Archive for category: Women and Female Empowerment

information and Stories about woman and female empowerment.

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Workplace Gender Equality in Honduras

latin america genderWorkplace gender equality is vital for economic growth. With women making up 50 percent of the working population, but only contributing 37 percent to the GDP, it’s important to realize that their financial success is crucial for the global economy.

In order to see this success, women will need proper training and economic incentives to be economically stable. One small business owner, Daniel Vàsquez, moved his plantain processing plant from Tegucigalpa to Valle de Jamastràn in order to tap into the markets of smallholder farmers, both male and female alike.

Vàsque’s business, Dartma, processes the plantains that are used to make chips and other snack foods throughout small convenience stores in rural Honduras. His business model prioritizes gender equality throughout the workplace and was created by TechnoServe, a nonprofit that focuses on business solutions to poverty.

Dartma purchases produce from male and female farmers, and has a gender-balanced sales and production staff—individual talent determines who works where.

Vàsquez explains broadly, “There’s balance. Women are more creative in some areas, they’re detail-oriented, they’re better at product quality control. Men are better at activities requiring physical strength, like carrying materials.”

After implementing TechnoServe’s goals towards gender equality in the workplace, Dartma saw a 20 percent increase in revenue after one year. With more growth, he hopes to one day provide parental leave to his female employees.

According to global management firm McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), advancing women’s roles in the workforce can contribute $12 trillion in global growth by 2025.

For women to contribute more to the economy, there must be more gender equity at work. This requires adequate training that provides the skills females need to perform well in higher-productivity jobs, along with equal benefits and pay from the employer.

An MGI report states that in order to achieve gender equality at work, there must be economic development and a change in society’s attitude towards gender equality.

Over the last 30 years, these social attitudes have already improved, which has contributed to a 19.7 percent increase in female workforce participation last year, according to the same report. If this growth is maintained, nearly 240 million people will be added to the world’s labor force by 2025.

Daniel Vàsquez shares why he values the women who work for him and supports gender equality in the workplace. He states, “The main benefit of buying raw materials from women is that they deliver a higher quality product, they always deliver the right order and on time. The other benefit is that the money reaches their hands and they invest it in their children.”

– Kelsey Lay

Sources: McKinsey Global Institute, TechnoServe
Photo: Latin Correspondent

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Top 3 Ways to Prevent Hunger

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According to the Word Food Programme, around 795 million people globally do not have enough food to lead active lives. Lack of nutrition leads to a number of other health problems among the world’s poor such as disease, stunted growth and even death. Here are three methods that can help prevent hunger:

1. Invest in Agriculture

Agricultural investment prevents hunger in the long and short term because it allows the poor to become more independent. Most of the world’s poor live in rural areas where agriculture is the source of income and food.

More investment is needed for programs that provide farmers with land incentives, train them on how to maximize their produce and teach them when and what to plant throughout the year.

Through such programs, farmers will not only be able to feed their family but also sell their harvests for profits.

In turn, parents can invest in their children’s education and end the generational cycle of poverty. This financial stability could also mean less pressure on parents to force their daughters into early marriage.

2. Financial Planning

With unpredictable climate and political changes in developing countries, financial planning acts as a safety net in case of drought, famine or war.

Financial security gives families a head start when they are displaced due to conflict and also helps prevent hunger during times of drought.

Training farmers on how to save and invest their money also allows them to invest in machinery and livestock to maximize their productivity and prevent malnutrition.

3. Focus on Women

Empowering women by educating them on agriculture and giving them the resources to provide for their families will make households mores sustainable. The tradition of gender inequality is what makes hunger inheritable in developing countries.

Each year, around 19 million children are born underweight because their mothers were not adequately nourished during pregnancy. More often than not, malnutrition continues through infancy because their mother’s breast milk does not provide enough nutrients.

In addition, weak immune systems due to malnutrition allow the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child. HIV/AIDS treatments and prenatal health care ensure the birth of healthy babies.

A program combining these three methods to prevent hunger would ensure impoverished communities are able to sustain healthy lives and break the cycle of poverty and hunger.

– Marie Helene Ngom

Sources: WFP, AIDSInfo
Picture: Google Images

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Female Farmers: The Key to End World Hunger?

Female_FarmersMore women are involved in farming than with any other occupation. In developing countries, female farmers perform almost half of all agricultural labor and account for an estimated two-thirds of the world’s 600 million impoverished livestock keepers. However, women in many of the poorest regions of the world are denied equal rights to access, use, inheritance and control of the land they rely on to survive.

With unequal access to tools, training and land, female-run farms produce between 14 to 30 percent lower yields, according to a 2014 study by the World Bank.

The same report determined that if female farmers were treated equally in agriculture across Africa farm yields would increase by up to 30 percent.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a percentage increase of that magnitude could feed an additional 150 million people every day, thereby reducing the number of undernourished people in the world by 12 to 17 percent.

