Women and girls play a critical role in advancing both peace and development.

Research shows that families, communities and nations prosper when girls have the opportunity to participate fully in every aspect of society. Empower Peace’s Women2Women International Leadership Program (W2W) builds a network of promising young women (ages 15-19) from around the globe, engages them in the issues that define their lives and provides them with the tools, relationships and opportunities required to lead.

The Women2Women program was designed to provide young women around the world with the opportunity to learn, network and acquire leadership and professional development skills. Participants learned first-hand about the benefits, challenges and responsibilities associated with leadership from established women leaders in government, community, media and business. The Conference was created to empower young women to become future leaders.

Held at Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts, the sixth year of Women2Women had 110 young women from 19 countries attend the conference. Delegates came from Albania, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Haiti, Iraq, Israel, Kenya, Kosovo, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Conference took place from July 26, 2011 thrugh August 3, 2011. The delegates attended workshops on the Art of Negotiation,  Journalism, Women in the Legislature and a Global Women Panel discussion as well as an Interfaith Discussion held at a Boston area mosque.

Women2Women welcomed the BBC to our program. On Thursday, July 28th, W2W participated in the BBC program, "World Have Your Say" live from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Our delegates also participated in the live-to-tape broadcast about the status of women worldwide. W2W was thrilled to partner with the television Al Arabiya for a second year in a row.

Speakers included Victoria Budson, founding Executive Director of the Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Susan Hackley, the Managing Director of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, Rusty Tunnard from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, author and motivational speaker Todd Patkin, Charlie Clements from the Carr Center for Human Rights, Saran Kaba Jones the Executive Director of FACE Africa, Kerry Healey, former Lt. Governor of Massachusetts and Selena Sermeno, Ph.D.

To view the Women2Women 2011 schedule, please click here.

To see a list of the conference spekers and their bios, please click here.

To view the Women2Women 2011 Conference Report, please click here.