Why Lifting Little Girls out of Poverty, is Sound Economics

In recent years, more development aid than ever before has been directed at women. Even though, it doesn’t necessarily reach the girls who need it all the time. A new revolution is rising now that appeals to activists concerned with poverty, disease and the rise of violent extremism: change the world by investing in girls.

In recent years, more development aid than ever before has been directed at women. Even though, it doesn’t necessarily reach the girls who need it all the time. A new revolution is rising now that appeals to activists concerned with poverty, disease and the rise of violent extremism: change the world by investing in girls.

In many parts of the developing world, girls begin working household chores such as cooking – and cleaning up after everyone else by the time she’s 12 years old. Compared to her brothers, she is likely to be vaccinated, receive medical care or even attend school.

If only I can get educated, I will surely be the President,” a teenager in rural Malawi tells a researcher, but the odds are against her: families will only invest in their sons who will support the family. “A daughter will end up working for her in-laws”. 

In an article on TIME

In sub-Saharan Africa,

• Fewer than 1 in 5 girls make it to secondary school.
• Nearly half are married by the time they are 18;
• 1 in 7 across the developing world marries before she is 15. Then she gets pregnant.
• The leading cause of death for girls 15 to 19 worldwide is not accident or violence or disease; it is complications from pregnancy.
• Girls under 15 are up to five times as likely to die while having children than are women in their 20s, and their babies are more likely to die as well.

Rescuing girls is not only the right thing to do, it’s also the smart thing to do.  In a virtuous circle:

• An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 percent to 20 percent.
• An extra year of secondary school adds 15 percent to 25 percent.
• Girls who stay in school for seven or more years typically marry four years later and have two fewer children than girls who drop out. Fewer dependents per worker allows for greater economic growth.

The World Food Programme has found that when girls and women earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it in their families. They purchase books, medicine and bed nets.

For men on the other hand, that figure is more like 30 percent to 40 percent.

“Investment in girls’ education may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world,” Larry Summers wrote when he was chief economist at the World Bank.

Sadly, less than 2¢ of every development dollar goes to girls and roughly 9 of 10 youth programs are aimed at boys.

Development experts say the solutions need to be holistic, providing access to safe spaces, schools and health clinics with programs designed specifically for girls’ needs.

Success depends on infrastructure, on making fuel and water more available so girls don’t have to spend as many as 15 hours a day fetching them. It requires enlisting whole communities — mothers, fathers, teachers, religious leaders — in helping girls realize their potential instead of seeing them as dispensable or prey.

So what you see as a donation you make one day and forget about the next to these programs, could change a little girl’s life in the developing world, forever.