It would be easy to wave a flag of victory for the human spirit after the Arab Spring, despite the fact that half of its population remains in a pre-ordained, disenfranchised position even after so much change has come. However, the women of the ALWANE Middle East North Africa Initiative are not used to “easy”, and they are not taking “good enough” for an answer.

[ December 21, 2012 ] Members of the ALWANE-Palestine committee protest outside of various ministry offices to raise awareness about a deficit in women’s leadership in the Palestinian Territories.

Despite Iraqi women’s increasing political, social, and economic participation, barriers to full gender equality still remain. Numerous reports have detailed the problems facing women’s equality in Iraq, but their recommendations have often languished due to the enormity of the problem or lack of stakeholder buy in.

** WCI is now launching an exciting new blog series entitled, Voices from the Field. The bloggers for this initiative are affiliated with our Liberia Office. These blogs will aim to keep friends of WCI up-to-date and engaged with ongoing WCI activities in Liberia.**

Is there really a cure for aging? There are thousands of articles, studies, and

Five years after WCI’s Candidate Training series helped double the number of women in Parliament, Malawi’s women leaders hit the campaign trail once again to vy for political office.

The civil conflict in Sri Lanka is once again a top headline in the international media. Several newspapers and media outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera and BBC report that the twenty-four hour ultimatum given to the separatist rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers by the government of Sri Lanka earlier this week has expired and intense fighting has spread to the northern part of the island. However it is evident that following this recent wave of violence, more media attention of the civil conflict in Sri Lanka is needed.

The Arhuaco tribe is one of four Tairona indigenous groups that inhabit the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta of Northwestern Colombia. While the government of Colombia recognizes indigenous territories, the Arhuaco are quickly becoming one of Colombia’s 27 indigenous groups at risk for extinction. WCI’s programs with Arhuaca women in Colombia aim to end this devastating trend.

One women’s health issue of critical concern in Ethiopia is that of obstetric fistula. Obstetric fistula is a condition that occurs during childbirth when a rupture or hole in the birth canal obstructs delivery of the infant and forces a pregnant mother to endure hours or days of painful labor. In many cases, the baby is delivered stillborn and the mothers who are fortunate enough to survive the traumatic labor are often left incontinent as they can no longer control the urine and bowels that constantly leak through the ruptured birth canal.