Gender Equality

Photo: Women tend a community nursery created as part of a completed ITTO project to assist forest landscape restoration in Togo. Credit: ODEF

A Landmark Project Aims at Reforestation in Togo

Income Opportunities for Women

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) – Togo in West Africa is the venue of a milestone project between Soka Gakkai, a global community-based Buddhist organization and the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO). The two have signed a memorandum to launch a reforestation project offering income opportunities for women's groups in two rural areas of Togo.

The memorandum involving a donation of 10 million yen (US$93,300) for the initial one-year phase of the project was signed on July 1 at the Soka Gakkai (SG) headquarters in Tokyo. The project will kick off on September 1.

: Ramesh Jaura; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 05 July 2020

Photo: Police personnel dispersing an activist in a protest demonstration of the marginalized group of the Dalit in Varanasi, India. Credit: PTI. Source: The Print

Lives of the Marginalized Don't Seem to Matter in India

Viewpoint by Dr Ram Puniyani

This article is the 11th in a series of joint productions of South Asian Outlook and IDN-InDepthNews, the flagship of the International Press Syndicate. The writer is a former professor of biomedical engineering and former senior medical officer affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (now Mumbai).

NEW DELHI (IDN) – In Minneapolis, the African American George Floyd lost his life as the white policeman, Derek Chauvin, caught hold of him and put his knee on his neck. This is a technique developed by the Israeli police. For nine long minutes, the knee of the white policeman was on the neck of George, who kept shouting, "I can't breathe".

: Suresh Jaura; OPINION; 29 June 2020

A UN Day Will Address Serious Concerns of Widows Worldwide

Viewpoint by Roseline Orwa *

BONDO, Kenya (IDN) – COVID-19, the deadly pandemic that has upended our world, is also, according to a new report, “a widow-making machine”. The emerging scientific evidence that many more men than women are dying from COVID-19 shows that the coronavirus crisis is creating new widows even as global economic turbulence affects women who have been struggling with poverty, discrimination and injustice for years.

International Widows’ Day on 23 June is a reminder of the challenges faced by the world’s 258 million formidable, courageous widows and the 585 million children in their care – and the pandemic makes those challenges even greater.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 19 June 2020

Photo: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses demonstrators protesting against gender-based violence outside Parliament. Source: The Coversation/Nic Bothma

South African Leader Condemns Latest Surge of Violence Against Women

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Calling it a “dark and shameful week,” South African president Cyril Ramaphosa denounced the latest surge in violence against women, including the murder of a woman eight months pregnant.

"Gender-based violence thrives in a climate of silence,” he said. “By looking the other way because we believe it is a personal or family matter, we become complicit in this most insidious of crimes," the President said.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 16 June 2020

Photo: Margaret with one of her granddaughters. Credit: Brian Hodges for African Women Rising.

African Women Respond to Covid-19 Hunger Emergency

Viewpoint by Linda Eckerbom Cole

The writer is Director/Founder, African Women Rising, shuttles between Santa Barbara, California and Gulu, Uganda.

SANTA BARBARA, California (IDN) – African Women Rising (AWR) has created a campaign to build 2,000 new Permagardens, which will help feed 15,000 at-risk people who are experiencing food scarcity due to COVID-19. Permagardens empower communities to meet their own food needs and are a long-term solution to hunger.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 13 June 2020

Photo: Rose David of Wusi Village in West Coast Santo, Vanuatu stands next to her home that was destroyed by Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Harold in April 2020. Credit: UN Women/Betty Zinner-Toa.

Women in The Pacific Confront the Dual Impact of a Pandemic and A Tropical Cyclone

By UN Women

NEW YORK (IDN) – Although the Pacific has largely been spared by the spread of the disease relative to other regions around the world – with Fiji hardest hit of the six countries the UN Women’s Ending Violence Against Women and Girls programme works in, at 18 confirmed cases – all of which have since been cleared, and several countries without a recorded a case so far – the economic and social consequences have been deep.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 12 June 2020

Photo: In Yemen after nearly five years of war, women have been hit hardest by the conflict. Credit: Kellie Ryan | International Rescue Committee

Arab Women's Organizations Join the UN Chief Urging a Global Ceasefire in the Face Of COVID-19

By Caroline Mwanga

NEW YORK (IDN) – In a joint statement, ninety-one women's organizations from Iraq, Libya, Palestine, Syria and Yemen have joined a global appeal issued by UN Secretary-General António Guterres at the outset of the pandemic.

On March 23, Guterres urged warring parties across the world to lay down their weapons in support of the bigger battle against COVID-19: the common enemy that is now threatening all the humankind.

: Caroline Mwanga; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 02 June 2020

Photo: Religious leaders in an online meeting. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

UN Chief Appeals to 'Common Humanity' Across All Faiths to Tackle COVID-19

By UN News

NEW YORK (IDN) – Our shared vulnerability to the coronavirus pandemic reveals “our common humanity”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told religious leaders in an online meeting to discuss the role they can play in limiting the damage caused by COVID-19.

Speaking during the meeting on May 12, Guterres said “it lays bare our responsibility to promote solidarity as the foundation of our response – a solidarity based on the human rights and human dignity of all … and it highlights the crucial role of religious leaders in your communities and beyond.”

: UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 13 May 2020

We Are Fighting Two Enemies at the Same Time: a Deadly Virus and a Deadlier Hunger

By Bea Cordia

NEW YORK (IDN) – COVID-19 has shattered the entire world. As a result of what some people have called the ‘Great Lockdown’, economic activity has plummeted, borders have been closed, and national health systems are on the edge of collapse.

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, more than 250,000 people have died from the highly contagious disease, which spread across geographical, racial and ethnic borders. The worst, however, is yet to come.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Gender Equality; 08 May 2020

US Coercive Measures Against Iran Hurting Women

Viewpoint by Azadeh Moaveni and Ali Vaez

The two writers are affiliated to the Crisis Group: Azadeh Moaveni is Project Director, Gender; and Ali Vaez is Iran Project Director. This commentary is being republished by courtesy of the Brussels-based Crisis Group which first carried it on 6 March 2020.

BRUSELS (IDN) – On 21 May 2018, less than two weeks after the U.S. withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched Washington’s “New Iran Strategy” before an audience at the Heritage Foundation. In his remarks, he insisted that Iranian women’s long struggle for inclusion and equality matters dearly to Washington.