Development

Chenai Chair and Broc Rademan are researchers at Research ICT Africa, a public-interest research organization that examines information and communication technology policy in Africa. You can find them @RIAnetwork. According to the International Telecommunication Union, roughly 75 percent of Africans are not connected to the internet. This dismal statistic has turned the continent into a laboratory to test innovative public policy- and market-based solutions to improve connectivity. Installing free Wi-Fi hotspots has emerged as a promising solution to overcome the challenges of coverage, cost and network quality in South Africa and other countries across region. However, it will take more than just free Wi-Fi to significantly increase connectivity. Fixed broadband networks (e.g. laying cable) are too expensive to install and operate for African internet users. Mobile technologies can be deployed more quickly and cheaply and increase mobile phone ownership. However, the cost of communicating is still relatively expensive. A digital readiness assessment study in the Western Cape province found on average citizens spend 20.1 percent of their individual income on mobile service that is voice, SMS, data and any monthly mobile subscriptions. Unlike data plans, free public Wi-Fi is just that for the end user: free. That makes the provision of public Wi-Fi attractive to public authorities looking to improve internet access, especially given the growing penetration of smartphones across Africa. Data suggests that there were roughly 226 million smartphone users in 2015 and is expected to rise to 720 million by 2020. Governments have begun to require the provision of Wi-Fi as a condition of public network investment and infrastructure upgrades. For example, the Western Cape government requires Neotel, an internet service provider, set aside a portion of bandwidth to be allocated for a local Wi-Fi hotspot at the public buildings it is contracted to connect. Similarly, the cities of Tshwane and Cape Town have required that new government buildings establish a functioning Wi-Fi hotspot with free uninhibited access to anyone in the vicinity. In both cities, schools, libraries, health facilities, parks and squares now offer free Wi-Fi. The business models for free Wi-Fi are varied, but overall, the local authorities end up subsidizing a daily data cap to be used by anyone with a Wi-Fi-enabled device to do with as they please. Having government subsidize internet access is risky. Will people use their newfound access to browse cat videos or something more productive? Recent research we undertook in South Africa suggests that individuals availing themselves of free Wi-Fi were doing so for job seeking, student assignments and information inquiries more than any other activities. Nevertheless, there are still some problems facing the African users of public Wi-Fi. First, the Wi-Fi is provided in mostly urban areas, and therefore exclude rural populations. Second, many public spaces in urban and peri-urban areas are unsafe at night, making internet access a daytime affair. Third, Wi-Fi-enabled devices are not the most affordable devices on the market, which limits the accessibility of feature phone owners and those who have no device at all. Fourth, the sustainability of publicly-funded Wi-Fi projects is uncertain given the dynamic nature of the sector and budgetary constraints in developing economies. This threatens the longevity of such operators as well as the health and competitiveness of the private sector. There are also challenges beyond technology that affect internet accessibility and use in Africa. Mozilla recently funded research conducted in Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda. According to the study, digital literacy remains a challenge as some individuals, particularly in rural areas, do not have the skills to navigate the internet. Apart from the lack of devices and digital know-how, public perceptions of the internet also hinder access. Some users shy away from internet use given the nature of some online content, particularly fake news or malicious content. Non-users also express a general mistrust of the internet, which may be attributed to a lack of understanding of what the internet is. Gender disparities can also hinder online participation, especially in rural areas where women have described their partners restricting them from going online. Providing free public Wi-Fi is an innovative and affordable way to improve connectivity in Africa. However it is by no means a silver bullet. More evidence-based research could identify the full extent of the limitations of free public Wi-Fi and identify strategies to improve internet accessibility in Africa. Some of this research will come later this year, once we complete household and individual surveys in nine African countries to better understand internet usage and accessibility.

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post, covering from February 6 to February 10, was compiled with support from Anne Connell, Alyssa Dougherty, and Loren Grier. Russia reduces punishment for domestic abuse Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law this week decriminalizing many forms of domestic abuse and making penalties more difficult to enforce. Acts of domestic violence that result in “minor harm,” including lacerations or bruising, will be classified as misdemeanors punishable by only a $500 fine or up to fifteen days in jail. Conservative champions of the so-called “slapping law” celebrated its near unanimous adoption; critics, however, cite the legislation as a clear sign of backslide on civil and human rights. Anna Kirey, deputy director for Russia and Eurasia with Amnesty International, contends that “while the Russian government claims this reform will ‘protect family values,’ in reality it rides roughshod over women’s rights.” Independent reports suggest that 36,000 women in Russia are beaten daily by their husbands, and Russian government statistics confirm that thousands of women die as a result of domestic violence each year, with 91 percent of reported incidents perpetrated by spouses. Domestic violence not only results in emotional and physical injury, but also is correlated with low rates of women’s economic participation and reduced GDP: studies show that billions of dollars are lost in global economic productivity, and millions more spent on medical and mental healthcare, because of domestic abuse. Nearly 300,000 Russians have signed a petition to protest the new amendment. Rates of FGM decline globally New data show that rates of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM) are on the decline in twelve countries that have historically faced high prevalence of this harmful practice, which can cause injury and bleeding, increase complications in childbirth, and lead to life-threatening infections. The Population Reference Bureau published survey results to coincide with the observation of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM this week, which aims to bring attention to the estimated 200 million women subjected to this practice worldwide—primarily in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The new surveys found that twelve of sixteen countries reporting new data since 2014 experienced declines in the percentage of women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 forced to undergo the procedure. Elizabeth Leahy Madsen, a co-author of the study, said that “the fact that we’re seeing declines in prevalence in three-quarters of the countries where we have updated data available is [a] promising sign.” Experts suggest that declining rates are an indication that years of advocacy work—and recent legal reforms to limit or ban FGM, including in Egypt, the Gambia, and Nigeria—are paying off. China struggles to address violence against women Recent reports suggest that ineffective implementation of China’s first nationwide domestic violence law, enacted in December 2015, has limited its ability to address the high prevalence of violence against women. Today, one in four married women in China are reportedly victims of domestic abuse, and tens of millions remain at risk. In 2015, domestic violence was acknowledged as a public health crisis and included in President Xi Jinping’s social platform, in large part due to decades of advocacy by Chinese activists, many of whom faced potential jail time. The subsequent enactment of an anti-domestic violence law—a milestone in the advancement of women’s rights in China—classified domestic violence a legitimate offense, increased sentencing for perpetrators, and permitted citation of domestic violence in divorce proceedings. However, qualitative research and interviews with survivors and lawyers highlight significant loopholes: reports show that women requesting restraining orders or reporting abuse are often turned away by police officers and local officials, making it extremely difficult for Chinese women to make use of the law’s protections.    

