Archive for category: Women and Female Empowerment

information and Stories about woman and female empowerment.

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Saudi Women Allowed to Vote for the First Time

Saudi Arabia’s municipal elections will be held on December 12 and for the first time, women will be allowed to vote for municipal council leaders.

Municipal council elections occur every four years in Saudi Arabia. Two-thirds of the council members must be voted in and the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs must appoint the other third.

The late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud granted women the right to vote as well as run as candidates in 2011. Approximately 70 women are intending to register as municipal council leader candidates. Another 80 women are planning on registering as campaign managers.

The Baladi (My Country) campaign is a political campaign run by Saudi women activists. The campaign was planning to bring in teachers and trainers from different Arab countries as well as the United Nations for campaigning workshops.

The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs stopped Baladi from holding the training workshops in an attempt to unify the election programme.

Women and men will have separate polling centers for voting. In Makkah, there will be 40 polling centers with 14 set aside for women.

Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia have gradually increased and a royal decree issued by Abdullah in 2013 required the Consultative Council to be at least 20 percent women. The Consultative Council is an advisory body that is royally appointed.

Although these rights have made improvements for women in Saudi Arabia, they are still far from equal. A male guardian must accompany the women when they travel or go to school. They are not permitted to drive.

Voter registration for the municipal council elections began on August 22 and will end on September 14. Candidate registration runs from August 30 until September 17.

– Iona Brannon

Sources: Al Arabiya News, Al Jazeera 1, Al Jazeera 2, CNN, Saudi National Portal, Time
Photo: Google Images

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Feeding Children in Egypt to Boost Attendance Rates

Attending School = Having Food in Egypt
In June 2015, the European Union funded a project for the World Food Programme (WFP) that encourages 100,000 children in Egypt to attend school.

The four-year project, called Enhancing Access of Children to Education and Fighting Child Labour aims to offer children, especially girls, incentives to pursue education.

Fifteen percent of children in Egypt eventually end up working to help support their families. The WFP’s goal of feeding children in Egypt to boost attendance rates involves providing snacks and take-home rations for children who maintain an 80 percent school attendance rate.

The daily in-school snack, date bars, offers valuable vitamins and minerals for students. For most children, the bars are their first meal of the day. The take-home rations of rice and oil equal the value of what children could earn from a month of work.

By using food incentives, WFP hopes to encourage parents to send children to school instead of out to work. In addition, they hope to break the patriarchal idea where young girls are solely expected to stay home and be married.

“The concept they have is the girl is going to get married and stay home, so if they need to get one of their children educated, they’re going to focus on the boys. With our project, we focus on the girls because we feel we are their chance to get an education,” says Amina Al Korey, communications officer for WFP in Egypt.

The girls get first priority registering for the community schools supported by the WFP and supervised by the Egyptian Ministry of Education. Boys can be admitted but only if spots still remain.

Larry Summers, former World Bank chief economist says, “Investment in girls’ education may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world.”

Girls who attend school will make up to 25 percent more in wages in the future, be healthier and more capable of supporting a family, and could even save malnourished children, simply by being given a secondary education.

Al Korey says, “Whenever I speak to the girls, they’re always just so enthusiastic about actually going to school. They don’t just feel good about getting an education and getting a chance to take a different path.”

WFP also plans to support mothers with income-generating projects, such as breeding goats, making soaps and selling and growing vegetables.

Lubna Alaman, WFP’s representative and county director in Egypt, says, “Through partnerships like this, WFP hopes to make a child’s simplest dream come true.”

At the conclusion of the four-year project, WFP hopes to see more girls excited about pursuing an education and bettering their future.

– Kelsey Parrotte

Sources: Takepart, WFP
Photo: Flickr

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Women Entrepreneurs in Rwanda: Overcoming Gender Barriers

Women Entrepreneurs in Rwanda: Overcoming Barriers
In Africa, women entrepreneurs are rare. They struggle to obtain loans from banks and do not receive the same educational opportunities as their male counterparts because of traditional views that the role of women is in the home.

