Women Leaders Stimulating the Global Economy
Mar 3, 2016
For women around the world, the global economy is not always friendly.
Despite evidence that the Gross Domestic Product increases in countries when women enter the formal economy at the same rate as men, obstacles to prevent this entry are numerous.
But, where there are strong women leaders, barriers crumble.
In Papua New Guinea, a male-dominated society, women are viewed by society as second-class citizens. Two out of every three women suffer from domestic violence. Girls are married off to resolve conflict within and across villages. For most women, starting their own business would be unthinkable. But some are not deterred by the limitations their society places on them.
One such woman is Plan International USA’s Global Women in Management (GWIM) alumna Margaret Harvey. She attended a floriculture training in 2003 and was determined to start her own flower business. However, owning her own flower shop was not enough. Margaret became involved with women’s associations and groups in her community and began training the members in floriculture. In 2013, she attended the GWIM workshop in Papua New Guinea where she learned new skills, tools, and methods to help her reach more women and grow her own business.
“Seeing the farmers’ flowers rotting in their farms prompted me to open a wholesale business in Port Moresby. [This business allowed me] to provide a wholesale market for rural women flower farmers to see and feel the real economic value of the fresh cut flower business,” Margaret said. “I began buying fresh cut flowers from these women farmers and airfreighting them to Port Moresby florists out of my hometown of Goroka.”
Margaret has since expanded her enterprise. She was vetted as a preferred vendor for events sponsored by ExxonMobil in PNG, and she has started to distribute organic honey and hand-ground coffee. In April, she will begin distributing fresh vegetables for more than 300 women farmers, who are ready to supply the Port Moresby market.
Ten thousand miles away, Lujain Al-Ubaid’s country of Saudi Arabia faces similar challenges with gender equality. While there has been some progress – overall literacy went from five percent to near 100 percent and last year women were allowed to vote for the first time – movement is slow. Lujain, like Margaret, did not let her environment determine her future. After pursing her education in the U.S., she had various jobs until she decided she wanted to do more. At 25, Lujain and some of her friends began their own non-profit that organized volunteers willing to implement programs. She attend GWIM in Washington D.C. in 2014. When she returned home she used the lessons she learned in the workshop to help grow her organization. Shortly after, Lujain became an Acumen fellow. Currently, Lujain is in Hyderabad, India, working as a Chief Strategy Officer at a social enterprise dedicated to providing life skills to the marginalized.
Five thousand miles from Saudi Arabia, women entrepreneurs in Liberia encounter a different set of problems as they continue to rebuild from years of conflict, followed by the Ebola crisis. Even with President Eleanor Sirleaf Johnson as a role model, gender equity is a struggle in Liberia. After their respective GWIM workshops, seven GWIM alumni came together to form the Women’s Empowerment Initiative of Liberia in June 2015. Working with a small start-up grant, they plan to step down the GWIM program and target women leaders at local non-profits with training that will strengthen their programs and impact at the community level. Their first trainings will begin in March.
From Monrovia, it is 2,000 miles to where Roxana Castro lives in Mexico. Mexico is striving to leave its machismo society in the past but, as in Papua New Guinea, domestic violence is still a huge problem, and many women cannot imagine what a life beyond poverty would look like. Roxana, who attended our most recent GWIM workshop in Colombia, is working with impoverished women through her social enterprise, Akumal. She trains the women in traditional crafts and sells their merchandise online and in stores. The workshop helped Roxana to formalize a plan to help more women realize their economic potential. Shortly after the workshop, she learned she was accepted into UnLtd USA’s social enterprise incubator workshop. This accelerator program provides seed money to companies, which in turn will invest back into the organization within three years.
“I have met other women who are working with ethical fashion from Africa, India, South America,” said Roxana. “One of these women started with a non-profit for refugees. They built a handicraft workshop with all the necessary equipment, and, right now, they are selling to IKEA. This is my dream and my vision, to form workshops in the communities of Mexico and Latin America and start selling to companies like IKEA that want to incorporate products of social entrepreneurs!”
The global economy is complex. While we still have not found a magic bullet that will ensure everyone can live a dignified life, we have found evidence that women are key to a stable global economy. As seen from this snapshot of entrepreneurs from around the world, supporting women leaders who are kickstarting their economies at the community level is a smart investment
A Step Forward for the Women of Papua New Guinea
Apr 10, 2014
“I was often thought of as crazy,” said Jukuli Kapiako, CEDPA Global Women in Management (CEDPA GWIM) participant from the Hela Province in Papua New Guinea, also known as PNG. “Where I come from in Tari, our people were thought of as scary, because we had long skinny arms and legs and big bellies. I now know we were malnourished.”
Jukuli is one of 26 Papua New Guinean women leaders, who are attending the three-week long, CEDPA GWIM country-level workshop, sponsored by the ExxonMobil Foundation’s Women’s Economic Opportunity Initiative. The need for this type of leadership and economic empowerment workshop in PNG is obvious. There were 80 applicants for 26 slots.
