General Women, Peace and Security

Right now, the largest gathering of world leaders in at least a decade is assembling at the United Nations in New York to assess what progress has been made in reducing poverty, improving health and ensuring access to education in developing countries. One issue on the agenda that is especially dear to me is how to combat pregnancy-related deaths and injuries and improve women's health in developing countries.

The Council adopted a decision extending until 30 September 2012 the EU mission to provide advice and assistance for security sector reform in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (12855/10).

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Friday adopted the Dakar Declaration that gives women equal participation and full involvement in all peace and security issues in compliance with a landmark UN Security Council resolution.

A UN statement on Saturday said the representatives of the countries adopted the declaration after a three-day forum in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

As more women join the military, they need services that range from medical and psychological treatment to homeless prevention and housing.

Female veterans have unique issues that are gender-related, military and Veterans Affairs officials say.

To that end, Virtua Health has developed a proposal to promote awareness of expanded services for female vets available from both Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense.

The time has come for women leaders to influence the narrative on climate change and how we address its impacts. The devastating floods in Pakistan illustrate how natural and man-made disasters can in a matter of days wipe out years of development progress. The floods in Pakistan have affected 20 million people -- equal to the population of New York state -- or nearly two-thirds of Canada.

This morning as global leaders meet in New York to discuss prospects for meeting the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), First Ladies from Africa will be making a case for mothers and children.

A single mother of three, survivor of prison torture and exile. A pediatrician, linguist and practiced buster of gender barriers as the first female president of Chile. This is the resume that makes Michelle Bachelet an excellent choice to lead the newly created United Nations agency to promote gender equality around the globe, to be called U.N. Women.

West African countries today moved towards ensuring the equal participation and full involvement in all peace and security issues in compliance with a landmark Security Council resolution.

Representatives of 16 countries across the region adopted the Dakar Declaration after a three-day forum in the Senegalese capital that considered how West Africa can better implement resolution 1325.

The U.N.'s $169 billion catch-up plan for global maternal health--the runt of the development-goal litter--faces a final checkup meeting in New York this week. As a maternal death clock tick-tocks in Times Square, the big question is money.

With five years left till the Millennium Development Goals' 2015 deadline, civil society groups say South Africa has made progress on some goals but regressed on others.

Pal Mfunzana's sole source of income is a couple of corrugated tin shacks, indistinguishable from many others in Diepsloot, a deeply impoverished slum on the northern edge of Johannesburg.