Why Invest in Women?
Impacting Individuals, Communities, Countries and the World – via http://www.imow.org
Emilienne de León | Semillas
Investing in women teaches them to live up to their full potential, lightens the load on social programs and shows investors how money can be used as a tool for social justice, says Emilenne de León, executive director of Semillas, the only fund in Mexico dedicated to women. Founded in 1990, Semillas distributes funds throughout the country accordingly and teaches women skills that can improve their lives and the lives of their families.
In my 10 years working for a women’s fund based in the Global South and raising funds to invest in women and girls, I’ve had many conversations with leaders and potential donors. One question comes up again and again: Why invest in women? My immediate answer is because we are half of the population of this planet. After this obvious statement, my next answer is, because women are the ones who take care of families and communities, and women know how to utilize money, resources and ideas with wisdom and creativity to make better choices for themselves and others.
As the executive director of Semillas, the only women’s fund in Mexico, I’ve seen firsthand that investing through women’s funds is a smart decision that leads to big changes. Let me explain better what we mean by investing in women. “Investing” implies the growth and return of capital: for example, when you invest in the stock market, you hope to receive more money than what you put in by the time you close your investment. When you invest in the education of your children, you give them better opportunities for the future; if you invest in a house, you receive security, since you will have a place to live forever.
Mexico is a country with many resources, but it still has a huge gap in the distribution of wealth. Fifty-two percent of the Mexican population lives below the poverty line, and 70% of those are women. An important part of the solution are the institutions, corporations and individuals that contribute to women’s funds.
When we invest in women, there are two kinds of gains: the primary gain and the secondary gain. For example, when a woman is educated about health care, she will go to the doctor regularly during a pregnancy. As a result, she will have fewer complications and she will deliver her baby in safer conditions for herself and the child. Also, though, the community will not have to use any additional resources to care for the mother or the child, which would be the case if complications had arisen during pregnancy or childbirth. The primary gain is for the woman, the baby and her family; the secondary gain is for the health care system and society.
For example, Semillas funds women’s organization that are helping to diminish maternal mortality rates through an indigenous midwives program in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guerrero. Semillas also invests in artisan groups that teach women how to design new products, increase production, and access markets that pay better prices for their products. And we give grants to address gender violence, which is an enormous problem in Mexico that hurts women and their families and increases the burden on the health care system. The organizations we fund promote better legislation at the local level to make it easier for women to press charges and access justice in domestic disputes.
At the same time, I believe women’s funds are strategic about raising money and distributing resources. We must not simply give money away, but invest it in women’s futures and make alliances with other women’s funds and organizations to leverage the resources we receive.
For example, with a grant of $35,000 from the General Service Foundation, Semillas launched a program supporting a labor rights campaign led by four organizations in the state of Baja, California. The campaign resulted in an agreement between women factory workers, the owners of the maquiladoras (factories that produce goods for export) and local authorities. This gave us the opportunity to invite other funders from the U.S. and Europe to expand our program, and in 2009 we will distribute $300,000 in grants to 15 groups across the country. We’re working with the Maquiladora Solidarity Network, an international organization, to support women’s organizations who advocate for fair labor policies, and we have an alliance with the Central American Women’s Fund, which supports 12 organizations in their region, and we also promote peer learning seminars among all our grantees. Together, our organizations are investing more than $600,000 in women workers.
Part of our mission as a women’s fund is also to inspire other organizations and institutions to consider new strategies. I am convinced that investing in women gives us the power to change the world, the power to think of new ways to solve old problems and a way to involve others in innovative methods of investing and leveraging money. But most importantly, we are giving each donor-be it an individual or an institution-the chance to use money as a tool for social justice and to work alongside women’s organizations towards a better world.
Want to see what our grantee’s have been up to this past year?….Click here!
Women’s movements have arguably been leading the most successful social revolution the world has ever seen. Yet, gender inequality is still the most pervasive, systemic and universal form of discrimination on the planet, noted by the groundbreaking research (Where is the Money for Women’s Rights, 2008) by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID).
