Participation

For the first time, women peace activists from South Asia came together to present a joint resolution to the United Nations Secretary-General. In it, they outlined measures to improve the participation of women in peace building and as peacemakers. The resolution was a result of a two-day open discussion organized by UN Women.

The top and the bottom of the list of countries in Newsweek's recent cover story, "The 2011 Global Women's Progress Report", evoke images of two different worlds. At the top of the list - the "Best Places to be a Woman" - we see the usual suspects: Iceland and the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Canada.

The Finance Division of the government of Pakistan and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Pakistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a 5-year partnership to enhance institutionalisation of Gender Responsive Budgeting in policies and plans at the Federal and provincial levels.

The First Lady of the Republic, Ms. Sophia Martelly has actively participated in various activities that marked the 66th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) in New York from September, 21 to 30 2011. Apart from the official meetings, related to these assizes and to which she accompanied the President of the Republic, Ms.

The 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan falls in the first week of October, but it will attract a fraction of the attention afforded last month's events marking a decade since 9/11. Only a few stalwart protests in the UK and the US planned for Saturday will try to get an inattentive public to engage with what is now America's longest war.

The involvement of men is key to the success of the gender-equality movement, but changing long-held social structures and convincing men of the importance of equal opportunities for women will not happen overnight, experts say.

On Monday, October 3, 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will meet with 40 women entrepreneurs from 36 African nations participating in the 2011 African Women's Entrepreneurship Program, at the U.S. Department of State.

African women who bear the brunt of the continent's conflicts now demand to play a defining role in peacekeeping.

A resolution to foster women's political participation in the domain of peacekeeping and conflict management was accepted on Friday at the 2011 Women's Platform for Action in Africa (WPAA).

If it had not been for the brutal government soldiers, may be Brigadier Proscovia Nalweyiso would not have become a soldier.

The levels of literacy in Haiti are low, but among the most vulnerable groups living in camps they are even lower. It is estimated that 80 per cent of residents of La Piste camp in Port-au-Prince – home to around 45,000 people displaced by the earthquake on 12 January 2010 – cannot read or write. The British Red Cross has been working in La Piste camp since the earthquake.