Today, Feb. 6, 2017, marks International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. Learn more about the practice of female genital mutilation/cutting through these five publications from the Women and Foreign Policy program, and join the conversation on social media with @CFR_WFP to #EndFGM. Why the U.S. should help end FGM In a guest blog post on Women Around the World, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Cathy Russell argues that preventing and responding to FGM is critical to U.S. foreign policy because the practice harms girls’ health, limits access to education, and contributes to intergenerational poverty. The U.S. Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-based Violence Globally, Russell asserts, makes clear that combating FGM requires that U.S. officials engage in a multi-sectoral response—one that supports community-led initiatives, changes to social norms, and political commitments. Read the blog post on Women Around the World » A woman walks past a building in Brikama, Gambia, 30 km (20 miles) south of the capital Banjul. Child marriage and FGM occur frequently in Gambia’s urban centers, and at much higher rates in rural areas. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly Gambia enacts historic legislation to end FGM In an interview for the Five Questions series, Dr. Isatou Touray, an activist for women’s rights and the first female candidate for the presidency of Gambia, comments on recently-enacted bans on female genital mutilation and child marriage in the small West African nation. Read the interview on Women Around the World » A mother carrying an infant on her back attends a meeting of women from several communities eradicating female genital cutting, in the western Senegalese village of Diabougo, September 10, 2007. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly Rural community education reduces FGM prevalence Molly Melching, founder and CEO of Tostan, shares recent research evaluating the effectiveness of legislation banning FGM in rural communities, highlighting a 2014 study showing that legal bans are only effective when accompanied by grassroots activism. “As a direct result of Tostan’s [community education] program,” Melching writes, “over 7,600 communities in eight countries across Africa have publicly declared their intention to abandon FGC and child and forced marriage. This means that three million people now live in communities that have chosen—collectively and of their own volition—to end these harmful practices.” Read the blog post on Women Around the World » Jaha Dukureh (R) and Maryum Saifee (L) at the 2016 Time 100 Gala. Photo courtesy of Maryum Saifee. Enlisting religious leaders in anti-FGM efforts In a blog post on Women Around the World, Senior Fellow Catherine Powell reflects on a CFR roundtable meeting and film screening with Jaha Dukureh, named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of 2016 for her work advocating against female genital mutilation. During the roundtable, Dukureh stressed the importance of working with both religious leaders as well as with men and boys to change perceptions about FGM. Read the blog post on Women Around the World» More than 150 world leaders gather for the plenary meeting of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit at the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan, New York September 27, 2015. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri FGM and the Sustainable Development Goals In a 2016 CFR report, Senior Fellow and Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program Rachel Vogelstein analyzes the world’s new development framework and proposes a new funding mechanism to finance its gender equality targets. The sustainable development agenda, she writes, is a promising leap forward from its predecessor framework, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Sustainable Development Goal Five, focused on gender equality, for the first time creates time-bound targets related to a range of issues—from property rights and financial inclusion, to ending violence against women and FGM—that previously were overlooked.  Read the Policy Innovation Memorandum »

The Trump Administration’s executive order on immigration indefinitely bars Syrian refugees from entering the United States, temporarily blocks citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, and suspends all refugee admissions for 120 days. This order comes at a time when over 65 million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) worldwide have been uprooted from their homes. A disproportionate number of these refugees are women and children, many of whom face grave risks, from sexual violence and human trafficking to inadequate nutrition and healthcare. Of the 12 million people displaced by the current conflict in Syria, nearly two-thirds are women and children. In the United States, according to official State Department figures, over 78 percent of the Syrian refugees and 72 percent of all refugees admitted to the country as of 2016 were women or children. In the wake of the Trump Administration’s immigration order, learn more about the history of U.S. and international policy to protect refugees—including women and children—around the world:   1948     United Nations Declaration of Human Rights   In December 1948, the newly-formed United Nations (UN) adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first international document to assert “the dignity and worth of the human person and [the] equal rights of men and women.” Article 14 of the declaration recognizes the right of all persons to seek asylum from persecution.   Representatives of 50 countries gather at the 1945 conference in San Francisco, California. (AP)     1951     UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees   In the devastating aftermath of WWII, the 1951 Refugee Convention, ratified by 145 state parties, becomes a landmark legal document, defining the term ‘refugee’  and outlining the rights of the displaced as well as the legal obligations of all states to protect them. The convention establishes the principle of non-refoulement, reflecting an international consensus that it is unlawful to force refugees or asylum-seekers to return to a country in which they may be persecuted. While the U.S. government committed itself to implementing the principles of the convention, it would not formally ratify an international refugee framework until 1967.   Newly arrived refugees stand in their tent quarters at Beit Lid after arriving from Europe following the Nazi Holocaust of World War II. REUTERS     1967     UN Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees   In October 1967, 146 countries sign on to a UN protocol on international refugees to expand the temporal and geographic scope of the 1951 convention, which previously focused on those displaced by the violence and genocide of WWII. The United States joined the international refugee regime by ratifying the protocol in Congress, by which it committed to co-operating with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees “or any other agency of the United Nations which may succeed it,” to applying the provisions of the protocol, and to communicating to the UN Secretary-General any new national laws or regulations that affect the application of the protocol.   