 Good afternoon, everybody. We are complete, so I'm delighted to welcome everybody this afternoon. My name is Nancy Lindborg. I'm the President of the United States Institute of Peace. And for those who are here for the first time, we were founded about 30 years ago as an independent, federally funded bipartisan institute that is really dedicated to a world without violent conflict. And so it's in that spirit that I'm delighted to welcome you all here today. And as we mark today's Africa Days event, which is, I think, commemorating a very critical moment in moving towards a peaceful Africa with the 1963 founding of the Africa Union. We have a wonderful set of guests with us today, so I'd like to extend a special warm welcome to our co-host this afternoon, Ambassador Mohamed Tafiq of the Republic of Egypt. Thank you for joining us this afternoon. And especially warm welcome to Ambassador Mutild Mukantabana of Rwanda and Ambassador Simbama of Mozambique, who are with us here today. And I know there are a number of other ambassadors who are coming in and out, so please feel welcomed. We're delighted to have you with us today. And of course, I'm always happy to see Ambassador Princeton Lyman with whom I worked through the years, and we will also have him here. Ambassador Lyman was the former U.S. special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan. So two years ago, on the 50th anniversary of the African Union, the 53 nations set out a plan for the next half century in, I think, incredible set of vision and foresight. And they came together for the Agenda 2063, which was a roadmap that put together a vision of the continent as a prosperous and peaceful Africa that was going to rekindle unity and self-reliance among the African nations. And I think all of us are well aware, you cannot accomplish that kind of vision without the full inclusion and participation of women. And so quite appropriately, the African Union declared 2015 as the year of women's empowerment and development, which is obviously the right way to kick off the Agenda 2063. And it is a time in which the African Union is calling on all Africans to seize the opportunity to focus on practical solutions and measurable results for women on the continent. So in this spirit, we're just delighted to host today's panel featuring our ambassadors from Rwanda and Mozambique who will highlight women's roles in peace building and development along with our friends from women. Well, I guess you'll do your own introduction, so I won't do that now. But we have an incredible panel who will really focus on all the ways that women are critical agents of change. And understanding that the Agenda 2063 is a very important framework to move us forward on this and 2015 lays the foundations. And from the USIP perspective, women are absolutely critical for laying the foundation for peace building and for enabling the vision of the agenda to really come to fruition. And so it's with great pleasure that I welcome you all here today. And with even greater pleasure that I turn it over to Ambassador Mukantabana. And we're also joined here by Susan Markham from USAID, a former colleague of mine who runs their gender work there. So delighted to have you as well, Ambassador. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Excellencies ambassadors, members of the diplomatic corps, friends of Africa and the distinguished guests, happy Africa Day celebration. On behalf of the African Ambassadors Group accredited to the United States of America in Washington, DC, I seize this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude to the United States Institute of Peace for hosting this event on the sidelines of Africa Day 2015 celebrations. Most especially, I want to thank the President of the US Institute of Peace, Honorable Nancy Rinburg, and her team for this wonderful event organized in conjunction with our chairs of Africa Day 2015 organizing committee for his Excellency Rashad Buhar, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco, and his Excellency Muhammad Taufik, the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and their team who have worked tirelessly to ensure a successful celebration to Africa Day 2015. Our topic today, Women of Africa Leadership in Peace, Building and Development, supports the overarching theme of the Africa Union theme of Year of Women Empowerment and Development towards Africa Agenda 2063. Ladies and gentlemen, as we celebrate the Africa Day, we are recalled to candidly assess its journey, acknowledge the progress that we, as Africans, particularly women have made while reflecting upon the common challenges we still face in a global environment. While African women have made considerable gains in the political, economic and social development of the continent, they are still widely marginalized within the corridors of power, and when applying for jobs and continue to face social exclusion from education to their inability to own land or inherit property. The Agenda 2063 calls on African stakeholders to work together to build a prosperous United Africa based upon our shared values and common destiny. We vowed to put all our people starting with women and girls at the center of Africa development. In addition to empowering its people, Africa seeks to harness its comparative advantages, such as history, culture and natural resources, in order to reposition itself in the world. In order to become a prosperous Africa, a strong influential global player and worthy partner, we need to strengthen our institutions, promote good governance, democracy, human rights, justice and rule of law for all the daughters and sons of Africa. Today, we are standing on the shoulders of the African giants, whose timeless legacy we are called to preserve and expand. The legacy of self-determination we claim for African women was well articulated by our forefathers. Our generation and future generations should take heed of their message for a united, democratic and prosperous Africa. Recording with history, we are challenged to speed up our pace in promoting social, political and economic unity as a way to building an inclusive and integrated Africa that cherishes and nurtures the girls and women of our continent. I'm honored today to represent a country that has taken to another height the spirit of self-determination for all its people. Wanda, where families and in particular women have more chances of thriving, make me feel compared to share some of the major elements that have supported the acceleration of women progress in Wanda. A strong political will to empower women and girls, guided by the solid principle of general rights is a nearly unable rights, human rights. As a country we adopted the comprehensive social, economic and political inclusion, an empowerment of women at all levels of government and civil society. The creation of a prominent ministry of gender and family promotion coupled with a systemic high-level campaign aimed at changing people's mindsets about general rights took us where we are, where we can claim that we have 64% of women in our parliament. In healthcare, we adopted universal health coverage and intentionally invested in improving Wanda's health in general and maternal health. If there's one success factor that we can build on as all African countries, it has been inclusiveness, inclusiveness in all fabrics of the Wanda society. For this particular case, women participation in all spheres of government has enabled society to hear faster, develop quicker and guarantee sustainable development. Ladies and gentlemen, we can't argue that while African women have been regarded as the backbone of African societies, by and large general parties is still a lofty dream across the continent. History has taught us that women empowerment and economic development are closely related. On one hand, we know that development can play a major role in reducing inequality between men and women. On the other hand, empowering women also translates into development. We must, however, acknowledge that interrelationships of the women empowerment and development in excess are too weak to be self-sustaining. And that continuous policy commitment to equality for its own sake is needed to bring about equality between men and women. With women and girls, we presented a great majority of African demography. It's clear that Africa can only reach its full potential by fully including them in the development agenda. In the quest to empowerment, countries must put in place and promote conducive registrations and policies that guarantee for women's rights. Though we must maintain our core culture, we also have to be willing to remove the structural barriers imposed by old traditional and oppressive practices against women. For Africa, gender is the annual agenda. Our discussion today will focus on the role of women in peace building and development. We recognize that women and girls are the first victims of conflict and violence. And any political, economic, and social fragility is mostly against women. We must empower and support women in the quest to curtail these predicaments. I thank my sister, Her Excellency Amelia, who is here from Mozambique, and the fellow distinguished panelist who will lead us in this important discussion. Heading from different creeds, professions, works of life, races, we can hold hands and commit to further African unions' founding fathers' legacy by fighting for women's emancipation. Let us continue to fight discrimination against women and girls, make peace a global priority. And let all our dedicated leaders