WOMEN LEADERS GLOBAL FORUM REPORT

November 26-28, 2018Reykjavík, Iceland

● Summary● Participation Statistics● Engagement Statistics● Opening Speech - Prime Minister of Iceland● Testimonials● The Reykjavik Index for Leadership● The WLGF Pulse● Women’s World Atlas● Reykjavík Summit - Power, Together.● #Girl2Leader● Power, Together. Awards● Photo album

CONTENTS

SUMMARY

The inaugural Women Leaders Global Forum was held on 26 – 28 November 2018 in Reykjavik, Iceland, theglobal leader for equality between women and men. The Forum was co-hosted by Women Political Leaders(WPL) and the Government and the Parliament of Iceland, co-chaired by leaders of the OECD, World Bank,World Economic Forum and others. Under the heading “POWER, TOGETHER”, this year’s theme wasDigitalisation.

The event convened nearly 500 invited delegates from approximately 80 countries, including featuredConversationists, all internationally recognised for their contribution to advancing society. The programmeincluded inspiring sessions and conversations in plenary as well as 20 LeadersTalks and a series of off venueevents.

Programme highlights included:

● The WLGF Pulse● The Reykjavík Index for Leadership● Reykjavík Summit - Power, Together.● Women´s World Atlas● Power, Together. Awards

The event gained significant visibility online using the hashtags #WomenLeadersIceland and #PowerTogether. Parts of the Forum were streamed live via CBSNews.com.

The Women Leaders Global Forum included 488 conversationists from 79 countries - see breakdown below.·

ENGAGEMENT STATISTICS

The WLGF App:● 73% of Conversationists in attendance

downloaded the App.● 1,738 messages were sent between

Conversationists. ● Conversationists profiles viewed 5,433 times.

The WLGF Website:● 41,350 views since inception● 9,018 users

Distinguished guests,

It’s an honour and a privilege to be here with you today and I amso delighted to welcome you to the first-ever Women LeadersGlobal Forum (WLGF). Co-hosted by the Icelandic government,the Icelandic Parliament and Women Political Leaders, this forumprovides an excellent opportunity to share ideas, experiences andcreate solutions to make this world a better place.

I’d like to use my minutes here to share some of my thoughts,that I hope can serve as an inspiration for our conversations overthe next days. Given the nature of our forum, I will focus on waysto strengthen the rights of women and girls, because I believe thatwomen who have made it to top positions of power should usetheir platform to work towards a more egalitarian world.

First, I would like to mention education. According to UNESCO 130million girls between the age of 6 and 17 are out of school acrossthe world. We need to systematically break down all barriers togirls’ education, ensuring that all girls have access to good qualityeducation that gives them opportunities to be active participantsin their communities, including in decision making. This is notonly about getting girls into school, but also making sure oureducational institutions are safe and inclusive and that oureducation systems, in all our countries, serve to build updemocratic, sustainable and egalitarian societies. Education isalso the key to defeating the rise of religious fundamentalism,extreme nationalist ideologies, and the radical right.

Second, Family policies. Since women still carry the bulk of childrearing, family policies – and the lack thereof – have a massiveimpact on women’s daily lives. If it wouldn’t have been foruniversal childcare and maternal and parental leave, I personallywouldn’t be here serving as a Prime Minister, while also being themother of three children. So, I owe a lot of debt to the women whocame before me and built up that system here in Iceland.

Iceland was the first country in the world (in 2000) to adopt agovernment and business-funded shared parental leave scheme.The key here is a well-paid use-it-or-lose-it proportion for bothparents, which at the best has enabled 90% of new fathers takingtime off work to care for their young children. Paternity leave hassignificantly changed the make-up of Icelandic society.

OPENING SPEECH

In 2011, I actually became the first government minister to take afull time maternity leave when I became pregnant serving as theMinister for Education and Culture.In some countries I would have been advised against it (or advisedagainst having children all together) as it would have destroyedmy political career. But … here I am and still the mother of threesons who are doing just fine. So here we can see political policiesmatter and women don’t have to choose between having a familyand having a career. That is the important political policy.

Third, I would like to mention violence against women and girls,because violence against women and girls is one of the mostpersistent human rights violations of our times and both thecause and the consequence of women’s inequality.

Most recently, the #MeToo movement exposed systematicharassment, violence and everyday sexism that women acrossvarious layers of our societies are subjected to. Here in Iceland,thousands of women spoke out and the movement revealed themultiple discrimination suffered by migrant women in a countrythat has throughout history been relatively ethnicallyhomogenous.

Our task is to listen to all the stories that women have shared, butalso seek out the voices that we don’t hear everyday, so that therealities of all women are considered in our action to eliminategender-based violence. This is not an issue of faraway placesbecause violence against women cuts across all societies, and weneed to do everything in our power to end it.

