The theme for International Women’s Day 2018 is “Time is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women’s lives”

By Tom Miller, President and CEO

This Thursday, March 8, we celebrate International Women’s Day. This year, it comes in the midst of what feels like a cultural tipping point. After a series of high-profile cases, the #MeToo movement has drawn attention to the heartbreaking prevalence of sexual harassment…

Lisa Larson, an experienced IT management, software development, and organizational change consultant, received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) for her work in Cambodia and Lebanon.

The award was presented on Tuesday, December 5, which is recognized by the United Nations as International Volunteer Day. The award ceremony also recognized several members of Congress for their…

October 30, 2017–After four years, the Capacity Building and Change Management II Program in Afghanistan has concluded. See what we accomplished in this handy infographic.

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Let Women Show You Who They Are, and Change Will Happen
By Victoria Barone

I recently had the opportunity to talk with Tarana Amini, the human resources manager for IESC’s Assistance in Building Afghanistan by Developing Enterprises Program in Kabul. Tarana has been with the ABADE Program since it started in 2012. In 2016, IESC honored her with the Tarek Nabhan International Achievement Award, which recognizes team members in the field who…

Workforce Development for Women in Nigeria Requires a Cultural Shift

By Udunopa Abalu

One day while visiting my native country Nigeria over the holidays, I was out with some friends in Abuja, and I saw a large billboard advertising Maggi seasoning. The Nigerian-made bouillon cubes are often crumbled and sprinkled into dishes to make them more flavorful.

This billboard showed the image of a proud and smiling Nigerian woman on one…

By Julissa Almanzar 

The smell of chocolate in the air is heady, even a bit distracting, as I sit down to talk with about 10 women who run Chocolala and Chocal, two factories in the northern Altamira region of Dominican Republic. They came together to tell the history of their businesses and how hard they have worked to build them, persevering despite significant personal and societal obstacles, and how their economic empowerment is in turn…