http://blogs.state.gov/sgwi U.S. Department of State en U.S. Department of State 2010-08-02T19:26:29+00:002010-07-23T15:20:38+00:002010-07-23T01:40:39+00:002010-05-24T19:44:07+00:002010-03-17T19:15:34+00:00 About the Author: Robert D. Hormats serves as Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs.

I'm sure many people are familiar with the Chinese proverb, “women hold up half the sky.” But, after meeting some of the dynamic and accomplished women from the African Women's Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP) last week, I'm convinced that, in Africa, they probably hold up 60 or even 75 percent of the sky!

AWEP, a program sponsored by the Department of State, has brought 34 African women business leaders to the United States this week in conjunction with the 9th Annual African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) Forum. Secretary Clinton, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson, Ambassador at Large for Global Women's Issues Melanne Verveer, and I have met with them.

Our goal is to connect these remarkable and accomplished women with their peers in other countries and with U.S. policymakers and business people. We want to help them develop contacts, exchange ideas that can further build their businesses, and seize new opportunities in the global economy. These women are voices of change in their countries. For far too long, women have been left on the outskirts of opportunity. And whether it's discrimination in business or any other denial of a woman's right to realize her potential, this phenomenon will always have a harmful effect on a country's economy. No nation can power its economic growth without empowering its women. It is like trying to succeed in an increasingly competitive world with one arm tied behind your back.

There are few better ways to empower women -- particularly in Africa -- than investing in their education. Countries that promote girls' education, and especially secondary education and skills training, tend to have higher rates of employment, higher wages, and lower maternal and child mortality. Better health, better jobs, and better businesses are all easier goals to reach if we make a priority of getting girls in schools and giving them a good education in Africa -- and around the world.

Those working in development have long known that investments in the education of women don't just benefit the women themselves, but their families and their communities as well. Studies consistently show that women allocate more resources to nutrition and children's health and education than do men. We also know that educated mothers are more likely to educate their own children -- and that can have carry-on effects for generations.

Educating women isn't just a moral imperative; it makes good business sense. The more education a woman has, the more likely she is to be more productive in her work -- and, one hopes, to start her own business. A good education increases the chances that women entrepreneurs will make the transition from start-ups to established businesses. Having lived in East Africa and having travelled throughout the continent, I have seen the hard work women in Africa do on their farms and in the market. Education enables women to better fulfill their aspirations in whatever they do. And, after educating them, we need to provide them with opportunities for skills enhancement and networking so they continue to advance to higher positions.

When the women attending AWEP head back home, having networked with one another and with American business representatives and government officials, we hope they will return with new ideas and contacts. We further hope that this experience will enable them to be even more motivated in serving as force-multipliers, laying the groundwork for greater prosperity in their own countries now and for new generations of women entrepreneurs, to enable them to sustain economic growth and upward mobility for years to come.

Related Entry: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in Africa]]> http://blogs.state.gov/sgwi/index.php/entires/girls_education_africa/ 2010-08-02T19:26:29+00:00 About the Author: Megan Larson-Kone is the Regional Refugee Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, Uganda.

Sometimes the smallest changes make the biggest difference. In Uganda, young women are often hindered from pursuing a secondary education by a lack of basic supplies. This is particularly true for refugee girls and women. Of the 140,000 refugees hosted by Uganda -- primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Sudan -- approximately half are women and girls. When menstruating, the vast majority do not have access to the sanitary materials necessary to easily continue their education or other daily tasks. For girls hoping to pursue secondary education, this is a particular problem, and they often miss one week of school each month because they lack the materials to cope with their periods with dignity.

Enter Makapads -- a microenterprise established by Makerere University Professor of Engineering Moses Kizza Musaazi in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Makapads stands for Menstruation -- Administration -- Knowledge -- Affordability. It produces sanitary napkins using paper made from recycled office paper and papyrus fibers. The process uses manual labor with solar-powered heat sealers, and an ultraviolet sterilization unit. Makapads can produce about 3,000 sanitary napkins per day, but could do more if they had access to more recycled paper. Embassy Kampala's Greening Diplomacy Taskforce teamed with UNHCR to help provide this raw material that allows Makapads to run. Each month, shredded, unclassified office paper is delivered to the Makapads factory in Kyaka II refugee settlement in western Uganda via UNHCR. The Makapads staff mixes this paper with pounded papyrus fibers to create absorbent material that is assembled into sanitary napkins.

The benefits of this collaboration go far beyond environmental friendliness: this program helps ensure a better life for refugee women and girls, with fewer constraints on their ability to continue their daily activities. UNHCR purchases the Makapads to distribute in sanitary kits every quarter. To date, they provide half the female population with Makapads products (the remainder receives the traditional cloth strips as part of their sanitary kit). As soon as Makapads can make more, they will cover the remaining half. Refugee families often have little-to-no ability to earn income, so they are unable to purchase these items for themselves. Makapads has the potential to expand across the region, benefitting countless other girls and women, because Makapads cost half the price of imported sanitary napkins.

