Investing in Girls - Why Supporting Girls in Africa Makes Sense

As Caitlyn looked down at the sweet face of her sleeping baby, she recalled what the pediatrician said. “She’s developing at an above average rate.”

It filled her with happiness. It was a diametrically opposed contrast to the new mothers with babies shown in third-world countries. How heartbreaking it must be to know your baby can’t get the basic vaccinations or any other medical care. How helpless a mother would feel putting her child to bed at night, knowing she was hungry?  

“Women aged fifteen through forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die from male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined.

A recent article made a convincing case for the usefulness that microfinance might offer in West Africa. Travel restrictions and program freezes put much local investment on hold during the Ebola outbreak but not that things are calming back down, there is need for investment; both for routine infrastructure improvements and a healthcare system that is prepared in the unfortunate case of a future outbreak.

What is the best model for giving aid to Africa? Is it the form of lending a small sum to a basket weaver in a remote village to turn her vocation into a flourishing business? Or, is it a large donation to help build a company with potential to expand and create dozens of jobs? The answer is both.

During a recent interview with Foreign Affairs, World Bank president Jim Yong Kim was asked about the challenges to economic development and what the institution is doing about it. He responded by naming two goals: ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity. These are rather ambitious goals but if achieved would represent a significant and positive development in addressing income inequality. However, there is a more interesting point that comes up during the interview. Mr.

80% of Americans live with the threat of poverty, joblessness, or a dependence on welfare assistance. In Kenya, 50% of the population lives under the poverty line (Associated Press).  

With the state of the globe as grim as statistics suggest, why should people outside of Africa invest in microfinance loans for African nations?
 

Sub-Saharan Africa, where much of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, continues to be one of the largest recipients of foreign aid since the Marshall Plan. Yet incomes, life expectancy, and literacy (among other things) don’t appear to be improving the way we’d think that they would. Humanitarian aid, charity contributions, and government loans or grants are being flooded into the area in hopes to improve the situation. Is the situation really improving though? Is foreign aid really working?

Microfinance means much more than simply the lending of money. Originating from a movement that envisioned a world in which low-income households had access to financial services previously only accessible to those with higher incomes, it provides small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs with access to a variety of different financial services, including credit, insurance, training, and remittances, amongst others.