You could have heard a pin drop in a room of several hundred professional fundraisers. As Stephen Lewis, the Ottawa AFP Conference keynote speaker said “The number one issue, bar none that I feel the most strongly about…

“is the presence of gender inequality it is doing such ravishing damage in the world it is almost incomprehensible… this is the most important issue facing our world today.”

A handful of days before in Montevideo at the Global Call to Action Against Poverty where anti-poverty activists from 88 countries met; time and time again people stood up in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French and said the same thing.

Poverty is present in our world for a whole host of complex reasons. But the fertile ground upon which it takes root and flourishes… is that of inequality. The complete vulnerability of women around the world is crippling our collective attempts to eradicate poverty. And it will continue to do so. Poverty thrives on the backs of women around our world.

Our global solidarity to end poverty … necessitates that we join in solidarity with those working with women for equality.