BBC Africa Debate comes from Malawi this month and asks whether African women are winning the power battle.

Presented by Audrey Brown from Lilongwe, the debate takes a look at change brought about by African women who have made inroads into traditionally male spheres such as politics, business, the church and management.

Swanee Hunt, a lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, said the Institute for Inclusive Security, which she chairs, would provide $2m (£1.2m) each year to advance women's participation in peace efforts, as called for in the 2000 UN resolution.

Hunt said roadmaps to accelerate women's role in peacemaking have been adopted by the US and 37 other countries but there was not enough progress.

Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba accepted the Institute's International Peace Building Award on behalf of the Japanese people, who have provided critical economic and development assistance to Afghanistan.

The EasWest Institute's Board Chairman Ross Perot, presented the awards to the parliamentarians, the first to Fehmida Mirza.

With a severe limp and no control over her bladder — caused by the blade scraping her spinal cord — the 22-year-old can no longer work at the Ministry of Public Works, where she was a financial assistant before the assault.

A decade after the last attempt to end Latin America's longest-running insurgency failed, the Colombian government and the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) are to sit down at the negotiating table in the Norwegian capital Oslo later this month.

Ivet González interviews ANA GÜEZMES, regional director of UN-Women

“We have to expand the sense of urgency and indignation towards gender violence,” Dr. Ana Güezmes, UN-Women regional director for Mexico, Central America, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, told IPS on a recent visit to the Cuban capital.

Women often suffer the most in times of conflict, but they are rarely represented in peace negotiations. In fact, no woman has ever been the lead negotiator in U.N.-sponsored peace talks, a situation the United Nations is now seeking to redress through a unique training programme.

Tunisian civil society is rallying in support of a young woman who was raped by police officers in what they say is part of a broader assault on women's rights by religious conservatives.

It is my pleasure to join in welcoming you to the 10th annual Women PeaceMakers Program. I only wish I could be with you in person. I would like to thank the University of San Diego for hosting this important gathering and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice for your invitation to be a part of this event.

Now that world leaders have addressed the United Nations General Assembly, it's time to think about the role of global peace. The protests have taken place. Once again, some nations have been in the hotspot. There doesn't seem to be agreement amongst all nations – a scenario that seems to repeat itself over and over again.