A disproportionate percentage of women applied to the Anzisha Prize this year— only 27%. The Anzisha prize provides young entrepreneurs with funding.

However, Rwanda defied this norm in 2015 as 60% of applicants to the Anzisha prize in Rwanda were women this year.

This reflects Rwanda’s recent efforts to empower women. In 1994, Rwanda experienced a devastating genocide; 70% of the population was female. Today, Rwanda still has a higher percentage of women in their population. For this reason, President Paul Kagame has implemented initiatives to support women in business, education and politics.

Of note, Rwanda’s parliament has more women than men. “It is exciting to see Rwanda take such progressive steps. Women empowerment has considerable benefits for any economy’s growth and development, and we hope that other African countries follow Rwanda’s example,” explained Grace Kalisha, senior program manager at the African Leadership Academy to How We Made it In Africa.

Four outstanding female Rwandan applicants to the Anzisha Prize, including Gisele Iradukunda, Henriette Dukunde, Alice Igiraneza and Nancy Sibo are featured below.

Radio Stations in Bus Stops

Twenty-year-old Gisele Iradukunda founded Radio Gare Project, a company that installs radio speakers in bus stations to communicate important messages to commuters.

Iradukunda realized bus companies would pay to have a radio system installed so they can provide information to bus users. Other companies can advertise their products to a large group of people waiting at a bus stop.

Her first sound system was installed in Nyamata, a town in southeast Rwanda. She obtained a bank loan, then placed speakers in four corners of the bus station. Today people can hear the sound in a 500-meter radius around the speakers.

Since then, Iradukunda has installed speakers at two more bus stations and hopes to put them in every station in Rwanda in the future.

Iradukunda also uses the bus station radios to notify the public about HIV prevention and healthcare issues. “The District also uses our radio to pass on information about events, meetings and all other affairs that they would like the public to attend,” said Iradukunda.

Rice Cooperative to Support Women

In 2013, Henriette Dukunde, a twenty-one-year-old biology student, co-founded the Rice Project. It is located in Huye, southern Rwanda, and supports over fifty women in a farming cooperative.

The Rice Project places the women farmers into four groups. Each group receives a piece of land, seeds, fertilizer, and other farming materials so they can grow and harvest rice in Nyanza marshlands.

65% of profits goes to the cooperative, and the rest supports the sustainability of the Project.

“The Rice Project has improved the lives of poor vulnerable women. It has both created jobs for them and enabled them to afford their basic daily needs,” explained Dukunde.

Health and Nutrition Promotion at University of Rwanda

Alice Igiraneza, a twenty-one-year-old medical student at the University of Rwanda, started the restaurant Kiza. The restaurant promotes healthy eating at her university by providing a section of healthy options for students and staff at the University of Rwanda.

The restaurant’s goal is to educate the public about diet and nutrition and to fight diseases like diabetes. The restaurant currently serves food to around three hundred people, and provides twenty medical students from impoverished families with employment.

“We pay them a salary of $60 a month and provide them with food so that they can continue their studies and become good doctors for the future well-being of the population,” said Igiraneza.

Along with her restaurant, Igiraneza is the head of a consultation center that teaches students and staff about health and nutrition.

Accessories from Recycled Drinking Straws

In 2013, twenty-one-year-old Nancy Sibo founded Miheha Straw Bags. The company is a social enterprise that manufactures purses, earrings, and belts from recycled plastic drinking straws.

“In developing countries like Rwanda, garbage collection and recycling services are often not available or are inadequate. We have decided to turn waste into opportunity for the enterprise, the environment and for the women,” explained Sibo.

Sibo provides training for women so they can make a living through the company. “Suzanne is a young mother who joined Miheha in 2013 when she was extremely poor with no access to some basics of life. But, through the trainings she received from our initiative, she has changed her life and is now training other women at our enterprise,” said Sibo.

