I'd love to hear examples of mobile based vocational education for girls and young women, in a for-profit or sustainable financial model, that help to address the issues that come from girls who are out of school, or leaving school early because of early childhood marriage, kids, and more. This is something that we're really looking for - investable ventures that can really help address the out of school training that gets girls / young women into work - either as entrepreneurs or otherwise.
Thanks Maria - here's a link if anyone would like to download the report: http://www.icrw.org/publications/innovation-womens-empowerment-and-gender-equality
Ama,
Your case in the blog is very convincing. I agree with your assessment about scaling up and WEConnect International is one organization that is working on that with our corporate partners who do understand the business case. As you point out, women's economic development happens along a continuum and there are several entry points from micro-macro solutions. Thanks for posting the link and for sharing your comment.
Thanks Payal, for your imporant remarks. I find it a difficult not to crack, how to engage men. In the field of reproductive health there is an innovative approach called Men Engage (http://menengage.org/ . may be we can learn from their approach.
The golden thread is important as is an inclusive approach for sustainability. The woman’s experience of the organisation as a consumer, direct employee or supplier etc needs to be the litmus test. The quality of encounter informs the longeviety of the engagement and the good intentions of strategists can get lost by the time it gets to the benficiary if they are not includedfrom the get go.
Ama - agree with your point.
In addition to direct finance there is a need to embed financial education within financial institutions. Financial education helps people avoid over-indebtedness, improve savings habits, increase economic assets, cushion against unexpected financial shocks, and promote positive interactions with financial institutions. Embedd within other trainings and within financial service providers for sustainability and scale. MasterCard Corporation has been a huge supporter with Mercy Corps in Nigeria and Myanmar for women and girls.
Hi everyone. Great conversations! The International Rescue Committee has had some great success with its innovative Girls Empowered through Microfranchising (GEM) programme in Kenya. Funded by Nike Foundation, the IRC has been working with local SMEs to develop or expand franchised business models and then has linked over 2,000 girls trained in entrepreneurship to the franchise opportunities. One particular success was working with a girl-focused hair and beauty company - Darling - who have applied the business model elsewhere in Kenya after the programme ended. We're working with the World Bank to finalise results from the impact evaluation of the program, with the report due early next year.
Absolutely agree Suzanne. One of the potential dangers of vocational training / start up schemes is that you end up with a village with a twenty restaurants and no customers, or a cohort of young people who all want to be hairdressers when no one wants their haircut. Not only do you need to work with girls to involve them in programme design, but you need to think very carefully about the context - and specifically to this conversation and the private sector, not be lead by corporate expertise in place of demand!
Love this Maria, thanks for sharing. SPRING is most definitely looking to break boundaries for strategic partnerships by getting NGOs involved that have safe spaces for girls and are thinking creatively about girl centered innovations that could be productized, using their work on policy and advocacy, using their reach and addressing cultural norms, including corporates who can bring expertise, capacity in manufacturing, finance, distribution, marketing, and more, including investors who can bring not only capital but their expertise to mentor and coach these ventures... and again, keeping girls and young women at the center of all of it by. Cultivating champions amongst MEN in the community is also essential as so many of the barriers for girls are influenced by men...
Thanks Liz :) Now the question is how do we get integrated in the infrastructure and get in front of people who have the power to make decisions.
Great discussion! Let's move on to question 3:
Q3: How can we overcome silos and fragmentation of effort to achieve greater impact?
Powerful public private partnership platforms are being developed with civil society at CGI, ICWBL, Women’s Forum, BSR, various UN Agencies, and many others committed to impact.
One of the lessons learned is the importance of scale and assessing carefully the potential for a multiplier effect when investments are made in capacity development so that each woman or girl is in a better position to help others in her community.
As others have pointed out, it is extremely important that women and girls be at the center of designing interventions that they will own and carry forward. They know what the problems are, but not owning many of the assets required to deliver solutions is the challenge that we must overcome together.
Hi Suzanne... I know the Norwegian Refugee Council are doing mobile based vocational training in Afghanistan, reaching out to girls and boys. I can link you if you're not already in touch.
... and start financial literacy programmes before girls / women suffer from not being financially literate! Both Plan's youth savings group model and our work with Aflatoun to include financial education and life skills within school classes / clubs prepares girls to be economic actors and active contributors to their communities
Totally agree Samantha - the storytelling, making it real, showing the reality of the barriers but the opportunities and examples of solutions - is critical. We're aiming to use media in SPRING to share insights and stories but could use partners to help us to do that. Girl Rising was so great in its specificity and the going back and forth between story and facts, making it real.
Confirmed by this conversation, successful private sector support of programs do exist across age ranges and approaches / intervention. However, there is a visible gap in the coordination of these efforts at every level. Moreover, the infrastructure, systems incentives for community building organisations to coordinate at grassroots level simply mirrors the lack of coordination at corporate level. We first need intra-sector approaches that build leadership pipelines, within or across programs, to provide growth opportunities and avoid duplication.
Yes, and I've seen some great NGOs that teach boys that hitting girls is not ok etc. The He for She campaign will be interesting to assess as I can't tell it's impact yet. There just hasn't been a scaled effort yet, as far as I am aware!
Kate, I agree to your point on the danger of a project based way of vocational training / start up schemes.
Any initiative of this kind has to be build on sound business / entreprenurship parameters.
in this context, I think we should not glorify entreprneurship. for most people, incl. girls > 16 and women, a skilled and steady job is the best option for economic empowerment.
I have seem some requests for examples in the thread so am sharing work our work in the Syria response recognizing the specific needs or adolescent girls. http://www.mercycorps.org.uk/research-resources/advancing-adolescence
On that note, the OECD's report on Women Economic Empowerment published in 2012 is really enlightening too: http://www.oecd.org/development/povertyreduction/50157530.pdf....and highlight the importance of empowering every women, starting with the very poor.
"Women experience barriers in almost every aspect of work. Employment opportunities need to be improved. At the same time women perform the bulk of unpaid care work. This is an area for greater attention by development actors through increased recognition and valuing of the ways in which care work supports thriving economies.[..]Technology can enhance women’s productivity, economic decision-making power and
their entrepreneurial opportunities. Technologies such as fuel-efficient stoves or motorised
scooters and other time-saving products are particularly important"