Today, on International Women’s Day, we join the international community in celebrating and recognizing women across the globe. We recently sat down with two women who have contributed greatly to the HFG project, Dr. Mursaleena Islam and Jocelyne Nkongolo, to discuss the challenges they have faced as women in their fields and to get an idea of what it means to them to be gender inclusive.

Briefly share with us your background and what led you to where you are today as Country Manager for Bangladesh?
I am fortunate to be with Abt Associates, where I’ve had numerous opportunities for professional growth that have led me to where I am today. I joined Abt in 2004 as an Associate, in which I worked on multiple projects across multiple countries. From 2012 to 2014, I worked with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance in Geneva. In 2014, I decided to move to Bangladesh, where I was born, to adopt a baby girl. I rejoined Abt, and ultimately became Country Manager.

What are some of the greatest challenges you have faced as a woman to get to where you are in your career?
Knowing to speak my mind and make sure I’m heard, and asking for that promotion or raise were challenging in my early years. I quickly learned that I needed to be assertive in order to make progress. Once, I even had a supervisor write that I’m too aggressive in my performance review! Now, as a single, middle-aged mother, the greatest challenge that is increasingly important is maintaining a work-life balance.

What does it mean to you to be gender inclusive? Why does this matter?
It means making sure there is gender balance in all that we do! Whether it is in the day to day project activities or in facilitating a workshop. I often notice in workshops that it is easy to have all male panelists or all male participants if an effort is not made to be gender inclusive.

What advice would you give to other women working in your field?
Be assertive and speak your mind, professionally of course! Ask for what you want, whether it’s a raise or a promotion!

Briefly share with us your background and what led you to where you are today as Chief of Party for the Democratic Republic of Congo?
Having studied at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Kinshasa, my ambitions were to work for one of the international organizations. Throughout my professional career in public institutions in my country, I continued to think about how to get there. With my work in public finance at the Ministry of Finance, I had the opportunity to participate in two trainings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington, D.C. in “Macroeconomic Management and Public Finance Issues” and in “Financial Programming and Policy”, thinking that this would propel me into my dream job, but unfortunately not.

On the other hand, it allowed me to work at the Vice-Presidency of the Republic in charge of the Economic and Financial Commission as Senior Adviser at the College of Economics and Finance. With the political change of my country, I was forced to switch to working on development projects. I did some work with DAI and RTI  on the Good Governance Project and then I became a Senior Governance Expert in the World Bank on the project Strengthening Capabilities in Governance (PRCG).

When I was contacted for the position of Chief of Party of Abt Associates Inc. in DRC, I had told myself directly that I was getting closer to my dream as Abt is an internationally renowned company and more so the project I am asked to lead is a project funded by USAID. This journey was possible because of my determination and challenge to demonstrate that both excellence and competence can be found in women.

What are some of the greatest challenges you have faced as a woman to get to where you are in your career?
One of the greatest challenges I faced was working in the Office of the Vice-President of the Republic composed of only men with extensive experience in politics and being able to stand out and share my expertise and competence to the point of offering my advice and consideration at the Cabinet level and at the highest levels for decision-making.

A second challenge was, as a Consultant-Researcher representing the Democratic Republic of Congo among 14 researchers from other SADC member countries, to work on the Assessment of Local Governance Finance in the Southern African Development Community, SADC, under the coordination of Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, EISA and, on Decentralization.  This is supposed to be the domain of law, given the need to interpret the provisions of the Constitution, and to develop the National Strategy for the Transfer of Competencies and Resources from the central level to provinces and territorial entities.

In my current position, the challenge is to lead a team with a majority of males of varying ages, understanding the apprehensions that men generally have about women.

What does it mean to you to be gender inclusive? Why does this matter?
Being inclusive gender means to me that society considers you as a contributor to the development of your nation, to the development of the whole world as we are currently in a globalized world. I do not accept the marginalization of many women and vulnerable groups. This is very important because it values women and makes them play an indispensable role in society, in addition to her role alongside her family and her children.

What advice would you give to other women working in your field?
The main advice I will give to women with the same working conditions as me is to move forward with fixed goals on what we want to become in life. From a young age, I had a father who encouraged me to improve myself and not put up barriers and social stereotypes., I have taken Condoleezza Rice as a model, not for her duties but more for her determination to succeed and be influential.