Michele Frix, Janelle Cavanagh, Musimbi Kanyoro and Kristin Dailey
By Michele Frix, Chief of Staff, Seattle Foundation
“We’ve opened our eyes to the problems of the world… we are not going back from an open world, and we are not afraid to stand for women’s leadership.”
Seattle Foundation and Global Washington were honored to recently host Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro, CEO of the Global Fund for Women, for a roundtable discussion about the importance of supporting women-led organizations around the world, especially relevant given the current global socio-political climate. Continue Reading
On March 23rd 2017, Global Washington co-hosted an issue briefing with Sahar, addressing some of the challenges facing global women’s empowerment in the current US political climate. Titled “The Courage to Persist: Standing Firm in Support of Women’s Opportunities Globally”, the talk was led by Sahar Afghan Fellow, Malahat Mazaher and Sahar Board Member, Kelsey Noonan and moderated by Ginna Brelsford, Sahar Executive Director.
There were over fifty people in attendance – we had representatives from many different organizations, including Landesa, Camber Collective, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Women’s Enterprises International. Continue Reading
As clouds and drizzle obscured a normally breathtaking view of the Puget Sound, philanthropic and business leaders joined Global Washington for a rare inside look at the current Administration and how geopolitical circumstances are impacting decision-making in the halls of power.
At Global Washington, we often talk about sustainable development. At its core, sustainability is about the people who are most affected by a challenge having ownership of the solutions.
In recognition of World Water Day on March 22nd, this month’s newsletter highlights several of our members that are improving access to clean water and sanitation globally. As in most things, the best solutions depend heavily on context, and our members work closely with people in their communities to understand and develop solutions to meet their most pressing needs.
Be sure and join us for a discussion on March 27th to hear more about successes and failures when it comes to improving access to clean water in developing countries. Connecting with one another and sharing what’s working (and what’s not) helps us in our efforts to shape a healthier and more equitable world.
In addition to promoting the work of our members, Global Washington is tracking events related to global development and diplomacy as they unfold in Washington, D.C. Last week, we hosted a private breakfast roundtable with Fred Kempe, the president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, and Washington state philanthropic and business leaders. Those assembled explored how the U.S. can meet future global challenges under the Trump Administration and discussed the essential functions of development and diplomacy for national security. At our upcoming event with Sahar Education International on March 23rd, we will continue to explore the impact of a changing U.S. political climate, specifically on programs for women and girls in Afghanistan.
Finally, I’d like to introduce a new GlobalWA staff member, Andie Long, who joins us as our new Director of Communications and Marketing. Andie spent nine years at Waggener Edstrom, and five years at Mercy Corps. A great storyteller, she has a passion for international issues and social justice, and is a self-proclaimed “data geek” with a deep interest in game design. We feel very fortunate to have Andie on our team!
I hope to see you this month at one of our up-coming events.
Kristen Dailey
Executive Director
Check out our new video and hear members talk about what they like most about Global Washington.
Behavior Change and Technology: The Keys to Solving Global Water and Sanitation Issues
By Amanda Pain
For people in the developed world, it is difficult to comprehend living without running water or a flush toilet. Even more difficult to understand may be that in some places, having these amenities is not the most feasible, cost-effective or beneficial solution. The need for technological innovation to solve access to clean water and improved sanitation, as well as to ignite behavior change has never been greater, or more promising.
In 2010 the United Nations (UN) General Assembly recognized water and sanitation as a human right. Great progress has been made to increase access to clean drinking water, however targets for improved sanitation have fallen short, leaving nearly 700 million people without ways to safely dispose of human waste. In fact, globally 80 percent of wastewater generated by society goes back into water sources untreated, which leaves 1.8 billion people drinking and cooking with water contaminated with feces.
The benefits of WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) interventions include improved health and nutrition, school attendance (especially for girls), and overall productivity, with less time spent collecting water. Improved sanitation also contributes to economic development by delivering $5 in social and economic benefits for every $1 invested, according to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Additionally, research demonstrates that designing WASH technology without changing end-user behavior is less likely to succeed. Technologies such as PotaVida’s Smart Solar Purifier, WASH programs implemented by Splash, and community-designed water system with Water1st, are enabling behavior change and ultimately, long-term sustained clean water system in developing countries.
Between 1990 and 2015, 2.6 billion people gained access to improved drinking water, which included piped water connections, public taps, protected wells and boreholes, as well as filtration systems. However, only five to 25 percent of these water purification methods were used correctly. This is why changing behaviors in WASH is so critical. While access to clean water has made greater strides than access to improved sanitation, where 2.4 billion people still do not have basic sanitation facilities, all areas of WASH need to include behavior change to succeed.
The majority of people lacking improved water and sanitation live in rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Southern Asia. While people in urban areas have greater access today, urban areas also need attention. This is why new technologies, especially those that enable behavior are so crucial for WASH interventions, and the development sector is working on innovative and cost-effective ways to test and treat drinking water, as well as develop new methods for assessing safe collection, transport, disposal and reuse of fecal waste along the sanitation chain. There are a number of promising technologies for cleaning drinking water. Engineers are also working to make desalination less expensive by reducing the energy required for the process. Technologies are also being created to improve recycling of wastewater and sewage treatment for irrigation and industrial use, as well as to resupply aquifers.
