UN Study Finds Female-Headed Households in Southern Tigray Destitute. [Ethiopia] More than any other group, households headed by women in Ethiopia's Southern Tigray region, one of the poorest in the world, are "among the most destitute" and are far more likely to be landless and without access to plant resources than households led by men, according to a United Nations-backed study. The study, supported by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), was based on four months of field research in Southern Tigray and was conducted in conjunction with an FAO project aimed at improving food security and nutrition. "Female-headed households, which constitute nearly 30 per cent of this region's population, are among the most destitute," said Patricia Howard, a research professor at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Being a member of a female-headed household in highland Ethiopia means having a 35 per cent chance of being destitute, compared with only an 8 per cent chance if one belongs to a male-headed household, according to the study. It also found that female households are far more likely to be landless and they lack access to plant resources. In a region severely affected by soil erosion, deforestation and overgrazing, the FAO said that such access has been reduced not only because of cultural bias but also due to inadequate enclosing of common grazing lands and woodlots.

Anger at Diluted Rape Law. [Kenya] Kenyan women's rights activists have condemned parliament for watering down a new sex crimes law. The bill was passed but key sections to outlaw marital rape and female genital mutilation were scrapped. Campaigner Anne Njogu told the BBC it was "obscene" that women found to have made false rape accusations now face the same sentences as rapists. The month-long debate of the Sexual Offences Bill saw bitter exchanges and a walk-out by female MPs. The bill, which still has to be signed into law by President Mwai Kibaki, introduced minimum sentences for rape and widened the definition of rape to include offences against men and boys. It also introduced minimum sentences for rape. Many Kenyans are alarmed by a huge rise in the incidence of sexual abuse.

Rape Jokes Harmful. [Kenya] At a conference this week on sexual health, the Rev. Dominic Wamugunda tried to lighten his talk with a joke -- about rape. The remark by the priest, who also is dean of students at the University of Nairobi, was just the latest flippant comment by a high-ranking Kenyan about sexual assault. Outraged activists said the wisecracks were hurting efforts to encourage women to report rapes. Last year, then-Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi said donor criticism of Kenya's fight against corruption was "like raping a woman who is already willing." He later apologized. And lawmaker Paddy Ahenda said in parliament that an anti-rape proposal was too strict, adding: "In our culture, when women say 'No,' they mean 'Yes' unless it's a prostitute." He, too, apologized. "When high-up men make statements that rape is a joke, it tells you that there is a lot of political work to be done," said Patricia McFadden, a Zimbabwe-based sociologist who attended the three-day conference in Nairobi. Social stigma often prevents victims from reporting rape -- a problem exacerbated in Kenya by a "very cavalier public attitude" about the crime, said Mikewa Ogada, a research officer at the Kenya Human Rights Commission. More than 2,800 cases of rape were reported in Kenya in 2004, an increase of nearly 500 from the year before. But figures from health facilities suggest that the number of unreported rapes in Kenya could be as high as 16,000 a year, according to Amnesty International. "We still have a long way to go in condemning rapists," said Dr. Sam Thenya, chief executive of the Nairobi Women's Hospital.

Women Queue Up To Join Johnson-Sirleaf's Army. [Liberia] The Liberian army began recruiting women into its new post-war forces yesterday, part of a move to reform the military. The army will initially have 2,000 troops, with roughly 400 of them women, an official said. Dozens of women queued up outside a military barracks in the capital, Monrovia, yesterday to sign up. The "special push" to recruit women is part of a broader attempt to ensure gender balance under the president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who took office in January as Africa's first elected female head of state.

IFC, Access Bank Provide Loans to Women Entrepreneurs. [Nigeria] The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, weekend signed an agreement with Access Bank Plc to provide a $15 million loan which will be used to extend lines of credit to women entrepreneurs. With this loan, Access Bank Plc will be one of the first banks in Africa to dedicate lines of credit to finance women-owned businesses and this is the first major loan under IFC's Gender Entreprene-urship Markets (GEM) program, which is designed to leverage the potential of women in emerging markets. According to Declan Duff, IFC's Vice President, Industries, "Women are a driving force in the African economy, but their access to finance is still far too small. This is why IFC is partnering with Access Bank, a dynamic and innovative local bank, to bridge the gap. This initiative will increase the contributions of women-owned businesses to the Nigerian economy and can have a significant development impact." In a statement, IFC sait its funding will allow Access Bank to "meet the financing needs of its female clients, particularly those running small and medium enterprises. At the same time, IFC's Gender Entrepreneurship Markets program will provide comprehensive assistance and training to enhance the bank's ability to reach out to the women's market as well as provide business and management training for women entrepreneurs."