The research was in part the inspiration for The Rita Fund and makes the strong case that there is much more work ahead — work that needs to be funded.
While the “women’s” factor has been gaining increasing attention in recent years — projects and programs led by women and young girls are still not enough of a priority. Large non-governmental organizations and development agencies, who have focused their resources towards the empowerment of women, are simply not enough. As AWID’s research shows, the problem lies in “a critical difference in perceptions as to how change happens.” These entities are simply no substitute for a “grassroots, autonomous movement.”
In fact, it has been a grassroots effort that has made the issue of “women” such a visible one. “Ending violence against women, Security Council Resolution 1325, achieving 30% of women’s representation in parliaments, and many other commitments would never have come to pass without the advocacy of a strong women’s movement.” (Joanne Sandler, Deputy Director, UNIFEM, speech at the Commission for the Status of Women, March 2006)
AWID’s research, a detailed survey of organizations working for the rights of women around the world uncovered among other things: half of women’s organizations who were surveyed reported receiving less funding since 2000. Two-thirds of respondents (67%) say it had become more difficult in the last five years to raise funds in general for issues/activities related to women’s rights and gender equality. “Most organizations are depending on small project-based funding because that is largely what is available, and rarely on time when groups really need it.” (Where is the Money for Women’s Rights?)
The good news? Throughout the world there is an exciting and growing movement of independent public foundations run by women who support women’s organizations or women’s rights initiatives.
These organizations are literally sustaining hundreds of women’s organizations worldwide. In fact, the AWID report found that women’s funds were mentioned by 46% of survey respondents as a source of revenue (up from 28% in 2000). For the women’s organizations with annual budgets under USD 50,000 (which form the majority) they can often be a main source of income.
These women’s funds are supporting historically marginalized groups that have difficulty accessing resources. They are intermediaries who are “able to get small amounts of monies to remote and marginalized communities where large funders cannot.” (Where is the Money for Women’s Rights?)
Through this re-granting, women’s funds are contributing to the democratization of philanthropy world-wide.
What does democratization of funding look like? Take TRF grantee – the Central American Women’s Fund. Their innovative approach to supporting young women’s organizing in the region means giving their current grantees a vote on future grant recipients.
by Caroline Brac de la Perrière, The Mediterranean Women’s Fund
The creation of UN Women has just been voted unanimously by the UN General Assembly on July 2nd 2010. This aims to accelerate the reduction in gender inequality and to develop aid for women and girls.
The new group comes from the fusion between several programs and funds which are already dedicated to gender equality. The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the International research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) and the office of the special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OS AGI) will be combined to form UN Women.
By uniting together and coordinating their actions with those in favor of women throughout the whole of the UN, UN Women will enable the system as well as governments to improve gender equality, women’s autonomy as well as women’s human rights.
A particular interest of this new group should be directed towards the paragraphs of the resolution concerning the importance of the participation of those in civil society. This should have an increased operational capacity with within each country, particularly by cooperating with women’s groups and other organizations working towards gender equality and increased autonomy for women.
The creation of a UN entity for gender equality and women’s empowerment is the result of years of negotiations between member states. It is also and above all the result of the GEAR, the Gender Equality Architecture Reform campaign, which is a network of more than 300 women’s groups and organizations working for human rights and social justice throughout the world, which for four years has been trying to persuade member states and the UN secretary’s office to create a coherently coordinated agency in order that the UN can better achieve its mandate to work towards gender equality.
The actions and means of this new structure will depend on the voluntary contributions of member states. These have agreed that 500 million dollars will be the minimum starting budget required. UN Women will be operational from January 2011.
The Colorado Daily did a feature on The Rita Fund…Click Here!
PlanetGreen Spotlights The Rita Fund…Click Here!
The Rita Fund is proud to announce our very first round of grants. Five grants were awarded globally totaling $40,000. Check out the women’s funds Rita is supporting around the world and thank you to all of our donors for your generous support in making this first year a huge success!
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