First Project• Avon in Africa with Catherine Dolan• ESCR/DfID Poverty Alleviation Grant• Focus on poor black women• Entrepreneurship system provides– Training, support, finance, product

• More stable than microfinance or training alone

• Income stream, economic autonomy• Confidence, independence, empowerment.

Building an Idea• Multiple, independently funded projects– MNCs and NGOs– Sanitary pads and Pampers/UNICEF

• Gaps in neoclassical economics– Care work, reproductive labor

• Women’s economy on its own terms– An economy of exclusion– Distinctive features, rules, ethos.

Monetization and Exclusion

• Unpaid labor• Exclusive rules of property, currency• Effect: pervasive cash poverty, even

within wealthy households• Characteristics of unmonetized

economies– Inseparable nature of transactions– Reciprocity versus self-interest– Exchange of people.

Sexual Economics• Body as capital• Barter for survival: marriage

– Reproductive services:• Sexual services, child-bearing, household care

– Earning chances limited, no control over funds

• Prostitution– Informality and vulnerability

• Slavery and the underground economy• Economic constraints on women and

instability.

Sanitary Care and Secondary School• Development lever: multiple, rapid benefits– Better work force, national prosperity– Fertility rates improved– Maternal and infant mortality reduced– Child well-being increased– Violence and disease transmission reduced

• Dropout rates steep at secondary level• West African site, GT sponsor: – Dolan, Dopson, Montgomery, Ryus– Effect of pads on school attendance, retention.

• .

Conditions on the Ground• Generational divide: modernity and taboos• Cloth usage: “as found,” scarce

– Limited access to clean water, soap– Private space for drying

• Long walk to school– No toilet or water to change

• Odor and embarrassment • Difficulty concentrating in classroom

– Memorization and recitation

• Pads have expected effect: – Attendance, activities, concentration, confidence.