BluMail: Internet & Developing Countries

About BluMail:

BluMail provides global e-mail accounts, educational content, employment needs, entrepreneurship, networking, story / experience sharing, mentoring and volunteering opportunities to youth and others who are coming online in developing countries.

We provide "make-a-difference content" on activism, conflict resolution, education, entrepreneurship, environment, health, human rights, humanitarian relief, news from around the world, religious understanding, women's empowerment, youth empowerment, and other areas that educate and inform, not just entertain.

Giving your opinion at What Do YOU Think? and "telling the story" by writing a short story about yourself or a long memoir about your life are also strong components of BluMail.

We also encourage local community involvement, volunteering, donations, and will soon have offer job posting and finding, product buying a selling, and mentoring opportunities.

Check them out at http://www.blumail.org/index.html

Female Officer to lead Chad peacekeepers

Reported by The Press Association, May 14, 2009

The first ever woman appointed Deputy Commanding Officer in the Irish army will help lead the latest peace-keeping mission to Chad, it has been revealed.

Commandant Maureen O'Brien, from Galway, takes up the senior role in the 100th Infantry Battalion as it prepares to depart for overseas duty.

The 48-year-old University College Galway graduate, who now lives in Dublin, joined the Defence Forces in 1981.

Women Peacekeepers

WIIS member Kristen Cordell, who just recently returned from MONUC in the DRC, blogs on how to advance women's leadership in the United Nations. An exerpt:

In my opinion, political will can only be achieved through the equal representation of women both within NGOs and in the organizational and governmental structures themselves. Our political will (while strong at the outset) is broken when the issues are taken up by formal governance organizations- which are still universally dominated by men. Women in International Security, a Georgetown University-based networking and advocacy group for women within the security sector, recently released a report on the status of women working within DPKO, the Department of Peacekeeping at the UN. The report found that women had been systematically shut out of high-level positions within the agency, through a variety of formal and information barriers to their inclusion. This is an excellent example to illustrate my point. Policy on women and peacekeeping can only achieve so much political will, because it has no champions (or very few) within the actual political institution. Read the complete post here.

More by Kristen Cordell: Combating Gender Based Violence, a Key Role for US Peacekeepers?

Kristen Cordell is a former Analyst for the RAND Corporation in Washington DC, where she specialized in Gender and Nation Building. She recently worked as a consultant on Sexual Violence and Security Sector Reform for MONUC in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

[Photos]: WIIS Election Day Happy Hour

A few photos from Tuesday's Election Day Fundraiser/Happy Hour at Vinoteca Wine Bar in Washington, DC.

Thanks to everyone who attended and donated to WIIS!

Margot Wallstrom calls for EU members to act on UN Resolution 1325

In the article "Take Action on Women's Security," Margot Wallstrom, the Vice President of the European Commission, focuses on greater representation of women in decision-making positions in national, regional, and international institutions.

She writes,

"I am disappointed to see that only seven European Union member states have adopted national action plans toward the implementation of resolution 1325. [...] ...national action plans towards gender equality would prioritise women's participation at the highest echelons of politics, making women not only visible, but also audible."

Read the rest of her article in The Guardian UK here.

WIIS' work to advance women's leadership in decision-making roles is continuously developing. If you have not yet read our recently completed report on Women in UN Peace Operations, click here.

As we are now focusing on the U.S. federal sector during this critical election season, WIIS' Plum Book project advocates for more women's representation, particularly at the top-levels, in the executive departments in a new Obama or McCain-led administration. Help us spread the word and bring new voices to the table! Instructions and requirements to submit to the Plum Book are on our website.