by Jessica Reed

Welcome to openDemocracy’s openSummit blog. This page will gather entries from a great diversity of women who want to same thing: improve womens’ and girls’ lives worldwide.

Grassroots activists, NGO representatives, teachers, practitioners and bloggers around the world will tell us about their expectations surrounding the G8 meeting which will take place this June in Germany: based on their experiences and first-hand accounts, readers of this blog will get to read about what works, and what doesn’t. They will share their struggles and victories, as well as giving us practical recommendations on policies which could be changed to truly make an impact on the lives of millions of women, from Zimbabwe to India.

This blog will run from the 15th of May to the 8th of June. We hope to publish an open letter to the G8 which will summarise what we will learn in this blog.

Let’s hope the G8 will listen.

You can read about our 50:50 initiative here. If you want to participate in this blog or suggest a link, please visit the contact page. We encourage comments from women and men alike – however please note that they will be moderated, and therefore might not appear right away.