Coinciding with International Women’s Day (March 8), women leaders from around the world will convene for the International Colloquium for Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace and Security (the Colloquium) at the SKD Stadium in Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa. The Colloquium, conceptualized in 2006 during the inauguration of Africa’s first female President, Madam Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, will bring together 400 international participants and 400 Liberian national participants, including female leaders; heads of state and government; ministers; CEOs, presidents and executive directors; and NGO and community leaders. The Conference, co-convened by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and President Tarja Halonen of Finland, seeks to create an environment for women and their champions around the world to discuss, learn, demonstrate and act on the benefits and lessons learned from women in leadership.
The Colloquium seeks to realize the aims of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security to ensure that women are protected from the worst abuses in times of conflict and to empower them to play their rightful and vital role in helping their countries prevent, end and recover from conflict. The Colloquium will bring together an international group of women leaders to identify the successes and failures of measures adopted for 1325; to serve as a resource base and catalyst for activity worldwide; and to develop and support meaningful strategies and activities for increasing global security.
The Angie Brooks International Centre on Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, Peace and Security, which will be based in Monrovia, will be launched in March 2009. The Centre will support the implementation of actions emerging from the International Colloquium, through, inter alia: a) training to empower current and future women leaders; and b) research, analysis and advocacy on women’s leadership. It is being established in honor of the late Angie Brooks, Liberia’s former Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Africa’s first woman President of the United Nations 24th General Assembly (1969).
Furthermore, the establishment of the Centre is symbolic in that through it, women in leadership worldwide are being honored. The Colloquium will initiate other capacity-building projects such as the Young Professional Emerging Leaders Dialogue Series, one of which will establish a 5-region dialogue series entitled Uncovering Barriers to Women’s Political Leadership: Today’s Leaders Reach Out to Tomorrow’s Leaders. This series, which precedes the conference from December to January 2009, will feature live interviews of and participation from current and former women heads of state interacting with a global audience of future world leaders. Each dialogue will produce recommendations and solutions on how to break down gender barriers to leadership.
For more information visit the Colloquium website.
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