High-Level Panel Discusses Technology, Women and Democracy at Albright Award Luncheon
![REAMM](//www.ndi.org/sites/default/files/MKA-Laura-450px.png)
Madeleine Albright, NDI chairman, presents her 2013 namesake grant to Laura Inés López Padilla, president of the board of Mexico’s Network of Support for Women Municipal Leaders (REAMM) at NDI's annual award luncheon.
Experts in technology, politics and media gathered in Washington, D.C., May 29 to discuss how technology can open more political opportunities for women around the world, and how to increase women's access to technology in developing countries where they particularly lag behind.
“As technologists we are there to solve problems,” said Ping Fu, chief strategy officer for 3D Systems and one of the participants in the panel. “Whenever there is a problem there is an opportunity.”
“It is the big failure that wakes us up and helps us to create solutions to solve those problems,” she said.
Other panelists were Madeleine Albright, former secretary of state and NDI chairman; Stephanie Cutter, former deputy campaign manager for President Barack Obama's 2012 campaign and partner at Precision Strategies; Shelly Esque, vice president at Intel Corporation; and Laura Inés López Padilla, president of the board of Mexico’s Network of Support for Women Municipal Leaders (REAMM). Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast and Newsweek, moderated the panel.
At a luncheon following the panel discussion, López Padilla received the 2013 Madeleine K. Albright Grant in recognition of REAMM's efforts to support women’s leadership at the local and national level of politics in Mexico. The $25,000 grant, established in 2005, supports grassroots organizations around the world that work to support women's political participation.
American filmmaker and philanthropist Abigail Disney gave the keynote address, saying that “no group of people has ever been better suited to the current technological changes than women.”
Also during the luncheon, Hodan Ahmed, NDI’s 2013 Andi Parhamovich fellow, introduced the the Madeleine K. Albright Project, a new global fund in honor of NDI’s chairman that will support and enhance NDI’s work, helping women globally to participate, compete and lead in democratic politics.
“You can’t make long-term improvements to peoples’ lives without having the politicians and the political institutions make those issues a priority,” said Ahmed. Read more»
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