Landesa is a rural development institute aimed at reforming laws and policy tools to help alleviate poverty, reduce hunger and ease land conflict. Their research illustrates the effects created when women are economically and socially empowered through secure legal rights to land.

According to Landesa, when women are given land rights they:

  • grow more on their land and their children are 33 percent less likely to be malnourished
  • are 8 times less likely to be victims of domestic violence
  • earn up to 4 times as much in income
  • are more likely to direct their wealth towards their children’s needs than men

U.N. Women, a United Nations entity for gender equality and female empowerment, describes gender equality and women’s rights as cross-cutting throughout the 2030 Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The SDGs are fundamentally linked to the lives of women and girls globally, especially those of rural women. This is particularly true for the goal to universally end poverty in all its forms, the goal to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, promote sustainable agriculture as well as the goal to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment.

U.N. Women describe rural women as key agents for achieving the economic, environmental and social changes required for sustainable development. Limited access to credit, health care and education are among the many challenges faced by women.

Land ownership and other means of women’s empowerment are crucial not only to the well-being of individuals, families and rural communities but also economic productivity, given women’s presence in the agricultural field.

– Kara Buckley

Sources: FAO, Landesa, Rockefeller Foundation, Take Part, UN Women
Photo: Google Images

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Women’s World Banking Fights Poverty by Empowering Females

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Women’s World Banking raises money to provide women with the resources and tools needed to become successful entrepreneurs in their respective regions.

The organization operates primarily in Africa, Asia and Latin America, but has left footprints in other regions, such as the Middle East and Western Europe.

Women’s World Banking recognizes that although many women globally use their earnings to give back to their families and communities, the demographic continues to be underserved and underrepresented.

Once the group determines the tools needed to empower successful female entrepreneurs, they network with financial institutions to guide women through the business startup process.

Women’s World Banking consists of an executive team, staff members, fellows and a board of directors, all of whom help keep the organization afloat. These individuals have dedicated themselves to the development of innovated products, micro-insurance programs and enterprises.

The team helps women develop credit, savings and insurance programs that fit their needs. Through research and on-the-job experience, the organization also creates innovative methods that they share with hardworking women throughout the world.

This year, roughly 530,000 women have accessed tools and resources provided by Women’s World Banking, with the total participants each year totaling over one million. Eighty-five percent of people participating in their leadership programs each year are young women looking to make a living for themselves and their families.

For more than 35 years, Women’s World Banking has created and networked with more than 38 organizations dedicated to empowering women throughout these regions, leaving a worldwide impact on the state of poverty found within predominantly female areas.

– Julia Hettiger

Sources: Womens World Banking, Microfinance Gateway, Friends of Women`s World Banking
Photo: Flickr

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Empowering Female Entrepreneurs to Escape Poverty

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The World Bank recently established a line of credit for female entrepreneurs in the world’s poorest nations. The program has already helped more than 3,000 female entrepreneurs in Ethiopia start their own businesses and escape poverty.

In poor communities, women are far less likely than men to own valuable assets to use as collateral to get a loan. Without these loans, many business ventures never make it off the ground.

An estimated 70 percent of women who own small or medium-sized businesses are unable to stabilize and improve them because of a lack of funding credit. This challenge creates a huge loss in potential income within a community.

According to World Bank economists Francesco Strobbe and Salman Alibhai, investing in female-owned businesses results in one of the “highest return opportunities available in emerging markets.”

The World Bank is helping to put an end to this opportunity loss and stagnation of female business opportunities by offering female entrepreneurs loans through the International Development Association and several international development organizations in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Between January 2014 and September 2015, Ethiopia’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Development Project disbursed 768 million birr (about $38 million) worth of credit to 3,227 female entrepreneurs. Currently, nearly $2 million in credit is being disbursed each month with an average individual loan size of approximately 219,605 birr (approximately $11,000).

Research shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to hire other women to work in their businesses, opening up employment opportunities in communities where positions for women were scarce before.

Thus far, 76 percent of the women who have taken advantage of the program are first-time borrowers, unlocking untapped capital and opening up a new route to closing the gendered financial gap.

Despite the majority being first-time borrowers with little to no collateral, the repayment rate is 99.4 percent. Besides the success of the small loans, the program also offers entrepreneurship training to inspired women throughout the nation.

So far, more than 5,000 women have taken advantage of training and hope to enter into the exciting realm of business ownership. This trend is likely to drive down the overall rate of unemployment throughout Ethiopia, which currently stands at 17 percent.

– Claire Colby

Sources: CIA World Factbook, World Bank
Photo: Flickr

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Gender Equality in Rwanda Ranks in Top 10

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When people think of gender equality they often do not associate it with Rwanda. But, according to the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual report, people should.

