Building peace and human security for sustainable and inclusive development with local border communities in Mali and Senegal

Date: Saturday, January 12, 2019

UN Women Regional Office for West and Central Africa (WCAR), in partnership with the Senegalese National Commission for Border Management (CNGF/NCBM), held a two-day capacity-building workshop for border communities in Senegal and Mali on an “integrated border management approach to promoting and sustaining peace and human security for social and economic development”.

Malian women call for urgent action to sustain peace and ensure women’s participation

Date: Monday, September 17, 2018

Three years since the signing of the peace agreement, Malian women are impatient to see its provisions at work. “We have discussed enough, it is now time to act,” said one woman at a recently held meeting in Bamako, which convened 40 women leaders from civil society, government and armed groups to find common ground and accelerate efforts to increase Malian women’s participation in the peace process. The multidimensional security and political crisis with interlinked micro...

Mali says STOP to gender-based violence (GBV): the new One Stop Center in Bamako, a link between justice and Malian women survivors of GBV

Date: Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Whether medical, psychological or legal, women survivors of GBV will now find help and advice in the new One Stop Center in Bamako, inaugurated on April 18, 2018 by the Malian government and the United Nations.

“I want a future, where our children grow up in security” – 5 questions to a peace mediator in Mali

Date: Monday, March 12, 2018

Since 2017, Mouna Awata is the President of the Women’s Peace Hut in Gao – where local women from different ethnic communities come together to discuss their matters and raise their voices for a peaceful coexistence. On the occasion of the International Women’s Day 2018, she describes her daily tasks as a female leader and her wishes for sustainable peace in Mali.

Climate-smart agriculture improves livelihoods of rural women in Mali

Date: Wednesday, February 14, 2018

When Fatou Dembele’s plants first started dying, she thought the plot of land was ruined, and her livelihood was at risk.

Joint Statement: ‘Freedom from fear’: Ending violence against women

Date: Sunday, December 10, 2017

Human beings are born free and equal, both in rights and in dignity. This is the fundamental principle enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On 10 December nearly 70 years ago, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first international assertion of the “highest aspiration of the common people”, including the “promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms”,...

Malian artists take a stand to end violence against women

Date: Friday, August 4, 2017

Sira Kouyate and other young artists perform during a Moussoya ye Koba Ye’ concert. Photo: UN Women/Gaoussou Haidara   “We are women from here; women of Africa; strong women, proud women, loved women; and we say no to violence against women,” sang Pamela Badjogo on 7 April, 2017, in a packed concert in Mali, as part of the Moussoya ye Koba Ye’ programme, supported by UN Women. Launched in April 2017 by a group of young women artists from different parts of...

From where I stand: “Today, I am living my dream, because I got a second chance”

Date: Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Today, I am living my dream, because I got a second chance

Hotline helps prevent gender-based violence in Mali

Date: Monday, November 30, 2015

To provide appropriate measures to combat and prevent gender-based violence in Mali and, in particular, to reduce the risk of this calamity escalating during crisis and post-crisis situations, UN Women—working in partnership with the National Police of Mali—decided to open a hotline to provide support for women and girls experiencing gender-based violence.

West African Business Leaders Stepping It Up for Gender Equality

Date: Thursday, October 15, 2015

The world’s wealthiest woman of African descent, media mogul and most promising entrepreneur of Mali joined 60 global Business Leaders and Philanthropists to close the gender investment gap. On 26 September 2015, UN Women, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Alibaba Group of China co-chaired a high-level Breakfast Forum for top global leaders in business and philanthropy. The Forum was held at UN Women’s headquarters in New York in the margins of the Seventieth Session of...

Women in Mali demand equal role in Peace Accords

Date: Friday, October 9, 2015

Before and after reaching a peace agreement in June, women leaders have been pressuring decision-makers for 50-50 representation in all bodies involved in its implementation.

In Mali, renewable energy boosts agricultural production

Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2015

UN Women supports hundreds of women in 13 rural areas by transforming the economic and social landscape to support their resilience in the face of climate change.

Command Post Exercise – CPX Africa UNiTE II for African Security Organs to end Violence Against Women and Girls

Date: Thursday, September 3, 2015

Rwanda hosted from 17 to 19 August 2015 an all Africa security organs Command Post exercise (CPX) themed: “African Security Organs’ Synergy to End Violence against Women and Girls”. This was organized by Rwanda security organs and the ONE UN Rwanda, under the auspices of the Kigali International Conference Declaration (KICD) Secretariat custodianship and the current KICD chair; following a decision made during the 4th KICD Annual General Meeting to conduct an exercise play to enhance capacities of Africa security organs in dealing with violence against women and girls.

Press release: Closing the gender gap in education

Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Empowering adolescent girls and young women through education is the aim – and the name – of a programme launched in New York today by UNESCO, UN Women, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Bank.

UN Women action to confront the Ebola crisis

Date: Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was declared an international public health emergency in August, many UN organizations have been working hand-in-hand to help those affected on the ground. UN Women has been facilitating mobilization and information efforts targeting women, who have been disproportionately affected by this disease, coordinating UN efforts to address gender within the response, and supporting the collection of sex-disaggregated data. To help curb the spread of Ebola and mitigate its impacts, UN Women has focused on supporting sensitization and advocacy on Ebola and its gender dimensions primarily in Liberia and Sierra Leone, but with some efforts in Nigeria, where we are making relevant materials available in local languages.

Girls receive a visit from a different man every night, a ‘new husband’: In the words of Saran Keïta Diakité

Date: Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Saran Keïta Diakité is a lawyer in Mali and President of the Malian branch of the NGO Working Group on Women Peace and Security (Réseau Paix et Sécurité des Femmes de l’Espace CEDEAO). As the Donor Conference on Mali starts in Brussels, in her own words she speaks about the atrocities occurring in her country, which has been plagued by political instability and the proliferation of armed groups that have uprooted more than 415,000 people since a military coup d’état in March 2012. She also talks about the work of her NGO, supported by UN Women, to assist survivors of violence, provide access to justice, and to ensure women have a say in peace negotiations. She was one of four female mediators who took part in peace negotiations from 15-17 April 2012 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Saran also recently spoke in April 2013 at the UN Security Council’s Open Debate on conflict-related sexual violence in New York.