Fourth, Peace and sustainability. Iceland is actually a countrywithout a military and in a recent survey it is shown that it is themost peaceful country in the world, which is an amazingprivilege.

Armed conflict and displacement (including due to climatechange) has terrible – and long lasting – consequences on womenand girls. Despite the established knowledge that women’sparticipation in the peace process increases the likelihood oflasting solutions, women are still far too underrepresented inpeace talks.

It is ours to change that – guided by UN’s resolution 1325 – and itis ours to challenge the global arms race that can only have badconsequences for the world.

Combating climate change is no longer a topic of theoreticalconversations, as we are starting to feel the impact of it all acrossthe world. This is an issue my government has put at the very topof the agenda, for our children and our grandchildren.

Last, but not least, the women’s movement. And we are all part ofthat. I think all of us should take time to celebrate and to thankthe women’s movement. We wouldn’t enjoy any of the rights thatwe enjoy today, if there hadn’t been for women’s solidarity, oftenat tremendous, personal costs to individual women. Movement isthe key word here, because with solidarity and collaboration wecan move mountains.And this is vital to our gathering here in Iceland: together we canmove mountains, all of us here.

I would like to thank Women Political Leaders, the organisers andall the partners that have made this event possible. I do hope wewill have a great and fruitful conversation here in Iceland for thenext days. Thank you very much.

TESTIMONIALS

TESTIMONIALS

THE REYKJAVÍK INDEX FOR LEADERSHIP

Over the last two years, the movement for fairness and equalitybetween men and women has found renewed energy andconviction around the world. In public life, in politics, inbusiness, and across different economic sectors, women andmen have been working for change and a world where economicopportunity is no longer shaped and constrained by being a manor being a woman.

Evidence is an essential tool in public policy and social progress.To support the cause of equality, we need to understand values,perceptions and attitudes, the speed of change or the failure torealise it, and the drivers and barriers towards a fairer world. So,we need to document the social norms that societies operatewithin, the everyday beliefs and behaviours of men and women,and the interplay of the drivers for change against those ofstasis. We need to document our social norms so that we canchallenge them, and we need to measure change over time tohold ourselves and our leaders to account.

THE REYJAVÍK INDEX FOR LEADERSHIP

We have created The Reykjavik Index for Leadership to supportthe journey to equality between women and men. We believe ina world where women and men have an equal right andopportunity, not just to participate in all aspects of economicand political life, but to lead.

In this first report, which focuses on the G7 countries, we seesome areas of progress to equality among men and women.However, the evidence also shows that we have a long way to gobefore equality in leadership between men and women is thesocial norm. We will use The Reykjavik Index for Leadership tomeasure our progress on the journey ahead.

THE WLGF PULSE

Using Data to Drive Debate:An increase of women in leadership positions has a positiveimpact on business, politics and the economy. So why, in the eraof TIME’UP and #METOO, are we not seeing a rise in femalerepresentation?

Women Leaders Global Forum (WLGF) is committed to leadingthe important debate around a new, more inclusive, definitionof power in business and politics. We’ve created THE PULSE, aninteractive tool to start the conversation on women inleadership.

It used Twitter data and a sentiment algorithm to track over10,000 CONVERSATIONS a day so that at any given time, we cansee exactly how the world is discussing women. THE PULSEtracks tweets that reference WOMEN + WLGF’s key values:SUCCESS, COMMUNITY, POWER, LEADER, DIVERSITY andCHANGE.

THE WLGF PULSE

THE PULSE grows in scale or shrinks depending on the frequency ofdiscussion, and changes to a darker colour if sentiment around a topic isnegative. The data-driven graphic visually illustrates the onlineconversation about women in real-time and each tweet makes up theconversation that can be explored.

WOMEN’S WORLD ATLAS

More than half of the world’s population is female. So where in the world exists parity in distribution of political and business power?In which countries are women and men at par?

The Women’s World Atlas shows exactly this, in cooperation with CAPACENT and with appreciation for the contribution by OxfordAnalytica.

WORLD’S WORLD ATLAS

Countries that have achieved gender parity in Parliament

Countries that have 30% or more women in Parliament

WORLD’S WORLD ATLAS

Countries that have achieved gender parity in CEO positions

Countries that have 30% or more women in CEO positions

WORLD’S WORLD ATLAS

Countries that have achieved gender parity in tertiary education

Countries that have 30% or more women in tertiary education

WORLD’S WORLD ATLAS

Countries that have achieved gender parity in tertiary graduates from Information and Communication Technologies programmes

Countries that have 30% or more women who graduate from Information and Communication Technologies in tertiary education

REYKJAVÍK SUMMIT: POWER, TOGETHER.