Additionally, Makapads is run by, and employs, refugee staff: out of 35 employees, 30 are refugee women -- mostly single or female heads of household. These staffers earn the equivalent of $30-$60 per month -- an income level they would not have dreamed of before working with Makapads. This income helps them to support their families and send their own daughters to school.

The Embassy's involvement with the project started when its Greening Diplomacy Taskforce was looking for a way to recycle the Mission's waste office paper and reduce their carbon footprint, but it ended up having a far greater impact. A small effort by the Mission helps create far deeper social, educational, and economic rewards for the refugee community living in Uganda.

Related entry: A Simple, Practical Program That's Changing Lives]]> http://blogs.state.gov/sgwi/index.php/entires/paper_girls_education/ 2010-07-23T15:20:38+00:00 About the Author: Irene Marr serves as a Foreign Affairs Officer in the Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues.

I remember first seeing the striking, heartrending images of young Afghan child brides -- girls living in poverty who were forced to marry men old enough to be their fathers or grandfathers -- when the photos appeared in a 2006 Sunday New York Times Magazine essay on the topic of forced early marriage. One of these iconic photos was on display in the U.S. Congress at a briefing on child marriage held by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on July 15. Such pictures serve as a sobering reminder that the practice of early marriage is still far too common in many parts of the world -- particularly in developing countries where opportunity is lacking and in societies where women and girls are not valued. The briefing put a spotlight on the extent of the problem and its consequences, and underscored the need for an integrated, strategic, and sustained approach to bring an end to this harmful practice.

A panel of experts on women's and children's issues, including Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, and representatives from the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), CARE International, and UNICEF, provided various perspectives on the phenomenon of child marriage and called for scaling up successful holistic and community-based approaches that have produced positive results. To address the scourge of early marriage, the United States has focused efforts on girls' education, health, and economic empowerment, and has implemented community-based, grassroots programs to encourage families to abandon the practice and keep their girls in school. As Ambassador Verveer noted, "The involvement of fathers, mothers, and religious leaders, as well as building girls' agency through formal education and livelihood training, is crucial to these efforts.”

Some of the most successful programs have enlisted traditional and religious leaders -- trusted members of society whose role is to protect the well-being of children. They are often best positioned to raise awareness, influence parents, and pave the way for change. USAID's extensive basic education program provides one of the surest ways of delaying child marriage by keeping girls in school. In FY 2009, for example, more than 23 million girls benefited from USAID programs in primary and secondary education. With an education, a girl's income potential increases and she is better prepared to contribute to the social, political, and economic life of her community. The panelists agreed that the programs with proven results need to be replicated and expanded in areas where the practice is most prevalent in order to accelerate sustainable change.

Every day, approximately 25,000 girls become child brides. It is estimated that one in seven girls in the developing world is married before she turns 15. Being forced to marry too young, increases a girl's chance that she will become pregnant before she is physically and psychologically ready. Problems associated with pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death for girls aged 15 to 19 worldwide. Girls forced into marriage inevitably must leave school -- their childhoods robbed, their education shortchanged, and their dreams for a future shattered. Beyond the obvious human rights concerns and health consequences of early marriage -- exposing girls to marital rape, domestic violence, high risk pregnancies, HIV/AIDS infection, and the risk of maternal mortality or obstetric fistula, the practice also poses serious implications for development. It is an issue that is inextricably linked to the cycle of poverty. Child marriage is the manifestation of the low status of women and girls in many societies, where the parents see no reason to educate or invest in their daughters, and where females are treated like commodities or chattel.

The briefing ended on a hopeful note, with the personal story of Kakenya Ntaiya, whose courage and inspiration is helping other girls and families choose education and girls' empowerment over early marriage. Growing up in the Masai Village in Kenya, her victory over child marriage is proof positive the social norms that enable the practice to flourish can and must be broken, and that education is key to making this change. Engaged at the age of five to be married upon reaching puberty, she spent her childhood being reminded that her husband “was waiting” for her. With the help of her mother, who wanted a better life for her daughter, Kakenya persevered, negotiated with her father to stay in school, and convinced her community elders that she should go to college. She not only became the first girl from her village to attend college, she is now, at the age of 32, working on her Ph.D., and has opened a school for girls in her home village. “I knew I would overcome,” she said. Indeed, with the Kakenya's School for Excellence, she is living her own dream of building a better future and is helping other girls “become what they dream to become.” ]]> http://blogs.state.gov/sgwi/index.php/entires/forced_early_marriage/ 2010-07-23T01:40:39+00:00 About the Author: Ralph Falzone serves as the Director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) Regional Office Abu Dhabi.

