As people power in the streets and squares of North Africa and the Middle East topples the established order, IPS news agency is in Dakar, Senegal to report from the World Social Forum, the annual global gathering of social movements dedicated to building alternatives. Hundreds of thousands of activists and thinkers from around the world are expected in Dakar from 6 – 11 February. Daily reporting and podcasts from the event will be gathered at the IPS TerraViva WSF 2011 news site, with content in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. Read more »

IPS Africa Director Paula Fray speaking on Women and Elections to Sudanese female politicians.

Inter Press Service (IPS) Africa hosted a delegation of members of the Sudanese Women Parliamentarians Caucus at the IPS headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The women representatives were on a UNIFEM-supported capacity building tour. IPS regional director Paula Fray outlined the organisation’s Women in Politics programme which seeks to build the voice and visibility of women politicians on the continent.

Parliamentarians at work.

Apart from producing a range of training tools for women in politics, the UNIFEM-funded programme also trains gender trainers in the southern Africa region.

The training tools are available in English, French and Portuguese with a Reporting Elections Checklist also available in Arabic. For more information, visit the Africa From Polls to Polls site.

With just five years to go world leaders are gathering at the UN from 20 – 22 September to review progress and action towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals. In addition to news reporting from the Summit itself, from the countries most affected by poverty and hunger and from associated civil society actions like the Stand Up Against Poverty rallies, IPS is undertaking some specific initiatives.

Eight Goals through a Gender Lens is a special IPS TerraViva magazine produced with the support of UNIFEM and as part of the MDG3 Communicating for Change: Getting Voice, Visibility and Impact for Gender Equality IPS programme supported by the Dutch MDG3 Fund. As well as hard copy distribution in New York to delegates, the magazine will be widely circulated by email and through the MDG3 partners and other women’s NGOs who contributed to a special supplement in the magazine. Read more »

IPS Asia-Pacific's Johanna Son introduces the glossary

MANILA – The need to teach students early about gender-sensitive language. Examples of how media reports pass on prejudices in some stories, and mistake gender blindness for political correctness in others. Some editors and writers’ discomfort with asking frank questions when they hear the word ‘gender’.

These are some of the topics that came up for lively discussion at the August 2010 launch of the third edition of the ‘Gender and Development Glossary’, held at the ISIS Intl conference room in Quezon City, Philippines. A mix of journalists, gender and reproductive health experts, professors and civil society advocates made sure there was a variety of opinions at the discussion around words, gender, language and media that day. Read more »

IPS and Care2 have joined forces to bring online campaigns from leading nonprofit advocacy organizations to readers on IPS news sites. Care2 is a social action network of more than 13 million members committed to making a difference. More than 500 NGO partners including Oxfam America, Greenpeace and Habitat for Humanity target Care2′s activist-minded community to take actions such as signing petitions, sending letters to decision-makers and “clicking” to generate donations to good causes. Read more »