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 [...]

Tressia Boukhors interviews BRIGID INDER, Executive Director of Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice

Brigid Inder / Tressia Boukhours/IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 28 (IPS) – Most of the cases brought before the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) include gender-based crimes, but advocates say the court is still falling short in ensuring that women play an active role [...]

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 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 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 Amanda Wilson

Davidica Ikai Grasiano Ayahu of the ITWAK Organisation addresses a working group on the specific medical needs of women in South Sudan. / Shereen Hall, courtesy of the Centre for Inclusive Security

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (IPS) – As South Sudan maps out its economic future at the South Sudan International Engagement Conference (IEC) [...]

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 [...]