In the East African country of Uganda, a staggering 276,000 young people cannot find jobs each year. Even though many of these youth are university or trade school educated, there is simply not enough infrastructure to accommodate them in the job market. And without jobs, many of these youth will relapse into the cyclical poverty endemic in much of their country.

Young women are particularly vulnerable to unemployment. Many find themselves caught in premature marriages, struggling to support their children with little hope of saving for the future of their families.

But in the heart of Jinja, Uganda’s second largest city, five young women work diligently to create beautiful handmade bags and other accessories for Tukula (meaning “we grow” in Luganda), a for-profit social enterprise based out of Lancaster, Pa. The women, who range in age from 16 to 33, have different life stories.

All of them have completed some amount of tailoring school, and two are continuing their education using the money they earn at Tukula. The women hail from different tribes and ascribe to different religions. But what brings them together is their desire to better the future of themselves and their families.

One of these women, Ayakaka Sally, talks about the impact that Tukula has had on her life. “I used to depend on people,” she says. “But Tukula has made me to be on my own. Now I can afford my food. I can pay my rent. It’s good for me.”

Tukula works with its artisans to create budgets and savings programs aimed at preparing each woman to attain her future goals. By creating and selling beautiful, high-quality products, the company hopes to impact more women in the future.

Tukula is working to eliminate abject poverty in Uganda before it begins, one woman at a time. To learn more visit tukula.org.

Looking to perk up your Tuesday night? Look no further –- we’re having a Twitter party, and you’re invited. ONE is teaming up with Mom It Forward, a worldwide network dedicated to enhancing the lives of women, their families and the communities in which they live, on Tuesday, March 8 to discuss women’s empowerment in the developing world. Perfect timing, since that just so happens to be International Women’s Day.

So how does this Twitter party work? Every 10 minutes, Mom It Forward will tweet a question on empowering women, and ONE will tweet back the answer. You’re free to discuss via Twitter…until the next question comes along! There are some serious chances to win ONE swag, so keep your eyes peeled!

Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to join (so guys, that means you, too!). And we would love if our members and blog readers could be there to represent ONE and help boost awareness around our Senate budget petition.

Here are the details:

What: Girls’ Night Out Twitter party. Use the Twitter hashtag (#gno) to show that you’re participating!
When: Tuesday, March 8 from 9 to 11 p.m. EST (8CT, 7 MT and 6 PT)
Where: From your computer or mobile phone
Who: Brand Panelist: @ONECampaign; Moderators: @jylmomIF @Dadventurous @troypattee and @MomItForward
RSVP: Click this link and enter your Twitter URL and Twitter ID

There’s so much potential in Africa’s females, and with 430 million women and girls currently driving Africa’s economy, we’re getting there. When women are given the proper tools, they can help lift communities out of poverty and transform millions of lives.

In the video, Nassuna discusses her work with small, local farmers in Uganda. This has changed not only their lives, but the lives of families and communities as a whole. But she also talks about the challenges. “Nobody wants to invest in farmers,” she notes. “They are a very high-risk group.”

El notes, “Nassuna’s voice may be quiet, but her experience and stories speak volumes about how African poverty can end, and how we all can affect change!” Check out El’s interview and share your thoughts in the comment box below.

Forty-one villagers in Dassui make up the ‘Wenden Kondo’ (God Will Provide) market gardening group. Through a local group the partners with Self-Help Africa, they learned how to grow the best crops and were given seeds, tools and funding for fencing and a water supply.

Today, they grow onions, cabbage, carrots, chili, garlic and rice and grain during the rainy season. They use some of the vegetables to feed their families, and some they sell in the nearby Bitte market.

Zungrana Awaya, a mother of six and the secretary of the group, is one of Wenden Kondo’s 20 women members. She says the gardening project has provided a valuable source of income for her family.

‘I was born in this village, but I left because there did not seem to be any way for me to make a living. But the garden is creating new opportunities.”

It’s a hard job, she says. But life is getting a little better. In fact, everything is getting a little better. The money that they get from their farming activities is helping Zungrana and the other villagers send their children to school and buy medicine when it is needed.

