Editor's Note: Maria Eitel, president of the Nike Foundation, works with key players in economic and social development to achieve the foundation's objective of contributing to poverty alleviation.
By Maria Eitel - Special to CNN
Investing in a girl stops poverty before it starts. That's the simple premise of the powerful force we call "The Girl Effect." This week, The Girl Effect is on the global stage at the Clinton Global Initiative and the World Bank Annual Meeting. Take it from World Bank President Robert Zoellick or former U.S. President Bill Clinton: Investing in girls is smart economics.
Girls are the invisible infrastructure of poverty. While her brothers go to school, ask 13-24 year girls in the developing world why they're not in education and 33 percent say it's because of household chores. Pregnancy is the leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19. There are slated to be 100 million child brides by 2020. Seventy-five percent of 15-24 year olds in sub-Saharan Africa living with HIV are girls.
When we get to girls in early adolescence - before they are married, pregnant, and HIV-positive - we invest in a solution for poverty, not a cure for its symptoms. Girls are the future mothers of every child born into poverty. Girls are integral to our food security, global health, peace and stability, economic growth - the whole gamut of investments, not just education.
A working paper just released by the World Bank, The Girl Effect Dividend, shows just how powerful girls are. Take Brazil. If young women's employment matched that of their male peers, they would add US$23 billion to Brazil's annual GDP. With nearly four million adolescent mothers annually, India loses US$383 billion in potential lifetime income.
Girls are unique change agents. Igniting her potential and transforming her world starts a ripple effect of change - for herself, her family, and her community. When a girl in the developing world receives seven years of education, she marries four years later, and has 2.2 fewer children. An extra year of secondary school increases her eventual wages 25 percent. Multiply that by the 250 million adolescent girls around the world living in poverty and you get the most powerful force for positive change on the planet.
So what do we do? It's dangerous to think that we reach girls by targeting other populations. Girls are not the same as women or their male peers. Girls' needs are unique. Programs and initiatives must specifically design for-and measure-impact on girls. This doesn't mean changing everything. It just takes including girls in what's already being done.
Every year the World Bank produces the World Development Report to focus on the biggest issue of our time in development. This year's is on Gender and Equality. Being distributed with the WDR is Smarter Economics: Investing in Girls. It calls out girl findings in the 2012 WDR and builds upon them. It highlights girls as a critical investment for our future.
Take Berhane Hewan, a program designed to assist unmarried girls by imparting the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to avoid child marriage. In Ethiopia, 50 percent of girls are married as teens. Berhane Hewan costs only $10 per girl. Girls in Berhane Hewan are 90 percent less likely to be married and three times more likely to be in school.
Or look at a girl named Juthika. In poor families, a daughter is married off as soon as possible, removed from the family balance sheet. In Ishwarpur, Bangladesh, Juthika is rewriting that equation through BRAC - a microfinance program that unleashes her potential and transforms her world. Juthika has ducks. She has a vegetable garden. She tutors schoolboys and embroiders handkerchiefs. Her skill and initiative earn Juthika US$37 dollars a month. She puts herself through school, along with her brother. She supports her father and her mother. The local elders confirm: Their village used to be poor. When they needed rice, they went into debt. Not anymore. In Ishwarpur, the girl effect has made the difference.
Girls need skills, assets, opportunities and connections to break the cycle of poverty. But inspiring and equipping her is only half the battle. We also need to:
1. Fund education and target transitions so every girl stays in school until age 16.
2. Work with community leaders so every girl has a safe space.
3. Prioritize girls in HIV prevention plans.
4. Fund girl-led movements and ensure their voices are heard.
5. Give girls identification so she can have access to financial services and vote when she reaches legal age.
6. Bring girls reproductive health programs that start before puberty.
We know what works. We now need the political will to do it. Girls need laws, governments, economic systems and social norms that protect her from harm and provide the opportunity to thrive. There is a great deal of work to do, but the global rewards could not be greater.
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| Advertising practices | Advertise with us | About us | Contact us | Work for us | Help
Many religious fanatics deny girls their right to education. Girls are slaves to their duties – breeding and householding.