– Margaret Anderson

Sources: Anzisha Prize, How We Made It in Africa
Photo: Venture Burn

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Wonder Women Initiative Takes Off in Indonesia

Wonder Women Initiative Takes Off in Indonesia
For decades, the iconic comic book superheroine Wonder Woman has been a representation of justice, strength and all that is right in the universe. Today, the spirit of Wonder Woman is as present as it has ever been, but it has been breathed into the organization titled, appropriately, Wonder Women. In 2015, it is this plural variation of the legendary superhero’s name that resonates the most with global change.

The Wonder Women Initiative is a movement to revitalize poverty-stricken areas by teaching the women of these communities to sell new pieces of technology and equipment to their neighbors and members of their towns or villages. The effort has been especially successful in Indonesia over the last few years. Some of the items sold include solar lanterns, clean cookstoves and water filters.

An article by CNBC detailing the Wonder Women program recently said, “Since the program started in 2011, more than 300 women have become ‘micro-social-entrepreneurs,’ selling around 10,000 clean technology products to their communities.” The Wonder Women initiative has been extremely successful because of its grassroots approach to eradicating poverty. This project operates under the umbrella of the large non-government organization Kopernik.

Kopernik was founded on the belief that only a simple piece of technology can drastically turn around poverty situations all over the world. The NGO’s website provides certain statistics such as “780 million people live with dirty water, when a simple filter can provide safe, clean, convenient drinking water” and “1.3 billion people rely on dim, dirty, dangerous kerosene for lighting, when simple solar lanterns can provide clean, bright light at night.” Kopernik receives money directly from donors all over the world and in turn, uses these funds to produce cost-effective technology products that can be sent to third world countries and commercialized by an initiative like Wonder Women.

Wonder Women is impacting thousands of lives every year and revitalizing the way nonprofits work. By teaching women how to sell technology at cost-effective prices within their communities, Wonder Women is positively affecting the global economy. Kopernik has a quote on its site that reads, “Our namesake, Nicolaus Copernicus, changed the way people see the world. Like Copernicus, we want Kopernik to be a catalyst for change.” Much like its namesake, Wonder Women is promoting justice and all that is right with the world.

– Diego Catala

Sources: CNBC, Kopernik
Photo: Dorkly

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Warren Buffett: Generosity May Save Generations

How Warren Buffett Generosity Can Save Generations
According to Forbes Magazine, Warren Buffett is one of the wealthiest men in the world, with a net worth of over $72 billion. Buffett amassed a great portion of his wealth through investment and involvement in his family’s business, Berkshire Hathaway. Since coming into his fortune, Buffett has created a non-profit called The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, which is a large family foundation third only to The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and The Ford Foundation.

After Buffett’s first wife, Susan Thompson, passed away at the age of 72, he decided to focus the foundation’s efforts on charitable causes. One of the most funded causes was creating an IUD, an intrauterine contraceptive device. All of the foundation’s donations to research, funding and supplying were made in confidence, but it is evident that without funding for research the world would be in a much different place.

When IUDs were first created, they had more negative side effects than positive outcomes. Since few women saw their use, research on this form of contraceptive slowed to a halt, but after ten years of minimal research, the Buffett Foundation decided to invest in better contraceptives for women who did not have access to medical facilities. According to Buffett, not allowing women to decide when they want to get pregnant is essentially failing to utilize half of the brainpower in the world, as these people are constantly worried or concerned about pregnancy and their children.

Since Buffett’s investment, three major IUDs have emerged: ParaGard, which is a copper IUD that can last 3 years; Mirena, which is a plastic IUD that secretes hormones and can last up to five years; and most recently, Liletta, which is very similar to Mirena and was developed by a non-profit funded by Buffett in order to offer a cheaper option to women who could not afford a standard IUD.

