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The venue was the Landmark Atlantis the Palm Hotel and Resort. The Location was the iconic city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The event was the Africa-Middle East-Asia Women Summit which held from the 16th to 18th December, 2013; and the theme was – “Emerging Economies: Women as the next frontier.”

This unprecedented event was organised by the Centre for Economic and Leadership Development in collaboration with African Leadership Magazine and The CEO Clubs Network Worldwide.

Over 500 delegates from 32 countries converged for 3 days of enlightenment, networking, business sessions, panel discussions, experience-sharing and peer-support on a scale the delegates confessed they had never witnessed before.

There were First Ladies of 4 countries, royalty, wives of Governors, spouses of Ambassadors, leading women in politics, business, the arts, academia, sciences and entertainment and in an atmosphere that oscillated between scholarly seriousness and the conviviality and camaraderie of a social gathering, they shared ideas, experiences, challenges and successes that showed a similarity in the experiences of the women of all three regions.

Her Excellency, Mrs. Penehupifo Pohamba, the First Lady of Namibia; participated in all the sessions for all 3 days at the end of which she had this to say “this is one of the most important events I have attended in recent times. Delegates are from such far removed locations that you would think we were strangers yet as soon as we started sharing our peculiar experiences, it was obvious that we all had one thing in common; a shared humanity, shared pains, shared struggles and shared triumphs”.

For Her Excellency, Mama Salma Kikwete, First Lady of Tanzania, the conference afforded her the opportunity of respecting the plight of women from other regions and gave her valuable best-practice correlations as she deals with the challenges of motivating women and the less privileged in Tanzania.

The conference opened with a keynote address from Hon. Dorothy Dawkins-Hagler of the Georgia Legislature in the United States of America who charged the women to rise above their domestic expectations to take their rightful place in an ever-evolving world.

Then came a panel discussion with panelists comprising Rt. Hon. Margaret Zziwa, Speaker of the East Africa Legislative Assembly from Uganda, Princess Fay Jahan Ara from India, Angela Moore from the United States of America and Funke Egbemode, General Editor of leading Nigerian Newspaper, The Sun Newspapers. This panel discussed on how women can deal with violence and emerge from the shadows to assume political office.

There were presentations from different Guest Speakers, culminating in a rousing speech by Mrs Audrey Joe-Ezigbo, Executive Director of Falcon Petroleum E&P in Nigeria.

View full report here: AMEAWS 2013 Report

View Photo Gallery of Event here: AMEAWS 2013 Photos