Women’s empowerment and gender equality are central to the Commonwealth of Learning’s agenda of “learning for development.” COL initiated the Commonwealth Wise Women (CWW) mentoring project to empower women and girls to achieve their leadership potential and to influence the next generation of leaders. Join us to listen to our esteemed panelist who will provide us with insights on her perspective on the role of Mentoring in leadership development.

Date & Time

Tuesday, 19 January 2021
10:00 am (Pacific Time (US and Canada)

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Moderator

Professor Asha Kanwar
COL President and CEO

Speaker

The Rt Hon Patricia Scotland QC
Secretary-General of the Commonwealth

Patricia Scotland completed her LLB (Hons) from the University of London at the age of twenty and was called to the Bar at Middle Temple at the age of twenty-one. Her career has been marked by achieving several extraordinary firsts, not least of which was to be the first woman in the more than 700-year history of the office to serve as Her Majesty’s Attorney-General for England and Wales and for Northern Ireland.

While holding these and other senior ministerial offices she was given responsibility, inter alia, for gender equality, domestic violence, forced marriage, and international child abduction, and from these positions promoted diversity and equality of opportunity, particularly for women and girls. As the only woman to have been appointed Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, she is placing special emphasis on mobilising the 54 nations of the Commonwealth to tackle climate change – including its disproportionate impact on women – and, through women’s enterprise, to build the resilience of smaller or more vulnerable countries. Eliminating domestic violence and violence against women and girls is another area of focus.

As the only woman to have been appointed Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, she is placing special emphasis on mobilising the 54 nations of the Commonwealth to tackle climate change – including its disproportionate impact on women – and, through women’s enterprise, to build the resilience of smaller or more vulnerable countries. Eliminating domestic violence and violence against women and girls is another area of focus.