Three-day Asian women’s summit opens in capital
By IANSWednesday, September 15, 2010
NEW DELHI - Pledging commitment to transforming the lives of women and helping them become self-sustainable in their communities, a three-day women’s training and leadership summit opened in the capital Wednesday.
The summit, “Vital Voices of Asia: Women’s Leadership and Training Summit” organised by Vital Voices Global Partnership, a non-profit organisation, has brought together power women like retired Indian super cop Kiran Bedi, Usha Thorat, vice-president of the Reserve Bank of India; Bharti Gupta Ramola, executive director of PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Fernanda Borges, leader of the National Unity Party, among others.
The conference opened at the Taj Palace hotel with an address by American ambassador to India Timothy J. Romer; Melanne Verveer, ambassador at large for Global Women’s Issues and a recorded message from US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, the founder of Vital Voices.
The summit will discuss issues like “Leadership Potential of Women: Tapping the Extraordinary Potential of Women”, “Investing in Women as Sustained Economic Growth”, “Women’s Marketplace in Asia” and “A Roundtable To Commemorate the 15th anniversary of the 4th UN Conference On Women”.
A play “Seven”, to be staged Friday, will present stories of women’s courage from across the world.
Vital Voices Global Partnership is at the forefront of international coalitions to combat human trafficking and other forms of violence against women and girls.
“We enable women to become change agents in their governments, advocates for social justice and supporters of democracy against women and girls. We equip women with management, business development, marketing and communications skills to expand their enterprises, help provide for their families and create jobs in their communities,” a spokesperson for the organisation said.
The organisation with 1,000 partners, experts and leaders, including senior government, corporate and NGO executives, has trained and mentored more than 8,000 emerging women leaders from over 127 countries worldwide.
