Women and Gender Issues
Les femmes en politique : un longchemin avant datteindre la parité
Dans la lutte pour l’égalité des sexes, les femmes du monde entier ont fait des progrès, petits et grands. Cependant, pour les Africaines, les progrès se mesurent en micro-avancées, et le chemin à parcourir est encore long.
Blanchiment de la peau : un lourd tribut
«J’ai la peau sombre depuis de nombreuses années mais je voulais savoir quel effet cela pouvait faire d’être blanche et je suis heureuse », dit la chanteuse sud-africaine Mshoza, dont le vrai nom est Nomasonto Mnisi.
La jeune ministre ouvredes portes aux femmeset aux filles
Sur ses débuts, Bogolo Kenewendo parle d’une « enfance et d’une éducation botswanaises ordinaires ».
Eric Kaduru: Agripreneur with a passion
Most young people would hesitate before leaving a stable job for an entrepreneurial venture. But not for a plucky 34-year-old Ugandan, Eric Kaduru, who made a decision to leave his advertising job in the capital city, Kampala, to become an agripreneur—an entrepreneur in the agriculture business.
Gwendolyn Myers: A peace advocate
I was born in 1990, a year after the Liberian civil war began, and was only 13 years old when the war ended in 2003. My mother told me that at the time of my birth, she could not afford even a blanket to wrap the new baby. A midwife was kind enough to assist with a cloth. Those were trying times for my family.
Phumzile Van Damme: A young MP with a mission
Phumzile Van Damme, one of the youngest members of parliament in South Africa, is also the shadow minister for communications.
African youth demand a seat at the table: Voices of young Africans are becoming difficult to ignore
A new wave is sweeping across Africa. Elections on the continent are increasingly yielding younger leadership than ever before. From presidents to ministers and governors, senators to members of parliament, Africa’s young people are demanding a seat at the political table.
Gogontlejang Phaladi: A social change activist
At a recent youth forum at the United Nations headquarters in New York, 24-year-old Gogontlejang Phaladi from Botswana was in the spotlight. The organisers of the event consider her one of the “most innovative young people across the world.”
Economic empowerment of women good for all
Government staffer Souhayata Haidara enjoys talking about her life in a patriarchal society. Her career is a triumph of patience and perseverance, she tells Africa Renewal with a smile and a wink.
Cape Town water taps running dry
Mohammed Allie’s wife has given up showers while Cape Town, South Africa’s second-largest city after Johannesburg, contemplates life without a drop of water in its taps. Allie, a BBC correspondent, related his wife’s experience with the shrinking supply of water, caused by an historic three-year drought.
The hashtag revolution gaining ground
When some 276 teenage girls were kidnapped from their boarding school in northeastern Nigeria in April 2014, Oby Ezekwesili, a civil society activist and former World Bank vice president, was disheartened by the lacklustre response of her government and local television stations.
Interview: Lt. General Daniel Opande, first force commander, UN Mission in Liberia, “How we disarmed Liberian fighters”
From 2003 to 2005, retired Lieutenant General Daniel Opande was the force commander of the peacekeepers of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). Tough but diplomatic, the Kenya Defence Forces officer in 2004 got the commanders of Liberia’s warring factions to agree to the disarming of more than 100,000 former combatants. UNMIL also provided security, technical and logistical support for the electoral process that culminated in peaceful democratic elections in 2005. As the mission finally winds down operations in March 2018, Africa Renewal’s Zipporah Musau and Kingsley Ighobor interviewed Lieutenant General Opande on his experience leading a multinational force during a most challenging period in Liberia. These are excerpts.
William Elong: An ICT innovator
The news wasn’t big enough to excite international media, but it was an exciting development this year in Cameroon when Will&Brothers, a local engineering and consulting company, unveiled the first-ever drone made in Cameroon.
UN signals new era of partnership with Africa
With United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as a guest at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in his first month in office in January 2017, and then again this January past, the UN is signaling a new era of partnership with the regional body and with the continent.
Interview: Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Women executive director, “Bringing rural women to the frontline”
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and executive director of UN Women, recently began a second term in office. In her first term, she drew attention to women’s issues globally, getting some countries to change gender discrimination laws. In this interview with Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor, Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka discusses her vision and the hurdles that African women continue to face.
South African tourism holding steady
Recent reports that Cape Town, a popular tourist destination in South Africa, will soon run out of water due to a prolonged drought hardly seem to be slowing down the country’s burgeoning tourism industry.
Mission accomplished: 15 years of peacekeeping success in Liberia
On a bright, sunny day in January this year, Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf turned over power to George Weah, a decorated soccer star, following peaceful and successful elections. This marked Liberia’s first democratic transfer of power in more than 70 years.
Nurturing young leaders: Training young African leaders can take societies to great heights
Thanks to a unique fellowship at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) as an Ibrahim Leadership Fellow, Marian Yinusa is making an impact in the lives of school-age girls in her birthplace of northern Nigeria.
African music on a round trip—from cotonou to cuba and back
It’s Sunday night at Aba House, an open-air bar in Lomé, Togo’s capital, and stylish young men and women in modern African dress fill the dance floor as the bass guitarist pumps up the tempo. Powerful! Soulful!
No real development in africa without regional integration - Interview: Ahunna Eziakonwa
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Ahunna Eziakonwa is the new Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Ms. Eziakonwa had served as the UN Resident Coordinator in Ethiopia, Uganda and Lesotho. In this interview with Africa Renewal’s Kingsley Ighobor, she discusses key issues pertaining to Africa’s socioeconomic development, including the empowerment of women and youth and Africa’s free trade area, which entered into force in April. These are excerpts.