Educational Program: Empowering Women, Empowering Economies
Globally, women do not enjoy complete legal parity with men. Nearly 2.4 billion women of working age “are not afforded equal economic opportunity and 176 countries maintain legal barriers that prevent their full economic participation,” according to the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law 2023 report. Further, in 2022, just 18 countries reformed their laws towards gender equality, the lowest number since 2001.
To learn more about this topic, The Association of Foreign Press Correspondents (AFPC-USA) came together for an educational program to hear from Ambassador Amanda Ellis, who is currently the Senior Director of Global Partnerships and Networks for the ASU Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory.
Ellis has had a long career promoting women’s economic empowerment. She was Lead Specialist in the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Group at the World Bank Group in Washington D.C., where she managed the World Bank President’s Global Private Sector CEO Leaders Forum and led the Doing Business gender research project which created “Women, Business and the Law.” She is currently co-chair of the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge, launched by the UN Secretary-General, the President of the World Bank and the Council of Women World Leaders in 2018 to promote inclusive entrepreneurship and also co-author of the Gender Equality and Governance Index. Ellis is also a former United Nations (U.N.) Ambassador and played a key role in New Zealand’s successful UN Security Council bid, subsequently serving as co-chair of the UNSC High Level Working Group on Humanitarian Access into Syria.
This educational program was held on Thursday, March 2 and was moderated by journalist Thanos Dimadis, who is AFPC-USA’s Executive Director.
The AFPC-USA is solely responsible for the content of this educational program. Below, readers will find a summary of some of the most important takeaways from the presentation.
ON WHAT THREATENS WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN ECONOMIES WORLDWIDE
Ellis says “there are still over 1,600 laws that actively discriminate against women's ability to be active in society and the economy on the same basis as men,” which is “very important for the concept of human security.” Research shows “gender equality is good for everybody” and “actually correlates with higher outcomes for all elements of society.”
Ellis identifies three major challenges that hold humanity back from realizing true gender equality and hence true human security: equal legal rights, cultural issues, and global challenges that threaten human security, with disproportionate gender impacts such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
ON WHAT HOLDS WOMEN BACK FROM BECOMING AGENTS OF ECONOMIC CHANGE
There are both “cultural” and “systemic” barriers at play here, says Ellis, who uses examples from Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Iran. She notes there has been research showing that women are disadvantaged by first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral systems compared to “mixed-member proportional systems” where there are “more likely to be a higher representation of women in parliaments.”
Deeper prejudices can be addressed when there is a “demonstration effect” that lets people see tangible outcomes, such as the case of women in Tanzania who used a micro leasing approach to gain collateral and have access to loans that would allow them to grow businesses. This prompted a legal change to allow leases to be used in mainstream banking.
ON HOW THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT CAN AMPLIFY THE IMPACT OF ITS FOUR-POINT STRATEGY TO EMPOWER WOMEN
Information about the State Department initiative is included here.
Ellis notes that the State Department’s domestic efforts help women with a “knowledge of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls into broader global contexts.” Programs that offer special assistance and special training, such as those that help women access dedicated lines of credit with local banks, can enable them to “bypass some of the legal and regulatory barriers’ that exist.
ON HER CURRENT ROLE
Ellis says that before joining the ASU Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory she was impressed by Wrigley and her associates’ “real commitment to inclusivity and to excellence and to innovation.” Later, conversations about sustainability became more fleshed out.
“We need to be thinking about regenerative global futures,” says Ellis, who adds that “this current decade is the decisive decade” if we want to address the challenges posed by climate change and “maintain a planet that is going to be habitable for future generations to not just survive, but to be able to thrive.”
Ellis speaks at length about Julie Ann Wrigley’s commitment to sustainability and how her commitment to education and ensuring more women attain it has a “multiplier impact.” The “multiplier impact” helps people recognize “that women do not operate on a level playing field and yet are often the innovators and the creators of solutions to our big problems.”
