Ambassador-at-large for Global Women's Issues was appointed by United States President Barack Obama last June. Verveer most recently served as chair and co-CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international non-profit organisation she co-founded. Prior to her work with Vital Voices, Ambassador Verveer served as assistant to the president and chief of staff to the first lady in the Clinton administration. She coordinates foreign policy issues and activities relating to the political, economic and social advancement of women around the world. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Women's Foreign Policy Group. Verveer recently visited Egypt and spoke to Riham Mazen about her vision of how best to promote women's rights around the world. How do you coordinate foreign policy issues and activities relating to the political, economic and social advancement of women around the world? Success only comes with full integration. Let me give you an example: food security is a major initiative of President Obama's and that is how we enhance agriculture productivity. If we don't mainstream that policy in a way that takes gender into account, then we will not recognise that women constitute 60 to 80 per cent of small farmers around the world; their needs are not necessarily the same as those of men. So in order to have a better outcome, to enhance food productivity, you have to look at women's needs, be they credit, training or markets, and that's true with the global health initiative. It's really an integrated approach to the way we address our policy outcomes. During your current visit, did you notice any development regarding women's situation in Egypt? Well, I've been pleasantly impacted by the kind of progress I've seen in a number of tough issues. Take children's marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) for example, we are successfully working at the grassroots level, continuing to find creative ways to enhance women's economic opportunities. In Aswan, I saw a number of programmes, like the summit that the Egyptian businesswomen's association was sponsoring for women entrepreneurs in the Islamic world to enhance women's economic participation particularly in small and medium size businesses. In Alexandria, I met with some of the women who act as agents for change or pillars in their society. They are women working in growing businesses, academia, NGOs and the government. I am really so impressed and leaving with a lot of wonderful examples of practices that can be replicated in other places. How was your meeting with Mrs Suzanne Mubarak? Are there any new agreements or partnerships on women's issues with the US? Well, I had a wonderful meeting with Mrs Mubarak. I have been blessed to know her and I've worked with her over the years. I have know her since Hillary Clinton was the first lady of the United States; they had a close relationships. Then when I left the government and worked in the NGO that I co-found (Vital Voices), I worked closely with Mrs Mubarak and her Peace Movement, and I've been involved in many countries on the range of issues that she has been a leader on, particularly on anti-trafficking. Mrs Mubarak told me that this country was on the cusp of passing a bill on anti-trafficking, which is really positive not only for Egypt, but also for other countries. Mrs Mubarak has been such a leader on policy issues over so many years, it is always very encouraging to listen to her. Mrs Mubarak also told me about a meeting she is going to sponsor, a global event in Cairo towards the end of this year, focussing on human trafficking. We had a very fruitful reunion, and we had a most interesting discussion. In Alexandria you announced a partnership between the US, Egypt and Afghanistan. Was it the reason behind your visit to Cairo? And why only Afghanistan and not Iraq, for example? It started when I met with Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister Wafaa Bassim in Washington. We raised the Afghanistan issue and talked about what we might do together to stabilise the situation there. We know that maternal health is probably one of the most critical challenges in Afghanistan that has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world. So we decided we should come together to do something that would begin to address the problem, the aim being to bring down the rate of maternal deaths. What we agreed upon is to bring a group of Afghan midwives to Egypt. They would be learning great skills and have their capacity enhanced, get some practical experience in a good setting so they would be able to go back to Afghanistan and be of use to their society. It's just an example of what we can do together. How can we combat violence against women and girls given your understanding of Egypt and the whole world? This is such an important issue. You know this globally affects every country. I was so heartened when I met with the team of the National Council For Women (NCW), under the leadership of Farkhonda Hassan. The NCW focuses on violence against women as well as having a national plan, working at all levels from protection to prevention. In fact, in the US it took us years but finally in 1994 we passed a "violence against women" act; we had to bring the law enforcement community together with the business community and social services to recognise that domestic violence was a problem. It's no longer a cultural or a private issue, it's a criminal issue. Our congress in both our house and senate has had major hearings in foreign relations on violence in the past couple of months. The reason is we have a legislation pending for a potential new law on international violence against women where our government will provide enhanced support to NGOs and other governments. What's your opinion regarding abortion rights? It's a very tough issue in more ways than one. In the US we believe that abortion should be safe, legal and rare, and we want to reduce the number of abortions even more. We believe that family and women's access to a continual healthcare is absolutely critical. Among all the problems you are working on globally for women, what is the main issue for you, including in the US? I think fundamentally it's the equality of gender; we know that in no country are men and women equal, where their God-given potential to do what they can do to develop their talents is allowed to blossom, where they can have equal opportunities to choose to participate economically, politically, in education, and not to be abused and violated. Gender equality is smart economics, as the World Bank says. It is critical for the prosperity of nations and the wellbeing of people. I believe gender equality is not a dream. Do you agree? Yes, I believe it's not a dream, and I believe that it's not about women being better than men, or men being better than women. It's about each of us having something to bring to the table. This is so important to develop one's potential. To me this is a fundamental issue.