The longevity of IUDs, some lasting up to 10 years, has made them an ideal form of contraception for busy women who do not have a steady schedule and cannot take pills at the same time every day. IUDs are 99 percent effective and have proven to be safe and beneficial for women in underdeveloped countries. In some developing countries, women are still dying in childbirth due to far too many pregnancies and a lack of control over their fertility. However, as female reproductive rights become a more pressing issue, IUDs and their cheap — or maybe even free — existence could make a huge difference.

Many women who live in poverty feel as though they do not have control over their bodies, an issue that has been brought up with several women’s rights’ activist groups. In order to grant women more control, we must grant them access first to contraceptives and next to education. When women are given the option to decide whether or not to have a child, they are able to make better decisions for their families and for their futures. Childhood mortality rates will decrease, female life expectancy will increase and overall national GDP will also increase. This is one simple change funded by one outstanding man that could provide women in developing nations a chance to take control of their lives and make a difference.

– Sumita Tellakat

Sources: Bloomberg, Forbes
Photo: Forbes

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W.TEC Technology Camp Empowering Nigerian Girls

W.TEC Technology Camp Empowering Nigerian Girls
Nigerian nongovernmental organization Women’s Technology Empowerment Centre (W.TEC) is looking to groom the next generation of “ICTprenures” through their W.TEC Girls Technology Camp.

The W.TEC camp, able to accommodate 30 Nigerian girls ages 13 to 17, is competitive yet inclusive with scholarships available to public school students. Its objective: “helping girls develop an early interest in computers and other information technology,” an interest that W.TC believes will socially and financially empower Nigerian girls.

Over the course of two weeks, participants take technology workshops and engage in leadership activities. These workshops range from Basic Computer Appreciation, which covers Microsoft Office Suite and Internet use, to 3D Designing and Robotics Programming.

Supported by Union Bank of Nigeria, MainOne Cable, General Electric and Laureates College, the camp is designed not only to increase Nigerian girls’ technological capabilities but also to enhance creativity, communication abilities, problem-solving and leadership skills that will serve participants in whatever career field they pursue.

W.TEC Girls Technology Camp also covers career sessions. The 2015 lineup boasts Financial Literature, Youths and Space Technology and Software and Development Life Cycle courses in addition to field trips to innovative technology companies and conversation sessions with women working in ICT fields.

On the importance of their female empowerment focus, W.TEC stated that “statistical evidence has shown that in most African countries, women’s use and knowledge of ICTs (to store, share, organize and process information) is lower than men’s, denying them of income-generating opportunities and the chance to network with others.”

In addition to their W.TEC Girls Technology Camp, the organization conducts a variety of programs focused on technology-based projects, technology literacy training, mentoring and work placement for young Nigerian women and girls. W.TEC also hopes through research and publications to promote a dialogue about the way African women use technology and the hindrances to that use.

W.TEC seeks to empower Nigerian girls through financial independence stemming from ICT training for jobs such as computer engineers, system analysts, programmers, designers and hardware and network specialists. The organization also works to guide women through the development of technology skills that can improve their candidacy for ICT-reliant jobs or self-employment.

Dedicated to these goals, W.TEC pledges to support the use of ICT as a means to uplift women’s rights: “We also want women to develop skills and confidence to use ICTs for activism, learning, awareness-raising and advocacy for a better quality of life.”

– Emma-Claire LaSaine

Sources: W.TEC, Biztech Africa
Photo: Biztech Africa

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Chocolate Company Creates Jobs for Women in Ghana

Chocolate Company Creates Jobs for Women in Ghana

Divine Chocolate is a Fair Trade chocolate company partially owned by Kuapa Kokoo Limited. Kuapa Kokoo is Ghana’s leading farmer’s cooperative for chocolate, dedicated to quality both in their products and in the lives of the members.

The Fair Trade aspect of the company prevents large organizations from taking advantage of the small-farm cocoa farmers. This allows the farmers to receive a fair income and reduces the chances of child labor and forced labor.