And their hard work is supporting nearly 400 people in their local community.

“My son, who is 17, says that he wants to leave because he has few prospects of work,’ Zungrana says.

But she tells him not to forget about the garden. “It is new, but we are hopeful that it will grow.”

This is our very first post from ONE’s government relations intern, Zach Kelly. Make sure to give him props in the comments section!

Last week, ONE had the exciting opportunity to partner with the U.S. Department of State to host a luncheon discussion with the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program.

At the lunch, women from 35 African countries shared their experiences about working in the African business world. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Pearl Alice Marsh of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, provided a congressional perspective of women’s challenges and opportunities and the role they play in commerce and job creation on the continent.

She emphasized that both the public and private sector must make special efforts to remove obstacles that impede the success and growth of African businesswomen because they are proven and effective agents of development in their society.

During our discussion, we learned that African women have difficulties in gaining access to capital and other financial resources when starting and operating a business because of their gender. A participant from Ethiopia said she is working a solution to the problem: partner with other Ethiopian businesswomen to start the first-ever commercial bank owned by a majority of women. This would make it easier for women to access financial capital.

A participant from Nigeria shared her advocacy victory. By teaming up with local cassava farmers in securing assistance and support from the Nigerian government and the USAID, she saved a faltering cassava-processing factory in rural Nigeria. The factory is now fully functioning and ready to supply the beverage industry with glucose-syrup, creating jobs and real economic growth for the area.

These were only some of the amazing stories shared at the event, but each one highlighted the fact that these women are pioneers and leaders in their countries. They are passionate and committed to advancing the role and prosperity of future generations of women in African society, and with the help of global partners and investors, will certainly achieve these goals.

- Zach Kelly, government relations intern, ONE

These women work hard, and their spirit amazes me. They come here because this farm is the key to a better future for themselves and their families. The transformation that is taking place in Ghana is not unlike the changes we have seen in the States. Women get a job and make money. They are able to invest this money, make small profits, and bit by bit, they gain greater control of their lives.

With greater productivity on these farms, the women are less vulnerable to the whims of the weather, not to mention changes in their government and personal lives. These women prove that they are successful in business, garner respect from their neighbors, and become leaders with the power to make improvements in their communities.

Interestingly, statistics show that women working on farms like these are likely to invest their profits well. Some studies estimate that women invest up to 90% of their extra income in their families, compared to only 30-40% for men.

On a national scale, women are key drivers of economic growth, particularly in the agricultural sector. The farm we saw today is funded through Technoserve, an organization that focuses on providing people living in poverty with access to productivity-enhancing tools like seed and fertilizer. Technoserve also works with these people to develop entrepreneurs and institute good business practices. Technoserve works with public and private-sector partners, including U.S. Agency for International Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The rice farm we visited this morning is one of those projects. This partnership is enabling women with greater access to high-quality seeds, fertilizer, and training for their farms. Women actually produce up to 80% of the food produced in the developing world, where agriculture is the backbone of most economies. That means that these women, by showing up to farm every day, are not just feeding their families for the day. They are helping to pull their countries out of poverty and feed entire nations.

Studies show that if women were just given equal access to agricultural products like seeds, fertilizer, and training, agriculture yields could grow by over 20%. By investing in women in agriculture, the United States is stretching its dollars to fund sustainable development that is giving these people ground to stand on in the long term. With more funding for projects like this one, more women and their children would be going to school, receiving better health care, and, critically, would be helping their local economy grow—possibly the most important pathway out of poverty.

We also visited a school that is being funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation and USAID in Nyanyano. There we were able to visit a few classrooms and met a wonderful group of committed teachers and administrators who were proud to show off their new facilities. Under very trying circumstances, these men and women are working everyday to ensure that young girls have the same access to education as young boys. In our classroom visits, it was clear that young girls are attentive students and active participants in their lessons.

