On March 21, 2011, Women’s World Banking held its annual Global Dinner Celebration at Capitale in New York City. We were delighted by the confluence of over 400 men and women from different corners of the world who came together to celebrate women entrepreneurs and to support financial inclusion for the poor.
WWB’s annual dinner honors women who have championed and advanced the cause of empowering women. This year we were please to honor Her Royal Highness Princess Máxima of the Netherlands for her tireless efforts to champion financial inclusion around the world as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development. In addition, the NIKE Foundation was recognized for its significant work through the Girl Effect to change the lives and empower young girls around the globe.
We were also delighted to announce the creation of the WWB Excellence in Leadership Award to recognize a member of the WWB network that demonstrates excellence in financial and social performance, principled leadership and a commitment to gender diversity and women’s leadership. Generously sponsored by MasterCard Foundation, the Award has been designed to celebrate and promote the strong synergies between these three institutional priorities that are core to the WWB network. After much deliberation, as outlined in a recent blog post in the Harvard Business Review, we were happy to award Kenya Women Finance Trust $25,000 to be applied toward their continuing pursuit of leadership diversity and gender equality. As the only financial institution focused solely on women clients in Kenya, KWFT’s explicit workforce diversity program designed to ensure that women continue to be represented at all levels of the institution’s structure – from the executive team to the field – in addition to their commitment to serving women clients, made them deserving winners.
Finally, another one of the evening’s highlights was watching Peace Through Prosperity, an inspirational video by one of WWB’s network members in Burundi, Africa. The piece highlights Caisse Coopérative d’Epargne et de Crédit Mutuel’s (CECM) commitment and path to helping hundreds of women become self sufficient by offering microloans and a range of other financial services, such as savings accounts. This year’s unforgettable gala could not have been accomplished without the help of many people. First, we thank Poppy Harlow, anchor for CNNMoney.com for being a wonderful emcee. Additionally, we are very grateful for the support of our corporate sponsors. We thank everyone who made the evening possible and are already looking forward to next year’s event.
Media
Images on Flickr
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