Yes, all the pagan religions oppress women. Christian missionaries alone have been rescuing and educating women and girls everywhere. I'm Asian and we never knew men and women are equal under God until Christian missionaries taught us.
OH YEAH, Christians REALLY uplift and empower women... (gag)
It's like the old joke: "What's the highest rank a woman can achieve in the Catholic Church? Nun. ('none)".
Christianity is just another branch of the same root mythology born in the Middle East; one of the most misogynistic cultures humankind has ever produced. (Judeasm being older, Islam being younger).
Here's an idea. Shut up already.
We get it. You're a Christian and you think you are superior. You don't need to post another 100 times.
@ Greg - How can you even begin to criticize and patronize this person when you have never walked in her shoes? Christianity may be a joke to you, but obviously it is very real to her. Why take that away when obviously it has had such a profound and positive effect on her life?
Cute name there "What T. F.". How can I criticize her? Because she is a proponent of Christianity as a force of empowerment for girls and women. She made a statement that is patently flawwed, and I called her out on it.
Any further questions? Now put your dunce cap back on and get back in the corner.
Really? Christianity taught about treating females with respect? have you ever read the bible? or studied history at all??
(Just to be clear I am not insulting christianity I am just stating a fact.) In christianity women are NOT the equal of men. They are beneath them. so I have no idea where you got your facts from, but you are wrong. Oh and many "pagan" religions said that women and men are equal in some, if not all, ways. Yes in asia it was different, but still. Please read a history book before commenting on something you don't know about.
Christianity has been the sole source for oppressing women in Western culture for 2000 years. Every inequality between men and women traces back to Judeo-Chrisitan morals that say a woman should serve men, and it is women's fault that there is sin in the world.
Right on Greg G. You didn't put down her religion, you simply called her out on a deeply false statement. Christianity is as responsible for oppressing women as any other religion. So while I respect Christianna's faith and her religion, Christianity is not a vehicle to empower women (except perhaps as good, subservient Christian women). I can't be who I am AND be a Christian. Simply not possible...
...or maybe Christianna is being sarcastic.
Alot of negative comments here. This article shows people trying to do a good thing. There is nothing wrong with that. its better than people complaining and doing nothing and criticize others. It does not matter to me who is doing the right thing........the person who is a christian, jew, muslim, non-believer, earth worshiper, who cares. Just do the right thing and help people out.
As retired law enforcement I have interupted Christians who were actively telling domestic violance victims they would lose their salvation if they left their husbands. Religion, including paganism, has nothing to do with oppressing women. It is about power.
You must be from outside the USA. Here in America, pagans are openminded nature based religion followers that celebrate women's freedom and embrace/protect mother earth. As a pagan wiccan, our crede is "an it harm none, do as thy will". Which includes not hurting anybody by thought, belief, action or inaction. Look up pagan religions before you paint us all with the same brush. Don't believe what everybody tells you, knowledge is the ultimate power. Didn't you read the article at all?????
You clearly know NOTHING! Pagan Religions honored women. The Goddess is worshiped and women were honored for their ability to give birth. Learn your facts before spewing your garbage!
You are dead wrong about pagan religions. All of them have extremely powerful female goddesses. This is the reason for the extreme popularity of the Virgin Mary in Latin America. The fact that women gave birth was believe it or not, "very" important in early societies.
The Christian religion is NOT immune to this same thinking. I was married to a "good Christian boy" for over 10 years. He was raised in the church and even preached on some Sundays. Outside of church, he was abusive and of the "barefoot and pregnant" mindset.
Under God, perhaps, but the article was about life in this world, Christianna, not any afterlife you may believe in. Read it again to discover how women are treated in poor countries. And your argument that Christians treat woman equally is sadly mistaken.
Take a look at the highest fertility rates (births per woman) for the bottom-ten poorest, least-developed, non-Islamic countries and you'll see a startling correlation. East Timor (7.47), Uganda (7.10), Guinea-Bissau (7.08), Burundi (6.8), Liberia (6.78), Congo (Kinshasa) (6.7), Angola (6.56), Equatorial Guinea (5.89), Rwanda (5.8), Benin (5.6).
