The Great Debate UK
Transformative power of microfinance for women
- Sheetal Mehta is CEO and founder of not for profit organization Shanti Microfinance. The opinions expressed are her own. You can follow her on Twitter. Reuters will host a “follow-the-sun” live blog on Monday, March 8, 2010, International Women’s Day. Please tune in.–
The women of the world still get the rawest deal. Throughout history, in places where life is tough for everyone, women still on average work for longer hours and take on the burden of the household chores. In its Human Development Report, the United Nations Development Programme reported that 70 percent of the people living on less than $1 dollar (65 pence) per day are women.
Development specialists have known for a long time that increasing the income of women is essential to poverty alleviation. All over the world women have been shown to spend more of their income on their households than men, so that when they are helped, the lot of the whole family is improved.
One of the biggest problems preventing poor women from improving their position is a lack of access to credit. If you are living on two dollars a day this doesn’t mean that you are paid this amount every morning.
The meeting of young minds
A sedate group of more than 1,000 young people brought together in London to discuss socio-political issues makes a sharp contrast to those who challenge the status quo via demonstrations, rallies and picket lines.
At the first annual One Young World, organised by advertising agency Euro RSCG Worldwide, delegates 25 years of age and younger network in an environment sanctioned by such high-profile “counsellors” as former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, economist Muhammad Yunus and musician Bob Geldof.
One Young World: let’s hear it from the under-25s
Amid the ongoing global conversation about the economy, and projections about when — and in which markets — the world might emerge from financial crisis, the collective voice of the 25-and-under age group is hard to hear.
It could have been silenced due to a sense of futility about challenging the so-called Establishment, or it might be online — constrained by such social media outlets as Facebook and Twitter.
