Dubbo businesswoman Melissa Fletcher will deliver the keynote address at a gathering of rural women from across the globe.
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The triennial conference of the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) will start in Melbourne on Thursday.
Ms Fletcher, who is CEO of Fletcher International Exports, was invited to address the 675 delegates by ACWW president and fellow Dubbo resident Ruth Shanks AM.
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The conference is Mrs Shanks's final official duty after six years at the head of the organisation that empowers rural women to change their lives for the better.
Country Women's Association (CWA) members from across NSW were among those taking the opportunity to attend, Mrs Shanks said.
"It doesn't happen all that often and it's a huge venture for CWA Victoria to host for us," Mrs Shanks said.
"And we're also having a local person being the keynote speaker.
"I have invited Melissa Fletcher from Fletchers to come and tell us about her life and not necessarily about the company but how she's progressed through her life.
"So that's exciting as far as I'm concerned."
Mrs Shanks has served two three-year terms at the helm of the ACWW.
Increasing the organisation's presence and impact at the United Nations and continuing funding for projects in the developing world, were among its achievements in that time, she said.
The leader's path started with joining her local CWA branch in the Dubbo district 50 years ago.
Mrs Shanks served as CWA state president from 2001 to 2004 and was ACWW's South Pacific area president before being elected to the top job at the ACWW triennial conference in India in 2013.
The ACWW has pushed for the full implementation of international treaty the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as "crucial to the safety, wellbeing and success" of all women.
ACWW's work was relevant across the whole world, Mrs Shanks said.
"The same issues to a certain extent are here in Australia," she said.
"We need and member societies probably need, and even the general public need to be aware that some of the issues that are there with the CEDAW, those things are not being adhered to, even now and even in Australia with regard sometimes with abortion and women's control over their bodies and those sorts of things and domestic violence.
"There's a whole lot of issues so that we can't just see them as being in the developing world."
The ACWW, which has its central office in London, celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2019.