COL President and CEO Professor Asha Kanwar joined Honourable Marc Garneau in a virtual discussion on ways to strengthen gender equality across the Commonwealth. The event was hosted by Global Affairs Canada to mark the International Women’s Day and the Commonwealth Day. Participants included Commonwealth High Commissioners in Ottawa as well as COL’s partners from Bangladesh, Mozambique, Pakistan and Tanzania.

In her presentation, Professor Kanwar highlighted COL’s multi-pronged approach to the skilling of women and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic – from providing access to 5,000 free online courses via the COL-Coursera Workforce Recovery Initiative to building their leadership potential via the CommonwealthWiseWomen mentoring programme.

High Commissioners of Bangladesh, Brunei, Pakistan, Tanzania and the UK offered remarks and congratulated COL for its contributions.