Women often lack access to economic assets. That’s why we need to reach girls before it’s too late

Lindi Hlanze is an economic adviser to the UK Department for International Development (DFID). She specialises in the economic empowerment of girls and women, and is helping to deliver DFID's strategic vision on the issue. We caught up with her to find out why the economic empowerment of girls living in poverty is so important…

When we talk about economic empowerment, what exactly do we mean?

It means being able to acquire and have decision-making power over economic assets, for example: being able to earn money and decide how you spend your income; deciding how you save and when you want to draw on your savings; being able to borrow when you want to take out a loan and decide how you repay it.

Many girls and women don't have this kind of decision-making power. Why is that?

They'll often be forced into marriage as children and won't necessarily have the same education as their male counterparts. For example, in Ethiopia almost half of girls are married before they're 18. This typically leads to social isolation, having less access to education and much higher risks of health problems if they have children before the age of 18. This affects how much they're able to make choices about every aspect of their lives, and whether they're dependent on male members of their family.

That's why economic empowerment of girls is absolutely critical to broader empowerment of poor communities.

Why is it so important to focus specifically on girls?

Women typically earn less and work in more unstable jobs than men, and it's often too late to reach women in their twenties. By then they may have missed out on access to education and had no chance to accumulate assets needed to start a business, pay for higher education or save for the future.

Making sure girls have access to opportunities as early as we can is what we need to do to help alleviate global poverty.

So where do we start?

Understanding gender norms - what is expected of girls within the confines of their culture or community - is essential. Take mobility: parents often aren't willing to let girls travel a long distance to go to school for fear of them coming to harm - that has real implications for girls and what their aspirations are likely to be. Often girls think that because their mother hasn't worked, they can't work or they can't work on an equal basis to their brothers and male classmates.

Changing their aspirations and those of their communities, building their confidence and giving them access to information and networks, is critical.

How do we go about changing those aspirations?

We need a more holistic approach. There hasn't always been a focus on looking at the needs of the girl as a whole - we've often focused on single issues. We need to look at all of these things throughout the life cycle of a girl - it's too late to wait until they're adults.

Preparation is also critical when delivering programmes for girls. All the evidence shows that giving girls cash or access to financial services without any kind of understanding or training about how they work - especially when they come from a family background where savings haven't been the norm - means they can't get the most out of financial services.

What are the day-to-day challenges facing girls and how can we address them to improve their access to economic assets?

Girls often spend large amounts of time doing things such as caring for younger siblings, fetching water, collecting firewood for fuel or preparing food - sometimes at the cost of their schooling or health. Technology has a role to play here. There are loads of really great innovations around, such as solar lamps, fuel-efficient stoves and low-cost water pumps, which can save huge amounts of time and effort for girls, which means they have more time to study. 

Lots of evidence shows that having access to their peers, so that they can share information and challenges, builds confidence and enables girls to gain access to lots of things that they wouldn't otherwise find out about - such as future work opportunities.

What about development programmes? What role do they play?

There are a host of programmes that use girl safe spaces, for example. These are regular meetings for girls in a safe environment with an older female mentor from the local community, where girls can get access to information and training on things such as vocational skills. These programmes increasingly organise savings groups too. It's really difficult for a girl to have a savings account with a bank because they're not generally considered a big-enough customer. Safe spaces bring groups of girls together to contribute small amounts of money into one pool and then save collectively. That's a really exciting innovation.

There are lots of other interventions, some of which are less immediate to the girl. For example, changing laws to enable girls to inherit on the same basis as their male counterparts could be hugely empowering.

We want to give girls opportunities they haven't had before. What effect will that have on girls and their communities?

Often what's happening is girls are the first members of the family to have access to a bank or a financial institution and, actually, the whole family is learning from what the girls learn, so they're more likely to develop savings habits and other positive financial behaviours. But some girls may face resentment, particularly if their communities are not involved in programmes and are not able to understand the benefits to everyone from empowering a girl.

The big myth is that economic empowerment for girls is impossible. There are lots of exciting, innovative ways to make it happen.

How can that myth be dispelled?

DFID has a strong history of working on gender and our relationship with Nike Foundation and Girl Hub has really put girls on the agenda. If we can demonstrate what works and evidence it, others will pay attention.

Investing in adolescent girls isn't just a moral imperative, it's an economic necessity

Yohannes Wolday from the Nike Foundation explores the personal, national and global opportunities in economically empowering adolescent girls

Meet Christine, a 15-year-old girl in Burundi. She doesn't go to school and has never participated in a skill-building programme of any sort. She has no friends or money, and the only way she knows how to get money is to exchange sexual favours for cash.
Can you imagine her future?

