IPU Inter-Parliamentary Union [to 30 January 2016]
http://www.ipu.org/english/news.htm

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28 JANUARY 2016
Rwanda MPs urge action on civil registration
MPs in Rwanda have held a meeting with leaders of key government ministries as part of a drive to improve healthcare for women, children and adolescents. The country has made progress in cutting some maternal deaths, but more needs to be done in other areas such as reducing the number of children dying. The meeting discussed the urgent need for new and efficient systems to collect accurate information on births, marriages and deaths…

Mauritanian MPs create action plan for equality
28 JANUARY 2016
Women MPs in Mauritania have created an action plan to push forward work on gender equality. It followed training in Nouakchott on strategic planning on the work of the women’s caucus in parliament involving about 40 female MPs, civil society organizations and government officials…

Integrating gender into Ivorian parliamentary work
28 JANUARY 2016
Promoting gender equality in the work of Côte d’Ivoire’s Parliament has received a major boost, with the staging of a workshop for parliamentary staff. Fifty employees, including 18 women, took part in a three-day event, which equipped staff to integrate gender issues into the work of parliament. It focused on building a common understanding of what a gender perspective means for women and men, and devising ways to implement this approach in the day-to-day work of parliament…

Kenya community events boost gender equality target
28 JANUARY 2016
Hundreds of citizens and local leaders around Kenya have attended community outreach events to promote awareness and support for the constitutional requirement of women MPs accounting for at least one third of all MPs in the country, and proposals to achieve this…

Turkish Parliament launches equality “role model” mission
28 JANUARY 2016
A project to ensure gender equality is placed at the heart of Turkey’s parliamentary work has been launched. Working alongside IPU and UN Women, Turkey’s Grand National Assembly will support women’s leadership and ensure equality becomes a mainstream issue in all parliamentary business. Through the project, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), the Grand National Assembly is aiming to become a role model on gender equality, with changes benefiting not just female MPs but also their male counterparts, parliamentary staff and commissions…

Major health promotion role for IPU President
28 JANUARY 2016
IPU President Saber Chowdhury has accepted an invitation to join a high-level group on Every Woman Every Child, a global movement led by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Asian summit focuses on cutting tobacco deaths
28 JANUARY 2016
A summit of Speakers of Parliament from South Asia will explore practical ways to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a particular focus on improving health by cutting tobacco use. The Speakers will aim to identify ways to cut deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) from the current annual toll of 38 million people by one third by 2030…
….The event, in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka on 30-31 January, is being organized by IPU and the Bangladeshi Parliament in cooperation with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an international non-profit organization.