UN Women launched this series to capture the unique and powerful stories of women around the world, through compelling first-person accounts of their daily sustainable development challenges and how they are bringing about change. Out of all these inspiring stories, we would like to highlight the stories of:  

• Khadeja Ramali , co-founder of “Project Silphium’’ which joined one of the advocacy campaigns that the Euro-Mediterranean Women’s Foundation supported in Libya. She is currently collaborating with Libyan women’s Radio Network Project, which aims to expand the capacity of women media professionals in Libya.
• Wafa Sharqawi, the first women to join the Palestinian Civil Police in 1997.

• Raja Shahwan, active member of the Women Local Committees in Gaza, Palestine, which help women participate in local governance and community activities.
• Souhad Azennoud, Founding member of the agricultural cooperative Ariaf Kissane in and renowned as a pioneer of agroecology in Morocco. She was awarded 1st prize at the Terre de Femmes Maroc ceremony in 2016.
• Zaad Al-khair, 17, is a Syrian refugee living in the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan, home to approximately 80,000 Syrians—80 per cent of whom are women and girls. Working hard to complete her studies and access higher education, she was among the first girls to work as journalists for the camp’s magazine.
• Sahar el-Salab, one of the most successful woman in the Egyptian banking sector, is currently CEO of a family business and a member of the Arab Network for the Economic Empowerment of Women (Khadija)—a regional network of representatives of social, public and private sectors
• Shurouq Al Hamaideh is a 22-year-old social entrepreneur from Tafila, Jordan. After attending a social entrepreneurship training provided as part of UN Women’s Spring Forward programme in 2016, funded by the European Union, Al Hamaideh, together with her friends, started a social business in to teach computer programming to teenagers. 

• Abla Al Hajaia , 28, from the south-west town of Tafila, is the youngest City Council member in Jordan. At present, she is working to establish a national youth alliance in the country. She was among 104 women who received leadership trainings in 2016, as part of UN Women’s regional Spring Forward programme. In 2016, 20 female Member of Parliaments were elected in Jordan—the highest number of female MPs in the history of Jordan