Iraqi Kurdish refugees collect bread from a dirt road in Isikveren refugee camp in Turkey. REUTERS/Jim Hollander     1980     U.S. Refugee Act   Amidst mass migration of Vietnamese—many of whom had suffered years of imprisonment, discrimination, and sexual violence—the U.S. Refugee Act enacted in 1980 expanded the definition of a ‘refugee’ and founded the U.S. refugee resettlement program that exists today. Through the act, Congress signaled its intention to conform U.S. refugee law to international legal frameworks and established a permanent procedure for the admission of refugees of “special humanitarian concern.” The act raised the refugee cap from 17,400 to 50,000 people admitted each fiscal year and established the Office of U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. The act facilitated the United States’ acceptance of over 700,000 Vietnamese refugees—including tens of thousands of families—between 1975 and 1996.   The flag of former South Vietnam is draped over the shoulders of Vietnamese refugee Bai-Binh Ton-Thap as he stands next to 58,300 yellow ribbons tied to a fence surrounding the flight deck of the USS Midway as the ship commemorates the 40th Anniversary of the fall of Saigon. REUTERS/Mike Blake     1995     Dayton Accords   The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Accords or Dayton Agreement, was formally signed by international parties to end the brutal three-and-a-half year Bosnian War, one of the Yugoslav Wars. The use of rape against Bosnian women and girls was widespread, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia would later declare that such “systematic rape” was a crime against humanity second only to the war crime of genocide. Over 700,000 people fled war-torn Yugoslavia for the EU, with 400,000 settling in Germany, and the U.S. began resettling large numbers of refugee families—primarily women and children—from Bosnia.   Aroup of Bosnian refugees from Srebrenica walk to be transported from eastern Bosnian village of Potocari to Kladanj, July 13, 1995. REUTERS     2016     UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants   In 2016, former U.S. President Barack Obama led efforts to hold a high-level summit on the margins of the 71st United Nations General Assembly meeting to address a growing international migration crisis, with the aim of bringing countries together behind a more just, efficient, and coordinated approach. Donor countries committed to a $4.5 billion total increase in global humanitarian financing—including a $1 billion increase by the United States. At the summit, 193 UN member states signed onto the New York Declaration, a plan to improve global response to movements of refugees and migrants.  Numerous sessions addressed the heightened dangers faced by displaced women and children, such as significant health risks, forced marriage, trafficking, and sexual abuse.   A refugee woman carrying her child walks under heavy rainfall at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni, Greece, May 21, 2016. REUTERS/Kostas Tsironis  

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post, covering from January 15 to January 28, was compiled with support from Becky Allen, Anne Connell, and Alyssa Dougherty. U.S. administration restricts foreign aid Last Monday, the Trump Administration issued an executive order reinstating the Mexico City policy on family planning, dramatically expanding Reagan-era restrictions on U.S. aid related to reproductive health care. The requirements will for the first time extend beyond family planning programs to implicate “global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies,” including assistance to address HIV/AIDS, malaria, and maternal and child health. In total, the rule may affect $9 billion in global health aid, in comparison to around $600 million affected under President George W. Bush. The expansion also may end funding for any UN-affiliated agency that falls under its restrictions, including UNFPA, which supports a range of women’s and children’s health programs in more than 150 countries. In addition to these restrictions, two draft orders obtained by The New York Times suggest that the Trump administration will propose a 40 percent reduction in total support for the United Nations and other global bodies as well as a moratorium on new treaties, and begin a review of U.S. support for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Women at risk in Africa’s migration crises According to new UN reports, escalating refugee and migrant crises in several African regions place women and children at increased risk of sexual abuse, trafficking, lack of access to health and education, and loss of rights.  At least 12,000 people journey from Ethiopia and Somalia into Yemen each month, arriving in a country that itself has seen over 2.1 million people displaced due to conflict between Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government. While some women have taken up arms on both sides of the conflict, airstrikes have killed thousands of women and children and left hundreds of thousands without access to critical health services. Displacement is also intensifying elsewhere on the continent: last week at least 26,000 Gambians, mainly women and children, crossed into Senegal amid fears of violence following Yahya Jammeh’s refusal to step down from the presidency. West Africa’s regional bloc, ECOWAS, stands poised to intervene militarily, and Gambia’s new president, Adama Barrow, requested that forces remain in the country to oversee the tenuous transfer of power. The International Organization for Migration reports the African continent now holds one-third of the world’s total displaced population—about 12.4 million people. Nigeria negotiates with Boko Haram Nigeria’s government confirmed last week that it is negotiating with the militant group Boko Haram to free captive girls and running search sorties in the dense Sambisa forest. Twenty-one Chibok schoolgirls captured by fighters in April 2014 were released in 2016 in a deal brokered with assistance from the International Red Cross and Swiss government; many reportedly suffered systematic rape and enslavement by Boko Haram militants and now face stigma upon return to their communities. The government’s inability to secure the release of those schoolgirls who remain in captivity underscores broader criticism of what some consider to be an inadequate response to the threats posed by Boko Haram. This month has brought renewed outrage as Nigerian fighter jets mistakenly bombed a camp for displaced persons, killing nearly 100 in what the United Nations high commissioner for refugees called a “truly catastrophic event.”

