On 11 November 2011 (11-11-11), UN Women joins 20,000 filmmakers worldwide to capture the human experience in a 24-hour period. The collaborative effort — that brings together a number of UN agencies and non-profits — is part of the second annual One Day on Earth initiative aimed at forming a geo-tagged shared film archive that covers wide-ranging issues related to the Millennium Development Goals, from poverty to human rights. Joining One Day on Earth as a partner this year, UN … [Read more...]
FGM – Fight in Africa is succeeding, a milestone to Celebrate!
October 23, 2011 by
Fight against FGM in Africa succeeding The fight to end female genital mutilation or FGM in Africa is succeeding, despite deep-rooted cultural and social pressures, according to a new study by the UN Children's Fund, UNICEF. Woman holds scarf as symbol for campaign against FGM The report says the practice of FGM remains high in Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan. Marixie Mercado from UNICEF says that reversing the practice, which has endured for centuries, is a … [Read more...]
Rural Women and Development ~ Cope with High Food Prices
October 16, 2011 by
Supporting Rural Women to Cope with High Food Prices International Day of Rural Women Worldwide, 15 October 2011UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Message on the International Day of Rural Women 2011UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet’s Message on the International Day of Rural Women 2011 Fifty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women: Priority theme: The empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current … [Read more...]
OCTOBER ~ UN Month of Events !!!
October 16, 2011 by
October is UN Month! For the first time in the history of the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area, we are proud to say we have extended our usual UN Week to UN Month 2011.This year marks the 66th anniversary of the United Nations. We have over 15 planned events spread over the 31 days of October. From happy hours to career dinners to discussions on women, international voting, Libya and the right to protect - this year's UN Month has it all! We have … [Read more...]
ICT training Opens Windows of Opportunity for Rural Women
October 15, 2011 by
It’s the century of the tablets and androids. But nearly 50 percent of the world population live in rural areas, and they have very limited access to what the other half considers a basic necessity to work, learn or manage social relations: the computer. The digital divide faced by developing countries is closely linked to poverty, illiteracy and language barriers. The gap widens even further when we measure women’s access to these technologies of information and communication … [Read more...]
MADAGASCAR Women Taking Action to tackle population growth …
October 14, 2011 by
ANTALAHA, October 2011 (IRIN) - Daniel Soadava and Samoela Razafindramboho are known as "the mean women" in Antalaha, a small town on the east coast of Madagascar. "Men complain that we are always saying bad things about them," they laugh. After forming an association with other women, called Femmes Interessee au Development de Antalaha (FIDA), Soadava, a dentist, and Razafindramboho, a teacher, soon learned that women in their region were desperately in need of more information about … [Read more...]
Irina Bokova ~ 6,000,000 Teachers needed to achieve MDGs
October 11, 2011 by
6,000,000 Teachers needed to Achieve World Primary Education Goals Seeking a Career, Take Action NOW !!! 5 October 2011 – The United Nations marked World Teachers’ Day today with a warning that 6.1 million more teachers are needed to meet the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of attaining universal primary education by 2015. Two million of these are additional posts, with sub-Saharan Africa alone accounting for more than half. But the … [Read more...]
Why Empowering Women Farmers Will Help Fight Hunger
September 27, 2011 by
Why Empowering Women Farmers Will Help Fight Hunger Giving poor women warmers more tools can bring down the number of hungry in the world by 150 million, said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran on Thursday, highlighting a central theme at Empowering Rural Women, an event organized by WFP and UN Women on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Other speakers at the event also highlighted the role that women farmers can play in defeating … [Read more...]
Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health
September 27, 2011 by
A Week of Progress for Women and Children NEW YORK — When a woman dies in pregnancy or childbirth, a family is devastated and a community suffers an irreplaceable loss. And when her options are narrowed for lack of health, education or equity, her family, community and country suffer as well. This week, which marked the first anniversary of the UN Secretary-General's Global Strategy for Women's and Children's Health, world leaders took notice and Took Action. What made this … [Read more...]
Economic and AIDS Crises in Zimbabwe Force Elderly Women ..
September 25, 2011 by
Economic and AIDS Crises in Zimbabwe Force Elderly Women to Live in Poverty FILABUSI, ZIMBABWE– Lydia Banda, 70, came to Zimbabwe from Zambia in the 1960s in search of a better life. As a young newlywed, she moved here with her husband, who had a better chance of getting a job in the region’s industrial hub. Banda never had any children, so when her husband died in 1998, she was on her own. But she says in Sindebele, the local language, that she did not despair because she and … [Read more...]
Women’s Rights, Cairo: ‘The New Back of the Bus?’, Aleks Deejay
September 19, 2011 by
The New Back of the Bus? My first time waiting for a bustling metro in Cairo, I nearly unknowingly walked into a “women-only” section, a section located in various parts of the metro that is, as the name implies, for women only. After my flush faced returned back to its natural pasty whiteness, my immediate thought was confusion – not over what was occurring or why, but over my own stance on whether such a section was beneficial. In a country that has long denied … [Read more...]
