Madagascan female activists are asking that the right of women to participate directly in politics be included in a new draft of the country’s Constitution, so that there can be 30 percent of female politicians in parliament by 2012 and 50 percent by 2015.

President Jacob Zuma has declared that African leaders aimed to deliver on their commitments to allocate 15% of their budgets to health care and to allocate an amount for maternal, newborn and child health care.

38 countries still criminalize same-sex relationships between consenting adults in Africa, four with death penalty. The map was launched together with the 4th edition of the State-Sponsored Homophobia published by ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. The report is a collection of legislation criminalising consensual sexual acts between persons of the same sex in private over the age of consent*. Maps are available in French, English, Portuguese and Spanish.

The UN is to set up a single agency dedicated to promote the rights of women and girls around the world. The UN General Assembly voted in favour of the body after four years of negotiations. The new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women will be referred to as UN Women, officials said.

On June 17th, the third panafrican conference on best practices in ICT in francophone Africa opened in Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso [fr]. While the conference focused on strategies to curb cyber-criminality, the Togolese blogosphere is embracing the potential of information technology for development, especially women and young people.

July 1 marked the moment when the East African Community common market protocol kicked into operation. But Ugandan women face several obstacles before they will benefit from the boost that the protocol gives to the free movement of goods, labour and capital. Regional integration, which began with the signing of the east African customs union protocol in 2005, has increased export opportunities and expanded production in the agricultural sector where women predominate, cultivating 80 percent of agricultural products taken across borders.

Football is by far the most popular sport throughout Africa. More than a sport, football in most African countries has deep political, social and economic ramifications. Yet, the game that garners this position is explicitly the men's game. What of the women's game? African women are playing football. In some nations, officials, both in sport and political realms, have actually prioritized the development of the women's game.

Participants at the Annual Conference on African Women in Politics held on the 7th – 9th June 2010, organized by the African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET)have called on governments to, among other things, strengthen legal and policy frameworks in their countries by aligning them with international and regional principles and standards of democracy in particular those supporting equal participation and representation of men and women in political leadership.

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Progress in reducing maternal mortality and morbidity is still "tragically slow". Now, the United Nations has unveiled a global initiative based on government, civil society and private sector cooperation that could save the lives of up to one million women during pregnancy and childbirth. A US$20 billion funding gap in maternal and child health in the world's least developed countries means that between 350,000 and 500,000 women die each year from preventable pregnancy-related causes and complications, and another 15 million suffer from equally preventable long-term disabilities.

Much to the frustration of gender activists, Swaziland's Supreme Court has reversed a February 2010 High Court ruling that allowed a married woman to register property in their own name. After centuries of being classified and treated as minors, the new Swazi Constitution granted women equal status in 2005. Activist Mary-Joyce Doo Aphane wished to register a house in her own name and challenged the country's 1968 Deeds Registry Act. She was granted a High Court order declaring the section unconstitutional.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) youth should celebrate themselves on Youth Day and assert the protections and freedoms enshrined in our constitution, Justice Edwin Cameron said as the country prepares to commemorate the Soweto Uprising of June 16, 1976.

Women in abusive relationships have a higher risk of being infected with HIV, a South African Medical Research Council study has found. Researchers said one in seven new HIV infections could be averted if women were not subjected to physical and sexual abuse or relationships inequalities. In a randomised trial they studied 1 099 HIV negative women in South Africa. Women were tested once over a period of two years. Face to face interviews were conducted with women to assess exposure to gender based violence and inequality in their relationships.

She may have been little-known in political circles until now, but by putting herself forward as the first female independent presidential candidate, Luisete Macedo Araújo (50) has thrust herself into the limelight. Araújo is the first Angolan woman to set her sights on the country’s top job, held for the last 30 years by the same man, Jose Eduardo dos Santos.

The year is 2010 and the destination is Johannesburg in South Africa. A group of women monopolise the backseat of a commuter transborder omnibus covering themselves with thick blankets despite the warm weather and at every police checkpoint, they pile more blankets, jackets and jerseys over their legs. Two hours later with Polokwane in sight, their thighs part to reveal the peeping faces of three young children smothered beneath the layers of wool, blankets and nylon – they last resurfaced five hours before for a toilet break along the Masvingo highway, long before the Beitbridge border.

The recent arrest of an American lawyer by the heavy-handed Rwandan government has human rights implications for the resource war in neighboring eastern Congo. Eve Ensler, who wrote "The Vagina Monologues" and is now a major advocate for Congolese women suffering sexual violence, says the Rwandan government is part of the problem when it comes to ending the violence against women.

On behalf of Activists from Kisarawe, Feminist Activist Coalition (FemAct) and Health Equity Group (HEqG), TGNP is pleased to announce the Gender Festival which will be held in Kisarawe! The theme is Economic Justice: Making Resources Work For Marginalised Women, and will take place from the 22nd till the 24th of June 2010 at Chanzige Primary School. Please View the attached letter for more information.

Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) and Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) is alarmed and concerned over the recent political violence witnessed during the by elections in Mufumbwe, Zambia.

The wave of sentimentality surrounding Africa's first World Cup has concealed the persistence of marked gender discrimination around both how countries use public funds and conceive of organised sport, writes Salma Maoulidi. Football's popularity in countries like Tanzania and the political capital to be had by pandering to its followers, Maoulidi highlights, end up reinforcing discriminatory funding allocations and perpetuating a mismatch of opportunity along gender lines.

In colonial times, Senegal's metropolis Dakar was famous for its open and tolerated homosexual prostitution market, and as late as in the 1970s, as many as 17 percent of Senegalese men admitted having had homosexual experiences.