Argues that with a growing number of Southern African countries from different political and electoral backgrounds showing that gender parity can be achieved in local government, there is no longer any excuse for any country in the region not to achieve this goal. However, if women are to make a difference in this sphere of decision-making - the coalface of service delivery - far more needs to be done to strengthen local government and to integrate gender considerations into its work. Includes interviews with 478 local councillors, 438 civil society representatives and 30 experts and officials in four Southern African countries, Lesotho, Mauritius, Namibia and South Africa. B/w photos, tables, charts, 316pp, SOUTH AFRICA. GENDER LINKS.

Ten years on, this booklet reviews progress since the Beijing declaration, bringing to the fore the voices of perspectives of southern African women on the achievements, setbacks and challenges for the future. 16pp, ZIMBABWE. SOUTHERN AFRICAN RESEARCH & DOCUMENTATION CENTRE.

This research into women's status with regard to land in the region offers an insight into the systematic marginalization of women and cries out for an urgent effort to change the status quo. Notes, bib, 48pp, ZIMBABWE. WOMEN/LAW IN SOUTH'N AFR.ZIMBABWE, 1779150024

Most of the essays in this volume were first addressed at the 'Gender and Colonialism' conference held at the University of the Western Cape in 1997. The contributors analyse issues of sexual difference and colonial and post colonial discourses on the politics of representation. Essays include 'Colonial Readings of Foucault', 'Gender and the Public Sphere', 'Fertility and the Post?Colonial State' and 'De/colonising the queer'. Notes, xvii, 356pp, USA. RODOPI !, 9042012196

A publication of the Gender Research in Urbanisation, Planning, Housing and Everyday Life (GRUPHEL) Research network, aiming to play an active role, and adopt a capacity building approach to meet the huge challenges of human settlement development, sustainable urban housing, and changes in social structures in Southern Africa. The book brings together contribu-tions from thirteen women and six men from seven Southern African and Scandinavian countries. 230pp, LESOTHO. INSTITUTE OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN STUDIES.

A comparative study of women's changing status in the Zambezi River region. Looks specifically at the linkages between gender and ethnicity in the construction of lineage ideologies, and explores the implications for development policies at both the local and state levels. Tables, bib, index, 260pp, USA. WESTVIEW.

Epprecht argues that homosexuality is not a western corruption of local culture. He examines same sex sexual behaviour from the pre colonial period onwards, situating it in traditional societal practice. He critiques stereotypes regarding sexualities, homophobia and societal roles in Southern Africa, primarily focusing on Zimbabwe and South Africa. Appendices cover a brief history of the Gay Oral History Project, Zimbabwe, and sample interviews. Index, bib, notes, apps, map, b/w photographs, gloss, xiii, 317pp, CANADA. MCGILL QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY PRESS.

By focusing on the sexual politics that have emerged out of post-apartheid South Africa, this study investigates textual and cultural representations of same-sex desire outside of the Euroamerican axes of queer culture and politics, and considers the ways in which queer cultural productions in southern Africa both intersect with and resist these. Contents: Broadening Postcolonial Studies, Decolonising Queer Studies: Disciplinary Transitions and Social Change in the 'New' South Africa; Reclaiming Insurgent Sexualities: Migrant Labour and Same-Sex Marriages on the South African Gold Mines; Affective Bonds Between Women in Lesotho: Retheorizing Gender, Sexuality, and Lesbian Existence; Nationalism, Homophobia, and the Politics of 'New' South African Nationhood - Sexual/Cultural Hybridity in the 'New' South Africa: Emergent Sites of New Transnational Queer Politics; Transforming Theory/Transforming Borders: Postcolonial Queer Enquiry and/as a Politics of Decolonisation. 192pp, UK. PALGRAVE.

Assesses regional gender development programmes. 99pp, BOTSWANA. SADC SECRETARIAT.

Examination of women's rights in Southern Africa, with a special focus on South Africa. Col & b/w photos, 118pp, SOUTH AFRICA. HEINRICH BOELL STIFTUNG.

The second Gender and Media summit closed in Johannesburg in September 2006. Held under the theme Media Diversity: Good for Democracy, good for business the summit highlighted a number of ways in which the media is failing in one of its core functions - giving voice to the voiceless - and brought together 224 media practitioners, editors, media marketing executives, as well as gender activists. The two day programme featured 81 examples of good practice in diversifying sources, markets and ownership of the media. 50 of these have been selected for this bumper edition of the Media Diversity Journal. 204pp, SOUTH AFRICA. GENDER LINKS. LIMITED STOCK

The Southern African Migration Projects policy paper 46, draws conclusions from women's descriptions of their experiences as migrants and provides a forum for the voices of women themselves to be heard. 99pp, SOUTH AFRICA. IDASA.

An in depth study looking at women's struggles in Southern Africa, from tracing the history of women's involvement in anti colonial struggles and against apartheid to the strategies employed by the women's movement to gain a foothold in politics. Index, refs, 241pp, SWEDEN. NORDIC AFRICA INSTITUTE, 9171065156

In the face of a declining and collapsing national economy, this book presents the story of enterprising and entrepreneurial Zimbabwean women, operating as informal cross-border traders in the SADC region. This study relates their hopes, perceptions and strategies for managing the structural constraints at micro- and macro-levels that at once make their activities necessary, and simultaneously impose limitations on them. 193pp, ETHIOPIA. OSSREA.