International Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8th every year. It is a day in which women, men, girls and boys come together to celebrate, show solidarity for and recognise the dreams, aspirations and empowerment of women. International Women’s Day is an opportunity to commemorate the bravery of women in confronting injustice.

Link: Southern Africa Humanitarian Bulletin: Issue 08 | 01 December 2012 – 10 January 2013

The Joint Assessment Mission (JAM) conducted in September 2012 aimed at obtaining a better understanding of the situation, needs, risks, capacities and vulnerabilities of refugees in Malawi with regard to food, livelihood, their nutritional/health situation and related matters. The current programme is coming to an end, and this JAM Report aims to provide information for further assistance through the design of a new programme cycle for both WFP (the PRRO) and UNHCR. The last JAM was carried out in 2009 in coordination with the GoM and other stakeholders.

On 2-4 May 2012, the Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS) at the University of Botswana hosted a SADSEM/DCAF Security, Defence and Gender Training and Education Workshop. The workshop brought together seven Southern African Defence and Security Management (SADSEM) network institutions, DCAF and several local gender resource persons. The eighteen workshop participants initiated a process to review and adjust SADSEM’s training curriculum for their executive short courses on security and defence issues in order to ensure that it incorporates gender issues.

By Anthony Mwangi

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, 27 November 2012 – The message of children attending the third Pan African Forum on Children was clear: Despite improvements in their welfare, a lot still needs to be done to enhance the lives of millions of children facing daunting challenges across Africa.

Speaking freely

Additional Investments in Family Planning Would Save Developing Countries More Than $11 Billion a Year

Access to family planning is an essential human right that unlocks unprecedented rewards for economic development, says new UNFPA report

• 222 million women in developing countries have an unmet need for family planning
• Additional $4.1 billion in funding is needed to address current needs and those of the growing youth population

BACKGROUND PRESS RELEASE

16 October 2012

The fourteenth session of the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group will be held in Geneva from 22 October to 5 November during which the next group of 14 States will have their human rights records examined under this mechanism.

GA/EF/338

Sixty-seventh General Assembly
Second Committee
6th Meeting (AM)

Efforts in Agriculture, Energy, Disaster Risk Reduction Also Highlighted

The international community must launch a “fully fledged war” to eradicate poverty, the world’s greatest challenge, the representative of the Dominican Republic told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today, as it concluded its general debate.

LUSAKA, 9 October 2012 (IRIN) - It was early when police arrived at the home of Emmeldah Mutale, a widowed mother of five, in the capital, Lusaka, to demolish her two-bedroom house.

“We were all sleeping. When I peeked through the window, I just saw these many, many police officers with guns, machetes and knobkerries. There were vehicles and a big grader [bulldozer]. They were shouting ‘Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!’ It was like they came to kill us,” Mutale, 35 told IRIN.