This is from my trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on behalf of the Club of Madrid for a Regional Workshop on Women’s Leadership for Peace and Security in the Greater Horn of Africa in the fall of 2009.

(video)

To learn more, read Don Steinberg’s testimony before the US Foreign Relations Committee.

Do you think the role of women in peace and security is well understood?

Many of today’s challenges – Climate Change, Poverty, Hunger, Illiteracy, Oppression of Women – seem beyond the ability of any single person to influence. I’ve created this blog to provide food for thought on the day’s most important issues, and to invite you to share suggestions of concrete things that we as individuals can do to make a difference in some of the big issues of our time.

Sharing stories and ideas is the way that ordinary people can have an impact on the big issues. The goal of exchanging these ideas  is to foster a feeling of  empowerment  that will encourage us to act.

When I helped to create the Club of Madrid – made up of 72 members who have been either President or Prime Minister of their countries, I explained that this group did not assume that we alone could change the world. We know better than anyone what it means to be “former” leaders. But we also know that we can leverage our experience and access to promote democratic values. To explain the role we  play, I coined the term, “a tile in the mosaic of progress,” which is what the ideas of this blog shall be as well.

Please join me in building a new mosaic of positive change, one bite size chunk at a time.

Sincerely,

Kim Campbell