IPS News – Special

IPS wants to redress a huge imbalance that exists today: only 22% of the voices you hear and read in the news are women’s. Elections, health, education, armed conflicts, corruption, laws, trade, climate change, the global financial and food crises, and natural disasters. IPS covers these frontline issues asking an often forgotten question: What does this mean for women and girls?

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DEVELOPMENT: Financial Crisis Threatens Women’s Meagre Gains
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The spreading global financial crisis – which has taken a heavy toll of international bankers, investors and speculators – is also having a devastating impact on some of the most vulnerable and marginalised groups in society, including women and children.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45965

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RIGHTS-PAKISTAN: Peace Deal With Taliban Setback For Women
By Zofeen Ebrahim
KARACHI (IPS) – The ceasefire agreement reached by the provincial government in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and the Taliban on Feb.16, involving implementation of shariah (Islamic law), is being seen as a setback for women?s rights in the area bordering Afghanistan.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45851

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LABOUR-MEXICO: “They First Asked if I Was Pregnant”
By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY (IPS) – When Paulina was interviewed for a job at a local Wal-Mart in the Mexican capital, the first thing she was asked was whether she was pregnant — a question she did not know at the time was illegal.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45993

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ZIMBABWE: New Cabinet Ignores Quota for Women
By Davison Makanga
HARARE (IPS) – Women?s rights activists in Zimbabwe are outraged by the low representation of female politicians in the new unity government. Only four women are part of the 35-member cabinet, laughably short of the equal representation of women in decision-making that Zimbabwe signed onto at a regional summit in September 2008.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45892

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Q&A: “Time Has Come for a New U.N. Women’s Agency”
Nergui Manalsuren interviews STEPHEN LEWIS, AIDS and gender expert
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – After being blind for years to the needs and rights of women, the United Nations is finally well on its way to create a “fully-resourced” women’s agency, says Stephen Lewis, the former U.N. Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45955

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LABOUR: Women At the Helm, Literally
Miren Gutierrez* interviews SARAH FINKE, of the International Transport Workers? Federation
ROME (IPS) – Shipping used to be for men. Now women are starting to be seen commanding merchant vessels, oil tankers and cruisers, “manning” ships and operating liner engines.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45764

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PAKISTAN/INDIA: Women Beat Unorthodox Paths to Peace
By Beena Sarwar
KARACHI (IPS) – As high-profile delegations from Pakistan visit India after the launch of a month-long cross-border signature campaign to press for resumption of dialogue between the two countries and call for peace, IPS interviewed three Pakistani women who are pushing this agenda in their own unorthodox ways.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45533

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Q&A: “Women Leaders Have to Be Tougher and Stronger Than Men”
Nergui Manalsuren interviews RUBY DHALLA, Canadian MP
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – Ruby Dhalla, a Liberal member of Canada’s Parliament, is also a community activist, doctor, and one of the leading progressive voices in North American politics today.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45990

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TRADE: Middle-aged Women Keeping Zimbabwean Economy Afloat
By Tonderai Kwidini
HARARE (IPS) – Her small tattered book is full of lists of orders for goods such as beer, maize-meal and chemicals. On another page are addresses and phone numbers of store managers while, on another, a list of names has been jotted down along with corresponding amounts.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45991

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LABOUR: Women’s Household Chores Unpaid, Unrecognised
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – The 1983 Hollywood comedy ‘Mr. Mom’ portrayed the story of a laid-off auto-worker reluctantly forced to play the role of a housewife and homemaker after losing his job.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45954

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POLITICS: Malawi’s Women Challenge For Top Posts
By Pilirani Semu-Banda
LILONGWE (IPS) – Sitting side by side, clothed in bright traditional outfits complete with headgear, they looked like any of the women who always dance and ululate for politicians at rallies.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45979

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Q&A: ‘We Were Told To Go To The Mortuary’
Joyce Mulama interviews EVELYN MUTIO, reproductive health practitioner
NAIROBI (IPS) – Two understaffed and ill-equipped public clinics serving 600,000 people: it is in neighbourhoods like Dandora that the battle to reduce maternal mortality is won or lost.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45978

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UAE: Women’s Participation is the Norm
By Meena Janardhan
DUBAI (IPS) – In the gender-sensitive Gulf milieu, efforts by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to empower women and recognise them as partners in the nation-building process has received praise, but experts stress that the scope for improvement is limitless.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45876

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RIGHTS-US: Few Safety Nets for Women of Colour
By Dominique Haoson
UNITED NATIONS (IPS) – As hundreds of activists from around the world descend on the United Nations Monday for a major two-week meeting on women’s rights and equality, the economic crisis here in the host country is continuing to have an especially heavy toll on women of colour.
www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45939

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DON'T MISS IPS EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF THE SITUATION IN SRI LANKA.

While Sri Lanka celebrates 61 years of independence from British colonial rule, the enthusiasm is not shared by minority Tamils living under the military jackboot in the north of the country.

The international community is expressing concern about the worsening humanitarian situation in the country. More than 250,000 civilians trapped in areas of heavy fighting in northern Sri Lanka are in serious danger, and the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) estimates that more than half of these people may soon flee their homes and require international assistance. So far the U.N. Security Council has not taken action.

IPS is covering the conflict from the frontlines

www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/srilanka-independence/index.asp

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IPS EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.

U.S. President Barack Obama has inherited wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a tanking economy, and global crises like climate change. IPS reports on the implications of the new administration not just for U.S. citizens, but for the world.
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/us_elections2008/index.asp

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IPS SPECIAL IN-DEPTH COVERAGE OF FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT.
Financing for development (FfD) is about how domestic and international resources contribute – or don’t, in some cases – to ensure that all countries are able to meet the MDGs and eradicate poverty. As time runs out to meet the MDGs, IPS is reporting on aid, trade, debt relief, international and national finance, domestic budgeting and global governance from around the globe.
www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/ffd/index.asp

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IPS focuses its news coverage on the events and global processes affecting the economic, social and political development of peoples and nations.

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