Women Don't Watch Football? Nonsense! [South Africa] With all this soccer World Cup hype, who will be watching? Newspapers are leading their readers to believe that in the next few weeks of the World Cup women will feel alienated as their husbands and boyfriends will be attached to the TV remote control. That's nothing new (attachment to the remote, that is)... but who said women will not be watching? These publications then go on to dish out advice on how to capture the man's attention, which ranges from parading around in lingerie to accepting defeat and serving beer, hoping he will at least acknowledge our presence. This year is the 18th World Cup tournament and it's 76 years since the first was staged, so it is shocking that such "advice columns" are still being published. To suggest that women know no better than to wiggle their bottoms for anybody's attention is primitive. Believe me, many women will be watching.

Beyond Victimhood: Women's Peacebuilding. [Sudan, Congo and Uganda] Peacebuilding cannot succeed if half the population is excluded from the process. Crisis Group's research in Sudan, Congo (DRC) and Uganda suggests that peace agreements, post-conflict reconstruction, and governance do better when women are involved. Women make a difference, in part because they adopt a more inclusive approach toward security and address key social and economic issues that would otherwise be ignored. But in all three countries, as different as each is, they remain marginalized in formal processes and under-represented in the security sector as a whole. Governments and the international community must do much more to support women peace activists. The scale of discrimination and violence against women in each armed conflict - and the impunity with which it continues to be committed - remain the central obstacles to expanding the good work being done by women peacebuilders. The international community speaks a great deal about including women in formal peace-making processes and recognizing their peacebuilding contributions but fails to do so in a systematic, meaningful way. Advances have been made in understanding the links between gender, development, human rights, peace, security and justice. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 in 2000 reaffirmed the role of women in preventing and resolving conflicts and mandates UN member states to take steps to increase women's participation in decision-making. However, endemic discrimination and sexual violence are significant barriers to achieving Resolution 1325's goal of inclusivity. The stereotype of "women as only victims" should not be reinforced. An array of women's organizations and women leaders are doing remarkable work in each of the three countries, under difficult circumstances. The daily struggle for survival greatly limits the numbers who have become peace activists but their potential is significant. Because those who are courageous and capable enough to involve themselves as catalysts in peacebuilding are an endangered minority, they should be safeguarded and strengthened with funding, training and inclusion in assessment missions and other decision-making mechanisms that shape fundamental questions of security.

Use of Female Condoms Increases. [Zimbabwe] There has been an 85 percent increase in the use of female condoms in the country compared to five years ago, an official at Population Services international said yesterday. In an interview, the Director for Technical Services at PSI, Miss Yasmin Madan attributed the increase to awareness on the condom among customers. “Intensive advocacy campaigns have been carried out in the last few years and this has contributed to an increase in the number of female condoms being sold. More women want to be in a position to negotiate for safer sex hence the increased use of female condoms,” she said. Miss Madan said the organisation has been distributing 85 000 female condoms a month since the beginning of the year and was targeting at distributing over one million female condoms by the end of the year. “Zimbabwe now has one of the highest rates of female condom use in the world compared to five years ago when the uptake was rather low. This year, our main aim is to distribute at least one million pieces by the end of the year,” she said. Miss Madan said the organisation had trained hundreds of hairdressers across the country on the correct use of the condoms and to encourage other women to use it and so far the programme had been successful. “We started training hairdressers last year on the use of the female condom and this has been a success as 40 percent of sales recorded were from hair salons,” she said. Miss Madan said PSI was now targetting HIV and AIDS service organisations and also people living with HIV and AIDS to promote the use of the female condom. In the past, some women shunned the female condom saying that it was too bulky and expensive. The female condom costs $100 000 for a packet of three in some pharmacies compared to $5 000 for the same quantity of male condoms.