promote democracy, liberty, and justice. Had we understood the wisdom contained in these words that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, we would appreciate that whatever affects women directly affects our humanity. And we need to uplift all people of our humanity. Africa of 2063 is intending to have a full equality for all women and for girls and for the whole humanity. So we hope that at least 50% of very erected public officials at all levels are coming from women. The economic and political class sitting that restricted women's progress is going to start being shattered. As I close, there's a young woman from my own country, Natasha Mohoza. She said, she was talking about women empowerment and what it meant for her. She said, empowerment is like an engine. You start it and it converts the fewer into motion. So what I would ask the audience and for all of us is to empower the African women and girls to be the premium fewer for our continent's sustainable development. I thank you very much for your attention. So now I repass the microphone to Susan. Thank you so much, Ambassador. And also, I would like to thank Nancy and the US Institute for Peace and the Republic of Egypt for having us here today. I'm glad to be here to celebrate Africa Day in this way. This year marks the midpoint of what the African Union has called African Women's Decade. The African Union has also declared, as we have discussed, 2015 to be the year of women's empowerment and development towards Africa Agenda 2063. Africa shares the US commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls within the post-2015 development agenda and the national action plan for women, peace, and security. The US strongly supports the great strides and commitments many African countries and the African Union have made to increase women and girls empowerment through steps to promote good governance and rule of law, accelerate economic growth, enhance food security, advance respect for human rights, promote peace and security, and improve access to services such as health care and education. But African women and girls still face significant challenges, including high rates of gender-based violence, a dearth of educational opportunities, difficulty accessing credit, capital, and formal employment, lack of influence in the decision-making process, HIV AIDS and high rates of maternal mortality, customary laws which may disadvantage them, and many cultural norms which may perpetuate discrimination against women. The United States acknowledges these, but also the critical role women will have and will continue to play in accelerating Africa's development and advancing prosperity and security across the continent. To promote and protect women's rights, we within the US government use our diplomacy and assistance programs to increase political, economic, civic, and educational opportunities for women. We also remain committed to preventing and responding to gender-based violence, addressing the unique economic barriers faced by women, and elevating women's meaningful participation at all levels of decision-making, especially during peace and political transition processes and post-conflict reconstruction. We know that including women and their perspectives in peacekeeping and conflict prevention efforts, efforts to end wars and bring about just and sustainable peace, efforts to protect civilian populations and hold accountable those that commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, these are absolutely essential to international peace and stability, and to US international and national security. Women's political participation can help lay a foundation for their participation as negotiators, mediators, witnesses, and signatories in peace processes. At the same time, women's meaningful participation in peacebuilding can help set a standard for their leadership in efforts to rebuild and recover. The US government has taken deliberate steps to support women's leadership and participation in peace negotiations, community governance initiatives, security sector reform, and transitional justice and accountability processes. For example, the US government has developed deliberate multi-track approaches to strengthen the active participation of women in conflict resolution and peacebuilding in Sudan and South Sudan. In Nigeria, the US government has promoted women in leadership and peacemaking through a series of conferences and workshops, training exercises, encouraging tolerance across ethnic and religious lines through engagement with influential religious, traditional, and women leaders. There have also been interfaith media dialogues discuss how women and other stakeholders could prevent electoral violence in the run-up to the 2015 elections and how women could contribute to Nigeria's political and economic process. Last year at the US Africa Leaders Summit, President Obama encouraged nations to develop national action plans on women, peace, and security, and he pledged US support for up to three African nations to develop or implement, nap, or similar strategies. Today, the United States reiterates this challenge to the governments of Africa, and we are working with several governments across the continent to answer the president's call to action. USAID specifically supports inclusive development initiatives and strategic investments to address gender and resilience in the Ebola crisis, women's participation in peacebuilding and political transition and protection, and access to justice for survivors of crisis and conflict related sexual violence. In addition, the agency will place an acute focus to programming emerging thematic intersections of women, peace, and security in global climate change and countering violent extremism, most notably. The issues of women, peace, and security not only stand on their own as important issues, but they affect all of USAID's efforts to end extreme poverty and support resilient democratic societies. As I said, countries are more peaceful and prosperous and sustainable when women are accorded full and equal rights and opportunity. The United States supports efforts to increase the number of women in elected and appointed office and to strengthen the capacity and influence of women leaders. Worldwide and especially in Africa, women play a critical role in agricultural growth, but they also face persistent obstacles in economic restraints. So we will continue to focus on these efforts across USAID programming. Gender-based violence is a global epidemic. It crosses every social and economic class, ethnicity, race, religion, and education level, and it transcends international borders. But USAID is working in several countries, Tanzania, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo, where we're investing in gender-based violence prevention and response programming through the PEPFAR Gender-Based Violence Initiative. We're also working to end child-early enforced marriage. We are working in Ethiopia specifically to do a combination program where we're working at community outreach. We're trying to address the barriers that the cost of education has and also help families understand the issue and the importance of keeping adolescent girls in school. Through the economic growth programs we're doing in sub-Saharan Africa, it's a policy priority for the United States. And so we will continue to work because we know women are the backbone of communities and the continent's greatest potential to unlocking economic growth. Building on similar efforts, targeting women and youth at prior global entrepreneurship summits, this year's summit will convene 150 up-and-coming women and youth entrepreneurs from around the world for an official pre-summit event in Nairobi. So this event will connect events, connect emerging youth, women entrepreneurs, and global change makers, thought leaders, policy leaders, investors, and industry experts. Africa is a very diverse and large continent. And so the work that the US government does tries to spam all of the different countries, cultures, and different sectors in which we need to have work. I look forward to this robust panel today discussing both women, peace, and security as a specific issue, but how the process of engaging women in women, peace, and security issues affects other sectors as outlined below with global climate change, early marriage, education, and economic growth. So I am turning it over now to Ambassador Princeton Lyman for this panel, and I look forward to it. Thank you. Thank you, Susan. Thank you very much. And for those remarks, thank you to the organizers and sponsors of Africa Day and this panel in particular. We are really very, very pleased to have an exceptional group. Because the groundwork has been set by Nancy's and Ambassador Mukundog Bhanu's comments and Susan's comments. We're gonna delve even more deeply in this panel into both the specifics of where women have been involved and made a difference or where the obstacles have arisen to them doing so. I'm not gonna be able to do justice to this panel because if I did in introducing them, it would take the whole time we have but let me introduce them briefly to you. First, next to me is Ambassador Amelia Mato-Sumbano. She is the ambassador of Mozambique to the United States since 2009. Prior to that, she was a member of Mozambique's National Parliament from 1994 to 2009. She has a long experience in government, she's worked in agriculture, she's worked in health, she's worked in international cooperation, and she is a member of the Frolimo Central Committee on