YWCA leaders can be found at all levels of society. They are contributing to sustainable change in all areas, such as access to education, employment, health care, security, shelter and justice. Throughout its 150-year history, the YWCA has developed a solid reputation as a global leader in empowering women to lead change in their lives and communities. The United Nations has recognised the YWCA’s leadership in Uganda in bringing a sustainable end to hunger by awarding the organisation the UN Africa Prize for Leadership. The YWCA’s dairy cattle programme gave women a sustainable source of food and income for their families, and through its policy of passing on the first female calf to another woman in the community, enabled greater numbers to benefit. The YWCA has been awarded the UNESCO International Literacy Prize for bringing literacy and empowerment to adults and children in 55 centres in the slums of India. In the USA, long before the dawn of the civil rights movement, the YWCA began work towards eliminating racism by opening the first African American association in 1889 and advocating against lynching, mob violence and segregation. Since the fall of apartheid in South Africa, four YWCA women have been elected to the country’s parliament, including the post of Deputy President, as the YWCA was one of the few organisations where black women were able to develop social awareness and political skills during the oppressive regime.

The World YWCA has also earned a reputation as a pioneer in raising awareness of the issues for women at the United Nations with World YWCA leaders chosen to chair and coordinate the very first UN Women’s International Meeting held in Mexico in 1975, and successive meetings held in Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985. ‘The philosophy of the YWCA became part of the philosophy of the Commission on the Status of Women and its resolutions recommended to the General Assembly,’ recalls Mildred Persinger, who led the first meeting in Mexico. Thirty years later, the World YWCA continues to hold governments accountable to their obligations under international conventions for human rights and the status of women, and develops the leadership of young women to sustain monitoring of national governments.