Gender equality in Rwanda outperformed many expectations, scoring high in the graded categories of economics, health, education and politics. Additionally, the country placed in the top ten for the second year in a row. They even improved their spot by one, coming in at sixth place.

As a continent, Africa has some of the worst performing countries in the world. Numerous African countries scoring in the bottom 20 supplement that fact. Chad, Mali and Guinea are some of the countries that have yet again found themselves in the bottom 20.

Impressively, Rwanda beat out many well-developed countries. They boast better scores than France (15th) Germany (11th) and even the United States (28th).

The country has continued to see success in bridging the gender equality gap. According to WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report, an impressive 88 percent of women in Rwanda hold jobs. Comparatively, the percentage of women in the United States who have jobs is only 66 percent.

While Rwanda’s placement on the index is certainly praiseworthy, the question remains – how did the country outperform 139 others?

Saadia Zahidi, a member of the WEF, explains: “There are quite a few theories for this and certainly one of them is that after the genocide there has been much lower numbers of men who are able and willing to be working. So, that has changed the dynamics.”

The genocide that Zahidi talks about occurred in 1994. It was aimed at the country’s minority group, the Tutsi’s, and claimed the lives of over one million civilians. Many women became widowed as a result.

After the genocide ended, women came together and demanded change. They successfully re-wrote parts of the constitution and ensured that 30 percent of political roles would be held by women. They also called for marriage equality and land ownership rights.

In terms of political opportunities, Rwanda has the highest percentage of women in Parliament, something that remains to be celebrated.

Of course, there is still much that needs to be done in order to continue to eliminate the gap between genders. However, Zahidi remains confident that the divide in gender equality in Rwanda will continue to close.

– Alyson Atondo

Sources: The World Economic Forum 1, Huffington Post, QZ.com, Washington Post, The World Economic Forum 2
Photo: Flickr

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Health Education for Women Improves in Southern Asia

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Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) across southern Asia have developed programs in line with the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on health education for women.

SDG #3 aims to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all ages, and SDG #5 aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

In Bangalore, India, mDhil, an online medical resource center, has developed social media campaigns that provide important health education for women. The organization has created a variety of videos that inform women about topics such as menstruation, pregnancy and hormones. mDhil content reaches over 2.5 million people each month.

These videos are available in many local languages, are easily accessible and can be viewed in private. In a survey, mDhil found that 60 percent of women prefer watching videos about intimate health issues rather than visiting a doctor.

Because most doctors offering healthcare for women were male, most women did not feel comfortable discussing family planning or reproductive health with them.

mDhil is empowering girls and women by giving them the information to better understand their bodies and make choices to better their health.

In Bangladesh, the HERHealth project aims to educate female factory workers on their health. Women employed in large factories tend to come from low-income backgrounds and work in unsafe, unhealthy conditions.

Using peer educators, HERHealth raises awareness on common diseases such as anemia and reproductive tract infections. Their health education for women even includes family members and communities of the female factory workers. Reportedly, this has resulted in decreasing cases of cholera.

The quality of work from factories involved with HERHealth has improved because the female workers are less likely to miss work due to injury or sickness. The impact of HERHealth is also met with factory managers asking for the same program for male workers.

In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, the first Human Milk Human Babies Bank opened, allowing mothers to share their extra milk. The milk bank provides mothers the opportunity to give milk to other mothers who do not have enough milk to feed their own babies.

The founder of the bank, Trinh Tuan, also started a Youtube channel called the Journey of Breastmilk to allow women to share maternal and childcare knowledge.

NGOs in the global south are working towards the SDGs, particularly health education for women, and are making a difference using peer training, technology and sharing strategies and knowledge.

– Marie Helene Ngom

Sources: URB, Huffington Post, UN
Photo: Google Images

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Education for Girls in Developing Countries

supporting education for girls in developing countriesMichelle Obama recently spoke on the importance of education for girls in developing countries at the 2015 World Innovation Summit for Education in Qatar.

According to EFA Global Monitoring Report, there are 66 million girls out of school globally. There are 33 million fewer girls than boys in primary school.

Michelle Obama is traveling through the Middle East discussing the importance of education for girls in developing countries in order to promote “Let Girls Learn,” her girls’ education initiative. She encouraged men in developing countries to support the cause of educating girls in order to improve their societies.

 

Health Benefits of Supporting Education for Girls in Developing Countries

 

Education is one of the most significant ways that women can empower themselves, and educating women provides many benefits to developing countries.

Girls with eight years of education are four times less likely to be married as children. Women who are educated marry later and, therefore, have fewer children. Multiple studies show that an extra year of schooling for girls reduces fertility rate by five to 10 percent.

The children of an educated woman are more likely to survive. In addition, a child born to a literate mother is 50 percent more likely to survive past the age of five.

Educated women are better at understanding and managing health issues, which reduces infant and maternal mortality.

