"Women Can"

March 6, 2008

ExxonMobil is donating this week's op-ed space to Vital Voices.

Those are the words of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who became Liberia’s — and Africa’s — first elected woman president two years ago.

As her success shows, women can overcome historic barriers. And as her country’s experience shows, women can help build stronger, healthier communities. Liberia today is recovering after a devastating civil war, thanks in part to the contributions women are making to the country’s political, economic and social life.

Training and empowering women leaders is the mission of the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a nonprofit organization active in 150 countries. Working with corporations, governments, universities, foundations and other NGOs, our network of 1,000 pro bono experts and leaders helps thousands of women unlock their leadership potential to make a better world for all of us.

For example, in partnership with ExxonMobil, we launched the African Women’s Leadership Initiative. Most recently, this initiative helped African women artisans expand their businesses through specialized training in marketing, product development and international distribution. This, in turn, produces stable jobs and economic growth.

In Africa and around the world, Vital Voices has seen how our investments in women can have “multiplier effects” across societies.

In Russia, a young social worker’s domestic-violence hotline was expanded to 170 crisis centers. In Afghanistan, war widows sewed uniforms that enabled 150,000 girls to attend school for the first time. Women leaders who engaged in the Northern Ireland peace process now are “exporting” their peace-building and community-strengthening skills to women in Israel and Palestine.

You can add your voice to this effort. This week, in conjunction with International Women’s Day on March 8, Vital Voices and a diverse group of partners are launching the Women Can Campaign to expand the global investment in women’s training and leadership. One of the smartest investments that countries, corporations and institutions can make today is in the women leaders of tomorrow.

We urge you to join Vital Voices, ExxonMobil and our other partners in supporting this effort. Because as International Women’s Day and President Johnson Sirleaf remind us,  “women can” — can overcome old barriers, can seize new opportunities, can aspire to leadership, and can lift their families, communities and economies.

For more information, visit www.vitalvoices.org.