International Relations. She has a Master's Degree in Population Development from Eduardo Munlano University in Maputo. Next to her is Kamisa Kamara. Kamisa is a Senior Program Officer at the National Endowment for Democracy. Kamisa is the Senior Program Officer there for Western Central Africa. She oversees a multimillion dollar portfolio of grants to civil society organizations. I know Kamisa well. She works tirelessly, she travels extensively, she's in touch with these organizations on a very personal basis. She also is the founder and co-chair of a civil health strategy forum which brings together stakeholders around the issues in that area. Prior to coming to NED, Kamisa was with EIFAS, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. She trained people in electoral management in countries throughout Africa. She holds a Master's Degree in International Economics and Development from the Université Pierre Mondons, Pierre Mondes-France, and has a BA from University of Denise-Titreau. My French is terrible. And she's written extensively and published a great deal. Next to her, as we've heard, is Ambassador Matilda Mukundambana from the Ambassador from Rwanda, whose remarks we heard, she was prior to that Professor of History at Consume River College in my home state of California where she received an award for her best teacher there. She has been a passionate community organizer for many, many years. She's formed many organizations to bring together the communities of Rwanda and others together, including the Friends of Rwanda Association. Her awards include the 2012 Peace and Justice Award from the Center for American Peace and Conflict Resolution, the Global Peace Award from Global Majority, and as I mentioned, an award for Outstanding Teacher. And finally on the corner there is Jacqueline O'Neill, Director from the Institute of Inclusive Security. If you don't know that organization, you should know that organization. It's an exceptional organization on working, it used to be called Women Waging Peace. Jacqueline is responsible for overall policy, advocacy, and programs. She oversees all the regional initiatives, as well as the support from the Institute for Governments and Civil Society. She advises and trains the military, police, civilian serving, NATO, UN, and others. She was previously, because she's from Canada, a policy advisor to Canada's Secretary of State. And along with former Lieutenant General Romeo de Lair, she helps found an initiative to address the issue of child soldiers. Prior to coming to the Institute of Inclusive Security, she was at the UN Mission in Sudan, and also at cartoons, Afad University for Women. So this is an exceptional panel. And I'm gonna turn to you, Madam Ambassador. To begin, we're gonna try and make this as much conversational as we can, but each of you have asked to make a few remarks to start us off. So thank you, please. Thank you very much. Good afternoon to everyone. Your Excellencies, ambassadors, dear colleagues, student participants, let me, first of all, thank you for being here to celebrate with us as Africans our day, especially women Africans day. Thank you for being here. Let me also thank the United States Institute for Peace for having us here to share our experiences and to both with our hosts, the United States people to share with you some of our experiences as Africans. I'm very delighted to be here and very grateful for having been invited to be here. As you know, this is the year of African women. I come from Mozambique. Mozambique is located in Southern Africa. Going direct to the issue, let me say that Mozambique constitution defends gender balance and equality of opportunity for all without any kind of discrimination. The SADAC Treaty on Gender Equality and Promotion of Women addresses its state members to consider the allocation of at least 30% of decision-making positions. In Mozambique, my country, which attained its independence through an armed struggle against colonialism, women were always present and active in the national policy and agenda for their emancipation. After 40 years of independence, which we're going to celebrate next June, I'm proud to be able to say that Mozambican parliament, where I once sat for 15 years, is a very good example of women empowerment. With almost, it has almost 39% of women in parliament out of 250 members. The parliament speaker is a female, as well as the Mozambican general, Atane. That's just to give some example. In the executive, we have reached the percentage of 23% of female ministers and deputy ministers. We have a long way to go yet, because we would like to reach at least the 50%, but we are struggling to go there. Women play a decisive role in the country's development. They are growing from small to medium entrepreneurs, some of them, and sometimes risking their own life and comfort to provide better conditions for their families and sustain the internal trade market chain. I believe that any kind of economic investment should be gender-sensitive and include women either gathered in associations, cooperatives, or individually, because they have proven to have management skills and commitment to reimburse the resources put at their disposal by credit institutions. Of course, we have challenges, mainly related to access to education for women and girls who are frequently the most illiterate. In the rural areas, we are fighting against early marriages. We have heard from, I guess, from Susan that USAID is working on that, and in Mozambique, we are partnering with USAID and other organizations to fight about this outrage. This is a phenomenon embedded in local tradition and customer relations, impairing girls and women to decide about their own life. Women's rights, as human rights, cannot continue being ignored. They must be addressed. Women deserve to be part of the education systems and technology revolution, to be able to render their contribution to a peaceful, stable, and sustainable world. The agenda, 2063, is a roadmap for Africa, and women can play a paramount role in preventing diplomacy, preventing diplomacy thus guaranteeing peace-building. I believe that this roadmap will enhance women's participation. And gender is one of the eight priorities of the EU Commission. It has been mainstreamed across other priorities. Very often, after any conflict, women gather around organizations to rebuild not only social issues destroyed by the war, and care for internal and external displaced people, and they care through their participation in health, education, and other economic activities, mainly agriculture. Let me stop here, and I'll be able, and very glad to receive any question coming from the audience. I thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Can we say? All right, so good afternoon, everyone. The very first reason why there is even a focus on women's participation in peace-building and development is because women are the most heavily affected by conflict and poverty, and there is an overwhelming number of practical case studies supporting this, and there are plenty of analysis and research that have been done on the subject. In Africa, most specifically, it's really in post-conflict situations that we've seen women's political leadership gain momentum. In Liberia, for example, Liberia, post-war Liberia elected Africa's first female president. South Africa has one of the most gender-sensitive constitutions of the world. In another example, maybe Kenya, after the election violence of 2007, in 2008, women were able to make sure that in the constitutions, there were provisions safeguarding their rights. So in all of these post-conflict slash reconstruction environments, women's movements and women's civil society organizations have grabbed the opportunities that these conflicts presented, and they have used them to their advantage. Now, also that's one reason for that is because during conflicts, women assume more non-traditional roles outside of the household as gender norms change and the war basically destructs social or traditional structures. Now, one of the main questions that I would like to ask is, do we need, how do we make sure that women's movements gain momentum in times of peace? Or maybe another way to ask the question is, do we need a conflict in order for women's leadership to gain momentum? So, maybe in my opinion, the structural barriers that affect women on the African continent and elsewhere also, mostly tradition, religion, patriarchy, et cetera, are barriers that can only be addressed through a change in mentality and they can only be addressed on a very long-term period. It takes a very long time for that to happen. It doesn't happen through quota systems. It doesn't happen through different laws. Also, these can help offset the barriers on a very short term, but really it happens through a change in mentality. So I don't have, I would say, any specific strategy on how to tackle these barriers, so don't ask me. But there are groups of women out there and some of them the net has supported over the years that have taken very original approaches on in leadership and peace building. And one of the main examples that come to mind is in Mali, for example. I don't know if you're familiar with West Africa, but Mali in 2012 had a military coup. Jihadists came and took over the northern half of the country. And during that period of time, women didn't have, well, they were not allowed to even show their hands or feet. But after the Jihadists left, there was still six stigma. There was a need to reconstruct the social structure. And basically