LADAMA is the kind of band that people tend to make assumptions about. [...] LADAMA will be performing at World Music/CRASHarts' second annual CRASHfest at the House of Blues in Boston on Saturday, Jan. 28. The quartet plays propulsive original music rooted in the folk traditions of their home countries, a kind of cross-continental musical exchange. But theirs is something of a feminist undertaking, too.

When Michelle Obama entered the White House, she had to contend with two onerous legacies. The first was a stale clutter of expectations and prohibitions about the proper role of The First Lady. The second was a cluster of stereotypes deeming black women unfit for any such role. [...] People were busily projecting negative stereotypes onto Michelle Obama from the moment her husband began campaigning. ​

As minister of International Development and La Francophonie, I have visited 15 or so countries and Canada's re-engagement was pointed out to me during each of them. But what does this re-engagement really mean? Here are five major achievements that speak to Canada's re-engagement on the international scene and the impact of our actions.

The United States government so passionately supports the expansion of Internet connectivity and the growth of the digital economy globally because we recognize the Internet is a tool that has the power to transform people’s lives.

“Well-behaved women seldom make history” was first the title of an article written in 1975 by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. [...] When looking at the role of women in the formulation of foreign policy, this phrase can also be relevant. The conclusions of a series of interviews with women who are foreign policy specialists overlap with what Ulrich wrote 40 years ago. 

At this intersection of culture and politics, a number of social enterprises have been born in the UK, encouraging women from migrant and refugee backgrounds to achieve their dreams of establishing their own businesses—all through the strength of their culinary skills. Such initiatives are aimed at allowing women to both use their power to earn and to fight anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Women are incredible agents of change and solution-holders when it comes to combatting climate change. Women are farmers growing our food; they are the seed custodians protecting our planet’s biological diversity, they make up to 80 percent of the world’s consumption decisions [...] Incorporating women in solving climate challenges is necessary  -- we make up half of the population and represent 3.5 billion ways to change the world.

For the past three years, Lutheran World Relief has partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development through the U.S. Government's Feed the Future initiative on an innovative approach to promoting women's leadership in several Western Honduras agricultural communities. This project is funded by USAID as part of Feed the Future, the U.S. Government's global hunger and food security initiative.