This was originally posted on the IWDA website and is included here as a record.

It’s extraordinary to look back and see what a journey we’ve been on since we committed last year to creating an Asia Pacific Breakthrough initiative, on the eve of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Asia Pacific Breakthrough: The Women, Faith and Development Summit to End Global Poverty will take place in Melbourne on 2-3 December at Federation Square.

Women’s organisations, faith communities and the international development community will come together to take action on the common goal of eliminating global poverty and the feminisation of poverty by empowering women and girls with an eye on Millennium Development Goals 3 and 5.

Our focus is women and girls in the Asia Pacific region and in Indigenous and refugee communities in Australia. We took our cue from the Breakthrough event that had been forged a year earlier in Washington where luminaries such as Her Excellency, Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and the Hon Madeleine Albright involved. At that gathering, Archbishop Desmond Tutu made a compelling call to people to focus on what unites us, not what divides us.

Thanks to the Hon Bob McMullan, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance being an early believer in our vision, we were able to create a secretariat 6 months ago and were fortunate enough to secure immensely talented Kristi Mansfield and her Greenstone staff to direct the event. In this wake, our Breakthrough Steering Committee and sub-committee members have used their networks and connections to help shape a diverse and inclusive program for Asia Pacific Breakthrough as an event designed to change lives and shape decision-making.

We are also deeply grateful for the financial support of the Victorian Government, committed by the Premier himself and realised through the Victorian Office for Women. Early on we sought a relationship with the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and through the support of its international director, Dirk Ficca, we have forged a collaborative and valuable collaboration which will further strengthen the impact of the Breakthrough initiative on religious and faith communities worldwide. IWDA’s ongoing connection with the Global Peace Initiative for Women based in New York adds further weight to the influence of this gathering.

Already we are able to announce more than 20 national and international speakers including Sister Joan Chittister OSB of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, New York, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, General Secretary, World YWCA, Geneva and The Hon Dame Carol Kidu MP, Papua New Guinea. The inspirational Danish Ambassador to Australia, Susanne Shine, is also hosting a reception for Ambassadors and other dignitaries in Canberra at her residence next month in order to elicit further support for the event and for participants to attend and speak from the Asia Pacific region and from Indigenous and refugee communities in Australia. We have been asked to extend an invitation to Ms Melanne Verveer, Ambassador At Large for Global Women’s Issues, US Department of State and await in anticipation the outcome of our invitation.

We are further energised by a commitment by many young people to create a vibrant youth program in support of the event and by the fact that we will be able to take up the whole of Federation Square on 2 December to ensure our vision is played out in many forms and forums. The second day will be a launch of a new Women, Faith and Development Alliance and will take place at the Sofitel Hotel in the city as a day to plan for future action and connectivity in our own communities across Australia and across the region. This will be a visible and vibrant commitment to movement building and to democratic citizenship to create a safe, just and equitable world for women and girls.

We welcome you on the journey.

Jane Sloane