As we approach the end of this extraordinary Presidential Election week in the USA, all of  us at the Global Fund for Women are moved by the sense of historic transformation and the possibilities that are ushered in by the election of Barack Hussein Obama, who will be the new President of the United States of America.

For eight long and painful years, women, men and children around the world have suffered the wide reaching impact of the  Bush administration's lies, deceit, abuse of power and growing militarism.  Brutal wars have been waged in both Afghanistan and Iraq with little regard for the needs and concerns of the innocent civilians who continue to bear the brunt of the violence, destruction, and dislocation. Even as it claimed to liberate the women of Afghanistan and Iraq, women's rights in the US and around the world were attacked by a government that denied women access to contraception, family planning, and other reproductive rights.  The Bush administration withheld payments to the UN Fund for Population Activities and forbade US development aid from being used to support abortion referrals or services to women, even as we witnessed growing sexual violence against women in places like Congo and Darfur and as HIV/AIDS continued to disproportionately harm women and girls.

Barack Obama now faces extraordinary challenges  in repairing and healing the wounds inflicted by the former administration both at home and abroad. At the Global Fund for Women, we were flooded with emails wishing the President-elect and the people of the United States success in this mission. Not since right after 9/11, has the Global Fund for Women seen such an outpouring of solidarity and support.  From Kosovo to Morocco to Pakistan, from Brazil to Cambodia and Zimbabwe, the women of the world are sending their hopes and prayers that this time it will be different.

As one group from Kenya put it, "Warm greetings and best wishes from Tumaini Self Help Group in western Kenya. We wish to join you in celebrating the just ended peaceful and very democratic elections.  Thank you for the work well done.We wish you the best and enjoyable leadership that is favourable to women movements.It is our hope that the Global Fund for Women will advance even more during the new leadership of president Obama."

We agree -  may we look forward to leadership that is favourable to women's movements, economic, environmental and social justice, and peace not just for the USA, but for the whole world.  And may we continue to hold governments accountable to the people who have placed such trust in their leadership.

in solidarity and with the audacity of hope,

Kavita N. Ramdas
President and CEO

The Global Fund for Women, the world’s largest foundation exclusively dedicated to the advancement of women’s human rights, announced their September 2008 grant docket last month of almost $1.7 million to 121 grassroots women’s groups in 60 different countries.  The grants, ranging from $2,000 to $75,000, will go towards ending gender-based violence and building peace, and expanding women’s political and civic participation.

Last month, Zung Che from the Taiwanese grantee group Collective of Sex Workers And Supporters (COSWAS) visited the Global Fund’s offices. COSWAS is a dynamic coalition of women’s groups working to protect and promote the rights of sex workers in Taiwan, and to press for the decriminalization of their work.

Every year, the capital city of Taipei continues to draw thousands of migrant sex workers from China, Vietnam and south-east Asian countries. Zung shared his insights on the challenges of organizing sex workers in current Taiwanese society where the challenges of economic liberalization are an increasing reality and are additionally disempowering marginalized communities like sex workers, who are additionally exploited since sex work was criminalized in 1997.

COSWAS’ coalitions and activities provide a strong labor rights framework to organize and fight for the rights of sex workers. It is also one of the few groups in the country also including LGBTIQ rights in their organizing framework.While on a conference here in the US, Zung, a translator with COSWAS, was also was engaged in discussions with community activists and organizations working on Proposition K in San Francisco, a measure on the election ballot that seeks to decriminalize sex work.

A sunny Saturday morning at Stanford drew together an illustrious panel of global leaders to discuss and re-evaluate conventional notions of leadership in the 21st century. Moderated by noted journalist Tom Brokaw, the panel included Kavita Ramdas, President and CEO of the Global Fund, Jeff Raikes, CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Congressman Xavier Becerra among others. The discussion sought to examine the models of leadership we need in a 21st century plagued by wars and conflict; and economic and ecological catastrophes.

Widely attended by Stanford alumni and students, the roundtable quickly gathered high interest and momentum when Kavita made a strong point in her introduction, in favor of collective leadership over conventional western models of individual leadership. “We need to recognize that we lead as collectives, and we need to detach the notion of a hero from a leader,” emphasized Kavita. Be it in the favelas of Brazil or inner neighborhoods of Chicago, there are extraordinary leaders everywhere, she noted. But they are extraordinary because they follow a collaborative, and a partnership model of leadership.

Watch the entire round table for an inspiring and a thought-provoking discussion of how we as a society need to re-evaluate and re-consider conventional notions of leadership. Also check out blogs by inspired members of the audience who walked away with much food for thought on leadership:

http://human-strategies.blogspot.com/2008/10/we-dont-need-another-hero.html

http://www.saketvora.com/2008/10/11/the-2008-stanford-roundtable/

http://valerievillarreal.blogspot.com/2008/10/californiahow-sweet-sound-and-question.html

Watch the roundtable