In addition, technology can help encourage, enable and empower sustainable behavior change around WASH. All WASH practices, even hand washing with soap, require some physical product or technological component, and the design of these can strongly influence their acceptance by communities. Placement is often key, as well as physical characteristics, such as the design of soap containers and water taps.
Here in Washington State there are a number of organizations using technology to reach the Sustainable Development Goals focused on WASH. For example, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation started the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge in 2011, which has now awarded 16 researchers around the world with grants to utilize innovative approaches for the safe and sustainable management of human waste (see one example here). Additionally, The Gates Foundation provides funding to researchers who are developing ways to process and convert waste into products, energy, and fertilizer. Other organizations such as World Concern and Splash (see a list of other organizations below) are also using innovative technology.
While ensuring all people have access to improved water and sanitation will not be easy, the use of new technologies will help create sustainable solutions in places where piped water and flush toilets are not feasible.
A number of Global Washington members work tirelessly to provide access to clean water and improved sanitation. Below are descriptions of just a few of these organizations, highlighting current projects. Learn more about these members and others on GlobalWA’s interactive map.
Etta Projects: Etta Projects collaborates with communities, creating sustainable solutions to improve health, sanitation and clean water. The organization’s safe water and sanitation projects include building water distribution systems in rural communities, building water purification systems in per-urban communities using filtration, as well as building dry composting latrines and grey water filtration systems. Etta Projects also offers hygiene, sanitation and disease prevention training and education, working with locally appointed villagers to become health, sanitation and rights promoters. ettaprojects.org
Global Good: Global Good combines Intellectual Venture’s unique invention prowess with the expertise of leading humanitarian organizations, forward-looking governments, and commercial partners that share our vision. Together, we invent, develop, and deploy commercially-viable technologies that improve life in developing countries. With the goal of enabling millions of smallholder farmers to grow crops and keep their families going through dry seasons and drought, Global Good is working with various NGOs and other partners to explore the efficiency and other characteristics of inexpensive solar-powered water pumps, with the aim of making such starter pumps more available to the millions of farmers who are attempting to produce food over groundwater they currently cannot reach. globalgood.com
PotaVida: PotaVida enables aid organizations to make better decisions by collecting accurate data from the field in real time and distilling it into actionable insights. To realize this, PotaVida creates technical solutions that work, are simple to use, and result in dramatic benefit to people in need. The company’s first product, the Smart Solar Purifier, disinfects water using just sunlight for household use in disaster relief and refugee contexts. In addition to providing safe drinking water at a dramatically lower cost, every Smart Solar Purifier records its own usage data. This data is downloaded to mobile devices to provide instantaneous feedback in the field, and is also synced in the cloud, analyzed at the program level, and sent to decision makers. potavida.com
Splash: Splash is a nonprofit enterprise focused on clean water, clean hands and clean toilets for children living in urban poverty across Asia and Africa. It implements water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programs in child-serving institutions, including schools, hospitals, shelters and orphanages, in order to reach the greatest number of children cost-effectively and to bring about generational change. Splash’s holistic approach to WASH includes high-quality water filtration systems, durable drinking and hand washing stations, toilet renovations, and hygiene clubs to ensure that kids learn healthy habits like handwashing. To date, Splash is managing 1,552 international projects and serving safe drinking water to over 398,000 children every day in eight countries (China, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam). In nine years of operation, Splash’s global project success rate is 99.5%. splash.org
Water1st International: Water1st prides itself on funding sustainable water projects that involve local communities, local women, as well as a consistent funding stream. Since its founding in 2005, Water1st has provided clean water to over 160,000 people. While its projects focus on providing easy access to clean water, the organization also ensures that projects integrate toilets and hygiene education. Water1st’s success centers on robust program evaluation of each of its funded projects to ensure that deliverables are effective and community needs are met. water1st.org
World Concern: World Concern is a Christian humanitarian organization that helps lift people out of poverty through activities including microfinance, agriculture, disaster response and small business development. World Concern works in 22 countries, with the goal of transforming the lives of those it touches, leading them on a path to self-sustainability. As an organization, World Concern aims to be transparent and effective in how it helps. Various staff members from the organization’s U.S. headquarters and in the field contribute to this blog, keeping the public informed of the ways World Concern is offering hope to six million people worldwide. worldconcern.org
Esperanza International Foundation: Working in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, Esperanza International Foundation serves women, the material poor and the socially marginalized. The Foundation’s water projects allow local churches to purchase professional-grade water filtration systems with Esperanza loan capital, which allows churches to then sell clean drinking water at affordable prices to local community members. These churches then use the profits of their water project to repay their loan, as well as invest in strengthening their communities. New access to clean water has played a major role in reducing the number of water borne illnesses and gastrointestinal problems these communities face, providing them with better overall health. esperanza.org
