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Despite ongoing discrimination, women entrepreneurs are reshaping the Global South, with crucial support from the UN

Exceptional women business leaders such as African engineer-turned-entrepreneur Norah Magero are demonstrating how lived experience and ingenuity, backed by United Nations support, can turn promising ideas into successful companies, even in societies where their voices have long been sidelined.  As a young mother in a remote part of eastern Kenya, Norah Magero struggled to get […]

Violence against women: UN sheds light on global femicide crisis, digital abuse

For three years, thousands of angry messages poured into American actress Azie Tesfai’s phone from a man she’d never seen nor met.   One day, the anonymous interaction turned into physical stalking. He texted her exactly what she was wearing. “There is a specific terror in being watched by someone without a face,” Ms. Tesfai told UN officials, Goodwill Ambassadors and civil […]

Over 600 million children exposed to violence at home, UNICEF warns

More than one in four children globally – around 610 million – live with mothers who have experienced physical, emotional or sexual abuse by an intimate partner in the past year, making violence a part of their everyday lives, according to new data released by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday November 25,  2025. […]

From silence to strength: Women leaders speak out in South Sudan

Scolded for wanting to go to school as a girl and dismissed or ignored as an adult, Awrelia from Wau in South Sudan has learnt to advocate for herself, her children and for the women in her community. She knows what it’s like to be silenced. Born into a family that didn’t believe in educating girls, she had to stay home while […]

From waste pickers to courtrooms: Women demand a gender focus at COP30

On the scheduled final day of COP30 in Belém, tense negotiations are stretching into Friday afternoon as divisions persist. Amid the ongoing talks, one message is cutting through the noise: there is no climate justice without gender equality. Women’s voices are rising with clarity and urgency, pressing negotiators to ensure the conference leaves a lasting […]

AI and anonymity fuel surge in digital violence against women

What was once hailed as a vehicle for empowerment has, for millions of women and girls, become a source of fear. Fuelled by artificial intelligence, anonymity, and weak accountability, online abuse is rapidly escalating. Yet, 1.8 billion women and girls still lack legal protection from online harassment and other forms of technology-facilitated abuse. The alarm […]

Healing the hidden wounds of childbirth

In Somalia, where six out of ten births take place without a doctor, childbirth is often a matter of survival.    For women like 38-year-old Farhiya from rural Beletweyne, the consequences can be devastating — a painful obstetric fistula, a hole in the birth canal that left her incontinent, isolated, and cut off from her […]

Sudan war: Women endure starvation, rape and bombs fleeing El Fasher

In war-torn Sudan, rape is likely being used as a weapon of war and simply being a woman there is “a strong predictor” of hunger, violence and death, the UN’s gender equality agency warned on Tuesday November 10, 2025. “Women speaking to us from El Fasher, the heart of Sudan’s latest catastrophe, tell us that they’ve […]

From pledges to action: Leaders push for faster climate progress at COP30

COP30 opened in Belém on Monday with a clear message: the era of half-measures is over. Climate change is here, devastating communities and driving up costs, but solutions are within reach. Clean energy is surging, resilience saves lives, and cooperation can still bend the curve further.  “This is the moment to match opportunity with urgency,” […]