The Hides Women’s Association
Jukuli was selected because of her work with the Hides Women’s Association near an ExxonMobil PNG LNG site. Jukuli began the Association in 2001, and they are now a valued ExxonMobil community partner.
“I saw that my community was malnourished. I felt I needed to do something, and my current husband was very supportive,” explained Jukuli. Male support in the traditional societies of PNG is essential. “I gathered the women in my village for a meeting and held a public talk about personal hygiene and housekeeping.”
After several of these meetings, Jukuli organized the women. The association, made up of 240 women, now conducts workshops in planting, animal husbandry, and baking. They have built an elementary school, a birthing center and several guest houses, which employ several of the people living with HIV in the community. The association was also able to construct a road for the village.
The amount the association has accomplished under Jukuli’s leadership is all the more impressive when you find out she is illiterate. The loss of the opportunity to attend school is palpable when speaking with Jukuli. She knows what an education means.
“I really wanted to go to school. I registered and made it as far as the classroom, when my father dragged me out,” she explained. “He had accepted a bride price for me, and spent the money. I was forced to marry my first husband.”
Bride price is a tradition that is still in practice today throughout PNG. Jukuli clearly resents the opportunities she missed because of cultural traditions, so she refuses to let any more opportunities pass her by.
“Before, I had no value to the men in my village. They thought I was crazy. Women are expected to marry, bear their husband’s children, care for the children and raise the pigs. They are often expected to sleep with the pigs. We lived in the dark ages,” Jukuli said. “I did what I could, but CEDPA GWIM opened my eyes and cleared my mind.”
The Global Women in Management Program
The CEDPA GWIM program, sponsored by the ExxonMobil Foundation since 2005, strengthens women’s management, leadership and technical skills to enhance and bring to scale programs that advance women’s economic opportunities, building the next generation of women business leaders and entrepreneurs.
“Leadership and the practical business skills are extremely helpful to me,” said Jukuli. “I was using them and did not know it, but now I can explain the how and why to the women in my association. I will share everything with them. My mind is racing with ideas.”
The CEDPA GWIM participants learn not only from the facilitators, but from fellow participants. Each participant shares their experiences, successes and failures for the benefit of the group. The three-week program builds bonds between the participants, giving them new perspectives on the challenges their programs face and providing the chance to share solutions.
The women will also have the opportunity to join Advancing PNG: Women Leaders Network, a country-wide network formed by the first 23 CEDPA GWIM alumni from PNG in January 2014. The network will link all of the CEDPA GWIM alumni in PNG together in an effort to improve lives and make dreams become realities as a united front.
Jukuli shared her hopes and dreams for the future with her fellow participants during the workshop.
“I want the association’s bakery to be a recognized brand throughout PNG, and I want my women and me to learn to read and write,” said Jukuli. “I see now how far I will be able to go when I do.”
Celebrating the Achievements of Global Women in Management
Mar 7, 2014 By Plan International USA
Below is a story by Cathy Alex, president of the Advancing PNG: Women Leaders Network, which originally appeared on ExxonMobil’s Perspectives. The story has been re-posted here with their permission.
For nearly a decade, ExxonMobil’s Women’s Economic Opportunity Initiative has helped women around the globe fulfill their economic potential and drive economic and social change. Tomorrow is International Women’s Day so I have asked Cathy Alex – president of the Global Women in Management Women Leaders Network in Papua New Guinea as well as a graduate of one of the programs ExxonMobil supports – to offer reflections on her experiences. ~Ken
Tomorrow, people around the world will celebrate women’s achievements. In my home country of Papua New Guinea (PNG), there has never been a more important time to highlight the progress that is being made and the important link between investing in women and strengthening community and economic development.
In 2012, I participated in the Global Women in Management program, which is administered by Plan International USA with support from the ExxonMobil Foundation.
The four-week course gave me and hundreds of other nonprofit and community organisation women leaders from around the world the skills and confidence to bring economic and social change to our communities. Using the lessons I learned from the Global Women in Management program, and in close collaboration with other program alumnae, I was able to help the marginalised, rural women of the Gulf and Southern Highlands provinces in PNG.
In the community of Samberigi, for instance, our efforts helped a group of women open their first vegetable market, earning income to benefit not only themselves but their families and neighbors.
The impact of this market on the community has been immense, particularly in facilitating the advancement of the women involved. One woman who grew produce for the market gained confidence in her leadership abilities. She was soon elected as school chairperson, a position historically held by men. Meanwhile a spinoff women’s group helped to raise the visibility of one of the women involved so much that she was elected the first female mayor in the town of Kikori. These are just a few examples of the ripple effects of investing in women.
I am just one of 23 Global Women in Management program alumnae from PNG. This month, 26 more women from my country will participate in the first-ever program held in PNG. I am excited to see what they will do with the skills they gain.
As the world observes International Women’s Day, remember that investing in women’s economic empowerment is one of the most powerful ways to promote education, health, and other positive global development outcomes that lay the groundwork for a prosperous future.