In late December, tens of thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers went on strike, shutting down over fifty factories making fast-fashion clothes for international brands including Gap, H&M, and Zara. What started as a walkout in support of 121 workers fired for asking for higher pay quickly grew into larger protests demanding a tripling of the minimum wage. Bangladeshi authorities responded by firing rubber bullets into the crowds and detaining and interrogating dozens of protestors and union leaders—sending many more into hiding. Factory owners sued scores of workers for inciting labor unrest, and fired over 1,600 more. Throughout, reputation-sensitive fashion brands largely remained silent. The current minimum wage in Bangladesh is just 5,300 taka—about $68 per month—not enough to cover basic food, medicine, and housing. The last increase was in 2013, when the government nearly doubled wages in the wake of the Rana Plaza tragedy, the building collapse killing over 1,000 people. While justified in their grievances, it is unlikely the workers will get their raise. The government and companies’ disregard reflects Bangladesh’s labor supply. In a country where nearly one in five people lives on less than $1.90 per day, $68 a month sewing pants, shirts, and dresses finds many takers. But the government’s harshness also reflects the competition Bangladesh faces from other nations for the loyalty, and orders, of international apparel brands. Many already have diversified their supply chains, making garments in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Some have even moved to Ethiopia, which currently pays the lowest wages in the world. With apparel now comprising 80 percent of Bangladesh’s total exports, losing even part of the $30 billion industry could devastate the national economy. Precedent shows that the major labels only support living wages when under widespread and sustained pressure from consumers. This happens rarely—getting customers to know and care about sweatshop conditions, as happened to Nike in the 1990s, is an anomaly. Still, for Bangladeshi workers, their best hope is drawing more international attention from the Westerners who buy the clothes they sew.  

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post, covering from January 6 to January 15, was compiled with support from Anne Connell. Sweden prioritizes women in peace processes This month, Sweden begins a two-year term on the United Nations Security Council and a month-long tenure as the body’s president. Upon assuming the Security Council presidency, Margot Wallström, Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, promised to lead the body using a “feminist foreign policy” that  emphasizes equal rights, women’s full participation in decision-making roles, and a fair allocation of aid and investment to women around the world. Of top concern to top Swedish diplomats is the dearth of women in peace processes: Wallström cited the lack of women’s involvement in efforts to transfer power in the Democratic Republic of Congo, comparing ongoing challenges in that country to the recent successful outcome of the gender-inclusive peace talks in Colombia that ended a 52-year civil war. Swedish officials cite women’s inclusion as an integral part of the broader imperative for Security Council member states to “find common ground and produce results in 2017” that improve peace and security around the globe. UN forms task force to combat peacekeeper abuse The United Nations (UN) announced new plans last week to strengthen its efforts to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse perpetrated by peacekeepers in its operations around the world. Heavy criticism has been leveled at the UN over the past year for its slow and insufficient response to reports of sexual abuse committed by blue helmets, particularly in the Central African Republic (CAR) mission.  At the request of newly sworn-in Secretary-General António Guterres, a high-level task force will develop a “clear, game-changing strategy” to achieve “visible and measurable further improvement” in peacekeeper training and accountability. The announcement of the task force to curb peacekeeper abuse of civilians coincides with the decision by a panel of French judges’ not to bring charges against several UN peacekeepers accused of sexually abusing women and children in CAR. Sexual harassment in India and Pakistan India’s Department of Personnel and Training recently released guidelines on workplace sexual harassment to promote fair and equal treatment of government employees, including a mandate for investigation of cases within three months of a complaint and protection for complainants. The government expressed hope that the guidelines will shift industry practice on the widespread problem of sexual harassment in the labor force, which affects a reported 38 percent of working women in India. In Punjab, regional government officials are also turning to technology to tackle high rates of harassment by deploying a new smartphone app that crowdsources data to mark unsafe places for women and features a panic button to alert law enforcement. While this technology is promising, its reach may be limited by the persistent gender gap in smartphone penetration in South Asia, where far fewer women than men own and use smartphones.

