Please join the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group and the CARE-WWF Alliance for an informal discussion with Gra�a Samo, Executive Director of Forum Mulher.
Grassroots women's leader from Mozambique,
Gra�a Samo, introduces the role of women's empowerment for achieving sustainable development and the role of natural resource management for achieving gender equity. Dialogue will depend on participants' interests, but is likely to cover themes, such as: land tenure and customary law, good governance and biodiversity conservation, coalition and partnership building and connecting advocacy from local to global levels.
About the speaker: Maria da Gra�a Samo became executive director of Forum Mulher in 2004. Forum Mulher is a network of 50+ local, national and international organizations that do women's rights or gender-sensitive work in Mozambique. Under Gra�a Samo's leadership, Forum Mulher has drafted and gotten Parliament to pass a domestic violence law. In 2009, the organization received the Gender Equality Award from Femmes Africa Solidarit� in recognition of their efforts to mainstream gender in public policy.
Gra�a started her activism in the 1980s, and later worked in emergency programs with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Angola and Mozambique the 1990s. In Brazil, Graca did graduate research on the topic "Strategic Partnerships for the Sustainability of WWF Projects," and worked with John Snow Brasil and Instituto Promundo, engaging young men in the fight against gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and Bras�lia.
From 2004 to 2009, Gra�a Samo lectured at Mozambique's Polytechnic University. Gra�a is member of the United Nations Civil Society Advisory Board, the Advisory Committee for the Agenda 2025, and the National Council for the Advancement of Women. She also belongs to the International Committee for the World March of Women.
