NEGLIGENCE on the part of nursing staff and lack of adequate resources in hospitals has resulted in an increase in the maternal mortality rate, a Government official has said.

In an interview with Sunday News, Deputy Prime Minister Ms Thokozani Khupe said Government was working on addressing the serious increase in the maternal mortality rate in the country.

The criminal justice system (CJS) needs to do more to protect women and to deal with all social and political issues affecting women living in abusive conditions, Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Tuesday.

"Failure to do so, makes the system an equal perpetrator of injustice," she said at the South African launch of the 16 days of activism campaign on no violence against women and children.

A week after Hillary Clinton announced that the U.S. would be developing a national action plan for the implementation of UN SCR 1325 and providing $44 million in funding, more than a thousand women attended the “Women and War" conference in Washington DC. Kathleen Kuehnast of the U.S.

When Odette Kayirere lost her husband in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, she felt angry and hopeless. But she stepped beyond her grief to work with her fellow widows, first to make a better life for herself and her children and then to help form an organisation for 4,000 women.

The custom of bride kidnapping, which began with rival clans stealing and forcing marriage on each others' women, has grown into a large social problem in Kyrgyzstan over the past 50 years.

Some young men in this Central Asian state take to heart the well-known Kyrgyz saying, “A good marriage starts with tears.”

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has given a grant of $731,000 for strengthening and advocacy for maternal child health in East, Central and Southern African region.

The funds for the one year project that commenced in October will be administered through the East, Central and Southern African Health Community (ECSA-HC) secretariat based in Arusha, Tanzania

The Botswana National Front (BNF) calls upon the nation to join hands in marking the beginning of the 16 Days Of Activism Against Women And Children Abuse.

The Angolan Women Promotion and Family minister, Genoveva Lino, Monday, here, highlighted the importance of gender equality, as key element for the building of an equal and just society.

Cambodian women are increasingly finding work as domestic labour in Malaysia. But in their rush to employment, some are finding little protection from abuse at work. Like many developing countries, Cambodia is trying to find ways to protect its migrant workers.

A team of oxen pulls a cart into the rice fields in northern Cambodia, where a rural way of life means few opportunities for work.

Informed by the research data that have emanated from the many studies, commissions and high-level debates, the United Nations has made a concerted effort to refocus on the outstanding issues of women and girls' unequal status.