By Lewis Mwanangombe

A copper mine in Zambia. When Luanshya’s copper mine closed in 2000 more than 6,000 people lost their jobs, triggering massive poverty. / Blue Salo/Wikicommons

LUSAKA, Jan 31 (IPS) – Zhang Daliu, 46, a carpenter from China never imagined himself in the dreadful confines of a stinking and overcrowded Zambian jail where conditions [...]

By Lewis Mwanangombe

A copper mine in Zambia. When Luanshya’s copper mine closed in 2000 more than 6,000 people lost their jobs, triggering massive poverty. / Blue Salo/Wikicommons

LUSAKA, Jan 31 (IPS) – Zhang Daliu, 46, a carpenter from China never imagined himself in the dreadful confines of a stinking and overcrowded Zambian jail where conditions [...]

By Wambi Michael

Dorothy Kabajungu, 50, has started a firewood business after obtaining a loan from a women’s bank. / Wambi Michael/IPS

WAKISO, Uganda, Jan 30 (IPS) – For most Ugandan women, obtaining a commercial loan to start a business has been very difficult. Many do not have the required collateral of land title deeds [...]

By Wambi Michael

Dorothy Kabajungu, 50, has started a firewood business after obtaining a loan from a women’s bank. / Wambi Michael

WAKISO, Uganda, Jan 30 (IPS) – For most Ugandan women, obtaining a commercial loan to start a business has been very difficult. Many do not have the required collateral of land title deeds [...]

By Claire Ngozo

Vice President Joyce Banda (r) and Minister of Gender Reen Kachere (l) at a meeting to condemn the abuse of women by the vendors. / Claire Ngozo/IPS

LILONGWE, Jan 25 (IPS) – A campaign to stop people buying merchandise from street vendors is gaining momentum in Malawi’s main cities of Lilongwe, Blantyre [...]

By Jared Ferrie

Members of the Murle ethnic group wait to receive food aid after attacks from a rival tribe that the U.N. says affected at least 120,000 people. / Jared Ferrie/IPS

PIBOR, South Sudan, Jan 24 (IPS) – In the ward of a partially destroyed clinic, Mangiro (who did not give his last name) [...]

By Ignatius Banda

More than 70 percent of Africans – the majority of whom are women –rely on farming for survival. / Ignatius Banda/IPS

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Dec 20 (IPS) – Duduzile Sibanda takes a break from preparing her long stretch of land for her maize crop in rural Mberengwa, in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province. She wipes [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu

A pregnant woman in Kenya's North Eastern Province with one of her children. Overpopulation in the area contributes to poor maternal health. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

GARISSA, Kenya, Dec 19 (IPS) – The Garissa Maternal Shelter in North Eastern Province, Kenya is the only such facility in an area with the country’s highest [...]

By Sam Olukoya

In Ajegunle, a low-lying slum in Lagos, flooding is also disrupting the economic activities of women / Sam Olukoya/IPS

LAGOS, Nigeria, Dec 15 (IPS) – The women of Makoko, a low-lying slum close to the Lagos Lagoon along Nigeria’s Atlantic coast, always sleep with one eye open. Many live in fear that when [...]

Analysis by Miriam Gathigah

An internally-displaced Kenyan woman cooks in her makeshift kitchen. / Miriam Gathigah/IPS

BUSAN, South Korea, Dec 13 (IPS) – Women’s rights champions are not prepared to let the dust settle on the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness that ended in this South Korean port city on Dec. 1 with [...]

By Miriam Gathigah
BUSAN, South Korea, Dec 1 (IPS) – Gender champions have lauded the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness for providing gender equality and the empowerment of women a special session, but there is dissatisfaction with Thursday’s Busan outcome document.

Although the document alluded to gender equality, experts feel that the scope is narrow [...]

By Stephen Binda

Liberians voted in a runoff on Nov. 8 that was marred by violence and an opposition boycott. / Robbie Corey-Boulet/IPS

MONROVIA, Nov 14 (IPS) – Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s victory for a second term of office has been described as a boon for women despite the controversy surrounding an opposition boycott of [...]

By Badylon Kawanda Bakiman
KIKWIT, DR Congo, Nov 12 (IPS) – The 11 candidates contesting presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo all pledge to improve peace and security in the country – promises received with varying degrees of scepticism by Congolese voters.

"Our ambition is to provide our country with 150,000 soldiers and 200,000 police [...]

By Protus Onyango

Deputy Chief Justice of Kenya’s Supreme Court Nancy Baraza has begun overhauling the country’s judiciary. / Protus Onyango/IPS

NAIROBI, Nov 10 (IPS) – Deputy Chief Justice of Kenya’s Supreme Court Nancy Baraza, who made history as the first woman appointed to the post, has begun overhauling the country’s judiciary.

Kenya's judicial system is often [...]

By Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar

The Somali national women’s basketball team is in training for the Arab Games in Qatar. / Shafi’i Mohyaddin Abokar/IPS

MOGADISHU, Oct 18 (IPS) – When Al-Shabaab militants called the Somali national women’s basketball team captain, Suweys Ali Jama, and told her she had two options: to be killed or to stop [...]