Before we departed the village, we were treated to memorable performances by the students. First, the children entertained us with a four-act musical drama that told the story of the importance of educating young girls. The story revolves around a mother, father, son and daughter, all played by the children, and narrated by a student choir. The father refuses to allow the mother to pay for education for their daughter and throws the mother and daughter from his home, his decision has long-term consequences. He stays with his son who does not take care of the father in his old age, while his daughter continues her education and goes on to become a doctor. When the father becomes ill as an old man, he goes to the hospital only to be treated by his daughter. When the daughter recognizes it is her father she refuses to treat him and he begs for her forgiveness. It is only when the mother reappears that she brings the family back together again. The ONE delegation was delighted by the creativity and spirit of our young theatre troop and roared our approval!

An additional part of our send off was a poem read by a young girl names Joyce. Joyce, wrote a poem about the importance of empowering women. And, I have to say, it made me tear up. You cannot help but be inspired by the changes that are happening for women in Africa. I cannot do our young poet justice, but you can see her presentation in this video:

From education to agriculture, women’s economic participation is critical to long-term poverty reduction. I’m convinced that if all Americans witnessed what I saw today, they’d be moved to even greater action to make sure that the U.S. continues to invest in the women I met here at the Technoserve Rice Farmers Cooperative and through the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Greater equality, they point out, “empowers women with the freedom of choice — the universal right to determine their own destinies, careers, beliefs and family structures.”

Excerpts below, full piece here

According to the Shriver report, the rise of women in the workplace has been accompanied by a significant shift in social attitudes, including acceptance by men of women’s professional roles and support for the idea that women should be entitled to equal pay for equal work. Men are also more likely to agree that the challenge of meeting both economic needs and child-care responsibilities is a joint one, requiring the time and energy of both partners.

As members of the advisory committee for the study, who together make up the entire pool of former female secretaries of state, we find that the most intriguing aspects of the transformational shifts documented in this study are the implications for women across the globe. The changing landscape of the American family and work force has been made possible only by extending equal opportunities for women in the classroom, in the boardroom and at the ballot box.

When women are treated as chattel, however, the symptoms of social and moral decay are almost certain to spread. A society that is not decent to women is not a decent society, and an indecent society is a dangerous one. Men who tyrannize women are prone, in time, to extend their despotism to social and political rivals of every description. In our 21st-century world, such societies ultimately pose the greatest threats to global security. In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s repression of women festered into a society that condoned terrorists who turned to violence against innocents as a form of political expression. They must not be allowed to succeed.

-Kara Arsenault

There are about 1.4 billion people worldwide, most of whom are women and children, living in extreme poverty (defined as living on approximately $1 per day or less). As president and co-founder of Women Thrive Worldwide, I spend my days advocating on behalf of these women. This fall, I lived in Tactic, Guatemala for four days, a mountainous, rural region that contains some of the most desperate poverty in Central America. I spent time with three Mayan women—Margarita, Dorotea, and Eluvia—and attempted to experience what they must do everyday: live on less than $1, or 8.3 Quetzales (Guatemala’s currency), per day.

The following is an excerpt from my diary:
……

Back at Margarita’s home we talk to her about her life. Because of a poor economy, there are no formal jobs in Tactic, so, like most women, Margarita supports her family selling vegetables that she grows with her husband. However, they can barely produce enough food to feed their family, let alone enough to sell. Hence, their income is extremely low – combined they earn about 50 Quetzales a day ($6.02), which they must split among 13 people.

With limited income and limited crops, come limited diets. In the morning, children in Bempec will usually have a cup of coffee with sugar and two tortillas. At school, they will receive a cup of Atol de Elote (ah-TOLL day eh-LOW-tay), a thin corn-based porridge, followed by herbs cooked in water after school. Mothers often have to send their kids to bed as early as 4pm just to keep them from feeling hungry for dinner.

I look around at the lush landscape and think about how much food Margarita could grow if we could get U.S. development assistance programs to reach women like her. You wouldn’t know it in the States, but much of the developing world, including Guatemala, is experiencing an extreme food crisis.

Yet women, who produce the majority of the world’s food supply, receive a scant amount of the credit that goes to small farmers. It strikes me that growing food in the fertile Western region and selling it to the Eastern region, where there is a famine, could be a path out of poverty for these farmers. But that can’t happen until development programs get serious about helping agricultural communities like Bempec – and women like Margarita. Read more about women & food security here.



