I was invited by the Honourable Beverley Oda, Minister of International Cooperation and Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director, UN Women to participate in a global conference on Women’s Economic Empowerment held in Ottawa.

With Minister Beverley Oda at UN Global Conference

With Minister Beverley Oda at UN Global Conference

The goal of the conference was to identify tangible actions to support women’s economic empowerment and strengthen their economic security and rights. The conference explored and identified concrete ways to enable women from developing countries to participate in, contribute to and benefit from sustainable economic growth.

At UN Global Conference

At UN Global Conference

There was a cross-section of more than 100 global experts, development practitioners, entrepreneurs, policy makers and business and industry leaders sharing their experiences and best practices on how to break down barriers to women’s economic empowerment.

As a result of the Conference, UN Women and CIDA made a number of commitments, but the most important joint one was the following:

To Develop an on-line Knowledge Gateway on Women’s Economic Empowerment to increase the availability of applied research and knowledge for entrepreneurs, practitioners and policy thinkers from around the world. The Gateway will become a one-stop service providing the most up-to-date information, technical resources and best practices on business and economic opportunities.

Do you think this on-line Knowledge Gateway would be valuable to you as a business owner? Please provide your comments and share your views.

The other nice surprise for me was to see Mahbooba Waizi, President of the Afghan Women’s Business Council, whom I met when I did the program in Afghanistan in 2003. It was a lovely reunion and I was pleased to see her in person again, as our connections have only been via email. Our team assisted with setting up the Council, so it is always nice to know that some things work out!

Reunited with Mahbooba Waizi. First met in Afghanistan 2003

Reunited with Mahbooba Waizi. First met in Afghanistan 2003

UN Global Conference 2011 with Minister Beverley Oda

UN Global Conference 2011 with Minister Beverley Oda