what women did is that they came together illegally. And the younger women who had exposure to Facebook, to Twitter, to Brazilian TV soap operas were the ones who were training their mothers on how to speak up or how to discuss with men and how to make sure that they find a room at the table of negotiations. So these intergenerational capacity building programs have really worked in these types of situations. And they've also shown that when women decide that they want a new role in society, it happens really fast. Now the main challenge that I would like to highlight and maybe we can all answer this question together is how do we make sure that the progress that are made at the grassroots level also translate at the regional level and at the national level? Because in these countries like Mali, for example, you have very interesting progress at the grassroots level, but you have 34 government ministers and there is no one woman. Or if there is one, then this woman is in charge of women's affairs or social issues or fishery. Not that I have anything against fishery, but I think that if you want women to basically take a leadership role, then you need to give them a substantive portfolio. Looking forward to discussion. Thank you, thank you very much. Madam Ambassador. Thank you. I think my colleagues have addressed many aspects that I'm not going to repeat. One of the things I, once again, maybe because you asked also to use examples that we know of, the first thing is the mindset. The mindset is to see women as agents, not as subjects. Regardless of any kind of policy we can put in place, if the women are not empowered enough to take it in hand to want to work. So that women empowerment is definitely the biggest thing. The second, I can maybe think of for discussion purposes once again because you've addressed some of the agenda and so on and so forth, is that women have to be included in order levels where you want to change anything. You can't talk about ending a violence. You can't talk about ending anything without women being present. So it means that if we need to put people in peacekeeping, women have to be there and represented. If we are talking about ending family violence, women have to be at all levels whether we talk about the doctors who are going to see the women, the policeman who is going to see the women and everybody else who are connected to the case. Because representation is big and that's the bottom line. Without representation, people speak about you, they empower you, but you are not empowered yourself. So for me, that's where I can say maybe if I talk about Rwanda, that's where I think we have been successful because women are part of the agenda. Women are setting the course of the next 20 years, 30 years and so on and so forth. So I leave it there and I'm open to questions. Thank you. Very helpful, thank you very much. I've been reminded and I should have said at the beginning for those who tweet, you can tweet today and the hashtag is Africa Day 2015. So tweet freely. And now Jackie. Thank you and good afternoon. I also don't wanna repeat what other colleagues said but thought I could just wrap up this part of the conversation by sharing with you five things that we as an organization have learned through working with African women and I'm always sensitive as you are to lump all of Africa, this whole continent together at the risk of oversimplifying but I'll share some examples from Africa but lessons that also relate to women around the world. And if I might start by thinking members of Ambassador Lyman mentioned the Women Waging Peace Network which is a group we support and you're a member of others, well I hope, join as well. When I wrote to several of them and mentioned I'd be on this panel and asked for input, I got a lot of great suggestions and one of my favorite emails that came back said, finally said, and don't worry Jackie, everything will be fine. Ambassador Lyman is an honorary African woman anyway so he'll know what to say. So very much earned your stripes to be speaking on this day. So five things we've learned from African women. First of all, and Carissa was mentioning this is that we shouldn't be waiting until a crisis to invest in women's leadership. It's not a project and it shouldn't be projectized. It's a long-term investment strategy. And we saw a great example of this come through in a report that the US government released a couple of weeks ago around the US National Action Plan discussing the fact that they'd been supporting through the US SNAP a group of women in Sierra Leone to focus on women's leadership and development skills. The intention was not in any way to address the Ebola crisis. This was much before the Ebola crisis struck but they were focusing on women's leadership and women's leadership within communities. When the crisis hit, it was this group that was one of the best connected to do things that were absolutely essential in that time. So they were connecting people from communities with healthcare workers. They were providing recommendations to the national government about things like women's roles in burial processes and tracking family members, et cetera. And so the idea of creating a women's network and building capacity and ensuring women felt empowered after a crisis like Ebola hits just simply isn't realistic but the idea of investing in women and women's leaderships in times beyond times of crisis is essential. Secondly, we need to be very clear that when we're providing funding or support from an outside organization that we need to ensure that African women's groups set their own agenda and set their priorities. And credit to the State Department in this regard where credit is due, we've been working with a group of women from Sudan and South Sudan for about 10 years, in part through State Department funding and as you can imagine, about four years ago the situation between the two countries looked very different. And the State Department provided funding for work related to the separation of the two countries. So women from both countries talking about how they would separate peacefully the terms of the agreement, et cetera. When the crisis broke out in the South, as you can imagine everything changed significantly. And as a funder, the government was very willing and open to say, all right, women in South Sudan were able to focus on what they wanted to focus on, cessation of hostilities agreement, peace negotiations themselves, and women in Sudan were able to focus on the national dialogue process. They were saying, we've got these beautiful log frames, they don't mean anything anymore, let us adapt to the situation and the reality on the ground. Unfortunately, in some cases, funders are willing and able to do that. Third point is that the ecosystem in which women's leadership exists matters very much. And so the idea that there's such a thing as women's issues is something that just blows my mind. I can't understand what a women's issue is that isn't also a community issue or a security issue. So security sector reform is a women's issue. Corruption is a women's issue. A whole range of issues, access to justice are women's issues. And something I think is a success, particularly in your country, Ambassador, is the acknowledgement of the issue of land rights and women's access to land and access to inheriting land as core to their ability to participate in public life and participate in security conversations. My most favorite statistic around Africa overall, and I think it sums up so much, is that women are responsible for 70% of agricultural production, yet own less than 1% of the land. And that's a huge, huge issue. Agricultural productivity is another issue. And if we start to address these things, it's all part of a large, as I said, ecosystem or chain of events that enables women to participate in different aspects of life. Fourth, what we've seen African women lead on around the world in the last 15 to 20 years has been redefining the term security towards more of a notion of human security. And in Beijing, we're about the 20th anniversary of the Large UN Conference on Women in Beijing. And it was women from Rwanda, women from South Africa, women from a number of countries who said, we have played a really significant role in the war in our country and rebuilding our country, and we need to change the way we think about security, and that we as an international community address these topics. One of the most powerful experiences that I had working with colleagues in Sudan and South Sudan was around the separation of the two countries, gathered a group of Sudanese and South Sudanese women together and talked about petroleum. So this was one of the major issues being negotiated by an ambassador and his colleagues. And many people were saying, there's no gender dimension to petroleum, the oil-arranged agreements that's just, there's no gender. Maybe there's something around the economy or something like that. And so when you break it down with women, what they were doing was identifying the ways that communities interacted with this issue. So instead of talking only about protecting oil installations or extracting resources or setting prices, they were talking about the environmental impacts of oil installations. They were talking about the environmental impacts of transportation routes. And they were saying, for example, some of these places, the water is heavily polluted. Women are responsible for collecting water. They have to walk further to get to clean water. They and their families are much more vulnerable