 

Economic Benefits of Supporting Education for Girls in Developing Countries

 

Educating women also benefits the economy. According to chief Japan strategist and co-head of Asia Economics, “educated women contribute to the quality, size and productivity of the workforce. They can get better paying jobs, allowing them to provide daily necessities, health care and education to support their families.”

A girl with an extra year of education can earn 20 percent more as an adult.

Bloomberg Business estimates a “growth premium” that would raise gross domestic product growth by 0.2 percent per year for countries such as Vietnam, Nigeria and Pakistan that put greater investments in female education. Narrowing the gender gap could raise income per capita 20 percent higher than what is projected by 2030.

According to The World Bank, if India enrolled one percent more girls in secondary school, its gross domestic product would rise by $5.5 billion.

Educating girls provides many significant benefits to developing countries and can help lift areas out of poverty. Education for girls will continue to improve conditions in developing countries across the globe.

– Jordan Connell

Sources: Bloomberg Business, CNN, Girl Rising, UNICEF
Photo: Flickr

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Indian-American Physicians Take Reins of Indian Healthcare

Indian_HealthcareThe American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) will focus on women’s health and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in India in its 10th Global Health Summit.

For almost a decade, the AAPI has gathered to contribute to the discussion of healthcare in India. This year, the focus will be on women’s health and non-communicable diseases, which plague 5.8 millions of Indians each year, according to the WHO.

Also included in this year’s summit will be a launch of the country’s first Trauma and Brain Injury Guidelines, reports ETHealthworld.

“This GHS promises to be one with the greatest impact and significant contributions towards harnessing the power of international Indian diaspora to bring the most innovative, efficient, cost effective healthcare solutions to India,” says AAPI.

This year’s summit will be held from Jan 1 to 3, 2016, in New Delhi.

The annual summit is not the only effort by the AAPI to improve Indian healthcare.

The organization also houses the Global Clinical Research & Trial Network (AAPI-GCRTN), which fosters collaboration on research and clinical trials; the Young Physician Section (AAPI-YPS), which educates and enhances the careers of young physicians; and the Charitable Foundation (AAPI-CF), which serves the poor in remote areas of India and the U.S.

The AAPI and its contributions to health in India serve as an example of the country’s growing interest in health and poverty, as well as its growing resources.

The Government of India has made tremendous progress recently, especially in commitment to pressing issues concerning the poor members of its population.

At the beginning of this year, India became the first country to adapt the Global Monitoring Framework on NCDs. In line with the WHO’s Global action plan for the prevention and control of NCDs 2013-2020, the framework’s targets are aimed at reducing the number of global premature deaths from NCDs by 25 percent by 2025, says the WHO.

India is paving the way for developing countries’ healthcare, and this summit will provide solutions for multiple healthcare problems that can be applied to other areas.

– Ashley Tressel

Sources: India Times, AAPI Global Healthcare Summit, AAPI USA, AAPI Charitable Foundation, AAPI YPS, WHO                                                                                                                                                                      Photo: Flickr

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Bolivia’s Land for Agricultural Development Project

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The Land for Agricultural Development Project in Bolivia granted more than 150,000 hectares of land to poor farmers and indigenous people. Consequently, the average family income increased by 39%.

The program, which lasted seven years, initially focused on decentralizing the land market so that poor farmers and indigenous people were able to make purchases.

Over the course of the project, however, the changing market made land prices unaffordable, so the program expanded to include leasing, sharecropping and technical assistance in commercializing its products and investing in agriculture and livestock.

The U.S. $15 million program also promoted the involvement of women. Women participated in training programs focused on agricultural and administrative skills. By the closing date of the project, Sept. 15, 2014, women’s involvement had reached 38%.

The Land for Agricultural Development Project enabled 5,681 women to become direct individual beneficiaries, out of the 11,488 individual beneficiaries.

The 39% increase in the average family income is a result of 2,891 families becoming beneficiaries of the program, and also the investments they made in livestock, agriculture and agroforestry. This contributed to sustaining the livelihoods of families and, in the long run, ending the generational cycle of poverty.

The “Implementation Completion and Results Report,” released on March 12, 2015, revealed that the Bolivian government’s commitment to eradicating extreme poverty and empowering indigenous people was very instrumental in the success of the program.

When President Evo Morales came to power in 2006 he made the distribution of agricultural lands to poor and/or landless farmers and indigenous people one of his priorities. However, indigenous families were still struggling to sustain living because of the privatization of land markets.

Morales expressed gratitude for the partnership with the World Bank following the New 2012-2015 Country Partnership Strategy. He stated that “[it is time to] give power economic power to social movements, especially in rural areas where historically we have been abandoned.”

– Marie Helene Ngom

Sources: World Bank 1, World Bank 2, World Bank 3, New Agriculturalist
Photo: Google Images