The numbers speak for themselves; women in Zimbabwe are bearing the enormous burden of domestic violence. Last year alone 22 women were reported to have committed offences against men compared to the 181, or eight times as many men reported to have committed offences against women in Mashonaland Central province.

What does it mean to be a poor, single mother in the new South Africa? Lots of guilt and anger, reports Health-E News Service, as women confess to taking out their frustrations on their children.

Zimbabwean woman Angeline Mugwendere narrates her story of how she overcame her gender, rural background and poverty to get education and become successful. Now she helps people from her community set up businesses and establish themselves.

Ethiopian President Girma Wolde-Giorgis on Monday at the opening of a four-day conference in Addis Ababa said that women have a "formidable" and "irreplaceable" role in fighting HIV/AIDS in the country.

A three-day seminar aimed at informing members of Burundi's minority Batwa community on their human rights, democracy and the country's peace process ended in the central province of Gitega on Wednesday.

Women's Day, which takes place on 9 August, celebrates the heroics of more than 20 000 women who 45 years ago, marched to Pretoria against the extension of pass laws to African women.

The Africa Forum and Network on Debt and Development(Afrodad)has published a paper that looks at how the debt burden of most African countries has contributed to engendering gender disparities and ultimately led to stunted economic development.

Representatives from various women's organisations in Mpumalanga will participate in a provincial "women's parliament" on Tuesday to share ideas on matters from HIV/Aids to the world summit on sustainable development.

Further protests by Niger-Delta women against continued oil exploitation and criminal neglect of the area by the Federal Government and the oil companies may soon follow, although a final date has not yet been set.

Only 5.3 million women in Uganda who are either married or cohabiting use family planning methods.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development is 'deeply and comprehensively gender blind', in both its internal and external coherence, argues a paper on NEPAD and gender.

Women were noticeably absent from the structures of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), with virtually no positions of influence within the continental body during its 39-year existence. That is set to change in the OAU's successor, the AU, says Frene Ginwala, South Africa's parliamentary speaker.

Southern Africa's famine is especially devastating for women in Malawi, where widows have no property rights and AIDS leaves grandmothers to care for hungry orphans.

The Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University has announced, as part of their international initiative, the creation of the African Women Public Service Fellowship. The fellowship was established to expand the opportunity for African women to prepare for public service in their home countries. The fellowship awards for these programs will support tuition, housing, travel to and from the United States, and a small stipend to cover books and miscellaneous expenses.

This network is an initiative of the Dimitra Project coordination unit in West Africa, which covers seven countries. The network has been established in Senegal with the mission of expanding throughout these various countries. The fields of action of this network range from training and information for women,Äôs associations, to the creation of links between development partners, the development of local knowledge, action to promote solidarity amongst associations, and measures to support income-generation activities.

Although the government has criminalised female genital mutilation, it must still go the extra mile to eradicate the outdated practice from the 55 districts where it is prevalent.

How do poor people view poverty and wellbeing? What are their problems and priorities? What is their experience of the institutions of states, markets and civil society? How are gender relations faring within poor households and communities?

The International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS (ICW) developed a project encouraging HIV positive women to share and document their experiences of living with HIV, particularly in relation to sexual and reproductive health and needs. In Zimbabwe, Positive Women: Voices and Choices has been quite outstanding in its process and outcomes. HIV positive women, from resource-poor mainly rural communities, were elected by their support groups to be trained to collect data and analyse the findings. The process of teamwork gave the women skills and self-confidence and they are now strong advocates from their communities, representing the issues of HIV positive women in many fora and making presentations at high-profile, national and international events.

During a recent site visit to West Africa, the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) spoke with more than 30 Sierra Leonean women and girls—refugees, internally displaced, and returnees—about their experiences and the reintegration obstacles they face in Sierra Leone. Many of the women and girls had lost spouses, parents, children and other family members in the fighting or had suffered or witnessed atrocities.

In the context of the Know How Conference 2002 held last week in Kampala, Uganda, on the collection and dissemination of information relevant to women, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has denounced the limited access by rural women to the new information technologies.