Five years ago, with the country at peace, traditional taboos easing and Western donors pushing for women to participate in democracy, millions of Afghan women eagerly registered and then voted for a presidential candidate. In a few districts, female turnout was even higher than male turnout.

Cairo - In the halls of the United Nation's New York bureau, officials have been considering a proposal to unify the UN's many organisations promoting women's equality and rights into a single “gender entity”. This entity would have a greatly increased budget – exactly how much is still being debated – and would be headed by an executive at the rank of Under-Secretary General.

Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, with its ubiquitous closures, checkpoints, military raids and arrests, has decimated the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and Gaza.

President Dwight Eisenhower once called for nations to explore all possible means of using food for peace. We are unfortunately not seeing enough of this today, especially when it comes to Yemen.

Whenever gender empowerment is a vibrant topic of discussion internationally, some of the countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America are invariably singled out for their success stories in politics, education, health care or civil liberties even as Africa is mostly left out of political reckoning - and wrongly so.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the Commission on the Status of Women on Wednesday, that the UN must lead by example.

As Secretary General, he has made sure there are more women in senior positions now than at any time in the history of the UN.

Fifteen years since the landmark Beijing declaration was adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, much progress has been made.

Deputy UN Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro has lauded women groups for their achievements in advancing gender equality globally.

Speaking at the opening of the 54th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) in New York Monday, Migiro urged the women to move their achievements on gender equality ``from commitment to action in several key areas''.

The UN Millennium Campaign, Femnet and Oxfam GB announced here Thursday the commencement of a series of global conversations to discuss the status of the promises world lea ders have made to women in the Millennium Development Goals.

The conversations, to be broadcast live on Facebook, began Wednesday and will end this Friday. It will involve leading gender activists on the continent.

Government troops - the FARDC - in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are to blame for much of the epidemic of sexual violence in the east of the country, according to US and UN reports detailing war crimes and possible crimes against humanity by various groups there.

In keeping with traditions of Australian missions around the world, the Australian High Commission in Abuja recently marked the International Women's Day; with a message that global human rights pursuits and fundamental freedoms require active participation of women.