The Living Earth Institute: The Living Earth Institute (LEI) works to empower communities to protect their health and environment through sustainable water use, with the primary goals of ensuring clean water supply and improved sanitation. LEI adapts water projects to the needs of the community with projects ranging from building family composting toilets and community water wells in Nepal, to pursuing earthquake rebuild partnerships. LEI has also created drinking water, rainwater catchment and hand washing stations in developing communities in other parts of the world. living-earth.org
MSR Global Health: MSR Global Health is focused on improving access to basic human needs for people living in low- resource settings around the globe. MSR Global Health believes the same trusted engineering that creates gear for challenging outdoor environments can find solutions to help these communities gain greater access to safe water, food and shelter. msrglobalhealth.com
World Vision: World Vision is the leading NGO provider of clean drinking water, reaching one new person every 30 seconds. Focusing on the rural, ultra-poor, combining access to clean water with sanitation and hygiene interventions and engaging communities in sustainability efforts, World Vision and its partners are committed to expanding their reach to one new person every 10 seconds with clean water and sanitation by 2020. With the use of right-sized equipment, appropriate water sources, manual drilling, mechanized wells with solar pumps and over 500 WASH professionals who live and work in the communities where they lead efforts, nearly 80 percent of World Vision wells continue to function at a high level after 20 years. http://www.worldvision.org/our-impact/clean-water
Seattle-based PotaVida, Inc. launched its Smart Solar Purifier last May, and has already seen a great response to the 1,800 purifiers now deployed in Haiti and Somaliland. The Smart Solar Purifier is an innovative household water purifier that tracks its own usage like a Fitbit. Unique among household water solutions, the Smart Solar Purifier uses solar disinfection (SODIS) to eliminate the need for chemicals or filters. Its complementary data collection system provides critical teaching and decision support tools in a context where existing interventions often have usage rates as low as five percent. So far, PotaVida’s data show that over 50 percent of users have successfully treated water with their purifier, representing about a 10x improvement in impact for their NGO partners.
PotaVida was founded by three graduate students at the University of Washington after a team of engineering students won a design competition for a concept to indicate when water was safe to drink from solar disinfection (SODIS). Charlie Matlack, PotaVida’s CEO and principal engineer, said SODIS is not a well-known or highly used mechanism for water purification, in part because it’s hard to tell when the water is safe to drink. He and Jackie Linnes, an expert in microbiology, were joined by Tyler Davis to further develop and commercialize the concept.
Davis knew firsthand, from his work with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Indonesia, the tragic consequences of unsafe drinking water. He also understood the importance of accountability and monitoring in the development sector. With nearly 700 million people globally lacking access to safe water, and many solutions, such as water filters or chlorine tablets, having abysmally low usage rates (between five and 25 percent), the concept had the potential to be a critical tool for access to safe water. Together, the team identified as their best opportunity for impact adding data capture tools to the water purifier concept, and forming a for-profit entity to supply their solution to aid organizations, rather than directly to end-users, leveraging the expertise of established NGOs for distribution and training.
The Smart Solar Purifier has now been through five design iterations, driven by feedback from users in Nicaragua, Zambia, Uganda, and Haiti. Each ten-liter purifier, comprising a hydration bag with built-in UV dosimeter, is built to last for a year. Once filled, the user places the purifier in the sun and presses a start button. A red light indicates the purification process has begun, and a green light indicates the water is safe to drink a few hours later. PotaVida’s biggest client today is World Concern, a Seattle-based non-governmental organization (NGO) that uses the purifier in Haiti and Somaliland. Matlack believes PotaVida’s product and services will be useful not only to NGOs, but also to for-profit aid contractors such as Tetra Tech.
Some of the important changes to the product design included changing the purifier’s spout, which initially had a wide mouth and simple screw-cap. Matlack said that while testing prototypes with World Vision in Uganda, a mother told him this was not suitable for small children because they’d spill the water; now the purifier has a smaller opening and easy-to-use spigot. The bag also originally had a carrying strap and a handle, but Matlack explained that this was impractical.
“The feedback we received was people did not want to use it for water collection and transporting water,” Matlack said. “They wanted to keep it at home where they could protect and value it.”
Probably the most significant change was the addition of PotaVida’s data collection services. Matlack wanted the purifiers to collect usage data, but originally he thought only PotaVida’s staff would utilize it. However, Randy Strash, who was working with World Vision at the time, stressed the importance of making the data available to the aid organizations not only to promote behavior change around purifying water, but also for NGOs to evaluate water interventions.
Based on this feedback the Smart Solar Purifier not only tells the user when the water is drinkable, it also monitors and tracks use. NGOs purchasing the purifier are given smartphones, as well as a device that syncs the data from the purifiers. Using this equipment the NGO field staff can see immediately if households are using the purifier correctly, if at all. Matlack said this quickly leads to a valuable conversation. The visit records, including GPS locations, also let NGOs see which households their field staff visit daily.
“The purifier’s status indication, together with the data collection, make this a uniquely powerful teaching tool to close behavioral feedback loops and make people accountable for purifying water every day,” Matlack said. He explained that the Smart Solar Purifier is a sustainable household water intervention, because it will create market demand for water purification tools once people know and value purifying their water. He also explained that NGOs and their donors can make better decisions on how and where to allocate resources with the data-driven feedback provided by PotaVida.
