Atividade Parlamentar Women´s Forum Myanmar 2013

Maria da Graça Carvalho participated in the Women´s Forum Myanmar 2013 the first high-level international conference to focus on the vocies of the women of Myanma. The event took place in Yangon on the 6th and 7th of December and gathered some 400 Burmese women and men from government, politics, business, culture, and civil society alongside over 150 international leaders and opinion leaders.

The Women's Forum Myanmar - organized by the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society together with the French Embassy in Myanmar - was the country's first-ever international women's conference. It featured some of the world's most inspiring women leaders and highlighted best practices and partnerships from the region and internationally. This was a historic and unprecedented opportunity to meet and establish dialogues with Burmese women of courage, authority and distinction. 

The Women's Forum Meetings aimed to bring together leaders from all over the world - women and men - representing the business world, the government, academic circles, culture, etc. in order to give new perspectives to key issues in women's present and future; to create a powerful, global network in order to strengthen the influence of women throughout the world; to draw up innovative and concrete action plans to encourage women's contribution to society and promote diversity in the business world.

On the program there were plenary sessions on responsible international investment; how to leapfrog obstacles to better health and education; freedom of expression and a free press; and including women in the peacebuilding equation; roundtables and breakout sessions on market opportunities; financial inclusion; advancing women's rights; engaging the environmental agenda in development; leadership for tomorrow; and contemporary culture in Myanmar; and workshops on social entrepreneurship, the Internet, women's health, community resilience, vocational training and journalism. During the event, Maria da Graça Carvalho held bilateral meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi and with Christine Lagarde and participated in some of the workshops.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi opened the first Women's Forum Myanmar on December 6th, with a stirring call to build a genuinely democratic society. Marking a new milestone in the process of opening up the country, the ground‐breaking Women's Forum Myanmar focused on the voices and concerns of the women of Myanmar over two days of debates and workshops, and also featured International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde; France's Minister of Culture and Communication Aurélie Filippetti; Chairman and CEO of Total Christophe de Margerie; CEO of Sanofi Chris Viehbacher; and SVP and chief HR officer of PepsiCo AMEA, Umran Beba.

The Women's Forum Myanmar was partnered by the following corporations: PepsiCo and Total; Accor Asia Pacific and Sanofi; ABB, BNP Paribas and L'Oréal; The ANNpower Vital Voices Initiative, Bred Group, Chatrium Hotel, KPMG, MasterCard, Orange, and Thomson Reuters. Media partners include: Agence France Presse, CNN, France Médias Monde, The International New York Times, La Tribune, Forever Group, TheIrrawaddy, The Myanmar Times, and Skynet.

The 6‐7 December event in Myanmar followed the 9th Edition of the Women's Forum Global Meeting held last October in Deauville, France. As it enters its 10th year, the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society continues to pioneer new topics and geographies, with a third Women's Forum Brazil planned for May 2014 and plans to set up a Women's Forum in the Middle East.

Founded in 2005, the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society is the world's leading forum looking at major social and economic issues from women's perspectives. It promotes the empowerment of women world‐wide, as well as the networks of collaboration that enable women's voices to be heard with clarity and force. Women's Forum events, including a major annual Global Meeting, highlight strong and important women and men in politics, business, civil society and academe. Based in Paris, the Women's Forum is a subsidiary of Publicis Groupe.

In the image Maria da Graça Carvalho and Aung San Suu Kyi during one of the meetings.