to being attacked or to drinking polluted water, et cetera. It's all, again, part of a system that needs to be addressed. And we've seen African women, I think, take a massive lead on redefining this term of security. And then fifth, the final thing I'd say is that we have a ridiculous aversion, I think, in many parts of the world, including this country, to learning from Africa. And I think what Africa has taught us is that there's a whole lot more that we need to learn. So we focus a lot on my organization on national action plans. Some of the best national action plans are in Africa. Some of the most sophisticated systems of monitoring and evaluation, the most advanced systems of indicator tracking are in Africa and they're actually being implemented. There are a whole range of other really amazing sets of work done around security sector reform. My colleagues were just in Nigeria last week and met with groups of women that they said were needed to come and give us lectures on how to advocate to our military and police institutions, just remarkable capacity. And I think many of us have either through a range of biases, racism, classism, et cetera, this reluctance to learn from Africa and from the African community. And finally, I also think it's always entertaining this idea of, with young people now, we talk about the shared economy. So Uber and Airbnb and all of these things and we act as though we've invented the idea of shared economies. But is there anything more African than the concept of collective property and sharing property like that? I think there's a whole massive set of, a whole turn in our economy in the way that it's shifting that is towards the capacities and the skill sets towards a number of African entrepreneurs that we need to be cluing into. So I'll leave it at that as our five things. Thank you, Jackie. Let me ask, because the Commissar's raised this whole question of, you had a lot of women working at the grassroots level and in social reconstruction after conflict, but doesn't always transfer to the post-conflict situation or to the higher levels. In some cases it has. And Jackie, you mentioned the women's organizations in Sudan and South Sudan, which are very impressive and hard. And yet I found it very hard for them to be able to crack through in the key negotiations on peace and share where the priorities were often wrong on the part of the negotiators because they weren't really sensitive to how people were suffering. And it was difficult. Now why is it that in Rwanda and Mozambique you've come out of a conflict, terrible conflicts in both countries and instituted such strong gender equality in the constitutions, et cetera. May still be challenges, but in both cases I think Rwanda and Mozambique stand out. How did that happen? Was it because women were pushing at it and demanding it? Did they play a particular role in the conflict and situation? Or was it just enlightenment? Either one, perhaps. Yes, thank you. Let me add another dimension, which is the election's participation of women in the election processes. I feel that this is very important. When women participate in these electoral processes, they are part, they appropriate the processes and they campaign to be voted or to elect other women to the positions, power positions. And in Mozambique we have the experience which is successful, the quota system. I know that in other parts the quota system is not applied because there are people who think that that is a kind of man's marginalization. But in Mozambique it works and it has worked. That's why we have reached such a toll of women enrolled in decision positions. Yes, women participate, we had conflicts. And since women are the most affected, they much more easily are able, it's true, that not always they are seated in the table, the decision table to solve the conflict or even after the conflict. But they are there and they are the grassroots organizations and they help build the society and they help to sustain the societies. So I think that we have to work much more in terms of empowering women to be able themselves, to defend themselves, to defend their rights and the society. Thank you, Madam Ambassador, your thoughts. I said very few things. If I can say why it's happening and you mentioned the history also. You have a very tiny country with a million people dying in three months and you either die or you resurrect. So what happened was that the first thing that was able to revive our country and also comprehensively include women, it was that we needed to harness all the efforts of everybody in the country to be alive. And women had the ones who kept the fabric of the country going, even given the incredible challenges when you are looking at people who a society that has been reduced in ashes. But so there are three things, one is leadership. You have to set a vision that this is what you want. You have to have intentionality. There's intention and then you really have to marry policy and practices. So it means that in our particular situation, we created what we call homegrown initiatives. Socioeconomic initiatives geared toward empowerment of women. So for instance, we say, like what they call giringa is to give a cow to poor women so they are able to organize themselves or community work cooperatives where they put people together, they are able to get microfinance and they can start a business. So I'm talking about intention. Intention has to be there. Principles have to be translated into practices. So you have really to create that kind of pathway. And that's what we did, thank you. It reminds me I'm gonna open up now to audience, but I once asked a revolutionary leader in Africa who had come to power, but I was raising with him a problem of gender discrimination in parts of the country. And he said, well, then the women just have to organize and fight for what they want. Now, it was a little bit self-serving comment, but there's some truth to it it seems to me that it's not just organization, it's willingness to demand inclusion and rights. And I assume that that was also part of the experience in your country. I don't know, can I say you work with a lot of organizations. I work with a lot of organizations and really, and I've said it during my short presentation, is that you have these grassroots women leaders who have nobody to look up to. There is nobody in the government who will actually represent them and who will make sure that their voices are heard or that their interests are served in the government at the national level and at the regional level. And maybe because we're talking about the AU here, I wonder how we can talk about women's leadership in Africa when the AU has never ever sent a woman as an international mediator in Africa over the past, I don't know, I would say over the past 10 years, for example, in West Africa, we've had conflicts in Liberia, in Côte d'Ivoire, in Mali, in Sierra Leone, and not even once was there a woman who was sent as a mediator. It was only these long-serving presidents and I'm sure there are qualified women out there. So when you said marrying policy and practices, I like it, it's really, that's the issue. So it's nice to be talking about women's participation, but how do we make it happen? Good comment, I think you've provoked a good set of questions. I think people should go to the microphone and then we'll take them in order, please. Good afternoon, my name is Allison Shapira. I teach public speaking and presentation skills with a special focus on helping women around the world find their voice and their courage to speak up. And so my question for the panel is, what specific skills do you think women need to learn in the process of being empowered in order to drive the region forward? Thank you. Jackie, you work a lot on that, you want to start on that? You know, confidence isn't a skill, but it's confidence that's needed most. I've actually never liked the word empowerment. To me, it's the idea of someone can give you power. I think what we see is that women have power if they choose to use it and to exercise it. So we do a lot of work with women leaders. Our premise is always you know what you need and you know what your community needs and all we need to do is work on packaging how you say it. And I think that's the biggest issue, that the single biggest issue holding women back is the idea that their knowledge or their experiences are somehow less than those of their male colleagues. And constantly we're in workshops where people say, you know, we're too illiterate, we're not literate enough, we need to make sure that maybe next generation or in 10 or 20 years we can read and then we'll be able to run for office or something. And the most important answer is, do you have a vision for your community? Do you know what the issues are? Do you know what you want to change? If so, then go for it. And the rest, you know, it's not like all of your male colleagues have all of these skills and women have a perception that everyone else has the skills and they don't. So we're often getting requests from women, you know, we need capacity building, capacity building. And our answer is often, no, you don't. You actually don't. You have everything you need. We'll work with you to maybe shorten your responses or use throwing some lingo or some jargon that will make international policy makers think you know exactly what you're talking about. But it's really confidence in the assertiveness and belief that you belong there as opposed to the skills. Anybody else want to comment on that question? I think