Participation

“President Bachelet is widely acknowledged to be one of Latin America's most accomplished and popular heads of state,” said Ambassador Carla A. Hills, the US Co-Chair of the Inter-American Dialogue and former US trade representative.

“She will bring to the Dialogue both credibility and fresh thinking. I very much look forward to working with her in pursuit of a common agenda,” Hills said.

A lifetime of frustration in politics in Myanmar has not tired Ms Cho Cho Kyaw Nyein. Neither have the years as a political prisoner blunted her sense of humour.

"Some people call us the 'three princesses of Myanmar', but to the government, we are the three witches," she laughed. The "princesses" - Ms Cho, Ms Nay Ye Ba Swe, and Ms Mya Than Than Nu - are too old for fairy tales, she says.

Dulce Junior is a Timorese 36-year old mother of two boys. As many other women around the world, she manages her time between her family and her job. Since 2008, she was a planning and implementation officer and recently has been promoted as the Chief of Department for the Local Development Programme (LDP) at the Ministry of State Administration (MSATM) of Timor-Leste.

In Timor-Leste, women are key players in reshaping the future of the second youngest country in the world. Dulce Junior, 36, is one such woman. “Mana” (Sister) Dulce, as her friends and colleagues call her, is one of the country's many prominent women activists who are working to put women's needs at the center of how the Government approaches development and poverty reduction.

UNDP is targeting the National Parliament in Timor-Leste in a renewed bid to ensure that Asia's newest state is grounded on gender equality and inclusive growth.

Two years ago, Claudia Felizardo Armando from Mozambique applied for a job - with a difference. She signed up to find and destroy land mines in a country heavily scarred by the remnants of 16 years of civil war.

Armando became one of the first local women deminers for the HALO Trust, a charity that removes land mines and other war debris in affected countries around the world.

A women member of Kurdistan parliament said today that most of the women parliament members have difficulties in shaping an association to deal with the women's problems in Kurdistan Region. "We suppose that the Kurdish women parliament members do not need to conclude under the umbrella because the women parliaments have opportunity to shed a light on the women's platforms in parliament," said Gasha Dara.

In five years, women will occupy half of all executive positions in government.

This is mandated by the Magna Carta of Women's Implementing Rules and Regulations stipulating parity between the sexes such that women shall compose at least 40 percent of all development councils, from the regional level to the barangay.

"Instead of moaning all the time, why don't you create your own (political) party?" some men asked Brigitte Rabemanantsoa Rasamoelina, a female politician from Madagascar. She accepted the challenge and in February formed Ampela Mano Politika, a political party which started with only 22 female members and now has over 5,000 female members ... and 10 men.

With women having achieved little in terms of representation in decision-making positions in Zambia, a national women's lobby group is hoping to change this in the 2011 general elections.