Calling for sustainable democracy, sustainable prosperity, and sustainable security and peace U.S. Deputy Secretary William J. Burns brought to a close the 9th Forum for the Future in Tunis, Tunisia last week. Deputy Secretary Burns attended in Secretary Hillary Clinton’s absence after she took ill last week.
With the cancellation of the scheduled labor strike at the 11th hour, and without the attendance of U.S. Secretary Hillary Clinton due to illness, the 9th Forum for the Future was called to order by Dr.
Surrounded by heightened security, 300 civil society and government official have arrived in Tunis, Tunisia to attend the 9th Forum for the Future. Under spectacular winter skies, the League of Women Voters is ready to open the plenary session of the civil society and private sector preparatory meeting. Participants from 25 countries are ready and eager to discuss and find solutions to the current challenges faced by the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) countries.
After nine months of work in preparation for the G8 BMENA Initiative's 9th Forum for the Future, the League team is finalizing documents, participant registrations, travel arrangements, and thousands of other last-minute details.
In recent days, I have been fortunate to witness first-hand how the League of Women Voters is contributing to democracy around the world. First, is watching the many, many League volunteers around the country work tirelessly to get voters the help and information they need for the November 6 election. League members everywhere have been registering voters, holding candidate forums, issuing vote
There has been great uncertainty about the future of the 9th Forum for the Future after the recent unrest in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, and, in particular, the attack on the U.S.
The League team has just returned from El Jadida, Morocco, site of the first preparatory meeting of the 9th Forum for the Future. The two-day session focused on empowering women, however, not all 76 attendees were women. In fact, a good percentage of the participants were men who work on economic, legal, and social issues that impact women’s lives. Twenty countries were represented by members of civil society organizations, including one representative from the West Bank/Gaza area.
Late yesterday afternoon the League received an official notification from the State Department indicating that regrettably the first regional workshop on women’s empowerment scheduled to take place in Doha July 10-12 needed to be postponed.
The first regional workshop, one in a series of meetings to be organized on the road to the 9th Forum for the Future, begins in Doha, Qatar on July 10.
As we continue to prepare for the First Regional Workshop on Women’s Empowerment of the 2012 G8 Broader Middle East and North Africa (“BMENA”) Initiative, the League of Women Voters invites you to better get to know our BMENA nation co-chair, Tunisia.