One example of this is the importance of follow-up visits. Matlack said usage data in summary reports from Haiti show only 38 percent of households initially used the device correctly. After the first follow-up visit an additional 31 percent used it correctly, and a second follow-up visit led to more first uses, as well. Knowing this lets NGOs make more informed decisions about investing in continued follow-up visits by field staff, and gaining donor support for these decisions.
The Smart Solar Purifier is sold in bulk for $50 per purifier, including all data services and equipment, and is mostly sold through word of mouth. Matlack said he sees PotaVida expanding its role in the water and sanitation sector by working on technology that can track data use for things such as latrine use, hand washing stations, and hand-pump wells.
“PotaVida’s essential value is capturing accurate data and reporting it back to stakeholders, and in doing so, we can maximize utility and impact,” Matlack said. “My goal is to demonstrate the value of PotaVida to the aid community, and to grow the number of purifiers and data services it provides.”
While getting her master’s degree in public health, Frehiwot Belete, Hygiene Program Manager for Splash in Ethiopia, learned about a non-governmental organization (NGO) that provided a community with access to clean water and improved sanitation without including hygiene education. As a result that same NGO came back to find the community using the toilet facilities as storage for their crops. This example, Frehiwot explained, is why behavior change around hygiene practices is crucial to any water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) intervention. It is also why she has devoted her life’s work to this endeavor.
“WASH and behavior change are inseparable components,” Frehiwot said. “Behavior change needs to happen first; just providing safe water and sanitation facilities alone will never be enough.”
Growing up in Ethiopia, Frehiwot’s interest in public health began during childhood. She wanted to learn more about the diseases she saw plaguing her community, as well as understand how diseases could be prevented and treated. By the time she started college she believed studying public health was the best way to contribute to society.
“Many of the problems prevalent in my country, things such as diarrhea, malnutrition or stunting are all preventable conditions,” Frehiwot said. “But we are not taking the necessary prevention measures and I wanted to be a part of helping communities understand how to stay healthy.”
Frehiwot’s interest in WASH and behavior change began early in her career. She worked as a public health officer while in school, where she not only conducted public health outreach in rural Ethiopian communities, but also treated common illnesses. She studied for her master’s in public health to better understand the root cause of diseases, and what people needed to do to prevent infection. She plans to study for her doctorate and specialize in epidemiology.
While working in the public health sector she gained experience in hospitals and health clinics in both urban and rural areas. She has worked in prevention and education, treated patients with HIV and tuberculosis, as well as acted as a vaccine coordinator. While working for the Ethiopian Health Institute she focused on Guinea worm eradication by doing active surveillance of endemic areas, as well as mass education on prevention. During her tenure at the Ethiopian Health Institute, the number of Guinea worm cases dropped significantly.
In 2014 Frehiwot went to work for Splash to focus on WASH. During her various experiences in the public health arena she found lack of hygiene and sanitation to be the root problem causing more than 50 percent of communicable diseases in her country.
“I knew that if I went to work for Splash as a hygiene educator I could contribute a lot to my country,” Frehiwot said. “I get to work with children in schools and orphanages all over Addis Ababa, and I know that by reaching so many children I can change lives.”
As hygiene program manager Frehiwot organizes the hygiene education and training portion of Splash’s intervention. The organization builds hand-washing stations at partner sites, and then Frehiwot’s team comes in to ensure commitment to hand washing practices, as well as provide hygiene education.
“Our goals are to increase knowledge and to change student’s attitudes and practices around hand washing,” Frehiwot said. “Educating children is educating the next generation and educating future parents. Children can make a huge impact in changing their family’s hygiene behaviors.”
Frehiwot said she plans to spend her career focusing on public health issues in her country and hopes to see clean water and improved sanitation available throughout Ethiopia in her lifetime. She also hopes that attitudes towards hand washing in her country will change, something she is currently playing a key role in. She explained in Ethiopia people do not always see the direct link between getting sick and washing their hands, and because hand washing is not available in all public venues and homes people’s attitude is that hand washing is unimportant.
“I hope while at Splash I will be able to change behavior in all Addis Ababa schools, and that hand washing practices will be carried out by all students,” Frehiwot said. “I have learned in my career that with continuous support and commitment anything can be accomplished.”
At 50 sites in Addis Ababa where Splash has installed hand-washing stations, students are regularly washing their hands with soap that they provide to the schools themselves. Frehiwot said this is something she is very proud of, and having each family invested in buying and supplying soap to the school ensures sustainability.
Frehiwot acknowledges there is still a lot of work to be done to change people’s behaviors around hand washing in Ethiopia. She said changing attitudes and providing hygiene education will be even more challenging in rural areas. However, she loves her work and is committed to serving her country for the long haul.
“Anything can be changed with commitment and devotion,” Frehiwot said. “I truly believe that.”
In celebration of International Women’s Day, Global Washington hosted an event on March 1st to highlight member organizations that focus on empowering women worldwide, particularly through increasing access to land rights.
Katrin Wilde, the Executive Director from the Channel Foundation moderated the event and led the discussion among three strong women in our global development community: Kelly McDonald, the Director of Advancement at Agros International; Eileen Moncoeur, the Executive Director at Partners Asia; and Tzili Mor, the Director at Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights. Continue Reading
On February 15th, 2017 Global Washington hosted a digital communications workshop in their fantastic new office space, shared with Seattle Foundation. Led by Joel Meyers of FuseIQ, along with Tyler LePard of Wondershop Communications and Amie Newman, writer/blogger for Our Bodies Ourselves, the attendees were treated to an information-packed session on creating digital storytelling for the greatest impact.