Now look at the literacy rates for women in those same countries, and you'll discover that every one but Equatorial Guinea is in the top 20 countries for female illiteracy. (source: NationMaster/WHO)
And the magic connection? All those poor countries with the highest birth rates and highest female illiteracy are dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. Women in those countries have little or no access to birth control, thanks to the Church, and so spend their lives being pregnant, illiterate second-class citizens, raising girls to be as illiterate as they are.
I'm sick to death of people like this painting ALL Christians with the same brush. We're not all jacka$$'s. Most of us are educated people who want peace for ALL people. Including girls.
Keep the faith, Christianna: the people who hate christians are fearful of them because christianity offers a bright light and a moral guide that jews, agnostics and atheists do not possess.
hey you forgot the little boys the missionaries actually go for!!
Your right, although most posters here don't have the history knowledge to know, Christianity is the main reason women in the west have the freedoms they have today. The encouragement Christianity gave for women's education in the middle ages has spawned what we see today. Many Christian women were encouraged to start their own schools and become monks and nuns, which spawned a women's mission that has allowed women to become equal citizens in our society. CNN fans won't know this though, they are too busy trying to vilify religion to actually know anything about it or its history.
Until the Industrial Revolution, households were a grinding chore machine. Clothes were washed in boiling kettles in the yard once a week, on Blue Monday; you bought ice every day do keep food cold and had to kill, pluck, and clean your own chicken for dinner. Children were sick a lot and often died young, and unpaved roads blew dust in the windows all day long. If you wanted a household, someone had to run it, and men are like large gorillas when it comes to cleaning and cooking. Don't confuse religion with culture! If you told most women back then that you wanted them to go to college, they'd chase you out of the kitchen with a broom.
I'm sorry, did you say men ARE like large gorillas when it comes to cooking and cleaning or that men were CONDITIONED to think they are bad at those things?
Men are just as capable in household chores, they are basic tasks that any healthy individual can do with know how and practice. Had men not been taught that they were above woman via religion they would have been taught the same skills as their female counterparts through the years.
Come on people, the gorilla comment is funny.
Men are not like large gorillas. More like undersize gorillas with an inferiority complex.
Of course, if you keep women ignorant and bidible they are easier to control.
Wow, while it is true that some fanatics, using religion as cloak, have done terrible things to women, it does not merit the generalization that many people make.
Ever consider how dreadful atheist nazism and communism have been to women?
If you can't detect a falacy (branding a whole group based on the actions of a few) in your argument, I suggest you go back to college, or get it started.
I prefer sterilization, too.
In the Baha'i Faith, if parents are too poor to educate all their children, they are to give priority to the girls over the boys. This principle was enunciated more than a hundred years ago as a means to reduce poverty and to improve communities.
Megnel02 on September 4, 2011 I love that its made of bmbaoo which means it will be SUPER soft on babys skin.
GIRLS NEED HELP TO GET WHAT THEY DESERVE,I DONT LIKE SEEING LADIES TREATED BADLY ,GIRLS,GIRLSGIRLS!
Don't they abort female fetuses in India?....how barbaric and medieval. Wonder where the human rights/women's rights people are?
I agree that abortion is barbaric and medieval, but why is it more so in India than in the US and other first world countries where both boy and girl fetuses are aborted?
It is worse because mostly female fetuses are being aborted males are held in higher esteem than females there for a left to be born. This is a self defeating policy, but those who do it are following a religious social code going back thousands of years. In some countries not so long ago when there was a famine baby girls were killed now with sonograms they are killed even though there is no famine.
The side-effect of that is a girl shortage that leads to men fighting over girls and girls bossing men around, so let 'em skew their demographics if they like it that way.
In china and other countries as well. By the year 2020 there will be a population balance in china of more men vs women of a magnitude of 40 mil plus.
What rubbish. In India women/girls are considered Devi, meaning divine. Get your facts straighten before posting anything..
So you think all the sonograms followed by aborting female fetuses were because the females were divine?
Facts are facts. The fact is India was a pioneer in sonograms to select and abort females.
Those kids are the future, teach them well.