Voices from the Field features contributions from scholars and practitioners highlighting new research, thinking, and approaches to development challenges. This article is authored by Dana J. Hyde, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. In the global fight against poverty, we can’t afford to give up the $12 trillion that could come from gender equality. As CFR Senior Fellow Rachel Vogelstein has written, improving gender equality and strengthening the economic standing of half of the world’s population is the key to unlocking broad-based economic growth. Changing gender norms and addressing gender disparities is not easy. But as CEO of the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation, I am encouraged by the inspiring women who are leading the way to advance growth and lift communities out of poverty around the world. I think about the female plumbers in Jordan who are helping to preserve precious water resources in their communities; the female farmers in Senegal who received formal rights to their land are told me they are now planting crops to increase their families’ income; and the female community leaders in the Philippines who managed implementation of locally driven development projects. CEO Dana J. Hyde and others with female plumbers who participated in MCC-backed training in Jordan. (Photo courtesy of MCC) I am proud to lead a team of development experts where more than half of the senior leadership team and more than half of our agency are women. And in an extraordinary first, women currently lead four of MCC’s major U.S. Government partner agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Peace Corps, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. I am also inspired by a unique cadre of women among MCC’s implementing partners – a local entity known as a Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) leads MCC projects in our partner countries. These MCAs are entirely locally staffed and include a locally appointed Chief Executive Officer. As MCC CEO, I have been honored to work alongside seven female MCA CEOs who have managed the implementation of more than $2 billion in U.S. development projects. Women like Pamela Bwalya, the CEO of MCA-Zambia, represent what women can and will bring to the table in a more equal world. Growing up in Zambia – which ranked 116th out of 145 countries on the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Gender Gap Index – she faced regular discrimination. She remembers people around her saying that it was better to send boys to school than girls; and in her professional life, she continued to experience institutional gender discrimination that lay roadblocks along her career path. Pamela Bwalya, CEO of MCA-Zambia. (Photo courtesy of MCC) But with her family’s encouragement, Pamela persevered. Following university in South Africa, where she earned a master’s degree in economics, she returned to Zambia and rose to become the deputy director in the Government’s Ministry of Finance and Planning. When Zambia signed a $355 million compact with MCC, Pamela was appointed CEO of the MCA. Today, she leads a team implementing projects that will benefit more than one million men and women across the country. Former MCA-Moldova CEO Valentina Badrajan led implementation of a $262 million compact between MCC and the Government of Moldova. Our partnership helped jumpstart the Eastern European country’s lagging agricultural sector. In a blog post for MCC, Valentina says that women often must have more knowledge or experience than men to achieve the same positions, and that she herself faced challenges throughout her career. As MCA CEO, she led projects that explicitly addressed gender disparity and actively involved women. The compact, for example, funded training events and workshops to enhance women’s business skills and promote entrepreneurship. Valentina Badrajan, former CEO of MCA-Moldova. (Photo courtesy of Valentina Badrajan) Women like Pamela and Valentina—and their counterparts in other MCC partner countries—have become role models for me, and I hope for women around the world. Their drive and determination have helped them overcome challenges and become leaders in their communities. By unleashing the potential of women like them, the United States and its partners can take a vital step forward toward building a better future for everyone. Hear Pamela and Valentina’s stories, along with those of other women leading MCAs, in MCC’s “Women on a Mission” podcast series.

Rachel Brown is a research associate for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. This is the second part of a series on migration trends in India and China. In 1966, Indira Gandhi assumed the position of India’s prime minister and served until 1977, followed by a second term from 1980 to 1984. Yet fifty years later, women’s opportunities for economic advancement remain limited compared to other emerging economies. Currently just 27 percent of working-age Indian women participate in the workforce (compared to 58 percent in Bangladesh and 64 percent in China) and the participation rate has fallen over the past decade. This large gender gap in employment incurs significant financial consequences. In 2015, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that “achieving gender equality in India would have a larger economic impact there than in any other region in the world” and could contribute as much as $700 billion to the nation’s GDP over the next decade. Yet attaining those gains will require changes in attitudes toward and opportunities for female employment. Recently – and perhaps in response to the gender gap’s costs – both the Indian government and private firms have undertaken efforts to boost female employment; as they do so, the role of internal migration in promoting women’s economic mobility will be an important consideration. On the face of it, the migration situation appears promising, with women making up approximately 70 percent of India’s internal migrants. However, nearly all of these women migrate for marriage, and the share between the ages of 15 and 64 who moved for jobs declined from just 1.3 percent to 0.8 percent between 1983 and 2008 despite dramatic GDP growth. (Although statistics on those who move for both marital and employment reasons are difficult to tease out since many datasets only cite one reason for a respondent’s move.) A reluctance in some communities to allow women to move for work has hindered greater economic opportunity. Assumption College Professor Smriti Rao argues that this reluctance stems from both “the continuing resilience of the patriarchal family” and the limited number of good or suitable jobs available for women in cities. Familial concerns often include the risks of exposure to crime, physical assault, improper relationships, and other threats. Additionally, while migration offers financial benefits, it can also inflict significant personal and social costs, particularly for children left behind if both parents move. Elsewhere, in countries such as China and Bangladesh, the large number of urban jobs for women in manufacturing, clothing production, and other areas created new economic opportunities, which led to an increase in women’s role in the workforce and in migration from rural areas to cities. Since employers often favor young women for these jobs, high demand pulled females into cities. For example, in the Chinese city of Shenzhen females made up 70 percent of migrant workers by 2003 and helped fuel the region’s rapid development. But India’s manufacturing and garment export industries remain less robust, and less than 20 percent of women currently employed work in the manufacturing, wholesale, and retail sectors. Additionally, a critical mass of migrants can facilitate greater movement and awareness of job opportunities. For example, in China, many rural women have used networks of guanxi (social connections) to find employment in cities by exchanging information with others from their home region; but since fewer Indian women migrate for work, fewer urban social networks emerge through which to spread news of employment opportunities. Sources of optimism are emerging from programs now underway to promote the economic role of women, which could help stimulate urban networks and open new employment prospects. These include trainings for female migrant workers in Bangalore’s textile factories and mentorship programs operated by Indian outlets of Yum! Brands restaurants. Additional initiatives to improve gender equality in the workforce will require not only further education and skills training, but also efforts to protect female migrant workers against sexual exploitation, trafficking, and other abuse to which they are particularly vulnerable. After all, it would be something of a Pyrrhic victory if India succeeds in reaping the benefits of women’s increased labor market participation, but fails to ensure greater protection of their rights in the workplace and in cities.

