Vital Voices Global Partnership

Vital Voices Global Partnership is a US-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that identifies, trains, and empowers emerging women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe, enabling them to create a better world. They have an international staff and team of over 1,000 partners, pro bono experts and leaders, including senior government, corporate and NGO executives, who have trained and mentored more than 5,000 emerging women leaders from over 150 countries in Asia, Africa, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East since 1997. These women have returned home to train and mentor more than 100,000 additional women and girls in their communities.

Mission

Vital Voices is now continuing the work of advancing women’s economic, political and social status around the world, by providing skills, networking and other support to women around the world, whether they are working to increase women’s political participation in Latin America or promote women’s entrepreneurship in the Middle East.

History

The Vital Voices Global Partnership grew out of the U.S. government’s Vital Voices Democracy Initiative. The Vital Voices Democracy Initiative was established in 1997 by then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright after the Fourth World Conference on Women to promote the advancement of women as a U.S. foreign policy goal.

Under the leadership of the Vital Voices Democracy Initiative, the U.S. government, in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank, the United Nations , World Bank tNordic Council of Ministers, the European Union and other governments coordinated Vital Voices conferences throughout the world, bringing together thousands of emerging women leaders from over 80 countries. These conferences launched regional Vital Voices initiatives that continue to give women the skills and resources they need to lift up themselves, their communities and their countries. The overwhelmingly positive response to the Vital Voices Democracy Initiative led to the creation of Vital Voices Global Partnership as an NGO in June 2000.

Programs

Vital Voices Global Partnership’s programs invest in emerging and established women leaders who are working to increase women’s political participation and representation, build women business leaders and catalyze successful entrepreneurship, and combat human rights violations that are widely affecting women across the globe.

Vital Voices currently works in Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Latin America & the Caribbean and the Middle East & North Africa, focusing on the business, political and civil society sectors. They regularly host international forums, trainings and events to build women’s capabilities, connections, and credibility so that they can move forward to achieve their goals and build a brighter future for their communities and the world.

Programs focus on the following areas: Economic Empowerment, Political Participation, and Human Rights.

Global Leadership Network

The Vital Voices Global Leadership Network is comprised of over 5,000 women from more than 150 countries in every region throughout the world. The women who make up this network are established, emerging and rising women leaders who work in the public and private sectors to promote positive change in their communities. As social entrepreneurs, political, economic and civil society leaders, our Global Leadership Network members are committed to bringing women’s voices to the table to facilitate good governance, economic prosperity and social change as well as combat human rights violations that hinder nations’ abilities to move towards progress.

References

• www.vitalvoices.org