Read my full diary, view my photo album, and watch videos from the trip here.

-Ritu Sharma, president and co-founder, Women Thrive Worldwide

Photos by Mckenzie Lock, Women Thrive Worldwide

The results for Africa are serious, demonstrating high levels of food insecurity:

• Only African countries score above 30: Ethiopia, Chad, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Burundi and DRC.
• The report also measures progress since 1990. The countries where food security is now worse than in 1990 are: North Korea, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, DRC, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, The Gambia and Madagascar.
• Across the continent the food situation is now better than in 1990—the score improved by 13% (from 25.4 – 22.1); however all other world regions improved faster than sub-Saharan Africa.

The report notes that in countries with high scores, war and violent conflict have spurred poverty and food insecurity. The report also correlates the Gender Gap Index with food insecurity and finds that high rates of hunger are strongly linked to gender inequalities, particularly in literacy and education, and the exclusion of women from health services. The message here is: educating girls and allowing women to access health services will enable them to produce and/or access more food for their families and thus increase food security in the household.

The report discusses the financial crisis as well. Working in tandem, the food price crisis and then the global financial crisis decreased food security: the food price spikes made food more expensive, which meant that many families could no longer afford food, but could also have led to increased investments in food production. However, once the financial crisis hit, investors withdrew their financing, leaving viable investments unimplemented.

Having all of this information is a crucial step towards ensuring global food security, as Joachim von Braun, IFPRI director general commented, “Knowing that hunger and gender inequality go hand-in-hand, an important step to ending world hunger is empowering women and eradicating gender disparities in education, health, economic participation, and political opportunities. After decades of slow progress in the fight against hunger, child malnourishment is now on the rise due to recent economic developments. It is imperative that commitments made at the G20 and other global policy meetings are swiftly transformed into real action in cooperation with developing countries.”

The report also contains an interactive map of the Global Hunger Index, which you should check out:

The new agency’s mandate will be to “promote the rights and well-being of women worldwide and to work towards gender equality.” Currently, the UN’s gender programs are scattered across various agencies through four different programs: UNIFEM, the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW). The new entity will be headed by an Under-Secretary General who reports to the UN’s Secretary General, on par with agencies like UNICEF and UNHCR.

Groups that have been campaigning for the body (such as Gender Equality Architecture Reform, or GEAR) hope that a composite, super-agency will not only raise the prominence of gender issues on the global agenda but also boost funding for women through the UN, which they say has been low under the current structure. GEAR and others are calling for $1 billion in start-up money for the new agency (for comparison, the 2007 budgets for UNICEF and UNIFEM in 2007 were $129 million and $3 billion, respectively).

There is no doubt that the step is a good one for the world’s women, especially those living in the world’s poorest countries. For over two decades, development experts have been saying that countries who invest in education, health and economic opportunities for their women see greater results in poverty reduction and development across the board. Yet while some progress has been made in improving the lives of women around the globe (through expanded access to microfinance and treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS, for example), the fact remains that women are still bearing the brunt of extreme poverty and disease and in many countries, are systematically excluded from the economy and politics and living in fear of violence and rape.

The UN decision follows other signs that momentum is building for a renewed effort to tackle global women’s issues. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama created the first ever Office on Global Women’s Issues in his Administration (with veteran women’s advocate Melanne Verveer at its head) and in Congress, Senator Barbara Boxer now chairs a subcommittee with global women’s issues in its purview. The need to invest in women was also a recurring key theme of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent trip to Africa, and this past month both the Clinton Global Initiative and the New York Times have highlighted the topic in a major way.

So it seems that everyone- and now the UN- agrees: women are key to a healthier, more prosperous and stable world. The challenge is now to translate this growing consensus into action. At the UN, details on the new agency will be ironed out over the coming months after Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon comes up with a proposal to member states on the body’s mission, funding, structure and oversight. The first indication of how much muscle the new agency will have. Meanwhile, here in the U.S., the FY011 budget should be a good sign of where the Administration’s priorities lie and how they match with Congress. We’ll be watching these developments at ONE closely, so stay tuned here for news from both fronts.

-Nora Coghlan