25 February, 2012
The U.S. Department of State announced the U.S. Delegation to attend the 56th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, to be held from February 27 through March 9, 2012 at UN Headquarters in New York.
The theme of this year’s session is the empowerment of rural women and their role in poverty and hunger eradication, development and current challenges.
We are delighted to share that The Hunger Project’s Executive Vice President, John Coonrod, has been appointed as one of seven Public Delegates to accompany Co-Heads of Delegation: Ambassador Susan Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United 
Nations, and Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues and Representative of the United States to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, U.S. Department of State.
Dr. Coonrod notes, “It was Sharmi-Bai, an elected woman leader from Southern Rajasthan who travelled from her village on Diwali to brief President Obama on the work of The Hunger Project to overcome poverty, hunger and severe gender discrimination (read the story)… Now I will work to carry the torch Sharmi-Bai has passed to me and leverage all of our work globally over the next two weeks.” Seven months after President Obama’s visit, Ambassador Verveer travelled to Jaipur to meet with The Hunger Project-trained elected women leaders (read the story).
Across the world, The Hunger Project staff and partners are working to ensure that the issues we care about are part of the public policy debate. We are honoured with this recognition of our work to empower women worldwide, and with the opportunities before us to raise awareness about our sustainable, grassroots, women-centred strategies.