http://www.cfr.org/publication/20828/women_as_change_agents_in_the_recovery_from_the_global_financial_crisis.html?breadcrumb=%2Fbios%2F15754%2Fcokie_roberts
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One thing that many people in the United States are unaware of is that many of the export industries in developing countries are primary employers of women. So if you look at the cut flower industry in Uganda and Kenya, which is now hundreds of millions of dollars of business, those are 75, 80, 85 percent women employees. In the textile industry in Cambodia, 90 percent of the employees are women. Lesotho, the numbers are very similar.
ReplyDeleteSo one of the very unfortunate effects about
But let's go beyond that aspect. I mentioned in the microfinance industry the types of support that we're trying to give to try to help that dimension. Many of you are reading about President Clinton -- President Obama's initiative about food security. If you look at the primary producers of agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, women are probably the most significant part of the labor force; but if you look at issues about how systems have provided seeds or fertilizer or credit or property rights, they're often shut out of the system. So some of the people who are here today who've helped develop this at the World Bank have emphasized that this is not just a question of fairness, but gender equality is smart economics.
ReplyDeleteSo what's exciting about this, not only in terms of the fairness of treating girls and women, but frankly for a lot of societies, this can be a real sort of generator of growth and broader opportunities.
ReplyDeleteHanifan Dakly (ph), Potomac Capital. One of the fastest ways of creating economic opportunities for women, sustainable ones, at least, is education. And in many places around the world now, women are the majority in both high schools and colleges. And even conservative societies like Saudi Arabia and Oman, they had to cap the women's enrollment to about 60 or 70 percen
ReplyDeleteOne thing that many people in the United States are unaware of is that many of the export industries in developing countries are primary employers of women. So if you look at the cut flower industry in Uganda and Kenya, which is now hundreds of millions of dollars of business, those are 75, 80, 85 percent women employees. In the textile industry in Cambodia, 90 percent of the employees are women. Lesotho, the numbers are very similar.
ReplyDeleteWell, we don't do badly. And at least -- and frankly, in comparative experience, when I was USTR, about 70 to 80 percent of our leading people were women, some of who are in this room.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that many people in the United States are unaware of is that many of the export industries in developing countries are primary employers of women. So if you look at the cut flower industry in Uganda and Kenya, which is now hundreds of millions of dollars of business, those are 75, 80, 85 percent women employees. In the textile industry in Cambodia, 90 percent of the employees are women.
ReplyDeleteAnd so if you look at some 90 -- the lowest 90 million or 100 million microcredit borrowers, about 85 percent of those are women.
ReplyDeletehe nutrition and educational performance improves. And you know, we've now done studies in a place like Brazil, where the chance of childhood survival, if you give the money to the women head-of-household, increases by some 20 percent.
ReplyDeleteSo if you look at the cut flower industry in Uganda and Kenya, which is now hundreds of millions of dollars of business, those are 75, 80, 85 percent women employees.
ReplyDeleteA second area is, as many of you are probably well aware, the microfinance industry has been particularly successful in reaching out to women borrowers who would otherwise not have access.
ReplyDeleteAnd so if you look at some 90 -- the lowest 90 million or 100 million microcredit borrowers, about 85 percent of those are women.
But the connection that we're doing, starting with Nike and, in Denmark, I think, in Liberia, is that we're taking what we hope will be 3,000 girls between sort of the age -- starting at age 16; it's 16 to 24. And the idea is, if you can keep them in school, if you can connect the school and skills training to jobs, help them get the job connection and then build a mentor system, it has a huge effect not only on those girls' and women's sense of their own personal opportunity, but on their ability to contribute to society.
ReplyDeleteHanifan Dakly (ph), Potomac Capital. One of the fastest ways of creating economic opportunities for women, sustainable ones, at least, is education. And in many places around the world now, women are the majority in both high schools and colleges. And even conservative societies like Saudi Arabia and Oman, they had to cap the women's enrollment to about 60 or 70 percent in most cases before they take over.
