Happy international women's day

Today, my colleague Kaila Drayton and I, are traveling to Ghana to visit our  partner communities. We are especially excited to leave on International Women’s Day because much of our work involves expanding opportunities for girls and women. Sustainable Development Goal 5, is about achieving gender equality, which remains a challenge in much of the world. For example, in the region of Ghana where we work, only about 2.3% of women complete secondary school (UNICEF 2012).
 
We know that investing in opportunities for women, especially in education, has many broad benefits for development. These include:

• Women spend a high percentage of their income on their families, especially on health, education, food, and housing. This multiplier effect creates high levels of return on investment.
• Educating women farmers and providing them with resources significantly increases food production.
• Educated girls are more likely to postpone having children and to wait longer between pregnancies, which generally improves child health and nutrition, as well as raising family incomes. For example, a World Bank study found that in Ghana women with a high school education had on average 2.5 children, while those without had on average six children.
• Educated girls are less likely to marry before they are 18. A study by the UNFPA of 78 developing nations found that girls who never attended school were three times more likely to marry before 18 than girls who go to school.
• When more girls attend school, national incomes and gross domestic products rise.
• Providing clean water and cook stoves to women, increases girls’ education and also reduces local environmental degradation for many communities.

In Ghana, Engage Globally supports women’s equality in several ways, including:

• Early-childhood education for girls
• Scholarships and bicycles for girls to middle and high school
• Vocational training for young women who were not able to attend school and grants to vocational graduates to open their own small businesses
• Adult literacy and health classes for women
• Funding to hire women as staff in our partner organizations, including hiring mothers as cooks for both of our early childhood centers.  

We hope you will join us in celebrating International Women's Day and supporting educational and economic opportunities for women! 

---