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Promoting female employment remains a pressing challenge in many low- and middle-income countries. Despite ongoing efforts, too few women participate in the labour force – particularly in regions such as the Middle East and South Asia – and too many remain locked out of more decent wage employment – especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Promoting women’s employment is not just about fairness; it is essential for inclusive and sustainable development. Women’s economic participation matters for four reasons: it fosters growth and reduces poverty by increasing household income, it enhances women’s autonomy in the household, it promotes equity and cohesion in societies, and it strengthens the resilience of households to shocks by diversifying income sources. Recent research has deepened under­standing of both the barriers and enablers of gender equality in labour markets, offering useful guidance for development cooperation.

Building on empirical research by IDOS, this policy brief highlights that development cooperation can take three key approaches to promote female employment:

• Address foundational barriers: Development cooperation can work with local partners to remove the root barriers holding women back. This includes addressing restrictive gender norms in ways that respect cultural contexts, e.g. by investing in community-based care solutions (as successfully practised in several African cases) or better access to services and mobility. Projects should not only target women individually but also address constraints within households and communities and engage broader society. They must also challenge gendered labour market structures that limit women’s paths into wage work.
• Strengthen gender equality on the opera­tional level: The green and digital transitions offer new employ­ment opportunities – but women risk being left behind. Development cooperation can help to ensure that women benefit from these shifts. In cooperation with national governments, it can embed gender targets into economic reforms, incentivise companies to adopt inclusive hiring practices and to implement flexible work time arrangements (such as in Jordan), and fund training for women to reskill and motivate them for these fields.
• Create an enabling policy mix: Employment-focused reforms succeed when they connect with broader policy frameworks. Aligning employment initiatives with social policies – such as childcare support or public works – can boost women’s ability to work. At the same time, gender-sensitive approaches in areas like transport, finance and infrastructure can help overcome structural disadvantages that affect women at different stages of life.

In recent years, development cooperation has shifted from measures to support gender mainstreaming towards gender-transformative approaches that aim to reduce structural barriers. Recent funding cuts and public opinion that is becoming more critical of diversity and equity measures, mean that development cooperation must build on its experience to enable women to grasp economic opportunities and live a dignified life.

 

A Big Bang for defence journalism as the EU goes through a Big Bang for defence policy, the Defence Commissioner told attendees to Euractiv's FIREPOWER launch party

Dans une belle épure, la fiction de Luck Razanajaona dresse le portrait d’un fils sur les traces de son père, ancien militant des droits civiques et musicien assassiné.

Written by Sebastian Clapp and Martin Höflmayr with Falk Vambrie.

The European defence industry is highly fragmented, with limited collaborative investment and procurement, divergent national regulations, and protectionist tendencies that undermine efficiency, interoperability and competitiveness. The Letta report makes the case for a concerted effort to advance towards the development of a ‘Common Market for the Security and Defence Industry’, which focuses on regulatory simplification, pooled procurement, and cross-border industrial integration. While the Draghi report puts its finger on the EU defence sector’s fragmentation, under-investment, and external dependencies, it urges coordinated action to strengthen the industrial base, boost joint innovation, and align national efforts through common policies and incentives. According to the White Paper for European Defence, a truly integrated EU defence market would be among the largest globally, strengthening competitiveness, readiness and industrial scale. It would enable firms from the European defence technological and industrial base (EDTIB) to expand across the Union and stimulate cross-border cooperation, mergers and new ventures, increasing the availability of EU-made defence products.

The new Defence Readiness Omnibus aims to remove procedural bottlenecks and facilitate up to €800 billion in defence investment under the Rearm Europe/Readiness 2030 plan, combining streamlined procurement rules, simplified intra-EU transfers, and revised financial instruments. Achieving readiness and autonomy requires predictable joint planning, harmonised standards, and public-private coordination. Without genuine market reform, Europe’s rising defence spending risks being absorbed by inefficiencies rather than delivering real capability gains. A functioning common defence market is therefore essential not only for competitiveness, but also for deterrence, resilience and strategic sovereignty in an increasingly volatile geopolitical environment.

The European Parliament advocates a fully integrated internal market for defence to overcome fragmentation, urging regulatory reform, joint procurement, and cross-border industrial cooperation as essential steps towards greater efficiency, competitiveness, and strategic autonomy.

Read the complete briefing on ‘Building a common market for European defence‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

EU members of NATO: Composition of defence spending

Plus de 300 personnes dont des enfants, ont été recrutées dans des groupes armés locaux, notamment dans le groupement de Bambuba-Kisiki, situé à une cinquantaine de kilomètres au nord de Beni, dans la province du Nord-Kivu depuis le début de l'année 2025,

Une bagarre généralisée a éclaté entre des élèves de deux écoles voisines, l’ITP Matadi et l’Institut Belvédère, mardi 23 septembre dans la ville de Matadi au Kongo-Central. Plusieurs personnes, dont des élèves, ont été grièvement blessées lors de cet affrontement. Selon des témoins, cette bagarre est survenue sans raison apparente.

Rohingya refugees at a camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Credit: UNHCR/Susan Hopper

By Steve Ross
WASHINGTON DC, Sep 24 2025 (IPS)

Last month marked eight years since hundreds of thousands of Rohingya were forcibly displaced from Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Bangladesh by the Myanmar military.

On September 30, the UN General Assembly will convene a High-level Conference on the Situation of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities in Myanmar. The idea for the Conference was first floated by Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor, Mohammed Yunus, on the sidelines of last year’s General Assembly and was subsequently codified in December, with modalities adopted in March.