The essentials of best practices were covered: What are your objectives? Who is your audience? What is your message? How are you going to measure success? These are key questions for organizations to keep in mind while building out the details of their communications strategy.
In particular, when figuring out your messaging, have you done your homework and figured out who your audience is? Of course we’d love to have everyone know about and support us, but we need to be realistic and recognize that the more detailed we can be about who we’re trying to reach, the more successful we will be in creating content that they will be inspired to read and even act upon through some type of support of our organization. We must know what type of social media they use – remember to take a look at those Google analytics! And by being more specific, we can also remove unnecessary competition for our audience’s attention.
In order to build these relationship based on trust and respect with our audience, Tyler LePard recommends creating a journey map in order to get “inside the shoes” of those we are trying to reach. Once we have gotten their attention, what are you trying to get your audience to do? Using simple calls to action and great visuals are key.
As final takeaways workshop, attendees were encouraged to appeal to hearts, not minds (personal stories are more effective than facts), be creative and think boldly!
By Loree Bolin, Director, Health & Hope Foundation
When she married, Elizabeth Gabrieli’s husband paid 20 head of cattle for her wedding dowry. Raised in a remote village of Kyagata Mara Province of Tanzania, Elizabeth grew up helping her family keep goats and sheep. Elizabeth was born in 1955, on a different continent, one year after me. Our lives took different courses, yet today we work together empowering women in the community through the teaching of leadership and business skills.
When Elizabeth’s husband died she was left as the sole support for 6 children and her mother. Elizabeth supported the family through farming with the help of her children. As her circumstances improved she saved and invested in other businesses. Through the sales of baked goods, charcoal, vegetables such as tomatoes and onions, and homemade charcoal she supported her children and ensured their health and education.
On March 8, 2017 the world will celebrate International Women’s Day. Leading up to this annual event, Global Washington will focus on various efforts to empower women in developing countries, and in particular, the economic empowerment of women.
Increasing income for women in developing countries is a catalyst for long-term economic development. Research shows that when women increase their earnings, they invest in their children’s education and health. Women entering the formal economy can also lead to review and improvements of legal frameworks and financial regulations.
Learn more about economic empowerment of women and GlobalWA members working to improve the lives of women around the world in this GlobalWA issue brief. And, join the conversation on March 1 at our panel event addressing women’s rights and economic opportunities.
Gender-focused development and other issues were addressed at the 2016 GlobalWA Conference last December. You can read about it in our conference report here and watch the videos from our plenary, and save the date for the 2017 Global Washington Conference on November 29th!
In addition to our monthly issue campaign, GlobalWA is hosting a workshop on February 15 about effective digital communications. I hope to see you at one of our upcoming events!
Women’s Economic Empowerment; The Key to a Sustainable World
By Amanda Pain
In 1970 economist Ester Boserup published Women’s Role in Economic Development, where she explained that women were being systematically left out of the development agenda, which in turn harmed the global economy because women are crucial to economic growth. Almost 50 years later, ending gender inequality and empowering all women and girls, is still crucial to development and is an important focus of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
While SDG5 outlines a number of goals to achieve gender equality, one issue at the forefront of achieving many SDGs is women’s economic empowerment: defined as women’s capacity to participate in, contribute to and benefit from growth processes in ways which recognize the value of their contributions, respect their dignity and make it possible to negotiate a fairer distribution of the benefits of growth. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) investment in gender equality produces the highest returns compared to all other development spending. Higher female earnings translate into higher investments in children’s education, health and nutrition; and when more women work economies grow.
So why aren’t women economically empowered? In countries all over the world constraints such as adverse social norms, discriminatory laws and lack of legal protection, failure to recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid household work and care, and a lack of access to financial, digital and property assets have held women back from economic growth, which in turn have held back the world.
Unequal opportunities in employment and wages are a major economic constraint for women. According to the United Nations (UN) Women, 700 million fewer women of working age had paid employment compared to men in 2016. Women remain half as likely as men to have full-time employment and often earn up to one-third less than men, in part due to occupational sex segregation. Women are also likely to take on three times as much unpaid domestic work and care activities, and contribute nearly 58 percent of unpaid work to family enterprises and farms. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, the value of unpaid care work performed by women is $10 trillion, or 13 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP). If the employment participation gap and the wage gap between women and men were closed women could increase their income globally by 76 percent, which is calculated to have a global value of $17 trillion.
Another constraint to women is a lack of financial inclusion; which means that formal financial services such as bank accounts, loans and insurance, are not readily available to them. Women around the globe have less access to formal financial institutions as compared to men and are less likely to have a bank account. In addition the credit gap for women-owned businesses is estimated at $300 billion globally. According to the World Bank, which aims for universal financial access by 2020, most of the 2 billion people worldwide who lack a bank account are women. This lack of financial inclusion continues to promote gender inequality and reinforce women’s economic subordination.
