Ambassador Philip Calvert

As Canada's Ambassador to Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, I pledge to identify and approve projects through the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) that provide direct support to local civil society organizations working to empower women and girls.

I look forward to visiting our CFLI partner organizations such as the Goodwill Group over the coming months, to lend first-hand support for their efforts to provide empowerment training to women and girls in Bangkok and Ubon Ratchathani.

Amongst the community that is the Canadian Embassy here in Bangkok, I pledge to encourage all my staff to learn about the HeForShe campaign and to make their own individual pledges to combat gender-based violence in their own communities.

Finally, on a personal level, I pledge to use my personal Twitter account to spread the word about the HeForShe campaign and to encourage my counterparts and colleagues to engage in an active discussion about gender-based violence and what we can collectively do to shape norms and affect real change.