In 1989, at the outset of my 21-year journey with Heifer International, I spent much of that first year going to farmers around the world to learn firsthand their needs, challenges, goals and dreams. On one of my first visits, women in a Zimbabwean village welcomed me into their community. We sat cross-legged on the bare ground as chickens walked past and men gazed at us from a distance.

The drive to promote women in political and corporate decision-making positions has historically been a slow and resisted one worldwide.

It was as if women needed to move mountains to join what became “the gentlemen's club.” Now, thanks to a series of International Conferences in the 80s and early 90s, the Beijing one included, it gained momentum.

Um Ali is scared. She says male relatives want to kill her and sell her daughters into marriages that are really sex-trafficking arrangements that put young women to work in brothels overseas.

She lives in hiding and relocates often. Her pulse accelerates every time an international text message pops into her cell phone.

"The world is small," wrote her brother in a recent threat.

Norwegian Deputy Minister for International Cooperation and Environment, Ingrid Fiskaa, underscored that for more women's representation, even if it is challenging for women to come to politics, in the peace and other political processes is a must for the country's prosperity.

"SCR 1325 is a tool, and the utility of a tool depends on how it is perceived and how activists employ it. So we have this resolution. Great; so what? Tell me how we can get people fired up on the ground." Peace laureate Jody Williams talks to Lyric Thompson.

Ofelia Lubat, 45, has nine children. Her youngest son Marvin who turned one last September looks malnourished. Em-em, her eighth child is naked and was as small as a three year-old child. Only four out of her nine children are going to school because they cannot afford the expenses. Her eldest son Micheal, 20, only finished grade 5. He is presently unemployed.

Amina Ahmed's letter, typed out in English by a fellow refugee, tells of rape, forced marriage and even beheading of women at the hands of the Islamist militiamen who have overrun much of their country.

"I was living with my aunt in Afgooye District of the lower Shabelle region when [a] warlord assaulted our home as a reason to marry me by force."

Since rival clans overthrew the government in Somalia in 1991, the country has been in the grip of a vicious civil war.

The anarchy has allowed various militia to emerge, none more feared than the religiously-motivated al-Shabaab, which now controls large areas of southern and central Somalia, as well as the capital Mogadishu.

If there is one group that faces special challenges in Southern Sudan, it is women.

Principal among them is gender-based violence, which is under-reported and spreading given the long history of conflict, certain traditional practices and weak judicial systems, IRIN reports.

After 21 years of war, there is little accurate information on Southern Sudan.

Mother-to-be Agnes Ncube budgets up to 100 dollars each month from her informal roadside business just so she can pay for the maternal services at her local government clinic.

Ncube usually pays a maximum of 20 dollars for each consultation, depending on the service. But sometimes there are other costs that emerge, such as a referral – usually to a private doctor – where she has to pay cash upfront for a consultation.