After a tumultuous 2016, the world holds its breath for what the coming year may bring. Angry populism is on the march. Great power relations are tense. The Middle East has imploded. Meanwhile, President-Elect Donald J. Trump proposes to upend U.S. foreign policy in areas from trade to climate, alliances to nonproliferation, terrorism to human rights. In a world in disarray, can multilateralism deliver? Ten major summits during 2017 will help provide an answer. Here’s what to look for at each. European Union Summit (March 25, 2017, Rome). Last June, British voters caused a geopolitical earthquake by voting to leave the European Union (EU). UK Prime Minister Theresa May promises to invoke Article 50 by the end of March, starting the clock on the arduous, two-year negotiations over “Brexit.” That same month, leaders of the remaining twenty-seven EU member states gather in the Eternal City to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome (1957), which established the European Economic Community among the original six (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany). They are billing the somber summit as the culmination of a six-month “political reflection on the future of the European Union,” intended to convince EU citizens that the bloc remains capable of controlling migration, providing security, and delivering economic growth. They have their work cut for them, given rising nativism, growing terrorist fears, high unemployment, and looming elections in several EU states, notably France and Germany. Host Italy, meanwhile, faces an uncertain future following the resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi after a failed referendum. G7 Summit (May 26–27, Toarmina, Italy). Italy plays host again in late May, when leaders of the seven most important advanced market democracies (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States) plus the EU gather in this historic city on Sicily’s stunning Ionian coast. Appropriately—given the setting at the crossroads of the Mediterranean—the agenda will focus on the global migration crisis, which has hit Italy hard, as well as efforts to stabilize North Africa and the Middle East, from which many migrants and refugees have fled. But the real drama at Donald Trump’s first G7 summit will be whether Western powers remain united toward Russia, which they suspended from the G8 in 2014, after its annexation of Crimea. The EU has already extended sanctions on Russia for another six months. But Trump has vowed to reset ties with Moscow and may go against his own party’s push for renewed sanctions. NATO Leaders Summit (Date TBD, Brussels). U.S.-European differences could also be on display when Trump and the leaders of the other NATO members gather at the alliance’s gleaming new headquarters in Brussels. The alliance, unlike the building, is in need of repair. Baltic and East European states have been unnerved by Trump’s depiction of NATO as “obsolete” and his suggestion that U.S. defense guarantees be contingent on greater burden-sharing. The alliance may also be divided over how to confront and deter Russia, particularly if Trump continues to insist (with a certainty that has “horrified” close U.S. allies who know better) that Moscow did not hack the 2016 U.S. election. Conference on the Ocean (June 5–9, New York). Thanks to the personal interest of Secretary of State John Kerry, the world has devoted unprecedented attention over the past four years to protecting marine environments from pollution, overfishing, and acidification. The critical question now is whether this momentum will continue. In early June the United Nations will host “Our Oceans, Our Future.” This high-level meeting will support implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, designed to encourage conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas, and marine resources therein. The world will be looking to the Trump administration for signals about where it stands when it comes to protecting a vast ecosystem critical to supporting life on Earth. G20 Summit (July 7–8, Hamburg, Germany). The new geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Trump era will come into sharper focus in July, when the biggest developed and developing countries meet in Hamburg. Chancellor Angela Merkel, this year’s host, has emerged as the world’s most important defender of globalization. She has chosen “shaping an interconnected world” as the theme of this year’s summit. Her priorities include fostering economic resilience, advancing sustainable development, empowering women, implementing the Paris climate agreement, and advancing peace and development in Africa. Beyond the final communiqué of commitments, observers will be focusing on interactions between President Trump and his major non-Western counterparts, particularly Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, and Narendra Modi of India. BRICS Summit (September, Xiamen, China). At the end of the summer, five of the world’s biggest emerging economies—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—will gather in China for the ninth BRICS summit. The choice of location is noteworthy. The coastal city of Xiamen was one of the nation’s first special economic zones, serving as a window to the global economy and a destination for foreign investment. Xiamen also sits right across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan itself, which thanks to President-Elect Trump has reemerged as a flashpoint in Sino-American relations. Look to President Xi to use the summit to advance solidarity within the heterogeneous BRICS bloc, as well as elevate its diplomatic profile as a potential geopolitical and economic counterweight to the West. Opening of UN General Assembly (September 12–25, New York). In September, President Trump will deliver his maiden speech to the United Nations. Back in 2012, he complained about the “cheap 12 inch sq. marble tiles behind the speaker at UN,” tweeting that he would be happy to replace them with “beautiful marble slabs” if asked. More recently the president-elect has suggested he has more thorough UN remodeling in mind. “The United Nations has such great potential,” he tweeted after the Security Council’s December 23 vote against Israel’s settlement policy. “But right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. Sad!” World leaders will be paying close attention to both the tone and substance of his remarks. These may include a declaration that henceforth U.S. contributions to the UN’s regular and peacekeeping budgets (currently assessed annually) will be treated as purely “voluntary.” For incoming Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, keeping U.S.-UN relations on an even keel will be a constant test. ASEAN and East Asia Summits (April and November, Philippines). The coming year will be a big one for President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, which holds the rotating chair of the ten-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The Filipino strongman will host two ASEAN summits, in April (in Manila) and November (at Clark Air Base in Luzon). The latter event will coincide with the East Asia Summit, where President Xi will surely tout his newly cozy relationship with Duterte. Less certain is whether President Trump will bother to show up and (if he does) what message he will send Duterte, Xi, and other attendees about maritime disputes in the South China Sea, as well as U.S. staying power in the region. The new Chinese-Filipino partnership suggests that rather than hedging against China’s rise, neighbors may be drawn into its orbit. This trend could accelerate if Trump offers no alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership that he has scorned, leaving the Chinese-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership as the only viable alternative. UNFCCC COP 23 (November 6–17, Bonn). The sleepy former capital of West Germany will host 2017’s last major multilateral summit, the annual conference of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Despite the location, the conference will in fact be organized by Fiji—marking the first time that a small island state has been given the honor. The conference should provide a bellwether for gauging the U.S. commitment to the global climate change agenda, including whether the new president follows through on his pledge to cancel the Paris Accord. Fiji’s prime minister has already invited the president-elect to visit his nation to see the effects of climate change. Abdicating leadership in climate negotiations would be costly for the United States, as China—which has already donated $224k to support Fiji’s presidency—is poised to fill the void. There will be no shortage of international events to watch closely in 2017 as the world seeks clues for how the incoming Trump administration will navigate often thorny diplomatic questions and handle surprises that could upend the goals of a number of these meetings. Officials are advised to ring in the New Year in style before the hard work begins.

