diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index da211d0..f0f733f 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ AC_C_BIGENDIAN
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS([ctype.h getopt.h locale.h math.h signal.h stdio.h stdlib.h   \
 		  string.h sys/stat.h sys/types.h sys/wait.h time.h unistd.h   \
-		  fcntl.h paths.h errno.h limits.h regex.h])
+		  fcntl.h paths.h errno.h limits.h regex.h wchar.h])
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #                                                         Checks for system libs
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -32,6 +32,9 @@ if test "x$ax_cv_ncursesw" != xyes && test "x$ax_cv_ncurses" != xyes; then
   AC_MSG_ERROR(Either ncurses or ncursesw library is required to build calcurse!)
 fi
 
+AC_DEFINE([_XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED], [1], [Enable wide-character support])
+AC_DEFINE([NCURSES_WIDECHAR], [1], [Enable ncurses wide-character support])
+
 LIBS="$LIBS $CURSES_LIBS"
 
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS([pthread.h], [
diff --git a/src/ui-todo.c b/src/ui-todo.c
index 0880690..bff4209 100644
--- a/src/ui-todo.c
+++ b/src/ui-todo.c
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@
 
 #include "calcurse.h"
 #include <ctype.h>
+#include <wchar.h>
+#include <curses.h>
 
 static unsigned ui_todo_view = 0;