Vital Voices: Women in Democracy

IDB's Social Program Division

Some 400 women leaders from 34 Western Hemisphere nations attended the three-day event, "Vital Voices of the Americas: Women in Democracy." The goal of the conference, which was sponsored by the IDB and the U.S. government, was to create networks of women leaders in the region's countries in order to help consolidate democracy and improve public understanding of women's political, social and economic contributions.

U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and IDB President Enrique V. Iglesias were among the featured speakers, along with senior officials from the Uruguayan government and the U.S. State Department.

Workshops during the conference were designed to develop strategies for extending the influence of women in three areas: law and leadership, politics and public life, and economic integration and business growth.

Projects announced at the conference included the following:

-- A series of public service announcements on issues of concern to women that will be produced by the U.S.-based Discovery Channel, the foreign Ministry of Argentina and the Buenos Aires-based Global Foundation.

-- A month-long internship program for four leaders from Latin American ngos and four government leaders from four countries to explore how to increase citizen/government communication. The program will be coordinated by the U.S. League of Women Voters Education Fund.

-- The creation of South and Central American networks of women in business to promote trade, with the support of ibm Corp. and the Global Women's Trade Network.

In her speech, Clinton announced that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will increase lending to microenterprises in the Americas to a total of $120 million, with more than two-thirds of those loans earmarked for women. She said the U.S. also is committing $50 million through usaid to support the goals of the recent Summit of the Americas "to strengthen human rights, justice and democracy, particularly on behalf of women."

"Today, more than at any time in history, women have the opportunity and the responsibility not only to raise our own voices but to empower others to raise theirs as well," Clinton said in her keynote address.

In his address, Iglesias highlighted the central role women play in the day-to-day business of surviving and making a living. He reminded the audience that one in three Latin American families lives below the poverty line, and that in such homes, "women must face a daily and silent fight for survival."

Mayra Buvinic, who heads the IDB's Social Programs Division and its Women in Development Unit, told conference participants that getting more women in leadership positions is both effective and efficient. "You can't have an effective democracy without the participation of women," she said. "And in terms of efficency, it's very inefficient for our countries and our economies not to take advantage of the human resource represented by women," she added.

Also addressing the delegates were Uruguayan President Julio Marķa Sanguinetti, Theresa Loar, U.S. women's issues coordinator and Harriet Babbitt, deputy usaid administrator.

The Montevideo conference was the third of a series that began last year in Vienna with the participation of women from Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The second was held earlier this year in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with the participation of women leaders from the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and the United States.