Women are kept from financial institutions because of sexist laws, and/or misogynistic social norms. Legal barriers constrain women’s economic development in several ways. Not only do countries have laws that prevent women from opening a bank account, but according to the World Bank 155 of the 173 economies surveyed globally had at least one law blocking women’s economic opportunities. In 100 of those economies women faced gender-based job restrictions, in 46 economies women have no legal protection from domestic violence and in 18 economies husbands can forbid their wives from working.
Globally women make up 43 percent of the agriculture workforce, however, in many countries there are laws that prohibit women from owning land; in fact less than 20 percent of landowners are women. Women also have limited access to the resources and services they need for farming such as, fertilizers and seeds, education and extension services and livestock. If women had the same access to these resources, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), they could increase their yield by 20 to 30 percent, raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5 to 4 percent and reduce the number of starving people by 100 to 150 million.
If gender inequality as a moral imperative is not enough to convince the world that women’s economic empowerment is important, there is mounting evidence that it benefits everyone. When women have access to the same economic opportunities as men, and the legal protections in place to ensure those opportunities they will: devote more of their household budget to their children’s education, save more money overall, have children that are less likely to become sick or be undernourished as well as grow the overall global economy.
The good news is the development world understands this, and has made women’s economic empowerment a major focus of the SDGs. Additionally, the UN Secretary-General established the High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment in January 2016 to provide concrete guidance to governments, the private and public sectors and civil society to implement change. Women’s economic empowerment is the pre-requisite for sustainable development, ending poverty and achieving a better world by 2030.
A number of Global Washington members work tirelessly to improve the lives of women, allowing them to look toward a brighter future for themselves and their families. Below are descriptions of just a few of these organizations, highlighting current projects. Learn more about these members and others on GlobalWA’s interactive map.
Agros: The mission of Agros is to see rural poor families own agricultural land, attain economic self-sufficiency, realize their God-given potential, and pass on to future generations the values and resources that enable them to flourish. A critical driver of successful rural development is ensuring equal access to opportunities and resources for women, and that they are full partners in the community development process, ensuring that women occupy positions of community leadership. agros.org
Awamaki:Awamaki partners with women’s artisan cooperatives to create economic opportunities and improve well-being. The women knit, weave and host tourists in the rural Peruvian Andes. The organization helps them start and run successful cooperative businesses so they can earn income and lead their communities out of poverty. awamaki.org
Health & Hope Foundation:Health & Hope Foundation delivers dental, vision, and medical care, via portable clinics, to communities lacking healthcare access. Needs for education, light, water, sustainable businesses, and sexual safety are addressed within our programs and partnerships with specialized NGOs. Our focus is impoverished women and children of Tanzania and the Philippines. healthandhopefoundation.org
Landesa: For nearly four decades, Landesa has worked in over 50 countries to help secure land rights for more than 120 million of the world’s poorest families. In 2016, 8.1 million women and men gained more secure rights to their own plot of land as a result of Landesa’s work. Given the centrality of women’s land rights to a host of development and human rights outcomes, the Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights works to prioritize and integrate a gender lens in all of Landesa’s projects and initiatives. The Center also develops and implements innovative pilot projects to strengthen women’s rights to land www.landesa.org
MonaFoundation:Since 1999, Mona Foundation has partnered with 32 grassroots projects in 16 countries assisting tens of thousands of marginalized children to receive a quality education and to raise the status of women and girls. In 2015, Mona supported 13 projects in 8 countries serving 150,000 children and their families in Mongolia, the Brazilian Amazon, India, Haiti, Panama, China, Vietnam and the U.S. Mona also seeks to collaborate with other organizations to share learning, participating in committees and fora such as the Brookings Institution’s annual CHARGE strategy meeting on the education of girls and Boston Foundation’s annual Haiti Funders’ Conference among others. monafoundation.org
Partners Asia:Partners Asia supports emerging leaders and community-led initiatives which improve the lives of the most vulnerable people of Southeast Asia. Partners Asia improves women’s access to the legal system by supporting lawyers who will defend women in court — and ultimately help change legal procedures and laws. The organization also supports the establishment of women’s savings groups to support one another and build community. partnersasia.org
Thriive:Thriive’s mission is building shared prosperity in vulnerable global communities. The organization does this by making pay-it-forward loans to small businesses so they can grow and create jobs. 51% of Thriive businesses are owned by women who became more successful, created jobs for other women, and helped strengthen their communities with pay it forward donations of products or job training. thriive.org
Women’s Enterprises International:Women’s Enterprises International reaches across cultures to transform lives and communities by partnering with women’s groups; empowering and equipping women to break the cycle of poverty and live into their God-given potential. WEi is a Seattle-based nonprofit, dedicated to creating opportunities that equip women in Kenya and Indonesia to overcome poverty and transform their lives and communities for over 16 years. womensenterprises.org
Today 10.7 percent of the global population lives in extreme poverty. While this percentage has fallen since 1990 it has not fallen equitably with many of the world’s poor being women due to gender inequality and lack of economic opportunities. Agros International, a non-profit based in Seattle, has been working for 33 years to help the most vulnerable people find a path to prosperity, and are part of a global push to empower women.
