The Women Empower Forum 2020 – GLOBAL brought together over 80 participants from 25 countries, who were actively engaged with sharing questions, thoughts and ideas.
Our focus this year is on amplifying the voices of women who have lived the life, faced challenges and overcome (or simply survived) them. It is also part of a continual effort to call for the ratification of ILO Convention 190 and to end all forms of GBV in private and public spaces. After the presentations from our plenary speakers, we invited our participants to join in an interactive Q&A session.
The plenary speakers are
- Elizabeth Askren, PhD, one of the few female conductors in the world, founder and artistic director of TOA – Transilvanian Opera Academy
- Edlira Cepani, lawyer and human rights activist from Albania, leading the women’s network “Equality in Decision Making”, a network of women in politics
- Catherine Lourdes Dy, PhD, Academic-practitioner awarded a European Joint Doctorate from Rome and Brussels, working in the field of migration and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)
- Anita Bakkenes-Kok, mother of three, proud grandmother, and at the age of 51 still living her dream and participating in the BMX World Championship
- Nancy Ostrowski, 9/11 survivor and currently USAID Deputy Development Advisor/Pentagon, author of several books and long-term gender advocate.
Guiding the conversation was award-winning journalist and reporter, Julia Bicknell, who used to work for BBC for many years, amongst other things as producer of BBC Women’s Hour. Julia is currently the Director and Executive Editor of World Watch Monitor.