African women's rights activists have initiated efforts to promote women's awareness on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

Women voice their hopes for a peaceful and healthy planet in a document called "Women's Action Agenda for a Peaceful and Healthy Planet 2015", a blueprint of their dreams and goals for sustainable, gender-sensitive, people-centred development launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development Prepcom meeting in Bali.

The Gender Caucus for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) invites you to consider and implement the recommendations contained in the attached statement as your organisation makes preparations for the WSIS. The gender caucus consists of representatives of organisations that responded to an invitation by UNIFEM to contribute to ensuring that gender dimensions are included in the process of defining and creating a Global Information Society that contributes to sustainable development and human security.

The Moroccan government has proposed to parliament an amendment to the electoral code whereby 10 percent of parliamentary seats at the national level would be reserved for women candidates. Currently only 0.5 percent of the members of parliament are women. In another move to promote gender equality, the six parties of the ruling coalition committed to a 20 percent quota of female candidates to run for the September 2002 parliamentary elections. Over the past two years, UNIFEM has supported the coalition of women's groups who have lobbied for these changes.

Dr. Inonge Mbikusita-Lewanika, President of the Federation of African Women's Peace Networks, whose creation UNIFEM facilitated and continues to support, was recently appointed Zambia's Special Envoy and Ambassador to the Organization for African Unity (OAU). Dr. Lewanika, also the President of Zambia's opposition party, 'Agenda for Zambia,' was sworn in at the State House in Lusaka on 22 March by Zambian President Mwanawasa. The President said that, "women had not been given a fair share of national responsibilities in Zambia," and that he was “convinced Dr. Lewanika would carry out her responsibilities adequately and effectively."

UNIFEM facilitated a solidarity mission by the Women’s League of the African National Congress (ANC) on 4 April to support Congolese women attending the Inter-Congolese Dialogue (ICD) in Sun City, South Africa. The ANC women shared the history of their struggle for political participation and urged the Congolese women to create a support group to assist one another to access political leadership. They also urged the more than 60 Congolese women present to fight the system of gender discrimination and not their male counterparts.

How can men and women working in the unprotected "informal economy" be helped to better defend their rights? That priority concern for the union movement is on the agenda of the International Labour Conference, which opened in Geneva on 3 June. At the grass roots level, the unions are establishing contacts and tackling the "most urgent" problems, so as to ensure the survival of workers subjected to harassment and dangerous and undignified working conditions.

You are invited to participate in the on-line discussion "Information and
communication technologies (ICT) and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women" which will run
from 17 June to 19 July 2002.

Despite the devastating effect of conflict on women in war-affected countries, women have demonstrated enormous leadership and courage in mobilizing support networks for peace, justice, and reconciliation. This is according to experts researching a report on the impact of war on women, expected to be released in September 2002.

To better address the deteriorating situation in the Mano River region that threatens the fragile peace process, leaders of the "Mano River Women's Peace Network" (MARWOPNET) will come together for a Training Workshop from 7-10 June in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The Network is comprised of a cross-section of women from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea who are dedicated to engendering the peace process in the sub-region. In the past, the Network has succeeded in encouraging the leaders of the Mano River Union to initiate dialogue within and between the three countries. Both the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, and the UN Security Council have publicly recognised the contributions of the Women's Peace Network.

The United Nations Fund for Women educates sex workers through videos made by former sex workers and rehabilitiates them by providing sustainable businesses like market gardening, poultry and fish farming.

Lucy Susa sits outside the Mayani Health centre with twins Sainabu and Chemalenga sucking at her emaciated breasts. She's one of several hundred women who walk to the health centre, in the impoverished Dedza district in the centre of the country, for the babies' regular check up.

Divorced women are set to benefit from a new maintenance payment system after the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has researched a method whereby maintenance money paid to divorced women could become available at automatic teller machines (ATMs) installed at magistrates courts throughout the country.

At least 580 million women in the world are illiterate, Edith Adera, the Team Leader of the Acacia Initiative at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), said. The figure represented 65 per cent of illiterate people in the world.

Borno State Governor, Mala Kachalla in Maiduguri. launched a project intended to alleviate the suffering of women in dire need including widows, vesco-virginal Fistula (VVF) patients, women living with HIV/AIDS, lepers and the mentally sick.

The Uganda Women Parliamentary Association and the Coalition on the Domestic Relations Bill have agreed to lobby President Yoweri Museveni and the First Lady to support them on the Bill.

Womens's empowerment group Wiphold has blamed a lack of domestic economic activity and difficult trading conditions for its disappointing results for the year to February 28. It has reported a drop in net profit to R8m for the year from almost R31m a year earlier.

Seven women teachers at the Little Flower High School in Qumbu, Eastern Cape, appeared in court on charges of common and indecent assault after they allegedly forced a girl pupil to perform a sexual act using a banana.

The author traces the misapplication of Western, body-oriented concepts of gender through the history of gender discourses in Yoruba studies. THE INVENTION OF WOMEN demonstrates that biology as a rationale for organizing the social world is a Western construction not applicable in Yoruban culture where social organization was determined by relative age.

A women-only university, which will offer science and technology courses, has been launched in Kenya, with the explicit aim of popularising science among African women. The privately owned Kiriri Women’s University of Science and Technology (KWUST), has already received a letter of interim authority from the Commission for Higher Education, the body charged with registration of new universities in the country.