First Lady of Sierra Leone, Dr. Fatima Maada Bio has arrived in Boston, Massachusetts on April 29th, 2024 on the invite of Harvard University’s Center for International Development to participate at the 15th Annual Global Empowerment Meeting – GEM24.

This year’s theme will cover – Breaking Barriers for Women and Girls.

At this meeting, change makers from academia, government, business, civil society, media, and philanthropy will gather at Harvard University campus to share insights and develop action-focused strategies and solutions.

The event is co-hosted by Harvard Kennedy School’s Women and Public Policy Program (WAPPP), and is uniquely positioned to bring together preeminent scholars, public policy leaders, and philanthropists who are on the front lines of fighting for solutions at a global scale.

Breaking Barriers for women and girls will explore what works to advance gender equity, with a particular lens on both the challenges and opportunities emerging from developing countries and the role society needs to play. The focus will have to be on women and girls, and will explore how shifting ideas of gender roles and identities can become enabling force rather than inhibiting ones.

GEM 24 will show case trailblazers like Dr. Fatima Maada Bio of Sierra Leone who has been at the forefront of extraordinary change and have successfully broken the barriers women and girls encounter, recognizing that many of these efforts have been decades in the making.

The two days event will take proactive approach, highlighting areas where women and girls are close to achieving equity- and where tangible collective solutions can surmount the remaining hurdles.