By Tamba Tengbeh and Damon van der Linde

Participants at the Sierra Leone Conference on Development and Transformation outlining recommendations on how to develop of the country. / Damon van der Linde/IPS

FREETOWN, Feb 8 (IPS) – Fifty years ago when Sierra Leone gained independence after 150 years of colonial rule, with it came a feeling [...]

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 Protus Onyango

Water Minister Charity Ngilu was the first woman to run for the presidency in Kenya, in 1997. / Protus Onyango/IPS

NAIROBI, Jan 4 (IPS) – The August 2012 elections in Kenya will open doors to massive political participation by women for the first time ever.

The new constitution in effect since August 2010 [...]

By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT-LOUIS, Jan 3 (IPS) – Under a new gender quota law introduced in Mauritius, at least one-third of the candidates in local elections must be women. But the adoption of a national quota is not yet on the horizon, even though just 18 percent of legislators are women and there are only two [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu

Lukmanu Whumbi, a farmer in Northern Ghana, points to fields of rice grown using the right inputs and techniques. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

TAMALE, Ghana, Dec 21 (IPS) – In Dundo village in Nyankpala district, Northern Ghana, 10 women are busy weeding a rice field on a piece of land donated to them [...]

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 Travis Lupick and Emma Mwasinga
 

Malawi’s Vice President Joyce Banda recalls how her childhood friend Chrissie Mtokoma was always top of their class and how she struggled to beat her. / Katie C. Lin/IPS

BLANTYRE, Dec 16 (IPS) – On an elegant veranda adorned with a red carpet, Malawi’s Vice President Joyce Banda recalls how her [...]

By Lee Middleton
 
OCEAN VIEW, South Africa, Dec 13 (IPS) – Having observed changes in the sea and the life cycles of the rock lobsters that their livelihoods depend on, a group of fisherwomen from the Western Cape, South Africa are calling on government to adjust fishing seasons to adapt to what they claim are climate [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu
 

Nalifu Yussif holds a few Bolga baskets at the ongoing COP 17 in Durban, South Africa. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

DURBAN, South Africa, Dec 5 (IPS) – Talata Nsor, a 54-year-old woman from Bolgatanga community in Northern Ghana, has been weaving the cultural Bolga baskets, which are named after her community, her entire life.
 

It has [...]

By Miriam Gathigah

Better Aid Can Save Millions of Lives in Africa. / Miriam Gathigah/IPS

BUSAN, South Korea, Nov 29 (IPS) – Although there has been considerable progress towards reducing maternal and infant mortality, millions of women and children in Africa are still in need of better health services, food and sanitation.

Some 250,000 mothers [...]

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 [...]