Women, Education and Social Change Female education and self-sufficiency DO make the world better

World Development Report 2012 (World Bank http://bit.ly/1pDbkOo) states that gender

equality matters for development because it can generate productivity gains, improve

development outcomes for the next generation, and provide more widely representative

institutions. Education improvement and better access to entrepreneurship are two fields of this

equality efforts.

Education

If globally nearly 80 % of adult men and 67 % of adult women achieve literacy, in developing

countries the rates are 50% for men and 34% for women. The differences become greater when

dealing with secondary and tertiary education. A better access to education for girls and women

can yield economic benefits; an estimate affirms that “… for the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India,

China) and Next-11 countries (Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Korea, Mexico, Nigeria,

Pakistan, Philippines, Turkey, Vietnam), for BRIC, greater investments in female education

could yield a “growth premium” that raises GDP growth by about 0.2 percent per year.

Moreover, narrowing the employment gender gap could raise income per capita 20 percent

higher than our baseline projections by 2030.” (Kathy Matsui, Managing Director, Chief Japan

Strategist and Co-head of Asia Economics, Commodities and Strategy Research at Goldman

Sachs: http://buswk.co/1jcB849). Girls and Women’s education is also effective in improving

family health, fighting against child wedding, and mentalities evolution across the world. See

mgef

Example of action MGEF (http://www.maasaigirlseducation.org)

MGEF (for Maasai Girls Education Fund) helps enhancing education and health for girls and

women within the Kenyan Maasai community. Statistics in this community highlight that: 5 out

48 percent of enrolled girls in school will continue to secondary education, circumcision of girls

is still widely spread (90 percent of girls), the odds of HIV infection for females between 15

and 24 are four to six times as important as for a male of the same age.

Through its scholarship program, MGEF helps girls that otherwise would never have enrolled

in school, or would have left early. The program has accompanied 110 girls from primary

school up to university according to their ability, in order to make them able to “enter the

workforce in Kenya”. Good nutrition and healthcare are also provided, and they are kept away

from cultural pressure promoting early marriage.

Results are what you could expect from such an initiative, graduated girls:

are working and contributing to the “wealth” of their family,

have proven the economic benefit of education versus early marriage,

are models to females of the community,

are making the mentalities evolve about females’ education

MGEF is also involved in community education through workshops to address social customs

and cultural beliefs.

Access to entrepreneurship

Favoring women entrepreneurship is also key in gaining better equality. As women have usually

poor access to financing in developing countries, they also have much difficulties to found a

firm. It has been proven that better wealth for women can benefit the whole family: “… An

evaluation of a cash transfer program in South Africa, for instance, found that pensions

received by women improved the health and nutritional status of girls but that transfers received

by men had no effect on either boys or girls…” (World Development Report 2014, World

Bank).

Example of action UCFA (http://www.cooperative-argane.com/ucfa/)

UCFA stands for Union of the Cooperatives of the Women for the production and the marketing

of the argan oil. It is the result of a Morocco-Germany cooperation to allow women

communities in Morocco to get a decent income from their work.

The women collect fruits of the argan trees, and manually press them to obtain the argan oil.

UCFA manages the promotion and the marketing of the oil according to fair trade principles.

Initiated in Essaouira province in 1995, its success allowed UCFA to create other cooperatives

following this model. Nowadays, UCFA provides regular income to 1000 women in 22

cooperatives. Money is used for getting food and sending children to school. It also contribute

to women autonomy. One more benefit of the project is that environment and culture are

preserved.

These two examples are like a drop in the ocean, but according to me, any initiative tending to

enhance female education and self-sufficiency, can make the world becoming better. So, let’s get

aware and add more drops.