that women have to have access. For instance, for technology tools, we see that in many parts of Africa where women have access to cell phone, a simple cell phone. That is a very powerful tool she can use for whatever she needs to connect. And also to improve their life, her life, and her family life. That is a skill, a skill. That's a good point. You go here, gentlemen there. Hi, my name is Pierre Tautru from National Endowment for Democracy, we're coming up. But I want to thank everyone for all the presentation, for really, one thing that struck me was I didn't hear about the participation of women in the media. The media is one of the most important institution in terms of development or democracy or post-conflict building, whatever you want to call it. Women's participation in the media. Oh, in the media. In the media, yes. What can be done or what is being done in the country's present or other panelists, what is being done to address that. And my second question has to do, can we start to touch up a little bit on it when she was talking about grassroots women leaders who don't have anyone to look up to in the government. Why can't be done so that a lot of these women in those countries that meet the quotas, a lot of them are just the daughters of, the wife of. What can be done to make sure that that representation is capable of women or what is being done to make sure that grassroots women leaders can access those positions where they can actually make a change. I'm going to take two or three questions because we have a lot in the mud to make sure people get them up. So that one on the media and the grassroots and then the woman right here. Yes, thank you very much. My name is Cornelia Weiss and this question is directed to Madame Ambassador from Wanda, but I'm delighted to hear from any of you. You had said a threat to anywhere affects everywhere and I ask you to think about the situation right now in Burundi. Right now it's in the midst of needing conflict prevention. Just recently understand that the great mother, Margarit Barantitzi, that she's gone into hiding. And so there was a discussion that the AU's never sent a woman as an international mediator. There are talks right now about you need elders to go back in there just like years ago. And so I'm asking the women here to stand up and to be leaders. And I think Rwanda if anywhere knows what can happen. And I ask you to stand up and I'd like to hear what you plan to do. Thank you. Okay, let's take those two. We have one on media and then one specifically on the problems, the crisis in Burundi. You want to take that one first? Because you asked the question specifically for me. Of course what is happening in Burundi is we are trying to see how we can do it regionally but also on a country basis. We have been not only following the situation but also helping the situation. As you are aware of there are many refugees. Even in my country I think, I haven't looked at the numbers but there are 100, I mean 10 of the towns of refugees who are coming from Burundi, coming to Rwanda. And it means that all the mechanism of treating people decently but also women specifically is a part of what we are doing. So we are expanding even our resources to try to accommodate the people coming to us. Understanding also it's something that peace, we are part of the people who are trying to bring peace and stability in the region for this specific time. We are not, in Burundi, we are standing with the international community but also regional and local communities to try to see how the people can come together and talk and not indulge in the virus. So if you look for instance at what Rwanda has done on policy level, not policy level but how they have expanded themselves to Burundi decideration we are taking right now. But also dealing with the immediate and very challenging issues like people's lives. You have heard for instance that some people are dying from a cholera in large numbers among the refugees who are living in Burundi. It means that all the mechanism we've put together for our own people in the last couple of years or 20 years are being put also to the service of the people coming especially in terms of health so we can maintain the lives of the people who have found safe asylum. But as you were saying I agree with you that everyone should look and see how we can address or help in the situation in Burundi as it evolves. There are quite a few American organizations. I heard about Akira Institute. I know they have extended themselves in terms of relief and so on and so forth. So I don't know if I'm answering the question. The question is how do we address it beyond that? I think women's leadership and conflict prevention. You're a woman leader and to be there with the Council of Elders to help try to solve this. And we use ourselves, we are still on the wrong journey of reconciliation and building and we've achieved some milestones and we put whatever we have on the service of Burundi. You know one thing I can add for instance whenever we go for peacekeeping and we are one of the largest in Africa for peacekeeping. We just don't do peacekeeping, we do also peace building. So if you go to South Sudan, you find the same type of programs that we have in the country in terms of reconciliation. Central Africa Republic, they have one program. So that's what we are intending also to do if it comes to Burundi. I think Madam Ambassador's suggestion is that you go as a mediator in Burundi, I think that's sad. Yeah, individually yes. Now on behalf of the AU, we have a question, we had a question earlier on the media, the role of media, the women in the media, has anybody? Since the question was asked by one of my colleagues, I'll let other people answer. Well, I can't take that. I'm going to talk about my country. In my country, women, I've worked in media and we have organizations. Women's organizations who voice the concerns of women. We have an organization of women in media, in the media. So what I can say is that it's important to have much more women because they are much more sensitive when it deals with women's issues. And I cannot say much more than that than that it's important to have women in the media and they are growing, they are organizing this in civil society, in the civil society, has women in media. I'm going to take three questions now in a row so we get as many people because time is running short. Start with the woman right there and then I'll go back and forth. My name is Aida, I'm from Africa and I thank you all for giving me these things from what I have heard. When we are talking about peace and development, I think the first thing that comes to my mind is food, agriculture. I didn't hear that from the two. And the other thing I would like to know is maybe from the organizers, how they came up with food representative out of all the 54 regions of Africa, we'll be talking about international, African, but then I see with the money that wasn't enough, I would like that. The other thing is- Okay, we can't have everybody have too many questions. Yeah, well, maybe this is the last one. Okay, quickly. Yes, the participants, we heard about the conflicts going on in Rwanda and I would like to read something here very brief, which I think would be part of the solution about what's going on for us in Africa, where I come from. And this is about two Americans, I read it from a geography book written by Jack McLean, McLeanton and David Hegreen. They say that the shape of Africa, the size, the shape, and the composition of today's African countries have very little to do, have very little in relation to the cultures or geography of that continent. They were created by Europeans for their convenience and after a lot of haggling during which no African was represented at a conference in Berlin in 1894. The Europeans simply chopped Africa into pieces and handed it out, splitting tribal territories. I apologize, I got, I think we got the, we'll take the question, but I want to open it up to more, but I understand the question about. Yeah, so we are trying to find solutions. Yeah. So I think that's what we should address first. Right, thank you. And we'll come here. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, ambassadors, you are excellent this. My name is Rosemary Segero, I'm the president of Hope for Tomorrow. We focus on conflicts and violence prevention. I come from Kenya. I want to say thank you so much. Many times we have never heard the ambassador, women speak about conflicts of women, conflicts and women, because at the US summit, African summit, I wrote an executive summary to President Obama. I was part of the event on a big security women and agriculture. Now, the women empowerment, let me tell you where it started. Do you know where it started? Nairobi in 1985. That was when women empowerment started before Beijing. Beijing is on the top, Africa is down. And the African women are the ones suffering. I focus on the rural areas now that we are here together. I'm talking as a woman, born and raised in Africa. If we don't take this ourselves from here, from you today, help the rural area African women who matter like Rwanda, the ice cream ladies. You know Rwanda and the ice cream ladies. They have really made me proud. So we Africans who are born and raised in Africa, we need to be on the forefront. As the young lady said, we need to be on the table of peacekeeping. If we don't, women in Congo have been raped. In now Burundi, in Rwanda, you know what you came out of now that women are leading because they knew what they had come out and they said, we are on the table now. 51% of women in parliament. No man can say something about abusing them or saying something. So I really appreciate the president of Rwanda and the women of Rwanda. So now that we are here, this day talking about women empowerment, we go and sleep, eat, talk and tomorrow again, we wait until next year, until 2063. And women are suffering. What can you tell us from this point of level, from this place of peace and security, US Institute, what are we going to do to the common woman in the rural area of Africa until tomorrow and today is not my organization called Hope for Tomorrow. We want to change in African women. We want to do it as African women, born and raised in Africa, not on television, not in radio, not in newspapers. There has to be a change from today. So we will look on you. You'll be seeing me knocking your offices and don't close your door. Okay, I'm going to try and take another question here. But it's time before time runs out. And I apologize if we have to move along. Yes. Your Excellencies, thank you for this opportunity. My name is Riyan Mansur. I'm a University of California student. I'm currently interning at the Aspera African Women's Network. This organization invests in women professionally and through leadership and through networking. And I want to ask, in what other means can diaspora individuals and groups outside Africa be invested in so they can help enhance this mission of women empowerment that has just established in 2015? Okay, let's try and address some of those and I'll try and get back to as many as we can. We had a question about the whole historical issues of borders and whether that is contributing to the problems. We have the question around rural women in particular and then this last question. So I'll let any of you address any of those that you wish. Go ahead. Let me address about diaspora, the participation of diaspora. We have many people coming from Africa, either living, born from Africans or living here, coming from Africa. And what we used to do is to work with them and urge them to organize themselves in associations so that they can first help each other and also be able to strategize how to reconnect with their home countries. We have many people from Mozambique who are here. They have different associations in different places where they live. And what normally they do, they connect with the country through the embassy or themselves. They collect some kind of support to the fellow Mozambicans who are in country, who are in need from cloth, from different tools, from educational material and other kinds. But also they organize themselves to rebuild their lives in Mozambique because they know, they understand that at the end of the day, their families are in Mozambique. They are there, their roots are there. So I think that it's very important to have diasporas and we used to say that they are our ambassadors here in the United States or elsewhere. And we meet with them, we organize them, we help them organize themselves, and they are our base. We come and we go, as embassies. They are here, they live here. They know how this country works. They are enjoying the hospitality of the United States of America and they have always to reconnect with the country. So it's important to work with the diaspora and help them grow in this country. I would think it's also important in a conflict situation that the diaspora does not contribute to the conflict because sometimes in some cases the same divisions in the country are reflected in the diaspora and I think that's something that has to be addressed. Do you really want to comment on the rural women issue and the importance? What I can say is that you can't really develop anything without inclusive development. I'm using your words, but the rural development, you were talking about food and agriculture. The majority of our women work in the agriculture industry, in the traditional agriculture. It means that, but at the same time, like 90%, 90% live in rural areas. So you can't talk about any country development without developing the rural areas. And I think that in the Agenda 2063, we set out actually to modernize agriculture because that's where the majority of the people are. But at the same time also you find a strong correlation between development and also development of the agriculture sector where most of the women are. So that's how I can answer the question. The other thing there is a question that was asked about representation. By all means, here our voices might be weak, but all the 50 countries can't come to this forum and start presenting. Just we selected the best upon who was chairing the Africa group for this particular month or next month. Then we selected Ambassador from Mozambique. So, but it's not, I hope that we are, even though we might be giving examples of one particular country because we know it very well for discussion purposes, but here I'm representing all the African ambassadors. But, so blame it on me if you are weak enough to represent them, but we can't really bring all the people to come and represent. So I had to mention that. But definitely for all of us and the questions, if you want to ask a general question on Africa also, it should come to us. The last thing I want to mention, someone was talking about the colonialism and the rules of what was, that our agenda was set by colonial powers. Yes, they were. And also some of the difficulties we have we will be remiss if we can't attribute it to the fact that Africa is young. Africa is a young nation. You know, when you talk about a nation with 50 years of history, it's nothing. It's yesterday. So actually the milestones that Africa has achieved are incredible when you look at where we came from. A country can't develop if you can't make your own diplomacy, if you can't make your own mistakes and learn from them. For Africa, for almost 100 years, we couldn't do that. So it means that we are still on baby steps, but we are really going in the right direction. So I have to tell you that all the major advances we've underscored are showing where Africa can be because we have all the potential. We have resources. We have the people. We have young people who can drive the economy. We have our women who are pretty much have been in many challenges that in the next century or so, if you talk about women liberation, they come from Africa. So I have to state that particular thing because when we discuss Africa also, we have to look at the context. Africa is the continent is young. So we are still sometimes trying to find ourselves. Sometimes we are doing this and that, but at the same time understanding that the course we have set for ourselves is slowly but surely working. And not everywhere the same way, but it's coming along. So maybe that will address also the other part of your question that you didn't finish when you were talking about colonial roots and so on and so forth. Thank you. Now I think I don't know if our C-SPAN friends can stay with us. We've reached the 4.30 time, but if you have a few more minutes, we could take a few more questions. Is the panel okay? And if C-SPAN can stay with us, it's wonderful. If not, thank you very much. Don't forget the hashtag I mentioned. Hashtag Africa Day 2015. There we go. For all your Tweeters. So let's take a few more questions because people have been doing that. We'll start here. My name is Mindy Reiser. I'm vice president of an NGO called Global Peace Services USA. Implicit in a lot of what you said was the role of education. I'd like to make it explicit. For young women who have resourceful mothers, who support the families, who do amazing things with modest resources, they need to see other life possibilities. They need to think about being biologists and engineers and chemists and physicists and anthropologists. Please talk a little bit about what your countries are doing, particularly in the rural areas where teachers often do not want to come because of many life challenges. How you are encouraging good experienced teachers, men and women to go there. And how you are trying to craft curricula that invite young girls to consider the broader world in Africa, in larger regions as well, and how they can find a place there. Okay. The one right there, please. Thank you so much, Excellencies. Thank you so much, panelists. In fact, I don't know how a coincidence it was for me to be here from the first person who just spoke, and we have the same question. So my question is actually in terms of leadership from the grassroots, as far as young girls are concerned, my question goes to Miss Susan in Sudan, where you're dealing with women. Are you considering young women so that they can be trained in a way that when they come up, they're not going to be here talking about leadership. Instead, they will be leaders from the classrooms to universities so that when they come here, they are now coming with solutions to problems, not here to learn how to solve problems. Thank you so much. Let's take another question there from the gentleman. My name is Necton Muhura. I'm the ambassador from Malawi. I should indicate that I'm the new kid on the block. I'm only three weeks old in D.C. and excuse me if I speak out of turn. But two things I would like to relate to. First of all, the lady ambassadors from Mozambique and Rwanda are representing Africa. What you have said is something that most African countries relate to. It's an issue that most African countries are having to deal with. And therefore, we are with you and you have represented Africa