WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Susan Markham will travel to Japan August 26-September 1. Her visit will focus on USAID's development assistance to improve the lives of women and girls and solidify a shared commitment with the Government of Japan to gender equality and women's empowerment.

In Japan, Markham will meet with key government officials from around the world attending the World Assembly for Women: WAW! 2015, chair the Equal Futures Partnership, and highlight USAID's commitment to partner with Japan to seek ways to promote peace, resiliency, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and around the world as part of the US-Japan Development Dialogue on Gender Equality. Markham will provide high-level remarks at the SHINE MetLife Symposium on Why Empowering Women is the Smartest Investment We Can Make, and sign a new Memorandum of Cooperation between USAID and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), to promote gender equity in Afghanistan through joint collaboration to advance USAID Afghanistan's Promoting Gender Equity in National Priority Programs Project (Promote).