News & Impact

Find stories about:

Project

Region/Country

Sort by: Type | Date

What Do Teachers Think? Global Gender & Education Survey Results March 26, 2013 Pregnancy, early marriage, school fees, risk of sexual violence? What are the barriers for girls and boys going to school? As the education community envisions post-2015 Millennium Development Goals, IREX surveyed its pool of teacher-leaders alumni around the world to get a better picture of the ways gender impacts education. What impacts girls’ participation in school the most? What particular factors affect boys? Over 200 secondary school teachers from 45 countries responded to our questions. Here are some of the findings from our snapshot survey.	Women’s Voices Absent from Airwaves in Liberia March 20, 2013 by Bill Burke The images told a story, one of confusion, misunderstanding and the stark reality that confronts the men in this room on a daily basis. It’s a reality that poses a challenge for IREX and its partners. At issue: mainstreaming gender in community radio programs and policies. The 19 men here were in the central Liberian city of Gbarnga for a CSML-run gender awareness training for community radio managers and news directors. They had been asked to draw images of their understanding of gender, and their drawings spoke volumes.
New Strategies to Combat Old Abuses in Liberia March 14, 2013 by Dara Lipton Recently, journalists at Liberia Women Democracy Radio (LWDR) challenged citizens in R.C. Lawson Community, a small village on the outskirts of Monrovia, to take a stand against sexual exploitation through interactive theatre. IREX’s Civil Society and Media Leadership program is committed to strengthening the capacity of Liberian’s civil society and media outlets, including community radio stations. Through this training and subsequent community and radio presentations, citizens are activated not as bystanders, but as agents of change in their communities.	Gender at Top of the Agenda in Ugandan Ministry of Defense March 11, 2013 by Michelle Weisse Trueheart “Where are all the women?” That is the simple yet profound question Community Solutions Program (CSP) Alumnus Patrick Temera asked himself when he returned to his work at the Ugandan Ministry of Defense in December 2011. Temera, a Social Development Officer who worked with the wives and widows of soldiers on income generation projects, is no stranger to women in the workplace, but he had never before noticed how few women held positions of power in his own. Fewer than five percent of the leadership positions within the Ugandan Ministry of Defense are currently held by women. “I doubt without my experience in the U.S., I would have been able to see the need to make a change.”
What's Next for Women: A Conversation with Nobel Laureate Leymah Gbowee March 7, 2013 In honor of International Women's Day, IREX sat down with Nobel Peace Prize laureate and women's rights activist Leymah Gbowee to get her views on the opportunities and challenges facing the global women's movement as well as the role of men in the struggle for gender equality.	Heroes for Us All March 5, 2013 by W. Robert Pearson We’re going to celebrate International Women’s Day this week, and when we do, the ceremonies will focus on outstanding women. These women will be heroes for all of us - every man, woman and child around the world. When women are able to play more useful and important roles in our societies, everyone benefits, and our horizons keep expanding.
The Gender Agenda: Gaining Global Momentum March 1, 2013 by Randal Mason Between International Women’s Day on the 8th and March being Women’s History Month, this is a time for IREX to reaffirm our ongoing commitment to gender equality and to examine how we and our partners around the world are advancing “The Gender Agenda.”	Newsroom Debates in Mozambique February 11, 2013 Determined Mozambican journalists have a new forum to express, share and unburden with fellow colleagues and community leaders. For more than thirty years now journalists there worked amid threats and bureaucratic hurdles for freedom of expression and access to information with little support.
Cote d’Ivoire Teacher Overcomes Conflict to Join US Training Program February 7, 2013 by Ginnie Seger When post-election violence broke out in Cote d'Ivoire, in April of 2010, Aka Blehou, knew that he must continue to teach, no matter the circumstances. Blehou, an English teacher, and current Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Fellow recalls: “During the conflict, the village school was closed, but I gathered the students there, and I taught them twice a week, unofficially… so when the school opened, they would not forget.”	Bringing Critical Library Services to Namibia February 7, 2013 IREX is implementing a new project in Namibia to support public access to information and increase economic growth. This project is a partnership with the Namibia Library and Archives Service and is funded by the Millennium Challenge Account Namibia through its Compact with the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation.