Women and Development in the Global South: Creating Community Leaders

More and more groups are realizing that to effectively reduce poverty, all community members need to be involved in development - this particularly means women. Educating and empowering women has had dramatically positive impacts in poor areas, in everything from reduced rates of disease, to slower population growth, to reduced poverty and increased employment. All-in-all women need to be involved in the development of their communities to really make things better for everyone, and governments and non-profits are talking about it. Here are some recent articles discussing, not only the importance of women in development but what more needs to be done:

From Amnesty International, this article talks about the need to further expand girl's access to education and consider what success in women's education really means and requires. They make the case that education still needs to be more equitable and safe and issues such as child marriage the availability of female teachers need to be addressed in order to truly educate more girls across the world. http://blog.amnestyusa.org/women/what-is-girls-education-without-human-rights/

The Women's News Network points out that the demand for women's micro-financing is not being met, denying a huge growth and development potential. They call on more banks to serve women in order to not only help the economy but reduce poverty. http://womennewsnetwork.net/2011/06/15/microfinance-money-africas-women/

China is answering this call by integrating women into development. The country is recognizing the different needs of different genders and trying to address women's concerns more in order to promote development. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/2011/08/01/China-integrates-womens-voices-in-development?cid=EXT_TWBN_D_EXT

We are so interested in this topic because AWAZ Voice for Empowerment works with mostly women groups. The work the groups do is truly giving women a voice. We have seen firsthand how women gain status and become valued because of their income and skills. This valuation in turn improves morale and self-confidence. The groups we work with are allowing women access to equal opportunities like bank accounts, and getting involved in local government councils or village government groups. When this happens, there is a ripple effect - it is inspiring to witness empowered women. When mothers work, it creates more opportunities and hopeful futures for their children who tend to look for more skilled work and consider college.

It is encouraging to see how many groups are embracing the ideals of gender equality and women's empowerment. These projects have very tangible impacts not just for women, but for entire communities.