Sub Saharan Africa

A record number of women were sworn in as legislators as Senegal's new parliament was inaugurated on Monday.

Sixty-four women now have seats in this West African country's 150-member National Assembly, thanks to a law on gender parity.

But the breakthrough made by women candidates has relaunched a debate on the quality of their work in the legislature.

The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) has launched a program to train women to spearhead citizenship education towards the promotion of peace, transparency and credibility of the December elections.

Dubbed “Promoting democratic citizenship to enhance elections peace, transparency and credibility in Ghana”, it aims at building the capacities of selected women from 15 electoral-violence prone districts to create more awareness about the need for peace.

The number of women in parliament is not enough to show that parliament is gender-sensitive. This was said by Honorable Alphonsine Mukarugema, the chairwoman of Rwanda Women Parliamentary Forum (RWPF) at the occasion of a consultative meeting organized by the forum, which took place yesterday at the parliament with a theme: 'A Gender Sensible Parliament'.

The meeting was organized in order to understand what a gender-sensitive parliament looks like and to conduct a self-assessment of the Rwandan parliament towards those criteria.

Somali leaders are debating a new constitution that protects the right to have an abortion to save the life of the mother, and an international law group says the draft guarantees more fundamental rights than the U.S. Constitution.

That's one reason some women are celebrating the document and hardline conservatives are protesting some of its more liberal promises.

An umbrella body of more than a hundred women groups from across fourteen chiefdoms in Kailahun district, the Kailahun Women in Governance Network KWIG, has expressed grave concerns over the yet-to-be actualised 30% quota proposed for Sierra Leonean women to actively participate in the day today administration of the country, saying it is long overdue.

According to the women, despite assurances by President Ernest Koroma to ensure that the bill is passed into law, the document has been gathering dust at the House of Parliament.

Women in political leadership in the three northern regions have held a debate focusing on the programmes of their political parties, which seek to build inclusive government.

Read the complete story at Ghana News Agency, published 25 July 2012.

Northern Bahr el Ghazal’s Legislative Assembly held a parliamentary ceremony on Monday to swear in the state’s first female speaker, days after the house approved a new cabinet in controversial circumstances.

Officials and members of the state assembly told Sudan Tribune that Monica Achol William Amoi is the first female legislator to ascend to the top-level parliamentary position since the state was created in 1994.

Athiang Manok Athiang became the new deputy speaker in a session boycotted by former speaker, Aguer Wol Aguer, and nine other members of parliament.