Roma Juma makes tea for guests using her smoke-free stove. Credit:Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS

By Zofeen Ebrahim

THATTA, Pakistan, Feb 25 , 2010 (IPS) – Forty-something and unlettered, Sona Siddiqi never imagined she would become the most sought-after woman in her village of Ramzan Katiar.
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The promise of Africa's Decade for Women is action on the various declarations and conventions which have not yet delivered gender equality. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/PlusNews

By Omer Redi

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 22, 2010 (IPS) – Fears that the impact of the global economic meltdown would affect funding to various development areas have been rife. Already, several governments have cut their budgets for HIV and AIDS and bilateral and multilateral funding partners have done likewise.
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Veena Panudej at her workplace. Credit:Marwaan Macan-Markar/IPS

By Marwaan Macan-Markar*

TRAT, Thailand, Feb 20, 2010 (IPS) – Veena Panudej makes a living in the night like so many other women and men in this quiet eastern corner of Thailand. They work under the light of the stars in rubber estates spread beyond this city close to the Cambodian border.
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Informal traders in the SADC region sell a wide range of goods: wood and stone carvings, clothes, furniture, electrical goods and doilies. Credit: Ntandoyenkosi Ncube/IPS

By Ntandoyenkosi Ncube

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 19, 2010 (IPS) – Support for regional trade is one of the cornerstones of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). But the focus has been on large scale trade in goods and services, ignoring one important group trading throughout the region. Continue Reading

Taina Bien-Aimé, Executive Director of Equality Now, briefs journalists at the UN. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24, 2010 (IPS) – Nearly 62 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaimed “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” a few of the world’s discriminatory laws against women are being progressively repealed in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America.
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Credit: Scottish Geographical Magazine

By Noël Kokou Tadégnon*

LOME, Feb 17, 2010 (IPS) – Brigitte Kafui Adjamagbo-Johnson, head of the opposition Democratic Convention of African Peoples party, is Togo’s first female presidential candidate. But she has withdrawn from the electoral process.
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Credit: Ken Opprann/Norway/UNFPA

By Evelyn Matsamura Kiapi

KAMPALA, Feb 17, 2010 (IPS) – As the East Africa Community (EAC) gradually moves towards a political confederation, women’s rights groups from the five member states are pushing for an East African Protocol on Gender and Development to bridge the gender gaps within the integration process.
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Credit: Buweosman

By Pavol Stracansky

VIENNA, Feb 17, 2010 (IPS) – With hundreds of thousands of girls and women believed to be at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Europe, rights groups have mounted a campaign to get EU leaders to stop what they see as a barbaric and dangerous procedure.
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Carol Orozco hawking candy at a busy intersection in Guatemala City. Credit: Danilo Valladares/IPS

By Danilo Valladares

GUATEMALA CITY, Feb 16, 2010 (IPS) – “I’ve been working in the streets since I was a girl. My parents didn’t send me to school, so it’s really hard for me to find a job,” says Carol Orozco, 31, who forms part of the veritable army of vendors hawking their wares on the streets of Central America.
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Protest for women's lives. Credit: Jfruh

By José Adán Silva

MANAGUA, Feb 15, 2010 (IPS) – Nicaragua slammed the door on any possible debate on the restitution of therapeutic abortion – performed to save the life of the pregnant woman – despite demands that it do so voiced during a United Nations review of human rights in the country.
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