WLN facilitates the integration of gender perspectives, women’s enterprises, and economic cooperation into the APEC agenda with annual recommendations to APEC Ministers and Leaders. It is this vehicle that provides women with the means to impact policy in the region. WLN helps meet the needs of women in the region and promotes participation and representation of women in APEC activities and committees.
This year, there was an excellent array of presentations, panels and keynote speeches on Training, Information, Communications and Technology (ICT), Business Development Services, Gender and Trade Issues, Global Micro Business Models and Social Issues. At the end of WLN 2006 representatives from several countries volunteered to lead critical initiatives for the upcoming year.
Many TIAW members attend these annual meetings as delegates and speakers. They were instrumental in establishing the permanent APEC working group on Microenterprise Development, and in helping APEC fund global microfinance projects to share best practices. As part of the Advocacy that TIAW does, the TIAW Microenterprise Committee, under the leadership of Patricia Foley-Hinnen, has played a major role in advancing microfinance and gender issues in the APEC forum.
TIAW members in attendance this year were representatives or Presidents of six of our member associations - Myrna Yao, President, Filipino Chinese Federation of Business & Professional Women and Chair of the National Council of Women in the Philippines, Dr. Amelou Benitez-Reyes, President, The Philippine Women’s University, and President of the National Council of Women of the Philippines. Judy Hawkins and Mavis Mullins from the Maori Community in New Zealand, Luz Marina Gómez, Asociación Mujeres Lideres (WLA – Chile), Dr. Marsha Firestone, Founder & President, Women Presidents’ Organization, USA, and Virginia Littlejohn, President Quantum Leaps Inc and National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).
Though the agenda was full, we had time to build community and get to know women from other countries and learn more about their cultures and issues. It was great to see Laura Albornoz, Minister Women’s Ministry (SERNAM), Chile, Maria De La Luz Silva Donoso (SERNAM) along with Ingrid Antonijevic, former Chilean Minister of the Economy. All were speakers and played an important role in the great success of the TIAW International Conference in Santiago, Chile in March.
The Small Medium Enterprise Business Forum was taking place during the WLN Meeting in the adjacent building so it was quite easy for me to moderate the SME Business Forum on “Networking to Meet the Challenges and Opportunities of Globalization”. Panelists at the Forum were leaders of large trade associations in Australia, Japan and Chinese Taipei.
A seminal moment for me, which was unrelated to the WLN Meeting or the SME Business Forum, was my foray into running. On September 24th, five of us from Canada donned our running shoes, shorts and tee shirts to participate in the “Terry Fox Run, in Aid of Cancer Research” in Hanoi. Sponsored by the Canadian Embassy, we joined 8,000 other participants to do a 5K run around a lake in Hanoi through parks and local str
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