A Benefit for Women’s Economic Empowerment

October 10, 2013

Last night, Women’s World Banking celebrated its work empowering low-income women worldwide with 350 friends and supporters at the beautiful IAC Building in New York City.

 

Panel at Women's World Banking's Annual Benefit
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Melanne Verveer and John Gerzema discuss women in the formal economy, moderated by Andrew Ross Sorkin
Scroll down to see more photos from the event!

We kicked off the night with a dynamic conversation with Anne-Marie Slaughter, Melanne Verveer and John Gerzema, moderated by Andrew Ross Sorkin. Their discussion on the challenges of bringing women globally into the formal economy prompted the panelists to identify access to financial services, policy changes and incorporation into the workforce as key solutions.

Women’s World Banking also announced the winner of this year’s Excellence in Leadership Award, supported by Citi Foundation: Microfund for Women (watch the video highlighting Microfund for Women, “Challenging Convention: Excellence in Leadership“) and the two recipients of the Founder’s Scholarship Caitly Reynoso and Rosaisha Ozoria, presented in partnership with NY Women’s Bond Club. The two young ladies from local New York City high schools will travel with the Women’s World Banking team to Jordan in November and learn about financial inclusion at this year’s Global Meeting.

During the the rest of the evening, guests had the opportunity to learn about our work around the world through interactive stations on youth savings (Ethiopia), savings and financial education (India), health microinsurance (Jordan), rural credit (Paraguay) and social communications (Dominican Republic and Kenya). The videos our guests viewed can  be screened through this Youtube playlist. While learning about our innovative work, guests enjoyed delectable tastes from the region where our work is based. There were samosas suspended on the shoulders of the catering staff, empanadas displayed on a branch along with a variety of dipping sauces and a food cart serving beef kifto and injera bread.

If you unable to join us last night, there is still time to help us reach our goal of raising $500,000. You can do so here. We are grateful to have such strong supporters of women’s economic empowerment worldwide and we look forward to sharing how we’re putting your support to work in the coming year.

Acknowledgments:

Blog-Benefit-Sponsors

Blog-Benefit-Host-Committee

We’d like to thank the gastronomic geniuses at Pinch Food Design for catering our global feast and the design gurus at jesGORDON for their spectacular staging.