The 42nd President of the United States, Founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation, and Honorary Chair of the Club de Madrid President Bill Clinton, UN Women Director Michele Bachelet, Tawakel Karman, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Award winner, Academy Award Winning Actor and Founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media Geena Davis, and representatives from, among others, the Council of Women World Leaders, Ford Foundation, the Interamerican Development Bank, Microsoft, International Labour Organization, NATO, Acxiom, Walmart, policymakers, scholars and other practitioners joined nearly 40 democratic former Presidents and Prime Ministers on December 17 and 18, 2012, in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the Clinton Presidential Center. They shared best practices about political and economic empowerment from a gender perspective and identifed benchmarks that can serve to guide coordinated efforts and move this agenda forward.
For years the Club de Madrid has been addressing the challenges of the equitable participation of women in politics, government, and the economy; all vital to effective democracy and essential for achieving sustainable development. This has been an ideal moment to review approaches and strategies on the most important 21st century challenges and opportunities, particularly in light of the deadline for the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and the development of the new Sustainable Development Goals