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Almost half a million Kenyan school girls have been given access to free sanitary towels through a State initiative supported by UN Women. The initiative is a great leap forward in a country where many girls miss up to five days of school every month because of their menstrual cycle. With almost half of Kenya’s [...]

At the Eleventh Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples in New York, UN Women organized a side event on “Good Practices: Indigenous Women´s Contributions to Citizenship and Governance Processes”. The panel focused on the results of public policies in Mexico which have tried to integrate a gender and intercultural approach to advance [...]

Municipal authorities from eight cities around the world meet in Nairobi this week to advance work to develop their concrete programmes to make cities safer and more sustainable, with a special focus on women, young people and children. The meeting is hosted by UN Habitat, which together with UNICEF and UN Women lead the five-year [...]

“I have never thought of myself as a female journalist. I think of myself as a journalist full-stop.” So says award-winning Egyptian journalist, Shahira Amin, in a new book on frontline reporting by female correspondents, supported by UN Women. “No Woman’s Land”, released this spring by the International News Safety Initiative, compiled by Hannah Storm [...]

Plunged into an unprecedented crisis following the military coup d’état perpetrated on 22 March 2012 by a military junta, the Malian authorities have embarked upon a process of transition. With the help of UN Women, women in Mali have been represented at the negotiating table. Saran Keïta Diakité and Traoré Oumou Touré, together with two [...]

“Women hold the key to doors that are closed to men.” So says Victor Nuñez, Commodore in Argentina’s Air Force, who has seen his female colleagues use such keys for the benefit of many communities while on peace missions. For instance, during such operations, women have access to testimonies from survivors of domestic and sexual [...]

Puniben Rajpara from Gujarat has improved water facilities in her village, while Shashi Kiran from Himachal Pradesh has demanded one-year maternity leave for working women in her area. At the Women’s Political Empowerment Day Celebrations 2012, they were two of the four outstanding elected women representatives from panchayats (village councils) who were honoured for their [...]

Honaria’s central market in the Solomon Islands was dirty, crowded, and well known for petty crime and harassment – particularly for its mainly-women vendors.  For many, making it “women friendly” was a lost cause. Yet despite critics and detractors, a woman leader was appointed as market manager for the first time, on the recommendation of [...]