IN FOCUS: WOMEN
In this section:
International Women’s Day Is Celebrated
around the World
International Women’s Day Is Celebrated around the
World
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Nariman Hefawi manages her ill husband’s construction
company in Jordan. “I would not have succeeded
without a lot of will power and the assistance of the
Microfund for Women [a lending organization established
by USAID],” she says. “They didn’t just
give me a loan. They gave me encouragement and moral
support to help me succeed in a difficult business.”
USAID/Jordan
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As International Women’s Day, March 8, is celebrated
around the world, USAID boosts efforts to help women economically
and to exercise their rights in countries where they are held
back by political, legal, cultural, and social restrictions.
More than 800 million women are economically active worldwide—in
agriculture, small and microenterprises, and, increasingly,
in the export processing industries that drive globalization.
Over 70 percent of these women live in developing nations
in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. But there, women’s
unemployment is high relative to that of men. And when employed,
women are paid less than men for the same work.
USAID works to change that situation through various projects
and initiatives, including projects that aim to accomplish
the following:
• Provide women and young children with healthcare.
• Train women in job skills and improve their ability
to find work.
• Improve the limitations on women’s legal rights
and their participation in civil society. Legal restrictions
on women’s land and property ownership in poor countries
hamper women’s ability to acquire productive assets and
reduce their vulnerability when crises affect them.
• Educate girls. Girls’ education has been shown
to have a dramatic impact on women’s earning power and
on families’ welfare but gender equality in education
still lags.
“Women are integral to the process of building responsible
governments and democratic institutions,” Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice said March 7, 2005, in her speech commemorating
International Women’s Day. “Women’s participation
and empowerment at all levels of society will be key to moving
these new democracies forward.”
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Meri Awaz Suno, a journalist in Pakistan, interviews
a vendor at a market in Rawalpindi. Better curricula
for broadcast journalism students and campus production
studios help strengthen the media, giving the public
a better source of information, an important element
of democracy.
USAID/Pakistan
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Romanian students in a Gata, Dispus si Capabil (Ready,
Willing, and Able) training class. The GDC project,
supported over the years by three USAID grants, is designed
to improve living conditions and educational opportunities
for severely impoverished families and offers children
educational and social support and their parents the
tools to provide for their families.
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A seamstress of a small swimwear firm based in Bahia,
Brazil, is working to help the business grow through
exports. This is one of several micro and small enterprises
in north and northeast Brazil receiving trade technical
assistance from USAID.
Ana Paula Paiva, USAID/Brazil
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Two women tend a community garden in South Africa that
helps them generate income in a large informal settlement
far from shops.
Reverie Zurba, USAID/Africa
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