The First Lady, Her Excellency Mrs. Sia Nyama Koroma's second visit to the United States in less than a month for the 2nd Global Conference ‘WOMEN DELIVER' is a demonstration of her commitment to work along side her husband's progressive administration to improve the health and lives of women and children in Sierra Leone. Her party included her personal assistant Mrs.

Madagascan female activists are asking that the right of women to participate directly in politics be included in a new draft of the country's Constitution, so that there can be 30 percent of female politicians in parliament by 2012 and 50 percent by 2015.

"Laws are important, but they're not sufficient because often traditions are stronger than the implementation of laws." That's what the head of the UN Population Fund Thoraya Ahmed Obaid told a televised debate at UN Headquarters in New York on the role of culture in promoting the empowerment of women and upholding human rights. She said "culture is about ownership of change, ownership of how we live:

South Sudan's president, Salva Kiir Mayardit Salva Kiir Mayardit (born 1951) is the President of autonomous Government of Southern Sudan and the successor to the post of Vice President of Sudan, following the death of John Garang in a crash on 30 July 2005. , on Monday named seven women ministers in the new regional cabinet, 6 months into referendum.

Hundreds of thousands of Haitian families are sleeping on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Each night, women rock their babies to sleep, hush their children, and try to rest. Many nights, worries keep these women awake: the children are hungry; the rains are coming; the baby is sick.In this broken city, women also fear violence. Husbands, brothers, and neighbors patrol the makeshift camps to protect them from strangers.

“Sexual Assaults Add to Miseries of Haiti's Ruins” (front page, June 24) was timely. As Nancy Dorsinville, a policy adviser in the United Nations' Office of the Special Envoy to Haiti, recently told a gathering of experts in New York, there is an urgent need for training peacekeepers, humanitarian aid staff, local law enforcement and social workers to prevent gender-based violence in refugee camps and other vulnerable areas.

Women in Fiji will benefit from Australian efforts to reduce gender disparities in developing countries, under a new policy launched by the Australian Government.

Titled 'Gender Equality in Australia's Aid Program - why and how', the policy aims to reduce poverty by advancing gender equality and empowering women.

It highlights the link between gender equality, economic growth and sustainable development.

Anne Walker spent 11 years with the YWCA of Fiji that marked the beginning of her long career with grassroots women. Walker is one of the founders of the International Women's Tribune Centre ( IWTC) and has participated as an activist and organiser in all four UN world conferences on women and NGO Forums in Mexico City (1975), Copenhagen (1980), Nairobi (1985) and Beijing (1995).

The annual high-level segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) opened today with speakers calling for women and girls to be placed at the centre of the global struggle to achieve the social and economic targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).