Irene Natividad Opening Statement
Thank you all for joining us here in Hanoi for the 2008 Global Summit of Women. In our 18th year, I am so pleased that we are able to hold this prestigious gathering of women leaders from 72 nations for the first time in the dynamic economy of Vietnam. At this Summit, I am proud to say that the Vietnamese women leaders among us form the largest representation from any host country since the founding of the Summit – nearly 400 strong. This presence reflects not only the excitement and interest of Vietnamese women in being part of this global forum, but also their tremendous contribution to this nation’s economy.
I invite each and every one of you to take advantage of the opportunity this Summit provides to get to know Vietnam. I invite each of you as well to savor and enjoy the richness of other cultures in which we find ourselves today and to expand your learning at this Summit beyond career and business growth imperatives to simply getting to know several nations through the very person sitting next to you at a session, standing next to you in line, sharing a meal or sitting in a bus as you will within the hour. It is a level of learning that is such a privilege, because there are so many more women and men who cannot avail themselves of the chance to open a window to other countries and other people because of the lack of means and opportunity to do so. We in this room are indeed the lucky ones.
So, who’s here? For the first time in our 18-year history, we welcome Myanmar, with its 11 member delegation. We welcome Libya, whose Minister for Women is also here for the first time. We welcome Mongolia with 22 participants, their largest representation at the Summit ever. My home country, the United States is tied for first place for the first time with China in having the same number of delegates – 65. Japan comes in second with 36 and South Korea is third with 27 participants. Government leaders are also here – 32 women Ministers to be exact who lead departments as varied as Finance, Education, Environment and of course, Women’s Affairs. You will meet them tomorrow night when they introduce themselves at the Gala Dinner.
The theme of this Summit focuses on two critical forces driving change in the global economy in the coming decades – Asia and women.
Time Magazine recently pointed out that the tallest building in the world is not in New York, but in Taipei. The largest publicly traded company is now in Beijing. The biggest refinery is now being built in India. The biggest movie industry is not Hollywood but Bollywood. Even the largest Ferris Wheel is not in Disneyworld but in Singapore. And the largest casino is not in Las Vegas but in Macao.
What is obvious to many economists and business people like you in this room is that the center of gravity in the global economy has shifted from the western world – Europe and the U.S. – to the East, specifically, the Asia Pacific region led by two enormous economies, China and India. This entails a seismic shift not only in the content of trade but how we conduct business overall. At this Summit, you will know more about the opportunities this region brings and some of you have already begun today with the session on “Doing Business in Vietnam.” We will share with you information about the region’s women who are major market drivers in their nations’ economies. We will feature in every session the talented businesswomen and government leaders from Asia, and we will share with you the cultural nuance of doing business in these economies.
In addition to this market shift, the 2008 Summit signals a structural shift that is as its beginning stages – the shift of economic control from men to women. In almost every country of the world, women have entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers just within the last two decades, and that includes the Asia Pacific region. You will hear from the Mastercard Report, which will be released tomorrow, women’s impact on the region and their perceptions of their economic roles in it. Part of the reason for the increase in women workers lies in the demographic fact that people everywhere are living longer, and the aging of the world’s population combined with low birthrates has created a dearth of workers from Germany to Japan and Korea – a gap that needs to be filled by women for these economies to remain robust. Part of the reason also lies in the shift from manufacturing industries dominated by men to service industries where more women are skilled. And part of the reason lies in women’s decision to be economically active primarily to contribute to the family income.
No less than the Financial Times credits the growth in the global GNP to the increased presence of women workers in the industrialized economies. Where women’s economic growth has been felt the most is in entrepreneurship. Whether you are in Vietnam, China or the U.S. the explosive growth of women entrepreneurs coupled with the growth of women workers will have a seismic impact as important as the shift in economic clout from the western economies to those of Asia.
So what happens when women are in charge of their nation’s economies? To answer, let me shift your attention from Asia to Africa – to Rwanda, specifically.
Many of you may recall the genocide in Rwanda that killed 800,000 people, mostly men and boys 14 years ago. Well, since that time, Rwanda has become what the Washington Post, my home town paper, now calls the “leading example of how empowering women can fundamentally transform post-conflict economies and fight the cycle of poverty.”
Today, 48% of Rwanda’s Parliament is made up of women, the highest in the world. 36% of President Kagame’s Cabinet is made up of women. And most important, 41% of Rwanda’s businesses are owned by women – higher even than that U.S. percentage which is around 30%.
So, how did Rwanda achieve this? Basically, the march of female entrepreneurship from agri-business to tourism came out of the sad opportunity emerging from the genocide, which left agricultural lands, for example, in the hands of women whose husbands, sons and fathers were slaughtered. To survive, women – many of whom had no training or exposure to managing property or farms – had to take control simply in order for their families to survive. With the help of international agencies which provided training and loans to the women, Rwanda came back to life. Their Minister of State for Agriculture declared that “Rwanda’s economy has risen up from the genocide and prospered greatly on the backs of its women.”
What are the lessons learned from Rwanda’s example? First, development specialists found more willingness on the part of the women to learn new techniques that improved quality of products, so that women farmers, for example, are now outdoing the men in terms of generating profit. Secondly, women more than men invest profits in the family by improving their homes, their family’s nutrition and health care and providing better education for their children. Thirdly, the younger generation of males now see their mothers and sisters in a different way altering their perception of what women can do. Lastly, and let me quote former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan: “There is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women.”
And that statement is as true for developed as well as developing economies in Asia as it is in the United States. The lesson for me in Rwanda’s story is that women taking charge of their destiny spelled success not only for their families, but for the country as a whole.
You see, like the women of Rwanda, women everywhere come to leadership roles as outsiders. That status brings with it a clarity of vision, for Rwandan women it was the desire to lift their families out of poverty. As outsiders, each of us brings a sense of discovery and innovation. Because we have no template or many role models of leadership to follow, we tend to be more creative and open to new ideas. And the very barriers that prevent us from accessing power in every area of public life gives us the fire in the belly, the steel and strength to move forward despite great odds.
What Rwandan women demonstrated is that in order to create change in their lives, they looked to themselves first. That is why I say over and over to women everywhere – it is not enough to envision change, you must see yourself as the agent of change. This next century is ours, and we women are poised to demonstrate to the world that the economies of each of our countries can only flourish, as it did in Rwanda, if we are given the chance to lead. But like the Rwandan women, do not wait for leadership to come calling, remember that it’s not enough to envision change, you must see yourself as the agent of change.
