Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, vice-president of South Africa, introduced by Laurence Peyraut Bertier of Barclays, gave an engaged keynote before dinner tonight, describing the efforts her country has done to promote women in government (several ministers are women), although “we still have a long way to go, because those steps aren’t reflected in the quality of life of many women”. A few quotes from her speech:

“I truly believe that once women are located in a meaningful place in the economy, society will be a much better place. There is an intrinsic link between society and economy”.

“It’s important that we pay attention to the issue of patriarchy and how it continues to deny a crucial role to half of society. I don’t think that the world can continue to afford a situation where half of society is disconnnected. We just don’t have enough men to do all the work”.

“There has to be a recognition in society that there cannot be development and poverty eradication without a sustainable contribution of women. The development of women is the biggest event for humanity yet to happen, for everybody”.

“Can you imagine if one day all the women in the world would just stay at home, don’t do anything that’s called work. Just sleep. We all fall asleep, all of us at the same time. I’m not advocating for a sleep strike, but can you imagine how the world would be? We could change the world by sleeping”.

“We should not trivialize the role of men, but we also need to dismantle the paradigm in which men have kept women for years. We need to start a new paradigm for the world where men would have a great place and women would had a great place”.

“If you want to look at how developed a country is, the quality of life of children, women, old people and disabled people is a better indicator than GDP”.

Growing up in developing countries is not easy. Being a women in a developing country is hard. Increasingly women are becoming the sole providers for their families. This makes their role even more important. But, how can they do that when their opportunities are limited by gender, education and health issues?

Actually, things are being done and done in a great way. I had a chance today to talk with Kalpana Simhan from Vital Voices. This organization is dedicated to invest and train emerging women and girl leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs who work to increase women’s and girls’ participation in all strides of society. They are present in Africa, Eurasia, East and South Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.

Investing in women who lead other women is a cascading effect. They also help women promote equitable laws in their countries. What I really liked about this organization is that they don’t go to places and tell people what to do: they let women in communities lead their own. This is really important when working in social projects, it is not about “imposing” a right way, it is about respecting the way people do things and provide them with the tools and training to help them achieve their dream.