IWD 2012: Commitment to Education

Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Women's rights have certainly made head way since the early 1900's.  The world is undoubtedly a better place for women, but we must not be complacent.  We must recognize that women's rights are human rights and there lies a long road ahead of us to reach this recognition.  To this day, women everywhere are constantly subjected to violence and oppression, denied of basic rights, and are faced with a "barrage of difficulties" due to their sex. 

Less than 20% of world's parliamentarians are women

Less than 10% of countries have female head of state

Less than 3% signatories to peace agreements are women

This all comes down to one word, education.  Studies have shown that education plays a vital role in women empowerment and is the most effective way to fight global poverty and social injustice.  Educating women improves the rights of women in all areas of life.  Sure, gender equality seems a little far fetched, and requires shifting of attitudes, traditions, and practices, but this long-term commitment plan for education needs to happen if we want to see change and the betterment of the female population.     

Mothers who have been educated are more likely to give birth in health facilities

Girls with post-primary education are 5X more likely to be knowledgeable of HIV/AIDS

But, 30 million more girls than boys are out of school and are stripped of the opportunity

Today, we celebrate womanhood and those who have played a transformative role in paving the path that we have before us.  Happy International Women's Day from all of us here at The Borgen Project! 

-Georisa Chang

SOURCE: The Guardian 

Building U.S. Support

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama and his administration passed the $1 trillion Omnibus bill in an effort to bolster the economy and prevent further stagnation.  Most surprisingly, this bill contained an allocation of nearly $2.6 billion to multilateral, international agencies such as the IMF (a 37 percent increase from 2011) and $21.5 billion allocation to foreign assistance programs.  This funding comes as a surprise to many developmental analysts who found recently polling of Americans to suggest that "70 percent of respondents said cutting foreign aid would have a large impact on reducing the U.S. deficit."  Perhaps even more concerning was the fact that polls also found that "Americans believed that 20 percent of the federal budget was being spent on aid, when the actual figure is less than 1 percent."

This monumental shift toward globalized, rational funding sends a clear message to the world that the United States is intent on maintaining its influence on the global market.  More importantly, this sends a message that the U.S. is intent on fostering relationships in the global market while focusing on providing aid to those that need it most.  As any policy analysts can attest to, there is always a desired return on social investment.  According to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the return is "enormous."  In a policy sense, the U.S. is able to ensure that they, "encourage a level global playing field for businesses...apply rigorous social and environmental standards to development projects...and focus more on fragile states, which helps address global security concerns and also advances U.S. security interests abroad."

As the quoted Brookings Institute article frames it, "The amounts involved are a very small fraction of the U.S. budget but can help hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people."

-Kenneth Louis

SOURCE: The Brookings Institute - Global Economy and Development