One of the more important aspects of Divine Chocolate is the emphasis on the empowerment of women. Approximately 32 percent of the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative is made up of women. Women are given the opportunity to learn business skills, reading and writing skills, and even new trades through the Divine Chocolate’s Women’s Cocoa Farming Training program and the Kuapa Kokoo Women’s Fund.

The lack of education among women farmers in Ghana makes it easy for others to take advantage of them. The additional education helps protect the women from those who may cheat them and also increases their ability to run efficient farms and produce quality cocoa.

Women in the co-op who have higher levels of education are encouraged to become leaders. Those who have learned other skills have the opportunity to take out microloans from the Kuapa Kokoo Credit Union to start their own businesses. This allows them to receive a secondary income, especially when cocoa beans are not in season. Christiana Ohene-Agyare was the first woman to be nominated president of the Kuapa Kokoo cooperative in 2010.

“Being a member of Kuapa Kokoo has taught me that whatever a man can do, a woman can also do and even better,” said Ohene-Agyare to Divine Chocolate.

Kuapa Kokoo and Divine Chocolate are changing the view of women in Ghana through their innovative structure. Women are given the opportunity to learn, lead and make money through the training program and the Kuapa Kokoo Women’s Fund. The extra income earned by the women allows them to send their children to school as well.

Ghana is the second-largest producer of cocoa behind the Ivory Coast.

– Iona Brannon

Sources: Divine Chocolate, Fair Trade USA, Fair Trade, Good News Network
Photo: The News

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ONE Launches Poverty Is Sexist Campaign

ONE

Gender equality is a basic human right that dignifies not only what each sex deserves, but what the social relationships between sexes must entail. According to the UNDP, the majority of children not attending school are girls, and nearly two-thirds of women in the developing world work informally without pay. Furthermore, “despite greater parliamentary participation, women are still outnumbered four-to-one in legislatures around the world.”

ONE launched its Poverty Is Sexist campaign in solidarity #WithStrongGirls. The social media-driven platform asks young girls and women everywhere to strike a pose and post it online with the hashtag #Strengthie. Participants are encouraged to tag women in their lives whose strength they admire, and share a link to ONE.org so that friends and family can also join in the movement. Beyond the hashtag, though, Poverty Is Sexist asks the world to pay closer attention to global gender imbalances. According to the organization, nearly half of women’s skills are overlooked, compared to just 22 percent of men’s. Whether these gender prejudices come from cultural or legal institutions, the group’s campaign advocates for greater change across the board.

Women play vital roles in global markets. ONE reports that in Sub-Saharan Africa, half of the agricultural labor force is female. African women also contribute greatly to the health sector by being healthcare providers and primary caregivers.

Poverty Is Sexist is targeting the post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals in order to safeguard the needs of women and girls.

Beyond Poverty Is Sexist, the ONE Blog shares how female empowerment is advancing around the world. There are stories of how breakdancing is encouraging physical and mental endurance among women, and how sewing machines are financing educational equality. The organization often spotlights independent blog publications; Indego Africa, a nonprofit social enterprise in Rwanda, published Photo Essay: Radiant Women of Rwanda, which was an exposé celebrating the 30 seamstresses working at the Umutima cooperative in Myamirambo, Kigali, Rwanda. The portraits drew upon the joy, pride and independence each woman possessed in her life.

– Lin Sabones

Sources: ONE 1, ONE 2, ONE 3, ONE 4, ONE 5, UNDP
Photo: New Internationalist

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How One 18-Year-Old Funds Education for Girls

education
Girl code: A universal language spoken by the women of the world. Right down to its core, however, it means that girls are “in this together.”

Mary Grace Henry has been up-to-date with the girl code’s core since before she was a teenager. At the young age of 12, with the sewing machine she requested for her birthday, Henry began creating reversible headbands for purchase and used the profits to help fund girls’ education in Uganda and Kenya.