Welcome to “Women Around the World: This Week,” a series that highlights noteworthy news related to women and U.S. foreign policy. This week’s post, covering from December 11 to December 19, was compiled with support from Becky Allen, Anne Connell, and Lauren Hoffman. Civilians face horrors in Aleppo Tens of thousands of civilians face grave danger as forces supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad attempt to take decisive control of the city of Aleppo, which has been a battleground in the fight between the regime and armed opposition groups. The months-long siege on the city has limited access to food and water, cut off electric generators, and damaged hospitals, decimating emergency maternal and infant health care services. As of Monday, after days of sporadic violence, around 20,000 people had been evacuated from eastern Aleppo. At the United Nations (UN), outgoing Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed credible reports of atrocities, including extrajudicial killings, committed against “a large number of civilians” prior to evacuations. Other officials cited reports that pro-government forces summarily executed at least eleven women and thirteen children, and expressed concerns over the possibility for widespread sexual violence after the city falls. Over a quarter of a million people have been killed since the conflict began in 2011. Boko Haram deploys children suicide bombers Two young girls were allegedly used by the militant Islamist Boko Haram group as suicide bombers in a bustling market in northeast Nigeria last week. The girls, thought to be seven or eight years old, killed themselves and one other person and wounded eighteen individuals in the detonations. Just days before, another pair of female suicide bombers killed at least forty-five people in a similar market attack.  This follows yet another incident in October in which a female suicide bomber detonated explosives near a camp for internally displaced people. The series of attacks illustrate Boko Haram’s increasing reliance on women and children as suicide bombers: since 2014, nearly one-fifth of all suicide bombers used by Boko Haram have been children, of which 75 percent have been girls. The trend has led to increased suspicion of displaced girls, who are themselves often victims of Boko Haram violence and coercion. Ayo Obe, vice chairperson of the International Crisis Group board of trustees, argues that the Nigerian government should increase efforts to support isolated women and girls through gender-sensitive programming and access to schooling. Women in the U.S. Selective Service President Obama announced his support for women’s registration for the Selective Service, reversing his administration’s previous neutrality on the issue. Current requirements stipulate that only male U.S. citizens and immigrants between the ages of 18 and 25 must register. Obama is the first president since Jimmy Carter to endorse universal draft registration. A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed the Defense Department’s support for the proposition, characterizing universal draft registration as a logical extension of the military’s recent decision to open combat positions to women, which Defense Secretary Ashton Carter suggested would help to address 21st century security challenges. Last week, however, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller said that the Pentagon’s move to integrate women into combat positions may be reviewed and possibly repealed if requested by the president-elect.

This post features a conversation with Georgia Levenson Keohane, executive director of the Pershing Square Foundation, adjunct professor of social enterprise at Columbia Business School, and author of Capital and the Common Good: How Innovative Finance is Tackling the World’s Most Urgent Problems. She talks about what innovative finance means and how it works, addressing its successes and limitations in putting private and public capital to work for the common good.   1) Can you explain what innovative finance is (and what it is not) and how you came to work on it? Innovative finance is about creative ways to finance and pay for unmet needs and public goods—about integrating government, financial, and philanthropic resources to invest in solutions to global challenges and promote inclusive, shared prosperity. It is not the same as “financial innovation”—feats of engingeering designed to improve market efficiency, but not always a valuable end in themselves (as we saw in the 2008 financal crisis). Instead innovative finance, by design, is intended to solve problems, overcome market and political failures, and meet the needs of the poor and underserved. The innovation often comes in a new application, pressing time-tested tools like lending, insurance, and credit enhancements into the service of global health, financial inclusion, disaster relief, and battling climate change. Which is to say, virtual currencies, speed trading, subprime mortgages, or even payday lending might be considered financial innovation. Micro agriculture insurance for poor farmers, low income loans or equity for higher education, pay-as-you-go financing for solar electricity in Kenya, or discounted Metro Cards in New York City are innovative finance. In the fall of 2012, I had just finished a book on social entrepreneurship and public-private partnerships, when Hurricane Sandy hit—and I started to consider innovation in a different light. Sandy’s surging waves caused more than $5 billion in damage to New York City’s mass transit systems and the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) emerged from the wreckage uninsurable. This was a huge challenge: no insurance, no subway, and the city shuts down. In a municipal finance first, the MTA went to the catastrophe (cat) bond market for coverage against future Sandys. (With cat bonds, insurers transfer risk to capital market investors who bet against catastrophe: that a hurricane will not hit in a particular place, time, or intensity.  If that proves true, investors are repaid principal plus a high rate of interest). I thought this was an entrepreneurial use of finance, and went on to explore others: vaccine bonds, green bonds, social impact bonds, new kinds of financing facilities and emerging insurance entities large and small. The work took on greater urgency last year when the United Nations adopted the global Sustainable Development Goals—and with them a multi-trillion funding gap to meet the goals. Many see innovative finance as a way to harness more and particularly private capital to fill this gap. But, in fact, innovative finance is also about smarter capital: finance as an instrument that encourages behavior change, motivating governments to respond faster to disasters like drought or pandemic, or to invest in cost-effective preventions like vaccines or maternal health. 