Breakout Session: Why Women? Why Now?

The impact of focusing on women is thus multi-fold: not only will empowering women [with financial services] uplift the lives of women, but it also produces a wider impact on multiple generations and the communities in which they live. -2011 Study by Women’s World Banking

In families where women have an income, they have a voice in financial decisions, resulting in better nutrition, health and education for children–including girls. In this breakout session, we learned more about why and how Opportunity International invests the majority of its dollars in serving the most vulnerable people on the planet–women. Panelists shared stories of hope and transformation from their daily work at Opportunity, or their Insight Trip and travel experiences to meet our women clients.

Facilitator: Ruth-Anne Renaud, VP, women’s philanthropy

Panelists:

Diane Griffin, VP, program management

Deborah Farrington, Founder and general partner, StarVest Partners, L.P.; Member, Opportunity International Board of Directors

Nadine Pembele, Training director, Opportunity DRC

Introductions by the Panelists

Nadine: I grew up and I saw my mother struggle. It’s so important to help women, because women in Africa struggle, and I saw it in my family.

Deborah: I am a venture capitalist and big idea person, and this idea of microfinance to empower women was a big idea. That’s why I became a involved with Opportunity.

Diane: At Opportunity, I am in the international business development department. We are the promise-keepers, we manage corporate grants and ensure that the promises we make to those corporate donors are kept. Evaluation is key to that field, so we’re working to do that analysis and demonstrate the impact in particular on women.

The Reality for Women

• Women do 66% of the world’s work and receive only 10% of the pay.
• Seventy percent of the three billion people who live on less than $2 a day are women.

The Potential

• When a girl receives seven or more years of education, she will marry four years later and 2.2 fewer children.
• Women invest 90% of their earnings in their family, while men typically only invest 35%.
• Education and microfinance are the keys to breaking this cycle of poverty.