ReplyDeleteLawrence
And so if you look at some 90 -- the lowest 90 million or 100 million microcredit borrowers, about 85 percent of those are women.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that many people in the United States are unaware of is that many of the export industries in developing countries are primary employers of women. So if you look at the cut flower industry in Uganda and Kenya, which is now hundreds of millions of dollars of business, those are 75, 80, 85 percent women employees. In the textile industry in Cambodia, 90 percent of the employees are women. Lesotho, the numbers are very similar.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that many of you are reading about President Clinton -- President Obama's initiative about food security. If you look at the primary producers of agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, women are probably the most significant part of the labor force; but if you look at issues about how systems have provided seeds or fertilizer or credit or property rights, they're often shut out of the system. So some of the people who are here today who've helped develop this at the World Bank have emphasized that this is not just a question of fairness, but gender equality is smart economics.
ReplyDeleteA second area is, as many of you are probably well aware, the microfinance industry has been particularly successful in reaching out to women borrowers who would otherwise not have access.
ReplyDeleteAnd so if you look at some 90 -- the lowest 90 million or 100 million microcredit borrowers, about 85 percent of those are women.
But here's where the other piece matters. You can -- you can link this back to your development strategy. So, for example, we worked with one of the early finance ministers in Afghanistan to create something called the National Solidarity Program, and it's been one of the most successful programs because it's based on local community ownership. So these grants are $30(,000), 40(,000), 50,000.
ReplyDeleteAfter five years of investments through this initiative, we are targeting three program areas to improve women's economic opportunity globally. The first is to help build the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders. The second program area is to reduce the barriers to women's economic participation. And the third is to help identify and deploy technologies for women. With our mutual interest in women's roles in strengthening the global economy, ExxonMobil hopes that we can become strong partners with many of you here today.
ReplyDeleteBut if you look at a program that Mexico has called Oportunidades, which is a conditional cash-transfer program where the money goes to the poorest families -- and the conditions are you send the kids to school, and people get health checkups -- this money is actually given to the woman head-of- household. Because what the data now shows, if you give women the money, more of it goes to the family, more of it goes to the community --
ReplyDelete- the nutrition and educational performance improves. And you know, we've now done studies in a place like Brazil, where the chance of childhood survival, if you give the money to the women head-of-household, increases by some 20 percent.
ReplyDeleteBut -- this is why it depends on the market -- what you'd like to do is create an environment so if one place has 24 percent interest rates, that somebody will also come in and offer 22 percent or 20 percent or 19 percent or so on, so forth.
ReplyDeleteZOELLICK: She told us about a trafficking-in-women's initiative and that they were undertaking as a hotel chain. And interestingly enough, you know, part of this is getting the word out, because not all hotels will do this, but basically having -- you know, they have a huge network in getting the hotels to sign up at least for the laws of the country. So let's just start out with the laws of the country. And the types of pledges that the hotel management would take.
ReplyDeletethe nutrition and educational performance improves. And you know, we've now done studies in a place like Brazil, where the chance of childhood survival, if you give the money to the women head-of-household, increases by some 20 percent.
ReplyDeleteSo, you know, maybe one thing that can help you on this is, is that we do have a lot of evidence about making this point. And we think -- you know, in some ways this may sound like just a phrase, but we think there's an important idea behind it. Fairness is important, but we're going beyond fairness. We're saying it's smart economics. This is a more effective way to not only be able to create opportunity for your people, but also to make your dollars go further and to create additional productivity.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that many people in the United States are unaware of is that many of the export industries in developing countries are primary employers of women. So if you look at the cut flower industry in Uganda and Kenya, which is now hundreds of millions of dollars of business, those are 75, 80, 85 percent women employees. In the textile industry in Cambodia, 90 percent of the employees are women. Lesotho, the numbers are very similar.
ReplyDeleteOne of the fastest ways of creating economic opportunities for women, sustainable ones, at least, is education. And in many places around the world now, women are the majority in both high schools and colleges. And even conservative societies like Saudi Arabia and Oman, they had to cap the women's enrollment to about 60 or 70 percent in most cases before they take over.
ReplyDeleteAnd we're a multilateral organization. You know, I got 186 members. I'm in the process of every three years having to go to fine committees like the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to try to get money -- $42 billion, actually, not just from the U.S. Congress but from around the world -- for the poorest people, a capital increase. And so we have to get a balance of those topics.