2) What are some successful examples of innovative finance? Many involve technology. For example, Kenya’s M-Pesa, a mobile payments platform that allows people to send and receive money from their phones, has been an extraordinary success. Ten years ago, for all practical purposes, mobile phones did not exist in Kenya, and most of the country was unbanked. Today 80 percent of Kenyans own a mobile phone, and 70 percent have mobile money accounts. By some estimates nearly 40 percent of Kenya’s GDP flows through the M-Pesa platform. Yet as interesting as what people pay for (just about everything—remittances, taxes, school fees, etc.) is how they pay for it. The mobile money platform has created new kinds of consumer finance, as it allows people to save, insure, and to pay for things over time. Consider the case of solar. Eighty perecent of the country may now use mobile money, but they still live far from the electric grid, reliant for light on things like kerosene—an expensive and noxious source of energy that poisons, burns, and contributes to global warming. For Kenyan families who pay over $200 a year for kerosene, a one-time investment in a $199 solar panel would make sense, but they lack the upfront cash to make this purchase. That is where companies such as M-Kopa or Angaza come in; they use the M-Pesa platform to allow households to pay for solar panels in small installments. By some estimates, pay-as-you-go finance has accelerated the rate of solar adoption fourfold. A company called Alice Financial is using the same approach to public transportation in New York City, where a one-way subway or bus ride costs $2.75. This is no small expense for a daily commuter, who makes 500 of those trips a year. For many New Yorkers, the substantial discount of a thirty-day metrocard is out of reach, since it costs $116 upfront each month. (New Yorkers overpay $500,000 a day because they can’t afford the discount). Alice offers instead a pay-as-you go weekly installment plan, made possible via its socially-motivated, innovative finance arbitrage. 3) What are the limits of innovative finance? Unfortunately, technological innovation alone is not going to solve all of our financial inclusion needs and aspirations. Technology might make more financial services and products available or affordable, but that does not necessarily mean people use them. Just as innovative financial service organizations across the globe have recognized that they need to offer more than just credit to move people out of poverty, so too do they realize that simply having a broader set of product offerings—savings, pensions, insurance—may not be enough. Adoption often requires an important relationship, a human interaction. For example, IFMR Trust in India now employs local wealth managers who are trusted members of the community to work with poor, rural families by collecting their basic financial information on a tablet, and then walking them through the product or service recommendations generated by the company’s algorithms. The combination of technology and a trusted agent translates into greater use of beneficial financial service products.  Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners (NTFP) in Upper Manhattan illustrates the same principle. In recent years, NTFP has developed a range of new products for their their low-income customers: a socially-responsible credit card to pay down debt, an app to encourage savings, and payroll innovations for lending or retirement needs. Yet their success depends on the work of local financial advisors who educate, translate, and earn the trust of their clients. 4) What are some areas that market-based solutions cannot, or perhaps should not, address? Innovative finance is not a panacea. It is particularly well suited to challenges that can be measured, and benefits or savings that can be achieved—and monetized—in a relatively short time frame. Cap and trade, for example, allows us to put a price on carbon, which is not as simple for problems such as government corruption or racial injustice. In many cases, there will never be a viable market solution. Serving the very poorest, working in particularly challenging geographies or conditions—or areas where a constellation of problems is particularly complex (and solutions hard to isolate)—might never be profitable, and will always require substantial philanthropic or government support or subsidy. However, even on issues that don’t lend themselves to these kinds of tools or instruments, the innovative finance lens helps us think differently about the costs of delay and inaction, and the benefits of prevention. Vaccines are cheaper than treating full-blown disease (and cheaper still than pandemic); early childhood education and job training costs a whole lot less than mass incarceration. Innovative finance reminds us that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 5) How can government policy help innovative finance succeed? There are a number of ways policy can encourage greater use of innovative finance. For example, last fall the U.S. Department of Labor repealed restrictive rules that had previously prevented U.S. pension funds from considering social, environmental, and good governance factors when making in investment decisions. This “ERISA” (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) reform has the potential to catalyze greater investment in innovative financial products by pension funds that must follow the guidelines. While there is more work to do on norms and guidance related to fiduciary responsibility, this is an important first step. Under the Obama administration, the Treasury Department, USAID, the White House Office of Social Innovation, and even Congress promoted various forms of innovative finance activity. The hope is that the next U.S. administration has the same openness to this approach. Perhaps more important, many of the most successful innovative finance examples are those that involve cost-effective investments in prevention, made possible through new kinds of public-private partnerships. The International Finance Facility for Immunization (IFFIm), for example, has raised over $5 billion since 2006 in “vaccine bonds” to fund large-scale immunizations. Bondholders are repaid out of future government aid pledges, front loading that future aid for investment in vaccines today. Closer to home, social impact bonds (SIBs) are a new breed of pay-for-success contracts between local governments, social service providers, and private investors that finance preventive social services like early childhood education, maternal health support to families to keep children out of foster care, or programs to keep former prisoners from re-offending. Investors, who loan working capital to service providers, are only repaid by the government if interventions work—with payments coming out of the social savings. Today there are more than sixty SIBs in action across the globe, and much of the innovation occurs at the local level. This willingness to partner across sectors is critical for innovative finance in the years ahead.