1. Women, the engine of the World
Daniela Bellucci
Maria Edo
Alessandro Romeo
Miriam Ruscio
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

2. “Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women”
An overview
THE GOAL
“Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women”
THE TARGET
“Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015”
The indicators
the ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
the ratio of literate women to men in the 15-to 24-year-old age group
the share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

3. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
An overview
Statistics…
WORLD BANK DATA
….some examples
Sub-Saharan Africa: 54% will never enter primary school
70% of the world illiterate are women
Chronic hunger, lack of income education and nutrition is overwhelmingly a condition of women
¾ of world refugees are women
women – one every minute – die each year from pregnancy-related causes
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

4. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Gender and the MDGs
““Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.” ”
- Kofi Annan -
70% of the poorest population is female
70% of the illiterate world is female
- Boys are favoured over girls in health care
- High Infant Mortality Rate - education/income levels of mother
Women’s inability to make health-related decisions: cause of maternal mortality
61% of people living with HIV are women X
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

5. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Countries’ profile
GEOGRAPHY
Burkina Faso
HISTORY
Three centuries of slave trade ( )
Another century of brutal colonial rule
In the 60´s most of the countries became independent
Sub-Saharan Africa became a puppet in the cold war
From the 60´s until these days sub- Saharan Africa has been in a poverty trap
Senegal
Uganda
Benin
Ghana
Malawi
POLITICS
Well-governed countries. However they failed to prosper
All of them are part of a democratic system of government.
Poses innumerable challenges for modern economic development like: diseases, prolonged droughts, and distance from world markets
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

6. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Countries’ profile
STATISTICS
These macroeconomic gains aren’t translated into improved social indicators
Economic isolation and lack of basic infrastructure in rural households deepen the hunger, diseases and poverty
It is urgent to achieve more sustainable production systems and outlines incentives to protect the environment
Under-recognized potential of millions of women who play a dominant role in farming
Challanges
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

7. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Countries’ profile
STATISTICS: Gender Goal Indicators
WORLD BANK DATA
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

8. Project: General Overview
North-american NGO
Goal: Sustainable End of World Hunger
Case study: Benin, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Senegal, Uganda, Ghana
“An epicenter is defined as a cluster of 10 to 15 villages within a 10km radius, with a population of approximately 10,000 people, that come together to meet basic needs.
The centerpiece of the strategy is an L-shaped epicenter building that houses the community’s programs for health, education, food security and economic development. The community elects an overall epicenter committee and forms subcommittees to manage each program”.
Key features underpinning all their programmes:
Bottom Up Approach
Gender focused
Local Democracy
Funding
Individual voluntary donations
Methodology: Epicentre Strategy
Replicable.
Women Empowerment.
Integrated and holistic.
Economically sustainable.
Environmentally sustainable
African Women Food Farmer Initiative
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

9. AWFFI - AFRICAN WOMEN FOOD FARMER INTIATIVE -
Agriculture is the key to Sub-Saharan Africa progress
80% of the food is grown by women
1% of the land is own by women
10% of the credits are destined to women
AWFFI arises to fill in this vital missing link
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

10. AWFFI - AFRICAN WOMEN FOOD FARMER INTIATIVE -
THE GOAL
AWFFI economically empowers women through a program of credit, savings and training. Within five years, the women at the epicenter establish and run their own government-recognized rural bank
The strategy
Prior to the creation of a women-led bank, AWFFI operates as a direct credit program:
Solidarity groups of women.
Income generating activities.
Annual Rate of interest.
No credit obligations elsewhere.
Minimum savings required.
Literacy classes.
Daughters.
ii. Official Recognition of the Women Led Bank. Conditions:
Participation:
Savings
Training and Exams
Recognition
Milestone event. Signals the transition into self-reliance
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

11. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
AWFFI – Project Status
Project Status
Financial Data
Recognized Banks
Scale up
Pilot project to scale up
the AWFFI
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

12. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
AWFFI – SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Weaknesses
Capacity building
Women empowerment
Economic and environmental sustainability
Multisectorial Approach
Transparency criteria through US rating agencies
No true replicability (preconditions)
Overlapping with other agencies and government activities
Lack of “historical” data regarding the project performance
Oppurtunities
Threats
Risk of instability
Status quo in the land ownership system
Diseases
Risk of climate disaster
Food commodity prices recently have soared. Pillaging could occurred against lands involved in the project
Scale up
Positive externalities
Recomendation: increase cooperation with other agencies to take advantage of all the project’s potential.
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

13. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
AWFFI and the MDG’s
Gender Equality
Women empowerment: it contributes to the 3rd Goal by empowering women who become economic and community leaders
Education
Special relationship (which in fact is its target!)
Training
Literacy
Daughters
Informal education
All other MDGs
Gender: precondition for all goals
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

14. WHY AWFFI ? Another microcredit project…. Why choose this one?
Principles that underpin the project make it powerful and sustainable:
Capacity building, environmental and economical sustainability, human empowerment…local people as agents of change
Sustainable and scalable
Respectful of the essential values underlying the MDGs
Inspired on a “development as freedom” approach
Involvement of private international investors in fair financing process
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

15. Or… What future do you prefer?! Conclusions
“There is no time to loose if we are to reach the MDGs by target date of Only by investing in the world’s women can we expect to get there”
What future do you prefer?!
Or…
“Forget about China and India……
women are the next engine of growth!”
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

16. Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
References
LINKS
Books and Papers
“Millennium Development Goals, a look through a gender lens”, UNDP National Reports, 2003
”Seven women entrepreneurs”, Report from World Bank
“The End of Poverty”, Jeffrey D. Sachs
Images
Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women