ReplyDeleteAfter five years of investments through this initiative, we are targeting three program areas to improve women's economic opportunity globally. The first is to help build the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders. The second program area is to reduce the barriers to women's economic participation. And the third is to help identify and deploy technologies for women. With our mutual interest in women's roles in strengthening the global economy, ExxonMobil hopes that we can become strong partners with many of you here today.
ReplyDeleteI think the other point, talking about the women leadership, whether it's the institutions that I've been part of or, frankly, trying to support others -- as you mentioned, in the case of Josette who was a colleague of mine at USTR, and then at State, and now the World Food Program; does a fantastic job. But to be honest, you know, whether it's her as an individual or as a woman, sometimes in those institutional structures you've got a lot of challenges. So, frankly, we've tried to be supportive. Okay?
ReplyDeleteBut again, what I -- what I'm always trying to be a little careful about here is, is that, you know, you always -- you want to get the combination of treating people as individuals, regardless of sex or background or other, color, but recognize that for various reasons people may have been precluded. And by opening up opportunities, legal -- and it's not only the legal system. It's, frankly, sort of getting people a chance to sort of -- that might not, whether through sports or something, have had an opportunity. You're just -- you're maximizing the opportunity for individuals all around the world.
ReplyDeleteAnd my question to you is, how can we get more men involved and really taking a prominent role on these issues, so they are not just relegated to, as Cokie said, on-the-side, women's issues? And I'd also like you to comment on the special role you think that women leaders, from Helen Clark to Josette to presidents of countries, foreign ministers, can and should be playing on really getting momentum on these issues.
ReplyDeleteMy question is about the need for diversity in types of financial institutions in a number of political economies. Many people in recent years, including our last Treasury secretary, have made a lot of the importance of financial infrastructure development, especially in middle-income countries, and the fact that this can be especially helpful to women who are involved in entrepreneurial activities. Can you speak to how we might be seeing progress in this area, especially as we try to climb out of the global economic morass that we're currently in? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAfter five years of investments through this initiative, we are targeting three program areas to improve women's economic opportunity globally. The first is to help build the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders. The second program area is to reduce the barriers to women's economic participation. And the third is to help identify and deploy technologies for women. With our mutual interest in women's roles in strengthening the global economy, ExxonMobil hopes that we can become strong partners with many of you here today.
ReplyDeletene of the fastest ways of creating economic opportunities for women, sustainable ones, at least, is education. And in many places around the world now, women are the majority in both high schools and colleges. And even conservative societies like Saudi Arabia and Oman, they had to cap the women's enrollment to about 60 or 70 percent in most cases before they take over.
ReplyDeletefor land titling that create room for two names, you can go a long way towards being able to give women property rights as well. And then I think there was something also with the photographs, as I recall, then.
ReplyDeleteAnd so if you look at some 90 -- the lowest 90 million or 100 million microcredit borrowers, about 85 percent of those are women.
ReplyDeleteSo again we're one institution. We have some significance in working with governments. We have IFC, which is a private-sector arm. And for example, one of the commitments of IFC, our private-sector arm, is to provide $100 million in credit, to women entrepreneurs, by 2012.
ReplyDeleteOur support for the women and development series is an important part of the ExxonMobil women's economic opportunity initiative, a global effort that we launched in 2005 that helps women in developing countries fulfill their economic potential and serve as drivers of both economic and social change in their communities.........this shoes that women have the support needed to succeed in this world but
ReplyDeletewith a little more support we can take over!!
So in this small town it was a hydroelectric plant, but sometimes it's schools. We have the evidence that, when the Taliban attacked some of these schools, the people attacked the Taliban -- I mean, because they own it, you know? And so some of them -- now, obviously, if it gets too imbalanced and they're going to lose their lives, people will, you know, take cover. But this is part of the larger question.
ReplyDeletejobs, help them get the job connection and then build a mentor system, it has a huge effect not only on those girls' and women's sense of their own personal opportunity, but on their ability to contribute to society
ReplyDelete