Founded in 1984 by Chi-Dooh “Skip” Li, Agros International’s mission is to see rural poor families own agricultural land, attain economic self-sufficiency, realize their God-given potential and pass on to the future generations the values and resources that enable them to flourish. What started with building one village in Guatemala has become an established program working in 43 communities across Central America, and has helped more than 10,000 individuals escape extreme poverty.
While Agros’s work is focused in Central America (an area chosen by Li due to its devastating civil wars in the late 1970s) Lisa Fernández, communications manager at Agros International, explained Agros’s community development model could be successfully exported anywhere. Agros’s model started with land ownership, and according to Fernández evolved over the years to concentrate on five areas: land, market-led agriculture, health and well-being, financial empowerment and education.
Agros International works like this, families approach Agros at one of its in-country offices and apply for the program. Agros, after extensive research purchases a sizable parcel of land that is then divided among families accepted into the program. Each family is given an initial loan with their land, and over time, typically in seven to ten years, pays off the loan and in turn owns their plot of land. One thing that is key to Agros’s program is that the names of both the man and woman, whether they are married or not, go on the title to the land once the loan is repaid. This, Fernández said, is non-negotiable for anyone who applies.
“Historically only men have been named on land titles in Central America,” Fernández said. “One of the key principles of Agros is equity, so every land title has the man and woman’s name on it. This protects her both legally and financially.”
Photo: Agros
Fernández said women play a major leadership role in Agros communities. When Agros decides to build schools in its villages women are instrumental in planning and running these schools. She said women also primarily run the community savings group program, which provides loans to families within the village in times of need. With initial funding from Agros, the savings group is eventually community funded and supported. A lot of women in Agros villages are also interested in starting their own businesses, which is something, Fernández explained, Agros encourages in order to economically empower women and in turn all Agros families.
“These businesses help the family diversify their income and pay off their loans even faster,” Fernández explained. “Women in the community serve as great role models for agribusiness.”
This summer Agros plans to start a new agribusiness program that aims to eliminate the middleman from the food supply chain (i.e., process of harvesting, storing and selling crops), and in turn put more money in the pockets of Agros community members. With families paying off their loans quicker Agros has more opportunity to be flexible in its programming for even more vulnerable populations. Recent ventures into livestock production and tilapia farming are examples of the model accommodating different needs. With additional funding from their agribusiness Agros hopes to increase the number of loans made to women and their families and help them move along the path to prosperity.
“The Agros development model recognizes the vast roles women play in a family and community so it’s important that we provide alternative farming opportunities that are not as labor intensive as cultivating acres of land, yet still allow for say a single mother or elderly member to be an active, productive worker in the community,” Fernández said.
Ending poverty and gender inequality by 2030 are two of six Sustainable Development Goals that Agros International has in common with the United Nations. In an Agros village, families are empowered to lift themselves out of poverty, and women play a key role in that success.
“Our focus has always been the family,” Fernández said. “The women in our program are the heart and soul of the family; if they are not successful no one is successful. Without the active engagement of women the Agros model would not work.”
Tzili Mor, Director of Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights
By Amanda Pain
Land is a feminist issue. This is something Tzili Mor, director of Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights, strongly believes. The issue of land rights was rooted in her during childhood and has continued to grow in importance throughout her personal and professional experiences. To Mor, promoting land rights is promoting women’s rights.
“At Landesa (an international non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Seattle) we call land rights an accelerator of rights for women and girls,” Mor said. “Women’s rights and control over land, especially the land that they till and depend on to survive, carries true potential for empowering women.”
Mor said growing up in the Middle East she witnessed conflict and disputes over land rights being at the root of socio-political crises there, and later saw such disputes fuel struggles around the world. She said this influenced her choices in both work and life, and eventually, it led her to study law and international relations at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.. She saw law as the tool and pathway toward the goals of global and local social justice.
“Law can be powerful, and the understanding of the law and how to use it can be transformative,” Mor said. “We saw that power just last week with legal action against the refugees and immigrant ban.” She was drawn to being a bridge between a complex legal system and those who needed support to access their rights. Mor, who taught law students in the US and abroad, said she enjoyed watching her students realize the core, creative power of law to reinforce human rights and constitutional values.
At the beginning of Mor’s legal career, she focused on women’s reproductive rights but found herself dealing with issues around women’s access to land. While working in sub-Saharan Africa during the height of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, land and property rights became a serious issue in many rural communities. Mor said when a woman’s husband died from AIDS, she and her children lost all rights to stay in their home. As more men died, and more and more women and children were being dispossessed of their land, local leaders, governments, and NGOs realized something needed to change. She saw that when women were allowed to stay on their land the health and well-being of the family improved. These ripple effects from secure land rights she now knows extend to greater food security, educational gains, health outcomes, greater incentive to conserve the land, plant trees, and give women options out of abusive situations.
“Historically the way wealth was transferred was through marriage and inheritance,” Mor explained. “Often women were excluded from these two axes of power and resource transfer. A lot of the work (Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights) does now is addressing those historic injustices.”
