DAY 3 – MAY 18TH

a report by Johanna Richardsson

WOMEN DELIVER 4TH GLOBAL CONFERENCE
Who are your Sustainable Development Girls?

"The first plenary this morning was nicely moderated by Chris Elias on the topic of gender equality. Peter A Singer, Grand Challenges, talked about the sustainable development girls rather than the goals. Who are your sustainable girls? Who symbolises sustainable development to you? Who do you want to work a little extra for? Mr. Singer also talked about not just helping out in developing countries we also need to engage in issues closer to home such as mental illness for instance. This was followed by a panel with the heading ‘Investing in Girls and Women: Everybody Wins’. One of the panellists was Hans Vestberg CEO at Ericsson who promotes the fact that you need to connect in order to educate. Mr. Vestberg also encouraged our further work in the field by saying “educate a girl and change the world”.

Muhammad Yunus Nobel Peace Price winner of 2006 was in the same panel and he strongly promoted entrepreneurship. Waiting for a job is not the way to go you will have to create your own job and awaken your entrepreneurial skills in order to feel good about yourself and thrive.

Image: Arushma Parvaiz to the left was given a scholarship from Soroptimist International Denmark 2013 when celebrating their 75th anniversary of the Union. Arushma will finish her education to become a medical doctor next year and according to her the scholarship has made a big difference and had a great impact on her studies and future. Now she is at Women Deliver representing International Medical Cooperation Committee. Here together with Immediate Past President SIE Ulla Madsen.

Image: illustrations of World leaders.

Image: Powerful Women – ‘Listen’ and align your hearts and minds

This afternoon we listened to a panel named Powerful Women and there was power in the room for sure. The panel consisted of Barrkha Dutt, Cecilie Richards, Graca Machel, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Tawakkol Karman and Toyin Saraki and was moderated by Femi Oak. After hearing these women speaking with so much passion that the roof almost lifted they were asked to give a piece of advice for someone who wants to be a powerful leader. Three of the answers were to listen, to be a reflection of your people and also to make sure that your mind and heart are aligned. Standing ovations followed.

So find your sustainable development girls and listen to them.

Bye for now!"

Johanna Richardsson