Wonderful article describing initiatives to help the other half of the population. This is what Greg Mortenson has focused on the past decade in Pakistan and Afghanistan, despite some of the recent petty complaints about his efforts.
I would like to see more focus on girls in the United States as well. Our level of teen pregnancy and HIV is enormous. Since boys are never taught to leave girls alone, the entire burden has always been on... the girls.
I agree, as the mother of a boy I am determined to teach him to respect girls and women, but our pop-culture does make this difficult. Educate the girls, teach the boys some self control and set high standards for both of them, then maybe we can tackle some of the world's problems.
Right on!
Good point.
Posted on And the redears of most SF overlap with Fantasy which Space Opera has more in common with.
I don't necessarily disagree with you but, for the sake of arguement, how do you intend to make boys AND girls ignore 10 million years of genetic imperative that, from where I am sitting, is pretty persuasive. Education can only go so far.
What genetic imperative??? Despite what men might think, we don't have an innate desire to pop out 10 kids apiece. Hence the strong correlation in most cultures between more education and less children. Having 1 or 2 kids should not mean sacrificing a career or status.
coming from a mother...yes...sometimes boys need to learn to control themselves, but girls on the other hand need to learn as well. such as dressing more appropriately and behave themselves. you are looking at a one-sided spectrum to fix this when there is another spectrum you totally ignored...
If you think people talk about men learning self-control more than they focus on criticizing women for how they dress, and blaming men's lack of self control on how women dress, and blaming women for being victims of horribly violent crimes because of how they dress... I don't know what world you're living in or who you're talking to. Discussion of men finding healthy channels for any "urges" they might feel is NEVER EVER prioritized over suggesting that women are somehow responsible for being appealing to men. It's sick. And sickening.
Where did the belief system arrise that a female is somehow inferior? All of humanity is in existence through the womb. How can we as "human being" deny any female, when she is so vital to our survival at all levels. What is wrong with the male pyche that stubbornly dictates to him that he is above the mother of his civilization: his first teacher, his first preacher, his first guide, and first and best protector is his mother. Before a man knew of God, he first knew his mother. We hear our mother's voice and react to external stimuli while we are in the womb. Every society that suffers in poverty, war, and disease is effected as such because the women are left behind and kept invisible. Every thriving society will fall in degradaton as the status of women are gradually lessened. It is not a sin to elevate womanhood. It is the best and fastest way to attract God's grace, when a woman is allowed to live her fullest potential.
here here!
All excellent points; thank you for taking the time to voice them.
IIts in the Koran...
Old Testament, son. Literacy is cool.
The Bible says women should be silent and not talk back. Yeah, not gonna happen. God sure got THAT one wrong. Maybe he'd never met any women when He wrote that part.
I try to tell that to my wife all of the time....
beautiful and true.
Don't be talkin' about my pyche, honey. There ain't nothin' wrong with THAT.
Very well put. and to quote a line from a movie and contemporary literature " Mother is the name for god on the lips and hearts of little children"
"Where did the belief system arrise that a female is somehow inferior?" It arose from patriarchal values. It is the ones in power who make the rules.
Women are redundant at birth. i.e., 2 X chromosomes.
Women are human 2.0, the new improved version. lol
But those 2 X chromosomes make us genetically stronger. The Y is the anomaly and genetically unstable. Hence why men have more genetic diseases. Look it up.
Not so much females inferior, but males made better soldiers. A primitive society had to defend against enemies and if food or land grew short, take them from neighboring societies. In Western culture this is an obsolete need, but it unfortunately still makes sense in the tribal cultures that prevail in the Middle East and Africa.
Only Christians educate people properly. Secularism make kids bad – it's a trash nowadays.
Yeah, we can all see how uneducated you are. Pretty sad, but don't blame your teachers. I bet they tried hard with you.
I haven't noticed that, actually. Please cite your source.
College was started by churches.
For USA, educating Americans on history is a far more urgent need than educating world's girls. Americans have no knowledge on both US history and the world history and they keep saying weird stuff as if they are communists. The Protestant Judeo-Christian tradition alone stresses quality education of all, no others. Secularism only corrupts children and robs them of purposes to live well, producing numerous addicts to junks at the same time.