REYKJAVÍK SUMMIT

Women Leaders came together in a symbolic place, at anextraordinary moment in the history of human civilization.

The Hofði House symbolizes change, transformation and mostimportantly peace. It is the building where the Cold War cameto an end with a historic summit between American PresidentRonald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.

Today we live in a time of great opportunities, and a time ofgreat challenges. We are facing threats to multilateralism and arules-based global order. Conflict and violent extremism haveimpacted many regions of the world. The technology revolutionhas helped to expand the rapid growth of violent extremistideologies. Growing nationalism and xenophobia, conflict, andthreats to security call for women leaders to come together, toalign their actions and pursue inclusive approaches: Power,Together.

REYKJAVÍK SUMMIT

Women Leaders at the Reykjavík Summit discussed to act for peace andsecurity through the following measures:

● We call on global leaders to strengthen their relationships with eachother, building mutual trust and respect through adherence tointernational law, and respect for human rights. In times of conflict,we must rely on these relationships to seek non- violent, mutually-beneficial solutions between nations.

● We call on national leaders to address many of the drivers of violentextremism by aligning national development policies with the UN’sSustainable Development Goals.

● We call on our global colleagues to re-dedicate our commitment topromote women’s participation, leadership and empowerment acrosssociety, including in governmental, security sector and civil societyinstitutions. Women’s empowerment is a critical force for sustainablepeace. In line with Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000) and 2242(2015), we must ensure that the protection and empowerment ofwomen is a central consideration of strategies devised to counterterrorism and violent extremism. Protecting women’s human rights atall times, advancing substantive gender equality before, during andafter conflict and ensuring that women’s diverse experiences are fullyintegrated into all peacemaking initiatives.

● We call on the private sector, including communications andtechnology companies, to support the prevention of violent extremisminitiatives and generate creative ideas to help the internationalcommunity effectively address the spread of hate speech, intolerance,fake news, and violent extremism through the Internet.

#GIRL2LEADER

#GIRL2LEADER

#Girl2Leader is a campaign launched by the Women PoliticalLeaders Global Forum (WPL). The #Girl2Leader campaignencourages girls to pursue a future in leadership and aims to getmore girls involved in realms of politics and business. Thecampaign takes place under the distinguished patronage of thePresident of Malta, H.E. Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

It’s time for change. It’s time for girls and women to lead theworld with brains and hearts. Today leaders are almost all men:93% of Heads of States and 95% of CEOs are men. With theslogan, Lead Like A Girl, we connect today’s leaders to the nextgeneration of leaders. Here and now it’s time to answer why it isimportant to have more women in positions of leadership.

#GIRL2LEADER

POWER, TOGETHER. AWARDS

The power to advance society - to change and move things in apositive way - comes from using our power together.POWER,TOGETHER. is the key and in recognising that, theWomen Leaders Global Forum awarded and honoured during itsinaugural launch three outstanding initiatives driving globalchange, where people came together and joined forces.

The POWER, TOGETHER. Award ceremony started off with thecelebration of the International Olympic Committee's dedicationto advocate for gender equality on and off the field of play.Marisol Casado, President of the International Triathlon Unionand Member of the IOC, was on stage to receive the award onbehalf of the International Olympic Committee, and delivered apowerful statement encouraging greater female representationand participation across all aspects of sport.

Tarana Burke, Founder of the MeToo movement, sparked a globaland long awaited conversation on sexual harassment thatcontributed to change the narrative. Following her moving videomessage, Angelique Kelley, chairwoman and board member ofthe W.O.M.E.N. organisation (Women Of Multicultural EthnicityNetwork), received the award on behalf of the movement thatbecame a rallying cry for women and survivors across the world.

POWER TOGETHER AWARDS

A third and last POWER, TOGETHER Award was awarded to theAfrican Women Leaders Network (AWLN), the action-orientedplatform that seeks to enhance and galvanize the role andleadership of African women in bringing transformative changes tothe continent of Africa. The closing of the POWER, TOGETHER.ceremony featured prominent AWLN members on stage, with theexceptional presence of Bineta Diop, H.E.Jewel Howard Taylor, H.E.Speaker Donatille Mukabalisa, H.E. Rebecca Kadaga, ZainabBangura, and Giovanie Biha as award presenter.

OFF-VENUE ACTIVITIES

WELCOME RECEPTION

TASTE OF REYJAVÍK

HARPA

DAY ONE: PLENARY

DAY ONE: PLENARY

DAY ONE: LEADERSTALKS

DAY ONE: MASTERCARD LUNCH

PERCEPTION RECEPTION & CULTURAL DINNER

DAY TWO: PLENARY

DAY TWO: LEADERSTALKS

DAY TWO: SALESFORCE LUNCH

DAY TWO: PLENARY