June 8, 2008

ACDI/VOCA Represented at 2008 Global Summit of Women in Hanoi

June 5-8 Sally Iadarola, ACDI/VOCA’s managing director of the Emerging from Conflict Portfolio, and Lindsey Jones, senior project coordinator of the Emerging from Conflict Portfolio, attended the 18th Global Summit of Women. The summit is an international forum for women around the world to network and share experiences on peace preservation, economic cooperation and development as well as gender equality promotion. It was held in Hanoi, Vietnam and attended by nearly 1,000 women leaders from business, government and nongovernmental organizations representing more than 70 countries.

The event was sponsored by IBM, Microsoft, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and others.

The Prime Minister of Vietnam, H.E. Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung, and the Vice President of Vietnam, Hon. Nguyen Thi Doan, kicked off the summit with welcoming addresses and a gala reception.

Events included plenary sessions on “Growing Enterprises in Asia: A Dialogue with Women Entrepreneurs” and “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Best Practices.” Peter Schatz, Chairman and CEO of the German company Qiagen, argued that “Corporate social responsibility is here to stay. It is a myth that there is a tradeoff between development and corporate social responsibility—‘top line’ and ‘bottom line’ are not incompatible.”

Ms. Yukako Uchinaga, who rose from systems engineer to a seat on the board of directors of one of the world’s most recognizable brands, IBM Japan, gave an inspiring presentation on the unique advantages that women bring to organizations—as natural networkers, multitaskers, caring mentors and transformational leaders. She encouraged women to take more risks, take time to dream, establish goals and strategies to realize their dreams, find a strong mentor and be more assertive. Uchinaga noted the importance of personal professional breadth and depth, technical and people skills, flexibility, patience, self awareness and self-management. Uchinaga concluded by saying “The empowerment of women is for the benefit of everyone.”

Presenting on mega trends affecting the world’s economies, U.S. Treasurer Anna Cabral stressed the importance of training women entrepreneurs in financial literacy. Noting successful cases such as post-genocide Rwanda, Cabral spoke of the combined strength of women and microenterprise in reconstructing post conflict economies. To reach this success, Cabral emphasized the need to ensure that women entrepreneurs understand budgets, savings and retirement, are trained in financial planning, and have access to and an understanding of insurance.

A panel on Engaging Young Women and Girls in Entrepreneurship elaborated on Cabral’s presentation. President of Fugazy International Travel Yvonne Boice said that there are three main avenues through which young women entrepreneurs can obtain money and know how to use it: funding, networking and mentoring. Other panelists from Russia, Australia and Vietnam gave examples of various programs they initiated in their countries, such as comprehensive mentorship programs using online classrooms, women’s business associations and the use of e-technology for business skills training.