International Women's Day - Reasons to be proud

Whilst many of the countries we send money to face challenges, when it comes to gender equality and the women in leadership, many of these emerging markets are leading lights for the rest of the world. We have pulled together just a few examples of how these countries are leading the way for others

• In 11 African countries, women hold close to one-third of the seats in parliaments.

• In African government the number of women parliamentarians has almost doubled over the past 15 years and the number of women in cabinet has grown fivefold in 35 years. Read on

• Women in senior roles in the Philippines, India and Indonesia have risen from 26 to 29 percent. Meanwhile, for other countries from the region, such as Japan and Australia, the figures stayed at 13 percent. Read on

• Whilst the US recently reported an all time high of 20 percent female representation in the national legislature, in Latin America, between 25 percent to 50 percent of national legislatures are female. Read on