The conference aims to “propose a comprehensive, innovative, and concrete plan for a sustainable resolution of the crisis,” particularly through Rohingya returns to Myanmar.

But efforts to realize a political solution will be frustrated by the evolution of events on the ground. The Myanmar military seized power in a coup in 2021, plunging the country into chaos. The collapse in 2023 of a tentative ceasefire between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA), an ethnic Rakhine armed group, led to the AA’s seizure of much of Rakhine State.

Rohingya were caught between the conflicting parties and instrumentalized by both, particularly the military; counterintuitively, Rohingya armed groups fought alongside the military and against the AA and continue to clash with the AA along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

The humanitarian situation in Rakhine is now dire, with hundreds of thousands of Rakhine and Rohingya internally displaced, regular airstrikes, and a military blockade limiting humanitarian access and contributing to high levels of food insecurity.

Moreover, the AA stands accused of committing further atrocities against the Rohingya, charges it denies. Across the border in Bangladesh, Rohingya in the world’s largest refugee camps have been squeezed by 150,000 new arrivals from Rakhine since the beginning of last year and steep declines in humanitarian assistance, which may soon prompt cuts to food assistance and are already impacting access to informal education, health services, and cooking fuel.

The Rohingya Conference will bring necessary attention to the Rakhine crisis, provide a rare platform for some Rohingya voices to be represented at high-level discussions (on the heels of a broader such effort in Bangladesh last month), and may yield some much-needed support from donors, even if it is not intended as a pledging conference.

But a sustainable resolution to the crisis for now remains out of reach, particularly without cultivating a more robust, legitimate, and representative Rohingya civil society and deeper engagement with the powers that be in Rakhine.

Steve Ross is Senior Fellow, Crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State project, Stimson Center.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Le Conseil municipal de Tirana a voté mardi 23 septembre la destitution de son maire, Erion Veliaj, emprisonné depuis février dernier. Il a été « lâché » par son propre camp, le Parti socialiste. L'opposition dénonce une mise en scène politique.

- Le fil de l'Info / Courrier des Balkans, Albanie, PS Albanie, Politique

CHRONIQUE. Sur les sujets du moment, le parti de Marine Le Pen fait mine de parler d'une seule voix, alors qu'il oscille entre contradictions et ambiguites.

In today’s edition: the EU is accused of stalling the anti-deforestation law to appease the US, Belgium’s Molenbeek competes to become the 2030 Capital of Culture, eight candidates vie to replace Kövesi as the EU’s top prosecutor, and the Commission attempts to repackage its role in the Gaza conflict

En République démocratique du Congo (RDC), la crise énergétique atteint « un seuil critique » et secoue les infrastructures publiques stratégiques comme les hôpitaux. Le plus grand aéroport du pays, Ndjili a été touché par des blackouts. Après les récentes coupures d’électricité, une organisation spécialisée appelle à des solutions structurelles et durables. 

Donald Trump a estimé lors d'une conférence de presse conjointe avec Volodymyr Zelensky, mardi 23 septembre, que les pays de l'Otan devraient abattre les avions russes qui volent dans leur espace aérien. Alors que la tension monte entre la Russie et les pays de l'Alliance à la suite des incursions de drones et d'avions de Moscou dans les ciels estonien, roumain ou polonais, cette sortie interroge sur la réaction de l'Otan.

Trump says Russia is in economic trouble—but there's a loophole in the West's sanctions.

"Si la masse salariale continue de croître sans contrôle, l’essentiel des recettes publiques sera absorbé par le paiement des salaires au détriment des investissements en infrastructures et du développement". C'est ce qu'a déclaré Daniel Mukoko Samba, mardi 23 septembre au sortir de la réunion hebdomadaire du Comité de conjoncture économique (CCE), dirigée par la Première ministre Judith Suminwa Tuluka.

Eni has always been at the forefront of industrial advancement, using cutting-edge technologies to unlock new frontiers. This unwavering dedication to R&D is what has allowed us to consistently anticipate the future of energy, a sector that is constantly evolving.

Revue de presse du mercredi 24 septembre 2025

Le discours du Président Félix Tshisekedi à la 80e assemblée générale des Nations unies est à la une de nombreux médias congolais consultés ce mercredi. Mais aussi ses activités organisées en marge de cette assemblée générale de l’ONU.

Le Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU s’est réuni, mardi 23 septembre, à New York pour évoquer la guerre en Ukraine. Un peu plus tôt, Donald Trump venait de rencontrer Volodymyr Zelensky. Le président américain est habitué aux revirements et il a fait une volte-face spectaculaire.

DÉCRYPTAGE - Le patron des députés Les Républicains, qui profite de l’instabilité pour peser face à Bruno Retailleau, suit un chemin de crête sinueux, entre rivalités personnelles, divergences stratégiques et chocs d’intérêts.

Devant la 80e Assemblée générale de l’ONU tenue mardi 23 septembre 2025, le chef de l’État congolais Félix Tshisekedi a plaidé pour la reconnaissance du génocide congolais pour des fins économique, le GENOCOST.

Il a ainsi plaidé pour la création d’une commission d’enquête internationale dotée de moyens substantiels afin de rétablir la justice. Il a averti : « Refuser de reconnaître le génocide congolais correspond à une forme de complicité. »

CONTRE-POINT - Pour obtenir la « stabilité » recherchée, le nouveau premier ministre ne doit pas uniquement «neutraliser» la gauche, il doit veiller tout autant à ne pas braquer la droite.