With funding provided by the U.S. State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), the University of Michigan-Dearborn's College of Engineering and Computer Science and its partner, the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), held a training workshop for women working in the science and engineering fields. The workshop, "Association Building and International Research Collaboration for MENA Women in Science and Engineering,” held in Abu Dhabi May 3-4, 2010, “was designed to help women from the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region expand their collaborative efforts with their regional colleagues as well as foster partnerships with counterparts in the United States.” Read more about the workshop here.

Representing MEPI, I had the opportunity to speak on two of the panels at the event. We discussed the many challenges MENA women must overcome in order to create organizations that enable them to achieve their maximum potential as scientists and engineers. These challenges include the lack of not-for-profit legal frameworks in many MENA countries, the difficulties in obtaining funding, and like the United States, the need for better promotion of critical thinking and science literacy in primary and secondary schools. The creation of more effective women's organizations will foster a better support system to help women be successful in a traditionally male-dominated field, as well as facilitate the collaboration necessary to match pressing research issues with the proper resources.

The proportion of women who are entering the fields of science and engineering is sharply increasing in the Middle East, and in many areas, exceeds that of the United States. Soon, 40 percent of the science and engineering jobs in the UAE will be filled by women, and in many ministries across the region, 70 percent or more of the scientists are women. This workshop reinforced the need for women, not only in the Middle East region, but throughout the world, to have the necessary tools to succeed in the fields of science and technology that will help solve the problems of today and tomorrow. Workshops, such as this most recent one in Abu Dhabi, are critical in fostering the partnerships that will ensure both continued scientific progress and progress for women in the workplace.

This workshop built on the success of the groundbreaking 2007 International Conference of Science, Technology and Engineering in Kuwait that brought together 270 women scientists from 18 Arab countries and Turkey, and a 31-member U.S. delegation of women leaders. The conference galvanized a large number of regional activities, including this one.]]> http://blogs.state.gov/sgwi/index.php/entires/partnerships_women_science_middle_east/ 2010-05-24T19:44:07+00:00 About the Author: Aaron Snipe is a Foreign Service Officer who worked with the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Muthanna Province, Iraq.

For many of my Foreign Service colleagues who volunteered to serve in Iraq, our service was a transformational experience. Long hours, meaningful work, and friendships forged in the crucible of war make Iraq a most unique diplomatic assignment. Many of us who served on Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRT) developed friendships with local Iraqi officials, tribal leaders, religious leaders, university students, and every-day citizens. For some, these connections will always endure as cherished memories. Yet for others, finding ways to keep in touch with Iraqis still in Iraq remains an important part of our experience.

Frequent DipNote readers may recall my blogs last year about an art exhibit I worked on when I was serving on a PRT in Muthanna Province. Our PRT, in conjunction with a local non-governmental organization, sponsored an art program for the women artists of Muthanna. The event was a great local success and received national media coverage in Iraq. In this small art exhibit in rural Iraq, we'd achieved our objectives: State Department-led civilian engagement with the citizens of one of Iraq's most conservative provinces; support of Iraqi civil society; preservation of Iraqi culture; and the amplification of the voices of an important demographic in Iraqi society -- women. Though, at the time, I wondered: Was there more we could do to strengthen the voices of these artists? The citizens of Muthanna enjoyed the paintings, but could the stories of these women reach beyond Iraq's borders -- through more than a few blogs on DipNote?

On March 8, in celebration of International Women's Day, I had an opportunity to answer these questions by helping carry the stories of these brave women artists beyond Muthanna's borders all the way to State Department headquarters in Washington. The U.S. Diplomacy Center in cooperation with PRT Muthanna and the Department's Office of Global Women's Issues, brought The Colors of Warka art exhibit to Washington for Women's History Month. I knew the paintings and the artists well, and their stories are those I've told over and over again in blogs, in memos, in meetings, in briefings, to friends and family, and to anyone who would listen. Their stories of courage, of struggle, of success and of hope inspired me, and to see their art gracing the walls of a diplomatic reception hall in Washington made those of us who were there at the creation so very proud. When we came up with the idea for this program, we thought it would begin and end in Muthanna. Yet, here in Washington more than a year later, the stories of these women continue to resonate with audiences.

A few days ago, the world watched the citizens of Iraq raise their ink-dipped, purple fingers in triumph in a national election where Iraqis exercised not only the right to vote, but the right to express themselves. So, too, had the women of Muthanna raised their paint-dipped brushes to express themselves. At the exhibition's first opening in Muthanna, more than a year ago, one of the artists whispered to a friend, “Through our paintings, everyone will know our stories. They will know who we are.”

How right she was.

Related Entry: The Colors of Warka Debuts in Washington]]> http://blogs.state.gov/sgwi/index.php/entires/warka_women_stories/ 2010-03-17T19:15:34+00:00