She says she has met many women through her previous roles at the World Bank, leading New Zealand’s development agency and via We Empower co-lead the Vital Voices Global Partnership—an organization that works with women leaders in the areas of economic empowerment, women's political participation, and human rights—who have impactful changes at home and abroad that have benefited countless people outside their immediate community.
ON HOW HAVING AN IMPACT ON OTHER WOMEN’S LIVES HAS CHANGED HER OWN
Ellis says she noticed the disparity of education between male and female students when she was growing up in New Zealand and that “an adverse experience can be turned around to create a solution for positive change.” Additionally, “there's real power” in creating networks, such as the extensive one of partners and supportive partners who are committed to realizing the U.N.’s SDG to empower all women and girls.
There are three critical things she learned: “How do we turn our obstacles into opportunities? How do we create radical collaboration and inclusive networks to address human security where everybody can play a part? And then third, how do we amplify through wonderful people like you, these solutions and these positive stories so that we can help create change in every part of the globe in all 193 UN member countries?”
ON WHAT MOTIVATES HER THROUGH THE COMING DECADE AND BEYOND
Ellis says she learned quickly how “imminent and critical the climate crisis really is as a human security issue.” She says her own learning journey has demonstrated that “we need to educate policymakers very quickly about the fact that the path to saving our planet is no longer a path of sacrifice but a path to human security.”
SUPPLEMENTARY LINKS
Below are links to materials that expand on much of what Ellis spoke about over the course of the presentation. Foreign correspondents can review these and gain a greater understanding of the issues that adversely impact women and hold back true gender equality.
Gender Equality and Governance Index: “The Gender Equality and Governance Index (GEGI) analyzes data from a variety of international organizations to achieve a broad-based and comparative understanding of gender discrimination within five critical areas: governance, education, work, entrepreneurship, and violence.”
WE Empower UN SDG Challenge: “First-of-its-kind global competition for women social entrepreneurs who are advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”
Women’s Leadership will Drive Inclusive Climate Action: This link features WE Empower UN SDG Challenge winners and examines how addressing the gender divide will drive climate action.
World Bank Women, Business and the Law ‘Voices of Female Entrepreneurs’ Series: This link features WE Empower UN SDG Challenge winners and is one of the most comprehensive reports on the importance of women’s financial inclusion.
Sustainable Earth: This link features WE Empower UN SDG Challenge winners and showcases women entrepreneurs who are “taking on the challenge of building sustainable systems and solutions.”
Thunderbird for Good Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE): AWE continues to expand and is currently in 26 countries to address underrepresentation of women in business.
Vital Voices: ‘Vital Voices Global Partnership is a non-profit founded on the simple idea that nations and communities cannot move forward without women’s voices in leadership positions.”
RepresentWomen: This organization is committed to “a healthy 21st-century democracy in the United States, with gender-balanced representation in elected and appointed positions, at every level of government.”
Reykjavík Global Forum, including their Reykjavik Index for Leadership 2021-2022, “convenes women leaders from all sectors, including politics, business, civil society, academia, the arts and media, to share ideas and solutions on how to further advance society towards female and male equality and to promote and positively develop the number of women in leadership positions.”
ASU Thunderbird School of Global Management:
DreamBuilder: “DreamBuilder offers online courses that teach you the skills and knowledge to start or grow your own business. Courses are interactive, convenient for your schedule and available in both Spanish and English. Best of all, they're free.”
WE3A: The central American women’s entrepreneurship program to assist women into value chains.
SDG Innovation Accelerator: “The accelerator program trains high-potential, young professionals from UN Global Compact member companies to learn how to build the business case for SDG Innovation.”
100 Million Learners: “This initiative aims to offer online, global education from these world-class accredited institutions in 40 different languages to learners across the globe, at absolutely no cost to the learner. Women and young women will account for 70% of the 100 million learners that the program will reach worldwide.”