Mor said collecting data on women’s access to land has been challenging especially because land rights are about more than ownership; they are a bundle of rights that include access to the resources on that land, as well as control over what can be done with it. She said globally on average less than 20 percent of women have secure land rights, but this is something that varies widely from country to country. Based on her legal experience in human and women’s rights, land rights are often at the source of realizing and upholding a number of rights and development needs. This is how she found herself at Landesa; the first non-profit organization solely focused on securing land rights for the world’s poorest people.
Photo: Deborah Espinosa
Mor, who has worked for organizations like Amnesty International, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, and consulted for UN Women, enjoys working for Landesa because it provides for agility and space for creativity from a very focused lens. At the Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights, she leads work to champion and shape standards, policies, and tactics to strengthen women’s land rights, pursues innovative solutions to empowering women, and helps nurture a global network of professionals and organizations collaborating to strengthen women’s rights to land.
“There is increasing global recognition that women’s land rights and economic empowerment are crucial to development success,” Mor said. “Three of the 17 (Sustainable Development Goals) SDGs – on ending poverty, food security and gender equality – explicitly mention women’s rights to land and resources. Gaining rights to land can disrupt the intergenerational cycle of poverty.”
Mor said now more than ever women’s rights are coming under threat, with much of the progress of the past decade being undercut. But however distressed, she remains optimistic.
“Whatever accomplishments I have made in my path, this work is not something you can ever claim an ultimate win on,” Mor said. “Social Justice is not something that can be achieved with one success, no matter how significant. As an organization, and as advocates, we need to continue to focus on the principles that motivate us. Politicians and regimes come and go, but these principles remain and will carry us through.”
Please welcome our newest Global Washington members. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with their work and consider opportunities for support and collaboration!
Coopersmith Law + Strategy
Our law and strategic consulting expertise enables us to move efficiently and quickly. As a premier Northwest firm, we have deep roots locally, but have leveraged that knowledge into a powerful team of global experts. Our extensive expertise in both government and business allow us to offer you strategic guidance with global development, including work with multi-lateral organizations, global investment initiatives and business and strategic partnership opportunities. coopersmithlaw.com
Extend the Day
Extend the Day provides inexpensive solar powered reading lights, at no cost, to school children who live without electricity. We use adventure travelers and existing NGO’s as our distribution partners. extendtheday.org
Mavuno
Mavuno is a nonprofit organization that empowers local leaders in eastern Congo to end extreme poverty in their own communities. We organize communities and build businesses at the grassroots level. www.mavuno.org
Over the past five years, nearly half a million lives have been claimed by Syria’s civil war. More than 4.8 million people have been forced to seek refuge in neighboring countries and an estimated 6.5 million are internally displaced. The effects of the ongoing crisis have ravaged a nation and overwhelmed a region; millions of innocent civilians lack the most basic necessities and face grave risks, while host countries strain to meet the growing, desperate needs of millions of refugees.
Given the extreme refugee crisis and unprecedented devastation in Aleppo, we know many are seeking ways to help.
Global Washington was founded, in part, to be a platform for partnerships. Partnerships that will advance the work needed to improve lives in developing countries. Creating effective partnerships takes discipline, insight and a unique skill set to align objectives.
On December 8, 2016, over 400 people will gather to celebrate effective non-profit and business partnerships, learn from failed partnerships, and discuss the future of a multi-stakeholder approach to global development. The theme of this year’s Global Washington conference is Allies For Action and will feature work from Microsoft, Mercy Corps, Costco and TechnoServe. We will also be inspired by Shelmina Abji who is an advisor to the UN Foundation’s Girl Up program and is also a former IBM Vice President.
The packed agenda includes the presentation of our 2016 Global Hero, GlobalWA Fast Pitch, a CEO/Executive Director exclusive session, and 10 breakout sessions on current global development trends. This is the preeminent global development conference in our region and one not to miss if you want to make a difference in the world. I hope you can join us. More information and registration can be found here.
Lastly, I want to express my gratitude for Sara Atalla who has been Global Washington’s Director of Communications for the past three years. Sara is moving on to a fantastic career opportunity and the Global Washington family wishes her all the best.
Michael Bowers, Vice President of Humanitarian Leadership and Response, Mercy Corps
Powered by the belief that a better world is possible, Mercy Corps partners to put bold solutions into action – helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.
Sheri Flies, Assistant General Merchandise Manager, Global Sourcing, Costco Wholesale Corporation
In Private Sector Possibilities: Costco’s evolving sourcing practices, Sheri Flies discusses Costco’s sustainable sourcing strategy and how Costco works with local communities.
Please welcome our newest Global Washington members. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with their work and consider opportunities for support and collaboration!
Total Benefits Solutions
Total Benefits Solutions offers domestic and international health insurance plans for employees who are working at home or abroad. www.tbsmga.com
At Global Washington, we often talk about sustainable development. At its core, sustainability is about the people who are most affected by a challenge having ownership of the solutions.
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“Law can be powerful, and the understanding of the law and how to use it can be transformative,” Mor said. “We saw that power just last week with legal action against the refugees and immigrant ban.” She was drawn to being a bridge between a complex legal system and those who needed support to access their rights. Mor, who taught law students in the US and abroad, said she enjoyed watching her students realize the core, creative power of law to reinforce human rights and constitutional values.