That's a really weird thing to say. Are you a Communist?
Actually, Christianna, those contemplating the "here and now on this Earth" should learn from history to think for themselves. Those who consciously develop a secular value system to differentiate right from wrong and maintain a good faith effort to be true to that deserve my respect and trust.
History teaches us that those whose actions merely reflect a primal fear of eternal damnation by an arbitrary and omnipotent deity are seldom consistent and never to be trusted. To give credit where credit is due, those who brainwashed you did a really fine job when you were a girl!
One is a logical and intellectual process of evaluating genuine choices. The other is unmitigated intimidation and peer coercion.
i have seen proof of this with my own eyes. educate a man, he'll try and change something local. give a woman that same level of education, she'll change the same thing on a bigger scale. lets fund this education mission.
well put
Beautiful and progressive. I've never left this website so satisfied. I think this is brilliant and very important. Step 1 complete out of many, many, many steps to come. I want to be a part of making this happen...
My revelation is complete and I want to work with my worshipers who want to live a better life with me. I created website for my worshipers to uphold the truth.
http://realnewworldorder.com/
Muhammad
Another false prophet. A sign of the bad time.
Yeah! Me too! I had a revelation. Mine's bigger than yours.
Aw, size doesn't matter. No one's impressed by your big revelation.
Oh yeah? The revelation that I had was twice as revelatory as yours.
You say you want a revelation? We'd all love to change the world.
I do thirty-three and a third revelations per second, baby.
Read what Thomas Paine has to say about revealed religon.
Can I draw a picture of you?
We had a revelation, too! Two for the price of one.
Can I get that to go?
I agree with and am inspired by everything Fareed wrote, except for the "political will" part. To the extent possible, the law should not favor or diminish either gender, but it should uphold each to the same standard (enforcement). Beyond that, PRESSURE to change coming from leaders/politicians would be a good thing. After that, it's up to us as individuals or as committed non-government organizations to do this work. Don't wait for government laws or money to bring this wonderful change about!
Sadly, women have been valued as property so patriarchal societies consider them slave labor, and unequal to men. Even the bible's mythology states women were created from a man's rib, and due to the temptation by the serpent caused the end of eden. People have long minimized the feminine while promoting the masculine so it is no wonder that cultures do not value girls.
Seventy-five percent of 15-24 year olds in sub-Saharan Africa living with HIV are girls.
By this statistic, this generation is doomed to fail.. then, will there even be a sub-Saharan population? I'm not sure if I paid enough attention in science class, but I'm pretty sure you need females in order to sustain a population. I realize that's the point of the story. Can this stat be true? I realize HIV is rampant, but 75%? sounds like a textbook case of the law of diminishing returns.
Yep, I'm replying to my own post....
I see, this is just another sensationalized story. It doesn't tell you that "N" number of people have HIV... just that its disproportionately girls. They make it SEEM worse by using percentages to woo sympathetic viewers.
For once, I would like a news story to be factual. Save the drama for your mama, writers.
I think this is an example of poor reading comprehension on your part, not sensationalism. 75% of 15-24 year olds living with HIV are girls. Of 15-24 year olds living with HIV, 75% of them are girls. A much greater proportion of 15-24 year olds with HIV are female than are male, which is the point they were trying to make. It sounds like you thought they were saying that 75% of girls in that age group have HIV... which is not what they said at all, and if you think it sounds sensationalist then you have only your own head to blame for not being able to read correctly.
The only force that keeps a woman down is the domineering man. The more he thinks he's losing control of her the more he controls. It's the same across the globe. The only reason there is so much insanity in warring countries and regions is because the women are kept under control. Wars rage and killing continues; cruel punishments and penalties are meted out by men in power and humanity struggles because the life giving benevolence that is a woman is denied its place among us.
@Riley Thank you for your powerful and truthful words.
we must reduce the surplus female population.
China is a patriarchy – and on the verge of greatness; so, too, is India. the west is rotting from within because it is gynocentric. Weak societies are societies that privilege females; it has been proved throughout time.
Investing in the education and betterment of Girls has a positive effect on the entire family and culture. Thank you for this awesome article.