Now meet Jocelyne, a 16-year-old schoolgirl who, together with two friends, owns a small solar panel, with which they make money by charging cell phones. With this income Jocelyne is able to cover her school fees and the cost of school supplies. She also saves some of her money as part of a saving and loan group she has formed with other girls in her village. She is able to say 'no' to boyfriends, stating: "My solar panel is my new boyfriend." She is now well recognised in her community. What do you think about Jocelyne's future?

In fact, Christine and Jocelyne are the same girl, described before and after she participated in the Ishaka project - an initiative that builds girls' social and economic wellbeing in Burundi. By participating in this project for two hours a week for nine months, she was able to turn her life around.

This is more than a great story - this is a wake-up call

First, there are lots of girls like Christine in the world

In many areas, adolescence comes with increased restrictions. Girls are often seen as 'women in training' and face a disproportionate burden of household chores, which consume most of their time and restrict their mobility and opportunities to go to school and participate in activities. Girls often lack confidence and networks, making it even more difficult to make friends, find jobs or know how to earn an income without having to use their bodies as their only assets. And in many places, girls can't legally own property or receive inheritances, contributing to the fact that women own less than one per cent of the world's property.

Participation in girl-focused economic empowerment programmes during adolescence can contribute to reducing risks and expanding opportunities for girls, putting them on a solid path for the future.

Second, investing in Christine brings a higher return than any other development investment

Investing in an adolescent girl isn't just a moral imperative, it's an economic necessity. A girl's economic prosperity benefits her, her family, her country and the global economy.

She benefits

Economic wellbeing puts girls on the path to breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty. Jocelyne (and girls like her all over the world) is a lot better off than she was before she took part in the Ishaka project. Not only does she have a safely earned income, but she also knows how to protect herself and her savings. Research shows that girls who have their own money and are financially literate are also more likely to marry later and have better negotiating power when it comes decisions about sexual relationships.

Her family benefits

When a girl is financially literate, and is able to earn an income and save, she can improve her household's ability to withstand economic changes and invest in her future children's schooling and health. Increased female control of income also leads to far greater returns for human capital than comparable income under male control. Research in Brazil showed that the likelihood of a child's survival was 20 per cent higher when the mother controlled household income; and in Kenya, income in mothers' hands was found to increase children's height by 17 per cent.

Her country benefits

Since she is economically better off, a girl will contribute to higher GDP growth, tax revenue, improved health and civic participation. For example, if young Nigerian women had the same employment rate as young men, the country would add $13.9bn to the economy annually.

The global economy benefits

Economically empowered girls contribute to global economic performance and, as a result, lower global poverty. Research by the World Bank shows that closing the joblessness gap between women and men would increase the global GDP by up to 5.4 per cent. And the benefits aren't just financial; the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) argues that closing the gender gap in access to agricultural inputs (such as land, fertilisers and seeds) could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 100-150 million.

To put it another way - the cost of ignoring girls is catastrophic

When girls have limited access to assets they are more likely to drop out or underperform in school, experience violence and have lower income earning potential as adults. Poor and out-of-school girls are also more susceptible to early marriage and teen pregnancy. These both have a decisive impact on the ability of adolescent girls to accumulate human capital and participate in the future labour force. For example, adolescent girls' pregnancy costs Bangladesh $22bn over a lifetime; in Uganda the cost of 15-to-19-year-old pregnancy is 30 per cent of GDP over a lifetime.

We can fix this picture by economically empowering the 250 million girls living on less than $2 a day.

So, how do we do it?

To successfully economically empower girls we need to prepare them for a safe and productive livelihood. We need to equip them first with education, skills, mentors and support, so they will be ready to receive access to financial services and physical assets such as land, savings schemes and tools. Girls must be given an understanding of their economic rights, value and potential. And we have to deliver assets that are age-appropriate - which means making sure the right assets are available to girls, at the right time in their development.

You can find out what we mean by age-appropriate assets here

This isn't just a theory

Girls' economic empowerment is possible, and has become a reality, on a small scale, all over the world. The Nike Foundation and many others who work in this area continue to prove that investing in girls' economic empowerment programmes has demonstrated significant returns - and these returns go far beyond economic wellbeing. A recent evaluation found that 11-to-20-year-old girls who participated in a Nike Foundation-funded programme in Uganda were 26 per cent less likely to have a baby than non-participants. Moreover, they are 35 per cent more likely to engage in an income-generating activity, resulting in a 33 per cent increase in the amount of money that girls spend on things they consume. Another investment in Burundi, which benefitted more than 12,000 girls, revealed a 58 per cent reduction in those satisfying their financial needs through prostitution or begging.

The challenge now is to take this impact to scale.

Will you join me?