Gender Equality

'Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change' on International Women's Day

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka has stressed the need for "transformative shifts, integrated approaches and new solutions" to achieve gender equality, as envisaged in Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals, the road map for a sustainable future by 2030.

"Current trajectories show existing interventions do not suffice," she said ahead of the celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2019, at which UN Women is celebrating its 2019 theme of “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change”, along with hosting hundreds of festivities around the world through the organization’s global network.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 01 March 2019

Photo: While more girls are attending school than before, they are significantly under-represented in STEM subjects in many settings and they appear to lose interest in STEM subjects as they reach adolescence. Credit: UN Women Viet Nam/Pham Quoc Hung

Women and Girls Can Help Tackle Some of The World’s Biggest Challenges

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – Nearly 90 per cent of future jobs will require some form of ICT (information and communication technology) skills, according to a new World Economic Forum report, 'The Future of Jobs'. The fastest growing job categories are related to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), and recent studies indicate 58 million net new jobs, in areas such as data analysis, software development and data visualization.

The United Nations is concerned that women and girls will not be in a position to benefit from emerging opportunities because too many of them are being discouraged from the sciences. Data from UNESCO, the UN agency for education, science and culture, shows that less than a third of all female students choose STEM-related subjects in higher education, whilst just three per cent of women choose ICT subjects.

: UN Bureau; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; United Nations; 18 February 2019

Photo: The index highlights the relationship between gender-based violence and child sexual abuse, says Dr. Joanna Rubinstein, President and CEO of the World Childhood Foundation USA, top left with children in the collage by IDN-INPS.

New Study Highlights Efforts To End Child Sexual Abuse And Exploitation

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In Out of the Shadows 2017 thriller, a newly married detective and his pregnant wife move into their dream home unaware of its dark history. When his wife claims their baby is being tormented by a supernatural force and seeks the help of a renegade demonologist, he must investigate the past to save his family.

Out of the Shadows, released by the World Childhood Foundation USA (WCF) on January 15, is a thriller with a difference. Shining light on the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation, it declares: Sexual violence against children takes place mostly in the shadows, but it is happening everywhere, regardless of a country’s economic status or its citizens’ quality of life.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 17 January 2019

Photo credit: Women's March Action Network

Women To March For Gender Equality Around The World

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Building on the vision and mission of the 2017 National Women’s March in the U.S., women around the world will mark January 19 with marches and other actions “supporting the advocacy and resistance movements that reflect our multiple and intersecting identities".

The main march in 2019 will be in Washington D.C., but there are dozens of other marches that are scheduled for the same day. So far, there is least one in every state.

Some states will hold multiple marches: California will have 20; Michigan and Florida will each have eight; and Pennsylvania, New York and Texas will each have seven.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 15 January 2019

Photo: UN Trust Fund 16 Days Fundraising Event. Credit: UN Women

Survivors and Activists Spotlight Solutions to End Violence Against Women

By UN Women

LOS ANGELES (IDN-INPS) – Commemorating Human Rights Day and the global advocacy campaign “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence”, the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) held a fundraising luncheon in Santa Monica, California, on December 10. In the hometown of the #MeToo movement, the event brought together a powerhouse of survivors, dignitaries, UN officials, gender experts and Hollywood celebrities.

Hosted by UN Women’s Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Goodwill Ambassador Nicole Kidman, the event celebrated the ground-breaking initiatives supported by the UN Trust Fund across the world over the past 22 years and highlighted the work that remains to end this human rights violation, which impacts one in three women worldwide.

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 11 December 2018

ICC Leaders Join in Global Initiative to Break Down Gender Barriers

By Robert Johnson

THE HAGUE (IDN) – Top officials of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or "the Court") – President Chile Eboe-Osuji, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and Registrar Peter Lewis – have joined the International Gender Champions network, an important initiative to break down gender barriers at all levels.

This global leadership network brings together decision-makers determined to break down gender barriers and make gender equality a working reality in their spheres of influence.

The network was launched in July 2015 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva and hubs have been established in New York, Vienna, and Nairobi. It counts over 200 active Champions and Alumni worldwide, including the UN Secretary General, heads of UN offices and organizations, ministers, ambassadors and permanent representatives, and NGO, academic and business leaders.

: Robert Johnson; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 04 December 2018

Photo: The picture shows two women from Lesotho trafficked in South Africa. Credit: Sunday Times.

ACP Fights Human Trafficking, Migrant Smuggling in Africa

By Jeffrey Moyo

BEITBRIDGE (ACP-IDN) – At the age of 39, Ndikonyaga Muleya hailing from Beitbridge, Zimbabwe’s border town with South Africa, has found illegal crossing into South Africa convenient.

Over the years he became experienced crossing into the neighboring country looking for casual jobs in Musina, also a South African border town with Zimbabwe, which he now frequents as an illegal transporter of undocumented Zimbabweans itching to cross into South Africa fleeing from this country’s mounting economic woes.

“I earn money from transporting people through unmanned crossing points into South Africa. I was also helped before when I started crossing to SA,” Muleya told IDN.

: Jeffrey Moyo; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 28 November 2018

Photo: Joyce Banda, former President of Malawi, addressing the conference. Credit: Justus Wanzala | IDN-INPS

Women Medics Pitch for Effective Role in Decision Making on Health Issues

By Justus Wanzala

NAIROBI (IDN) – Achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) is crucial in attainment of not only health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) but also all SDGs.

Participants in the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) Regional Conference 2018, that was held in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, from November 11-15, noted that achieving UHC can aid in tackling the growing disease burden and extreme poverty in Afrcan countries and other poor nations.

: Justus Wanzala; THE WORLD; Africa; 26 November 2018

Stop Preventable Scourge of Violence Against Women

By UN Women

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – To commemorate this year's International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Secretary-General's UNiTE Campaign is calling upon us to stand in solidarity with survivors and survivor advocates and women's human rights defenders who are working to prevent and end violence against women and girls. Our duty is not only to stand in solidarity with them but also to intensify our efforts to find solutions and measures to stop this preventable global scourge with a detrimental impact on women's and girls' lives and health.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 25 November 2018

Photo: Gladness Munuo addressing a meeting.

Violence Against Women – Never Acceptable, Never Ending

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – "I love you, that's why I beat you." So ends a poem by the Ghanaian writer Mariska Araba Taylor-Darko about a violent spouse and an abused woman who lays the blame of the daily beating on herself.

The poem, A Beating for Love, takes special significance, particularly as this year's UN theme for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (November 25) and the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (November 25-December 10) – “Orange the World: #HearMeToo” – aims to support women and girls around the world.