Education for All: Investing in Girls’ Education – a key to poverty reduction in Malawi.
Women constitute over 52% of Malawi’s population of about 12.5 million. Women are also the main producers of food in the country that largely depends on small scale rain-fed agriculture. However, Malawian women are also the most vulnerable to the ills of the country’s enemies – poverty, hunger and disease. What can we do to address these ills? How can we improve the lives of women and by extension the well-being of all Malawians?
Research has shown that investing and empowering women is a sure way to get a society out of the poverty trap and achieve lasting benefits of any socio-economic development efforts. Mayoux (2002:16) argued that “failure to address gender inequality and support for women’s empowerment…has serious implications for any agenda for poverty reduction”.
According to Cheston and Kuhn (2002), studies by the UNDP, UNIFEM, and the World Bank, among others, indicate that gender inequalities in developing countries inhibit economic growth and development. For example, a recent World Bank report confirms that societies that discriminate on the basis of gender pay the cost of greater poverty, slower economic growth, weaker governance, and a lower living standard of their people.
In microfinance, it is a proven fact that women are not only better participants in microfinance programmes but are also more responsible in the utilization of the benefits accruing from their enterprises.
In terms of gender participation, it has generally been established that women are more co-operative in their participation in group-based microfinance programmes than men. Hulme (1990) found that for the Malawi Mudzi Fund (MMF), a Grameen Bank replica, the on-time repayment for women was 92 per cent as against 83 per cent for men. In Malaysia, Projek Ikhtiar reported 95 per cent repayment rates for women against 72 per cent for men (Wright, 2000). Similar experiences have been reported in other microfinance programmes in Africa.
Furthermore, women empowerment is important in addressing household poverty, particularly child poverty. Mayoux added that evidence indicates that where women have control over income a greater proportion of this is spent on nutrition, health and education of children.
“…women’s success benefits more than one person. Several organisations confirmed the well-documented fact that women are more likely than men to spend their profits on household and family needs. Assisting women therefore generates a multiplier effect that enlarges the impact of the organisations’ activities” (Cheston and Kuhn, 2002).
To fully empower women, we have to start with investing in girls’ education. UNESCO has identified multiple direct and indirect benefits of girls’ education: a) increased family incomes; b) later marriages resulting in reduced maternal health problems; c) reduced fertility rates leading to a healthier and manageable population for the nation; d) reduced infant and maternal mortality rates; e) better nourished and healthier children and families; f) greater opportunities and life choices for women (including better chances to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS).
Should we, as a nation, only focus on girls’ education? Of course not! By prioritizing the educational needs of girls we are undertaking an affirmative action to address the gender disparity that has seen girls and women not being accorded the same educational and other socio-economic opportunities in the past. Therefore, our goal should be promoting education for all while being mindful of the need for affirmative action to address the gender disparity in our nation’s social and political economy through girls’ education. We can achieve the vision of attaining education for all – girls and boys – by ensuring that we deliver on the six goals that we have committed ourselves to along with other nation states.
The six goals of Education for All basic education framework put forth in 2000 at Dakar Senegal endorsed by the international community are:
a) Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children;
b) Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality;
c) Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs;
d) Achieving a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults;
e) Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equity in education by 2015, with a focus on assuring girls’ full and equitable access to and achievement in basic education of good quality;
f) Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.
Kennedy Lweya, PhD
20 July 2009
Research has shown that investing and empowering women is a sure way to get a society out of the poverty trap and achieve lasting benefits of any socio-economic development efforts. Mayoux (2002:16) argued that “failure to address gender inequality and support for women’s empowerment…has serious implications for any agenda for poverty reduction”.
According to Cheston and Kuhn (2002), studies by the UNDP, UNIFEM, and the World Bank, among others, indicate that gender inequalities in developing countries inhibit economic growth and development. For example, a recent World Bank report confirms that societies that discriminate on the basis of gender pay the cost of greater poverty, slower economic growth, weaker governance, and a lower living standard of their people.
In microfinance, it is a proven fact that women are not only better participants in microfinance programmes but are also more responsible in the utilization of the benefits accruing from their enterprises.
In terms of gender participation, it has generally been established that women are more co-operative in their participation in group-based microfinance programmes than men. Hulme (1990) found that for the Malawi Mudzi Fund (MMF), a Grameen Bank replica, the on-time repayment for women was 92 per cent as against 83 per cent for men. In Malaysia, Projek Ikhtiar reported 95 per cent repayment rates for women against 72 per cent for men (Wright, 2000). Similar experiences have been reported in other microfinance programmes in Africa.
Furthermore, women empowerment is important in addressing household poverty, particularly child poverty. Mayoux added that evidence indicates that where women have control over income a greater proportion of this is spent on nutrition, health and education of children.
“…women’s success benefits more than one person. Several organisations confirmed the well-documented fact that women are more likely than men to spend their profits on household and family needs. Assisting women therefore generates a multiplier effect that enlarges the impact of the organisations’ activities” (Cheston and Kuhn, 2002).
To fully empower women, we have to start with investing in girls’ education. UNESCO has identified multiple direct and indirect benefits of girls’ education: a) increased family incomes; b) later marriages resulting in reduced maternal health problems; c) reduced fertility rates leading to a healthier and manageable population for the nation; d) reduced infant and maternal mortality rates; e) better nourished and healthier children and families; f) greater opportunities and life choices for women (including better chances to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS).
Should we, as a nation, only focus on girls’ education? Of course not! By prioritizing the educational needs of girls we are undertaking an affirmative action to address the gender disparity that has seen girls and women not being accorded the same educational and other socio-economic opportunities in the past. Therefore, our goal should be promoting education for all while being mindful of the need for affirmative action to address the gender disparity in our nation’s social and political economy through girls’ education. We can achieve the vision of attaining education for all – girls and boys – by ensuring that we deliver on the six goals that we have committed ourselves to along with other nation states.
The six goals of Education for All basic education framework put forth in 2000 at Dakar Senegal endorsed by the international community are:
a) Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children;
b) Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality;
c) Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs;
d) Achieving a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults;
e) Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equity in education by 2015, with a focus on assuring girls’ full and equitable access to and achievement in basic education of good quality;
f) Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.
Kennedy Lweya, PhD
20 July 2009
Labels: Education for All - Investing in Girls Education in Malawi
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