very well. Thank you. Thank you so much. The second thing I would like to say is I would like to talk about Malawi. Malawi is making some headway in issues relating to women's empowerment. And I would like to cite an example of a law that was passed in February this year on women's empowerment. And you can find it on the internet if you would like to do that. That indicates the role of law in ensuring women's empowerment in modern days. Having said that, I should also say that Malawi has been one of the luckiest countries on the African continent but has enjoyed peace and has not had conflict since independence. In that regard, perhaps on the point... I'm going to have to ask you to be fairly brief. I would like to relate to the point I'm making to the point the lady made about peacetime situations. Perhaps Malawi, we could learn some lessons. Malawi could be a case study for how women's empowerment has happened in peacetimes. Sometimes I worry that we tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater with African customs. Is there... Can we learn something from African customs and practices on women's empowerment? Because sometimes we tend to think that African customs don't have systems for African empowerment. Perhaps you could think along those lines. Thank you. I'm going to just ask the remaining people very briefly to put their issues down because I know people have to leave. So we'll ask you to be very brief just the ones who are up already. Good afternoon all. My name is Matilda Banger. I'm originally from Sierra Leone. I just wanted to buttress on what the gentlemen said about media and the effect of the media in politics and how it empowers people because I worked with the late president, Jean Kaba, and we were some of the women that changed our names to be on radio and I know how effective that medium was to bring information and change to Sierra Leone. But as far as today, my question is to Jackie. What security source reform initiatives do you have as far as West Africa or Sierra Leone? Please. Thank you. Okay. Take the gentleman there. Very brief, please. Good afternoon, Your Excellencies. My name is Fred Emesia-Abouman from Nigeria. I want to react to what my sister in the middle, the panelist said when she said building African leaders, female leaders in the time of peace, what is the solution to it? I want to suggest some of the solutions. I think the African women need to be more strategic in thinking. I can't make any new people, please. I'm sorry, just the ones who were up before. In the sense that they need to repackage and re-strategize. Because in the place of power and politics and leadership, strategy is important. Packaging is important. African women have to think with a new mindset to be able to gain the level of leverage they are looking for. Because so many factors are already working against them. Secondly, African women tend to be very, very, very blunt with views of power. A case study of Nigeria, you know. The Nigerian government was able to raise the profile of women participation to 35% currently. But we can see that the economy of Nigeria was dived within this period when women are particularly running the economy. Check. Okay, yes. You know what, I think our time has run out. I'm going to let the panelists make some final comments. Everybody's been here for a long time. Thank you all very much. I apologize for those who are up there. But I'll let you comment on any one of those. Jackie, I'm going to go over your story. I'll let you start. We have a number of questions about leadership and education, but any other final comments you want to make? All right. So one of the questions to me related to young women, and it's especially, I think, relevant. My first experience in Africa was working at Afad University for Women in Sudan. And it was one of the places that I've worked with in my life, in part because you saw a generation of young Sudanese women who wanted to have a voice in their future, who were studying, who were serious, and who were really seeking a life for themselves in the future, in the inclusive future for their country. So capacities there, again, in the groups of women that we work with, they experience many of the challenges that women's groups in the United States and elsewhere face. This generational challenge between, you know, the younger women don't appreciate the path that they trod and the older women who think the older women are not adapting enough and they're not quick enough. And one of the areas that I think this comes about most is actually technology. So some of the younger women that we work with talk often about using WhatsApp as one of the most, you know, it's like a diplomatic tool in Africa, I think WhatsApp. And using WhatsApp in Twitter and Facebook to mobilize campaigns, whereas a number of the other colleagues are also in the diplomacy, et cetera. So there's very healthy, I think, generational tensions in Africa and in other parts of the world when it comes to women's advocacy. And then finally, your question. First of all, it's a wonderful dress that you're wearing. We'll have to get our photos taken afterwards. Women's involvement in security sector reform in West Africa. We've worked with the Geneva initiative for democratic control of the armed force called DECAF and created what's available online. We created a guide to security sector reform. And we created this guide because we were often involved in conversation about security sector reform and again found this gap. There were women in communities who knew what they wanted from their police. They knew what their security priorities were. They knew a whole range of things that they wanted and needed but didn't know how to access institutions or how to speak the language of the security sector. And so we created a women's guide to security sector reform meant for women in civil society to break apart and demystify some of the things that the border patrol does that custom does, that the military does that your defense oversight committee and parliament does and to provide some suggestions for advocacy. So we've been rolling that out through a series of workshops in West Africa and I'll tell you much more about it but it's available online to anyone who wants it. Madam Massiver, final comments, thoughts? Maybe I'll give a brief comments on education. Definitely we can't talk about women advancing without education. So once again it has to be intentional to put women there was a huge gap between women and men education in the past. So initially for us to be able to put them on the table we had to create programs to almost like what you might call affirmative action so those women can be there and compete. So now that we've also opened the doors or the push for women to be in all sectors of education including science, technology and so on and so forth. As we speak we have now many women who are pirates, the women who are in the military. So you have to open the doors of inclusiveness whenever we are talking about education. So education is actually the foundation for whatever we are talking about. So you can't separate advancement without education. The second thing I wanted maybe to say that the ambassador about was maybe using from African traditions. Quite frankly I can tell you without what we call the home grown initiatives you couldn't get anywhere because no matter what you bring you always find a gap because it's the different environments. We are talking about the different culture. You talk about different contexts. So it's very important that we look at programs that don't necessarily reject the other ones. It means that just you include what is needed so you can create a very powerful program that can empower people. So I think I am going to leave it there for now. Thank you. Thank you. So there were two questions about women's empowerment in peace times. I think that we need to remember that it's women who have changed the history of women over time. So the grassroots initiatives that come up have to be supported by gender sensitive policies at the national level. And I think that that's what the countries like Malawi should be doing. So that when you have these women's groups or women's movements that come from the bottom they are supported and they are sustainable. Are a Nigerian friend ? Are you serious? He's left. Okay. Hi. Hi. I'd like to tell you if we had some Nigerian women on the panel, you would have answered that very strongly. Your excellency. Thank you. Thank you very much again. Let me also stress about education. And what is important too based on the cultural mindset in Mozambique where the government has instituted incentives for families who send their girls to school and maintain them until they graduate. Why? Because in some places it's not a priority to send girls to school and families need to have this kind of incentive. Besides of that it's important also to increase the infrastructure's network so that girls and young women who live in the rural areas can get access close to the places where they live. It's difficult for some of them to live the village to go to town, to have schools because of different difficulties they can face. So it's important that's what is being done to increase the access of education in terms also of building much more infrastructure close to the places, to the villages where the population live. Thank you. I want to thank you all for being so patient and saying with us but above all I want to thank this wonderful panel that's given us a lot to work with. Thank you all. Thank you very much.