The National Democratic Institute (NDI) will award its 2017 Madeleine K. Albright Grant to Women Act for Living Together (WALT), a non-profit organization supporting the rights of women and children in the Central African Republic (CAR). Established in 2013 by a group of Muslim and Christian women under the slogan “better together,” WALT heroically championed peace, social cohesion and reconciliation in the face of extreme unrest and violence.

In Cambodia, women continue to be underrepresented in politics. Only three of 29 cabinet ministers are women, and there are no women provincial governors. Women make up just 20 percent of National Assembly members— though a higher proportion than many countries, it is still below the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. At the local level, only 18 percent of commune councilors are women.

Six years of conflict have taken a tremendous toll on the Syrian people, particularly women and girls. Not only is sexual violence used as a weapon of war, but the conflict has exacerbated many forms of violence against women and girls, from rape and sexual assault to forced and early marriages. Most communities have few resources to support survivors, with little medical or psychosocial care equipped to meet their needs, limited or non-existent judiciary and law enforcement institutions to pursue cases, a culture of impunity, and persistent stigmatization of survivors.