| This
is the first time that I come to Chile.
As I flew from Buenos Aires to Santiago,
I saw the Andes Mountains, with some snow
on the top, I was told these mountains used
to be all white – totally cover with
the snow. This reminds me of the documentary
“Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore
which talk about how the world is changing
with the problem of Global Warming.
BPW
International was founded 77 years ago.
This year 2007, we are celebrating the 60th
Anniversary of BPW consultative status with
the United Nations. As the world is changing,
we have to ask ourselves, how about we?
How do we “lead” in the world
of changes?
BPW
Aim is to develop professional and leadership
potential for women at all levels. What
is that mean in the 21st Century. During
1996-2005, BPW helped over 45,000 women
world-wide to help themselves. We can’t
simply continue to do skill training grass
root. There are many other emerging issue
to address. One of the most serious one
is “Migration”. In the past
the migration is often caused by poverty
and conflicts. Today, employment by transnational
companies can also cause women to migrate.
Climate change, especially water shortage,
will be a major cause of migration in the
future. This will open up a new set of issues.
There will be competitions for resources.
Women right for migrants have to be reviewed,
as legislations that protect women’s
right for local women may not cover the
women’s right for migrant women.
BPW
Activities would have to be changed as well.
In the past, BPW often get together to hold
conferences or congresses for BPW members
to meet and network. But as oil reserve
is depleting, the oil price goes up. The
travel cost also goes up. Consequently,
the participants for conferences go down.
BPW has to look for ways to do things together
that cost less. This can be a common tasks
that every BPW Affiliate do together to
create global impact.
Capacity
building activities are good, but in the
21st Century we need to pursue an “Ambition”
that has not yet been realized. This is
“Equal Participation for women and
men in Power and Decision Making Roles”.
The other day, past president of BPW Mexico
shows me the statistics of top 100 companies
in Mexico. It shows that a lot of these
companies have only about 1% women in top
executive, 99% are men. This is a problem
we have to combat. Perhaps it’s too
far to attain 50:50 participation in the
near future, any advancement for women participation
as top executive, such as from 1% to 20%
would be significant.
BPW
International is undergoing organization
review and reform to deal with these questions
plus many more. I look forward to work with
all of you and to obtain feedback from you
so that together we can shape up BPW International
so that it would continue to be one the
most influential women organization in the
21st Century.
Chonchanok
Viravan
BPW International President
16 April 2007
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