Gender Equality

Inclusion, Empowerment and Equality the Core of Sustainable Development

By Sean Buchanan

NEW YORK (IDN) – The world’s people are demanding “transformative change that is fair and sustainable,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said July 16, calling on government leaders to use key United Nations meetings in September to “kickstart a decade of delivery and action for people and planet.”

The key meetings are the Climate Action Summit, the Sustainable Development Goals Summit, a High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, a High-Level Dialogue on Financing for Development and a high-level review of commitments to small island developing States and their accelerated modalities of action pathway (SAMOA).

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 17 July 2019

Photo: Monica Makona using her phone as if to get a loan. Credit: Kizito Makoye | IDN-INPS

Online Lending Firms Leave Digital Footprints in East Africa

By Kizito Makoye

DAR ES SALAAM (IDN) – When Monica Makona failed to obtain the bank loan, she badly needed to grow her business two years ago, she did not lose hope. Armed with her android smartphone, Makona tapped into TALA – a popular lending app she had previously downloaded – and within minutes she received the money.

"It was a very quick process, she told IDN in an interview, adding happily, “I received notification from TALA that 20,000 Tanzanian shillings (10 dollars) had been paid into my Tigo pesa mobile account."

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 04 July 2019

Photo: Pakistan PM Imran Khan –is believed to be a staunch supporter of women empowerment – met with Ali Khamenei and Hassan Rouhani in April 2019. CC BY 4.0

Too Many Taboos Hinder Progress of Young Pakistani Women

By Sehar Naz Janani

KARACHI (IDN) – “Girls have the right to take important decisions of their lives, and only education can help them to stand on their feet and fight for themselves”, says Rabia, a Pakistani mother from rural Sindh.

Pakistani mothers are so dedicated to educating their daughters to ensure that they would be able to break through barriers and taboos, their mothers faced in this conservative society.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 01 July 2019

Photo: Andrew Bremberg, Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 20, 2019. Aspects of his anti-abortion views, whether rape victims should be entitled to abortions, infuriated Senator Bob Menendez, the highest-ranking Democrat on the committee. Bremberg, above, in 2018. GAGE SKIDMORE/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Trump’s Pick for UN in Geneva Opposed to Reproductive Rights

By Stéphanie Fillion, Passblue

MONTREAL (IDN) - “I am pro-life, I believe that all human life is sacred, and that human life begins at conception,” Andrew Bremberg told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recently. Asked if rape victims should have access to abortion, he replied, “I don’t believe that abortion is a moral solution to any problem.”

Nominated by President Trump to be the United States ambassador to the United Nations office in Geneva, Bremberg is a policy adviser at the White House with no experience in international affairs.

: UN Bureau; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 29 June 2019

Families in a Changing World Call for Reality Check

Viewpoint by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

The writer is UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, of UN Women.

NEW YORK (IDN) – What’s a family? Classically, we think of a mother, a father and the children. The father goes out to work, the mother takes care of the children, maybe she works part time, at home or close to home so she can be there when the children get back from school. It’s a common formula in advertising, movies and the media. It’s the pattern of romance plots, the story of song lyrics, the image for illustrations in schoolbooks. It’s comforting, stable, predictable. And it’s wrong, for the majority of families in the world.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 25 June 2019

Photo: Portrait of Pardhi tribal community members, Maharashtra, India (7 June 2019). Credit: UNICEF | Sri Kolari

World Population Expected to Reach Nearly 10 Billion by 2050

Yet Another Challenge to Global Goals

By Jaya Ramachandran

NEW YORK (IDN) – Compared to 7.7 billion today, around 8.5 billion people are expected to inhabit the planet Earth within little more than a decade, and almost 10 billion by 2050, with only a few countries accounting for most of the increase, says to new United Nations report.

The World Population Prospects 2019: Highlights, published by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), provides a comprehensive overview of global demographic patterns and prospects. The study concludes that the world’s population could reach its peak around the end of the current century, at a level of nearly 11 billion.

: Jaya Ramachandran; UN INSIDER; 17 June 2019

Photo: Women taking part in a demonstration to oppose sextortion in Dar es salaam in 2018. Credit: Edwin Mjwahuzi

African Governments Join Activists to Fight Sextortion

By Kizito Makoye

DAR ES SALAAM (ACP-IDN) – A poster bearing a message “Graduate with A’s not with AIDS” at the University of Dar es Salaam, tells a grim story of female students who offer sex to obtain higher grades.

“My teacher wanted to date me. When I refused his sexual advances, he retaliated by giving me poor grades,” says Helena (not her real name).

The 23-year-old law student, who has since experienced dismal performance in her studies, is increasingly worried about her academic future.

: Africa & ME Editor; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 June 2019

Photo credit: Women Deliver 2019 Conference

Ghana’s President Stuns Women with Demeaning Remarks

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – In this day and age of “Me Too” shaking up outdated gender relationships around the world, it was somewhat unsettling to hear Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo demean his country’s working women as insufficiently activist and dynamic enough to obtain better leadership jobs.

Did he really say this at the Women Deliver 2019 Conference from June 3-6 at Vancouver attended by gender activists from around the world? Really?

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 11 June 2019

Image credit: knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu

UN Study Urges a More Gender-Equal Digital Space

Flays Feminization of Voice Assistants

By Rita Joshi

BERLIN | PARIS (IDN) – "I think if we wake up 20 years from now and we see the lack of diversity in our tech and leaders and practitioners [that we see today], that would be my doomsday scenario," said Li Fei-Fei, co-director of Stanford University’s Human-Centered AI Institute and one of the few female leaders in the field of Artificial Intelligence, during testimony to the U.S. Congress.

: Rita Joshi; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 08 June 2019

2019] Photo: Mariam Kassim Salum charging her phone on a solar equipment at Kizimkazi village in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Courtesy: Barefoot College

Female Solar Engineers Light Up Remote Villages in Zanzibar

By Kizito Makoye

KENDWA, Tanzania (IDN) – As darkness falls, Natasha Mahmood and her brother huddle around the weak flame of a paraffin lamp, rushing to finish their homework before their mother blows it out to save fuel.

“I often try to get it done early. But that’s not always the case. My teacher sometimes punishes me for failing to complete my work," says Mahmood, as a trail of smoke from the lamp rises into a corrugated roof smirched with soot.