Statement by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director

Date: Thursday, July 26, 2018

Women’s participation in development planning and political processes is crucial for advancing Afghanistan toward a more stable and prosperous country, said panellists during a UN-backed radio programme in the central highlands province of Bamyan.

Colombia is to get its first female interior minister with women heading other key ministries including justice and energy

By Anastasia Moloney

BOGOTA, July 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Half of Colombia's cabinet ministers will be women when the new government takes office next month in a first for the country and a boost for global gender equality.

“STEP IT UP for gender equality” was one among the many commitments renewed at the South Asian Speakers Summit on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) implementation, convened by the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) and Sri Lanka’s Parliament in Colombo, July 11-12, 2018.

By Abby Alexander,

Marian Wright Edelman once said, "you can't be what you can't see."

The Global Gender Gap Report released in November 2017 by the World Economic Forum ranked Japan 114th out of 144 countries. This was a fall of three places from the previous year. The ranking is based on four categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Japan lagged particularly in the last of these categories, ranking 129th for women in parliament and 88th for women in ministerial positions.

A breast cancer survivor and trade unionist, a liberation war icon, an author and entrepreneur and a fashion designer are four women who have already made history by contesting Zimbabwe’s presidential elections, a first for women.

They are also on the verge of shattering many more records should any one of them beat the odds stacked against them to win the presidential election.

Mexico's hard swing to the left in this month's national elections also swept in some other historic firsts. Women won key positions across the country, including, for the first time ever, the mayor of Mexico City.

Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, 56, will assume arguably the second most important political post in Mexico, after capturing nearly 50 percent of the vote in the July 1 elections.