Running water. Bathrooms. Many girls can't continue going to school once they start their period, as they don't have anywhere they can go to clean themselves up.
This is an excellent concept, and very logically sound... if you can get that through the heads of illogical, dogmatic cultures that think that doing anything different is evil.
Sounds like good work going on to me. Any program that encourages the young women of the world to NOT reproduce is a good thing. Better for them, better for the one or two children they may eventually have, better for the already overpopulated planet. Could we also initiate a program or two in those same parts of the world to teach boys why it is in their own best interests to treat girls with honor and respect and keep their hands off of them?
The only thing this article seems to be talking about is MONEY. ya, those girls are worth nothing more than the almighty dollar.
We r all going to die soon get real
Any group of people can be controlled by controlling the education they recieve.
That's true, but in third world countries woman tend to be an ignored group. The point of the article is that if you educate the mothers of the future you'll affect all the generations to come. A woman who was educated herself is more likely and more able to see to it that all her children are educated.
You cannot educate people (women, girls) who are not allowed out of their house or not allowed to go anywhere without a male escort. This plan is DOA.
There are many, many more countries in need than just the ones that keep their women locked up. A difference somewhere is a difference somewhere.
People don't seem to realize that in countries such as these, the men all have guns and are used to getting their own way. If you start any pro-woman organization, without the backing of those same men with guns, you'll only make the women targets. You can't change this situation by throwing money at it. Gotta get your hands dirty, which of course, no one is willing to do.
The only way "The Girl Effect" can be stopped is by eradicating the scourge of Islam from the world. All Middle Eastern nations, the Phillipines and many African nations have been hijacked by this disease of humanity.
We need to stop worrying about random people in other countries. Sorry africa you've had hundreds of years to fix the problems sorry your couldn't get it done.
What? Or for hundreds of years, Europeans were depleting populations, destroying communities, and stealing natural resources through slavery and colonialism.
They should get their buns in the kitchen and biscuits in the oven!
Dude. Even my goat knows that's "biscuits in the oven and buns in the bed."
"There are always contradictions." (Mao Zedong) Hypocrisy! I assume Maria Eltel's Nike Foundation is a part of the Nike shoe manufacture corporation. Nike outsources it production to subcontractors in South Korea, China, Indonesia, etc. There, young girls were paid 15 cents an hour for a 12 hour day. Indonesian workers made about $2 per day; well below a living wage. The Multinational Monitor calculated that the entire cost for the production of a pair of $149.50 basketball shoes would be $1.50. Ahh, corporate America: don't let doing "good deeds" get in the way of making obscene profits, for example, off the backs of poor illiterate female "workers." Caring for and supporting female uplift? A very sick joke.
Girls are the future mothers of poor people? And the leading cause of death is pregnancy? Wouldn't that reduce poverty, having them die before they successfully reproduce?
Also, the statistic about women matching men in employment may be wrong. It wouldn't add to the GDP if all the jobs are currently taken; you'd just be replacing men in the workforce with women, leaving men out of work. In the U.S., that's happening, hence the rise of stay-at-home dads. The only way that adding women to the workforce would make a country with saturated employment better off is if the women were actually better or willing to do the same amount of work for less money than the men. Which might be true...
Christianity helped women in the middle ages, it gave women a choice women in other cultures didn't have, in the middle ages Christian women had a choice to go to the temples and be monks and nuns, that is more choice than other women of the time had.
This is a wonderful movement an i could i would get my hands dirty to help us girls gain better futures for our unborn generations. We all need to stop speaking negativity an give the money needed to reach these goals. We do need to talk to the men an also get their approval so we dont end up wasting an giving false hopes t our young girls. I will give an ask everyone else on here to give whether or not u believe in the end results or not...<3 Thank You for all these groups... Salaam alaikum..
"With nearly four million adolescent mothers annually, India loses US$383 billion in potential lifetime income."
This proposes that India has four million jobs currently being unworked that untrained girls would be able to fill. It's a crock. Same with the Brazil statistic. If those jobs exist, someone is already filling them. Even if you got 4M people to suddenly decide to get a job, it's not like companies have all those positions available to give.