Despite the proliferation of telecentres throughout Africa, women continue to be cut off from essential info- communication resources that could improve their lives. This thesis examines the relationship between gender differences, telecentre design and women's accessibility to information and communication technologies.

Women in various professions including the ministry responsible for women have strongly criticised a Dar es Salaam-based political analyst French Manoni's comments that African women are unfit to lead or rule.

The Gambia has became the first member state of the African Union to sign the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People Rights relating to the right of women in Africa. The Permanent Representative of the Gambia to the African Union, Dr. Oma A. Touray, signed the Protocol on behalf of his Government.

What's in a name? Married women in Zimbabwe are taking the government to court over a procedure that compels them to adopt their husbands' surnames as a precondition to official documents, including registering the birth of infant children. Under the leadership of the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA), the women have embarked on a class action suit meant to free them from the burden of assuming their husbands' surnames before getting a passport or a child's birth certificate.

Slowly, but effectively, the Internet is empowering women in Africa to follow events as they have never witnessed before. The latest case in point is the women in Somalia who have been following their country's peace talks in neighbouring Kenya via Internet usage. “Women in Somalia could not attend that nation's peace talks. They learned of developments via the Horn of Africa Regional Women's Knowledge Network (HAWKNET) on the web, and through this source they became 'virtual participants' in the event.

The major fault lines between rich and poor countries finally cracked open on Sunday as WTO talks collapsed in Cancun. A newly formed group of developing countries, including China, India and Brazil, stuck together to resist new negotiations and trade rules they felt were stacked against the poor, including the slashing of farm subsidies. An organisation called The Women’s Edge Coalition says the collapse is a victory for the world’s poor, the majority of whom are women.

This article addresses women's health care in Tanzania through various factors, including maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, women's workload, number of births per woman, and female genital mutilation. The authors suggest that, to improve the health of women in Tanzania, health and health-related sectors should cooperate and collaborate in order to empower women in the areas of education, social status, and technology. Policies must also address poverty, nutrition, adolescent health, and violence and sexual abuse.

Empowerment of women must be accompanied by nationwide and region wide campaigns whose aim is to shift mindsets so that power can be seen in both feminine and masculine moulds. In addition, Southern Africa must be wary of being caught in the numbers game. The subject of women in decision-making must be approached from the three perspectives of access, participation and transformation. This is according to a paper by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance that examines the degree of representation of women in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

"I wasn't getting anything from the relationship. Not even make-up from Clicks. He was making me a stupid. So I had to break up with him," says Dudu, a 16-year-old from Umlazi township, Durban. Dudu’s attitude towards relationships and sex is indicative of a growing and worrying national trend that has been identified in new studies. Findings have shown that consumerism and materialism has led to many young South African women embarking on relationships for what researchers call “the three Cs”, cash, clothes and a cellphone.

Pick up any newspaper in southern Africa and chances are that the vast majority of stories filling its pages are written by men about other men. In two southern African countries - South Africa and Zambia - women's advocates and media associations are working together to change that. In South Africa, Gender Links, a South Africa-based organisation that promotes gender equality in and through the media, teamed up with the Media Institute of Southern Africa, which supports an independent press in the region, to conduct a study of women in mainstream news coverage.

The second East African Gender Budget Conference aims to share experiences in the region on gender budgeting in the context of globalisation and to provide an opportunity to: Share and network on gendered approaches through which to engage effectively in the current economic discourse; Build capacity on gender trade and macroeconomic concerns; and Debate alternatives to overcome the current negative effects of globalisation.

Ayele Ajavon is a happy woman, so she believes. After she was divorced by her husband, she sought solace in the church. ''I turned to the church and found a job and a new partner,'' says Ajavon, now a secretary in the capital Lome. But Ajavon cannot take any step or decision without consulting her pastor who also happens to be her ''new partner''. And she donates part of her salary to the church, as tithe.

Women activists in Malawi have waged war against child labour saying it is one of the many forms of violence that women in the country suffer from. In the fight against child labour - especially among the girl-children - women activists, educationists and entrepreneurs are using education as weapon to empower girls. They say the rampant violence in Malawi is partly due to the high levels of illiteracy among women and girls.

HIV/AIDS should be looked at as a "social issue, not just a medical one," according to participants attending a conference on the impact of the epidemic on women that opened last Tuesday in Botswana.

Internews has launched a major information technology (IT) training program for African and Asian women working in the media and other communication sectors. The program, which provides 430 scholarships, is intended for women in the African countries of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, and the Asian countries of Bangladesh, Mongolia, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The Siyanda Update is a monthly newsletter featuring the latest gender mainstreaming resources available on the website http://www.siyanda.org/. Siyanda aims to assist busy gender practitioners with locating essential gender mainstreaming resources, quickly and easily. It is also an interactive space where gender practitioners can share ideas, experiences and resources with like-minded colleagues. To subscribe or unsubscribe from the "Siyanda Update", please go to: http://www.siyanda.org/subscribe.htm

Consider the following:
* Over 3/4 of people living on less than $1 per day are small farmers (around 900 million people worldwide). The majority of small farmers are women;
* The average European subsidy per cow is $2 per day – billions of people in the world barely subsist on less than this amount;
* Agricultural subsidies in developed countries exceed the total income of sub-Saharan Africa.
Heavily subsidized agricultural products are taking away the livelihoods of millions of female small farmers. Moreover, the WTO Agreement on Agriculture does not guarantee food sovereignty.
At the fifth WTO Ministerial we demand:
* No new issues!
* Democratic governance, transparency and accountability!
* Human development and gender equality-oriented agendas!
* Human development and human rights as the central guiding principles!

Everyday about 10,000 people pass through the cross-country bus station in the Ethiopian capital to visit relatives, do business or simply search for a better life. And it is at the bus station where many young girls get drawn into prostitution. According to a recent survey carried out in Addis Ababa, child prostitution is on the rise.

This is a report of the findings of Cost Benefit Analyses (CBA) of the gender disparities in literacy and access to agriculture services in Malawi, and the interventions to redress it and also of activities to reduce Gender Based Violence (GBV). The purpose of the study is to provide information to assist in advocating for and planning programs that are gender responsive, and thereby contribute to overall national economic growth and poverty reduction. The objective of the study is to estimate the incremental financial benefits of addressing the gender disparities. A review of the Malawi Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (MPRSP) process showed that there was no gender rationalization of the allocation of resources and the setting of targets.

When Josephine Vika asked Mzimkhulu Jam, a former Umkhonto we Sizwe sergeant major who brutally raped and murdered her 21-year-old daughter, Nosipho Vika, why he had done it, she did not expect his response. “Ag Voetsek,” he said. “I don't have to answer to women”. After Jam was jailed for 26 years in February Josephine told a reporter that in that moment, she had seen that he believed women were no better than animals. Gender inequality contributes to South Africa's high levels of violence, hampers economic development, places strain on our health care system and is fuelling the AIDS crisis.