The Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) and partners are requesting funding proposals from women’s rights and HIV/AIDS coalitions in southern and eastern Africa with the aim of developing submissions to the Global Fund that address the vulnerabilities of women and girls.

'In Punjab, the state with the lowest sex ratio in India at 798 girls per 1,000 boys, the Sikh clergy has been roped into the effort to save the girl-child. The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee is planning to set up cradles to receive unwanted girl-children at gurdwaras, while the state administration has already started its own cradle baby scheme. Will this strategy work in a state where 50 discarded female foetuses were found at the bottom of a well in 2006?'

'A recent report released by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions notes that while previous studies found that women who migrate to cities do so to join family members – mostly husbands – in the city, this trend appears to be changing: an increasing number of women are migrating to cities on their own, often to escape domestic violence or discrimination in rural areas, or because they have been disinherited. In some sub-Saharan African countries, stigmatization due to HIV/AIDS has also more...

THIS is not a book about the orchestrated fears of population boom and demographic explosion. Anyone who expects such a perspective from the book will be disappointed. But for those who are interested in the debates on population boom theories and critical of policy approaches that are far removed from realities, Mohan Rao does justice. As a medical doctor by training with specialisation in public health and as an activist of the People's Health Movement a broad alliance of community initiatives more...

In December 2003, the UN General Assembly requested that the Secretary-General conduct an in-depth study of violence against women. As preparations for the study continued throughout 2005, the International Indigenous Women's Forum (FIMI/IIWF) became increasingly concerned that the needs, rights, and perspectives of Indigenous women would not be adequately reflected in the study. In response, FIMI developed a companion report to the Secretary-General's Study, exploring the many manifestations of more...

Kalpana Chawla (Hindi: कल्‍पना चावला) (Punjabi: ਕਲਪਨਾ ਚਾਵਲਾ) (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003), was an Indian-American astronaut and space shuttle mission specialist. She was one of seven crewmembers killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

'This brochure provides a brief introduction to UNFPA and its efforts to ensure that every child is wanted, every pregnancy is safe, every young person is free of HIV and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.'
Source: UNFPA

'This issue of Women2000 provides an overview of the situation of widows across the globe, and their particular vulnerability to marginalization and invisibility across different regions of the world. It focuses on those regions where the need for action to eliminate discrimination against widows is most urgent, and examines issues such as poverty, armed conflict, lack of education and training, health, violence, and economic marginalization from the perspective of widowhood. It provides suggest more...

This publication, prepared for the High-Level Event on MDGs, focuses on: women’s economic opportunity; women’s legal status and rights; and women’s voice and participation in economic decision-making. It concludes with a set of ‘key ingredients’ for success in various areas of MDGs.

A programme aimed at improving reproductive health of youth in over 150 villages of Indian states of Bihar and Jharkhand has resulted in significant changes in actions and decisions of people, including increase in contraceptive use and rise of marriageable age. Implemented by International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW), the programme dispelled the notion that a holistic approach focusing on social, economic and cultural systems as well as health care takes too much time and money to be pr more...