The West Africa Network of Peace building (WANEP) Tuesday commenced a three-day training on 'Peace building and conflict mediation' for women from the West Coast and Lower River Regions, at the conference hall of the National Nutrition Agency (NaNA) in Bakau.

Samar women were given recognition for their efforts to keep peace in the towns of San Jorge, Matuginao, and San Jose de Buan.

During the two-day seminar-workshop on women, peace, and security at Caluwayan Palm Beach Resort, Brgy. Caluwayan, Marabut, Samar last September 24-25, concerns on women surfaced.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres on Monday night presented the Nansen Refugee Award to Somali humanitarian, educator and women's rights advocate Hawa Aden Mohamed. She was unable to attend in person for health reasons.

The conflict that Somalia endured for more than 20 years took a heavy toll on the women of the country who now look to the new government for hope of better times ahead.

At the onset of civil war in 1991, the men of Somalia killed one another as clans vied for power, while women were left to pick up the pieces and support their families.

Liberian women have re-echoed their call for robust steps to be taken by the government, especially the judiciary, to end sexual and Gender based violence (SGBV) against them.

They re-echoed the call at the Women, Peace, and Security forum recently organized in Gbarnga, Bong County by the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

Tunisia has long been known for its advanced stand regarding women's rights, thanks to the Personal Status Code, a series of Tunisian progressive laws aimed at instituting equality between women and men in a number of areas. However since the moderate Islamic party Ennahda topped the election results this time last year, the burning question within Tunisian society and abroad is whether Tunisia will regress in this regard or not.

"Women continue to play a major role in the efforts for peace. Women continue to be those peace builders; continue to promote the environment that enables all citizens to search for peace, maintain peace and use the security that peace brings to be able to join in the processes of development that will touch the lives and change the condition of humankind," President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has said.

For many girls in Afghanistan, the simple act of walking to school can be a life-threatening journey.

"You close the door behind you, and you enter a war zone," said Nushin Arbabzadah, an American-based author and scholar who was raised in Afghanistan.

Edna Adan has spent much of her life being first. The daughter of a prominent medical doctor in Somaliland, she was the first girl in her country to learn to read, the first Somali woman to drive, the first certified nurse-midwife, and the first lady of Somalia — her husband was Prime Minister Ibrahim Egal.

Two years ago, Sierra Leone's government invited the women's movement to draw up a bill to usher in the quota system they had been demanding for the past 10 years. The women set about working tirelessly to draft and push through a bill stipulating that women should have a 30% representation in government and public decision-making spaces. It was to be a private members' bill that came from those demanding the change.