, a peasant farmer in rural western Kenya, has never seen a computer before. Efforts by an empowerment lobby group to introduce her to one have hit a snag. She maintains that she is well past using such a device and prefers her children to be taught instead. Millions of women in rural sub-Saharan Africa have no access to Information Communication Technology (ICTs), particularly computer technologies like internet and e-mail.

Is the World Bank's approach to land relations gender insensitive? Is it realistic to pin poverty reduction aspirations on the promotion of credit markets and reliance on women's unpaid labour? Does the acquisition of secure tenure rights necessarily benefit poor women? How should advocates of women's rights in Africa respond to the Bank's land agenda?

Women with AIDS face neglect and prejudice all over the world. Many are denied healthcare during pregnancy or forced to have abortions. Some are sent away by their husband's family to their parents' home. How can their situation be improved? The International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS set up a research project to find out the needs of HIV-positive women in Zimbabwe. Following the project these women were better able to represent the rights of HIV positive women and play an active role in raising AIDS awareness in their communities.

Medicins Sans Frontiers has set up a project to treat the victims of rape and sexual violence near Liberia's capital, Monrovia, in the wake of the drawn-out civil war that has decimated the country over the last 14 years. The project opened in the first week of October. It is feared that a high proportion of woman and children suffered brutal sexual abuse or attacks during the course of the conflict, with women being taken from their families and used as 'sex slaves', and children as young as five being assaulted.

Property inheritance by women is emerging as one of the greatest present-day controversies in Africa, with majority of people on the continent still not keen on passing on inheritances to women and a sharp conflict between the traditional cultural ethic and modern way of life.

With one in every 15 pregnant women dying from pregnancy and delivery complications, giving birth is risky business in Malawi. Doctors say women are dying as a result of loss of blood, inexperienced birth attendants and limited resources and drugs.

Two tireless women's rights champions, Maeza Ashenafi from Ethiopia and Sara Longwe from Zambia, were awarded the 15th annual Africa Prize for Leadership, often referred to as the "Nobel Prize for Africa”, in a ceremony Saturday in New York. The Hunger Project, a global strategic organisation that is committed to ending hunger worldwide, sponsors the 50,000-dollar award. The annual prize recognises activists' bold leadership to legally guarantee women's full human rights on the African continent.

In an effort to broaden its gender and technology initiatives as well as enhance women's participation in Uganda's ICT sector, the Department of Women and Gender Studies (DWGS) at Makerere University would like to propose a Gender and ICT for Development Seminar Series to provide an opportunity for students, scholars and interested members of the public to gain insights on the intersection of gender, ICTs and development from key actors in the field. Particular emphasis would be given to raise the challenges and opportunities for women aspiring to be IT professionals.

My colleague Lesley Abdela and I are compiling a report for the United Nations designed to increase the fairness of elections as far as women are concerned. I hope readers will send examples of good practice and also bad practice, for inclusion in the report. Please e-mail Tim Symonds on [email][email protected] We want to find material on women and elections around the world, particularly on steps taken to increase women's participation in national, local, county, or regional or municipal elections, in the following categories: 1. Actions and campaigns by women's NGOs to increase women's participation in elections; 2. Female voter education; 3. Women candidates; 4. Impact on women of election laws; 5. Quotas; 6. Raising funds for female candidates; 7. Media coverage at election time on issues of special importance to women; 8. Steps to make voter registration accessible for women; 9. Minimising intimidation of female voters/candidates; 10. matters concerning illiteracy. All contributions used in the report will be fully acknowledged.

When Lands Minister Judith Kapijimpanga announced recently that government had, with immediate effect, directed local authorities to intensify land allocation to women to empower them through ownership, there was a huge round of applause. But not everyone is optimistic. The Zambia National Land Alliance, an NGO reviewing the land policy, says all this is high sounding and right along the lines of affirmative action, but will be a long time coming.

Kenya's gays and lesbians plan to forward their grievances to the government and lobby for recognition in a draft constitution currently being discussed in Nairobi by 629 delegates from across the East African country.

African female experts from different liberal parties will discuss their national situation and the measures taken by the party to enhance female participation. The workshop will produce a joint declaration with practical points for the future.

Property inheritance by women is emerging as one of the greatest present-day controversies in Africa, with the majority of people on the continent still not keen on passing on inheritances to women and a sharp conflict between the traditional cultural ethic and modern way of life.

Government has with immediate effect directed local authorities throughout the country to intensify land allocation to women to empower them through ownership. Lands Minister Judith Kapijimpanga also urged traditional rulers to encourage women to own land - of which 90 per cent was under utilised and was controlled by chiefs.

The number of displaced Liberian women who have contracted reproductive tract infections and those dying from pregnancy related complications that could be treated is alarming, the United Nations population fund (UNFPA) said.

“She came in last evening. Five armed men had raped her the night before, a few kilometres from here," explains Mathilde Muhindo, director of a social assistance agency of the Roman Catholic diocese of Bukavu, on the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. "This morning, she was still crying. I cried with her," says Muhindo, in whose eyes traces of tears are visible. It all began in 1994. Rwanda's Patriotic Front, dominated by ethnic Tutsis, seized power in that country and halted the genocidal attacks against the Tutsi community planned and perpetrated by the Hutus, in which an estimated 800,000 people died.

The Swaziland branch of Women in Law in Southern Africa is concerned that guarantees of women's rights that were announced in the draft constitution, soon to be ratified by King Mswati, are not as secure as first thought. “When the draft constitution came out, there were many parts that we greeted with enthusiasm, because they called for equality for women. But upon further reflection, it is apparent that all rights, whether granted to women or anyone else in the form of human rights, may not be absolute,” said Manzini attorney Fikile Mthembu.

Consultations continue as the initiators of the proposed Women's Manifesto in Ghana seek to gather more information and to get more groups to give their support for the manifesto. The document seeks to give women a common platform for addressing crucial concerns of women in Ghana through helping more of them to take up leadership positions in politics, and especially in Parliament.