Henry named her business Reverse the Course, with the hope that her reversible headbands would “reverse the course” of girls living in poverty. Now 18 and a soon-to-be freshman at the University of Notre Dame, Henry’s organization has sold over 16,000 hair accessories to support primary and secondary education for girls living in extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.

The organization has reversed the course of many lives, saving girls from malnutrition, early marriage and female genital mutilation.

Since its founding six years ago, Reverse the Course has supported 66 girls and provided funds for 154 years of education fees, including tuition, textbooks and boarding costs. Henry’s most immediate goal is to reach 100 girls. Next, she’d like to develop an entrepreneurial program for the girls her organization funds to provide them with skills beyond education.

Henry firmly believes in universal quality education and 100 percent of her business profits fund education for impoverished girls. Her hair accessories are affordably trendy and of a worthy cause. Her efforts have reached four countries and 21 schools, and every student who boards is fed three meals a day.

Secondary education prevents early marriages and pregnancies and provides girls with the skills to build a sustainable life. According to UNICEF, child marriage rates in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would decrease by 64 percent with secondary education. Education has the power to change and build lives.

Girls are in this together, and Henry is definitely a veteran to this notion. She provides girls with quality education to lift them out of poverty, giving them the tools they need to build a sustainable life. Who knew that in addition to transforming a hairstyle, a headband could also transform a life?

– Sarah Sheppard

Sources: Take Part, Reverse the Course
Photo: Take Part

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Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index

women's_empowerment
With so many important social justice issues to be aware of, it is extremely helpful when the progress of several areas at once can be monitored with only one tool.

The Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) ties together the importance of advancement in the agriculture sector and the involvement and empowerment of women in the same area.

The Index was developed jointly by Feed the Future, USAID, IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) and OPHI (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative) as a way of monitoring the success of the Feed the Future Initiative, and that is what makes it unique: The empowerment of women was not tacked on as a side note or as a positive subsidiary effect of the larger goal. Rather, the success of the Feed the Future programs depend on the equitable treatment and fair status of women.

The index debuted in Bangladesh, Guatemala and Uganda in 2012, with the intent to use it for further tracking of the influence of programs. While the tool itself is designed primarily to monitor and evaluate women’s empowerment levels, it is the crucial first step toward making a difference. Once data is generated about a problem, it can be approached with a better understanding of how to solve it, as well as increase awareness and support for fixing it.

So how is “empowerment” defined and measured?

Clearly, the concept is extremely personal. It is something that can be discussed in a very inspired but unspecific way. One Guatemalan woman, for example, said, “Being empowered means that the woman can do things too, not just the man.” To others, it is more about their position within a community. There are a lot of factors that affect what “empowerment” means to a person.

Do empowered actions count if they’re being encouraged, or even enforced, by an outside force? Is empowerment more of an individual or a collective concept? How can such a flexible idea be measured and expanded upon across such a vast range of cultures, ideologies and physical circumstances?

Answering this question is made easier by considering women’s empowerment in the specific context of agriculture. The Index is comprised of two parts: The 5 Domains of Women’s Empowerment (5DE) and the Gender Parity Index (GPI).

The 5 Domains of Women’s Empowerment are the following: role in the production of crops, access to resources, level of income, role in leadership positions and availability of time. Women are considered “empowered” if they meet particular thresholds in four out of five of these areas.

The Gender Parity Index measures the success and empowerment of women in agriculture relative to men living in the same households. A woman who is relatively empowered when compared to women in other countries, but not compared to her husband, will not rank highly on the Gender Parity Index.

The idea of using one index to measure progress in two separate areas might seem unusual, almost non sequitur. But research done by the UN’s Food and Agricultural Association (FAO) has shown that agricultural productivity increased by 20 to 30 percent when access to agricultural resources was equalized between men and women.

By tying important goals together and creating a way to monitor their progress, the WEAI is helping the movement towards shaping a better world.

– Emily Dieckman

Sources: Indiana University Bloomington, IFPRI, Feed the Future, USAID
Photo: IFAD