Justice for all

Recently, through a particularly enlightening conversation with a friend, I realized that there are, essentially, two pathways or methods of thinking about social change and development approaches. There is the “capitalistic” mode of thinking, and the “social justice” mode of thinking. While this is, essentially, the split that so starkly separates the Democrats from the Republicans, the same two viewpoints shape the actions of humanitarians, altruists, philanthropists, entrepreneurs, and everyone else involved in the aid and social change business.

The first, the “capitalistic” mode, fixates on the idea that by harnessing capitalism and economic growth, we can made progress in the developing world. More importantly, this viewpoint emphasizes the belief that people are motivated by profit – and so, by trying to make “doing good” seem profitable, it becomes possible to “exploit” people’s inherent motivations (to better themselves and maximize profit or utility) for the greater good. Here is where the entire idea of social entrepreneurship comes in. Social enterprise and social business centers around the idea that you can make money and do good at the same time, and that in fact, you don’t have to give up making money or financial sustainability to contribute positively to the world. Corporate social responsibility comes with the same idea; that by being environmentally sustainable and by contributing to development projects, a company can improve its own image (and profits) by presenting itself as more socially responsible. Additionally, there is the ideology propounded by many aid critics such as Dambisa Moyo, the author of “Dead Aid” — the idea that we need capitalism to cause economic growth, and that we need to harness foreign direct investment and international trade to help low-income countries hop onto the train of development. Finally, and most importantly (I think), at the more micro- and individualized level of development and NGO approaches to poverty eradication, there are approaches focusing on income generation; these approaches include micro-finance, helping individuals start and grow their own small businesses, helping farmers increase their yields through low-cost and innovative agricultural technologies. Basically, the idea here is that by increasing their income, people will be able to pull themselves out of poverty. Icons like Muhammad Yunus and Paul Polak have emphasized that the best way for individuals to get out of poverty fast is by increasing their incomes. This is a more “capitalistic” method of thinking because it emphasizes the individual and what they can do to get ahead in life. And for the donors/the well-off classes in society, the emphasis is on proving to them that they don’t have to give up their lifestyle if they want to make a positive difference. There’s usually not as much talk of personal sacrifice, or what we have to give up for social change. For instance, by buying books from Better World Books, we can not only get the books we want, but also contribute to literacy projects! This perspective caters to the benefits that social business provides to both the donors/contributors & the beneficiaries.

The second mode is focused more on “social justice” and equality. The idea here is that we (here I’m talking about us — the well off, the privileged) should not simply have capitalistic, profit maximizing motives. Instead, this mode of thinking strives to change and shape the incentives that motivate people in the first place. Those who share this view believe that we have to actually CHANGE people’s minds to focus less on themselves and to focus more on the community and the world they live in. The idea is to emphasize equality, fairness, and to make people feel they have an obligation to give back. This viewpoint leads to an emphasis on higher taxes, increased social services and programs, more government spending, and international aid. By emphasizing that we, the privileged echelons of society, have an obligation to give back, contribute positively to the world, and help those who are worse off than us, this way of thinking emphasizes providing free services to the poor. Instead of trying to focus on increasing a person’s income as the primary way of getting them out of poverty, people and organizations with this perspective might try to provide free health services, free legal services, free infrastructure like wells, free access to education including building schools and providing scholarships to children, and much more. International donors fund many such projects because of the obligation to give back, but the ultimate goal is to have each country’s government providing such services to its own people. The emphasis here is on improving the quality of living through, primarily, the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor — whether this is domestically or internationally. This is very different from the previous “capitalistic” mode, in which each person is encouraged to maximize their own wealth and well-being.

Of course, in reality, many aid programs mix the two — they might provide microfinance and skills training along with health services or educational scholarships. But ultimately, there are definitely two divergent “modes of thinking” or perspectives at play when it comes to social change and international development.

What do you think? Is there one better way of going about social change & development, or are the two approaches best combined? Should we try to cater to people’s “innate” incentive to maximize their own profit & well-being, or should we try to change people’s minds to make them feel an obligation to sacrifice for the greater good?

When Akhila asked me to write about a social cause I was passionate about I was eager to join in. I consider myself a philanthropist, but I often spread myself thin. I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders and am sometimes (too) empathetic to the point where it hurts every piece of my body.

I digress: I’m an animal rights activist and long-time horseback rider, so I’ve volunteered with Colorado Horse Rescue, United States Pony Club and with sea turtles in a science program in Costa Rica. I’ve volunteered at local soup kitchens, donated to cancer research, spent time weekly with children in an after-school program for African resettlement refugees, volunteer with Ladies Who Launch to help women entrepreneurs launch their business idea and worked at a non-profit for environmental studies and local sustainability.

Alas, when I try to focus my efforts and dive deep to find a beating pulse of my passion for social change it reverts to women and the lack of opportunity and inequality they’re faced with worldwide.

I see a large part of the solution toward empowering women through microfinance and socially responsible business.

The empowerment and combination of entrepreneurship is a piece of why it inspires me so much. Although I continually give time and effort toward a cause, I like the “teach them how to fish,” analogy and microfinance does just that.

What is Microfinance?

Microfinance is the “extension of very small loans to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship.”

Non-Government organizations (NGOs), community-based development institutions, credit unions, commercial/state banks and microfinance institutions offer possibilities for financial services to the poor.

Bangladeshi banker and Grameen Bank founder and recent Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Muhammad Yunus is largely known as the pioneer of microfinance.

Poverty’s Greatest Victim: Women

Recently, at Clinton Global Initiative, Bill Clinton pronounced: “Women do 66% of world’s work, produce 50% of world’s food, earn 10% of world’s income & own 1% of the world’s property.”

More than 2/3 of the world’s unpaid work is done by women-the equivalent of $11 trillion or almost 50% of the world GDP, according to a global UNFP study.

Half the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. 1.8 billion of these people live on less than $1 a day…70% of them are women. Around the world, 340 million women are not expected to live to the age of 40.

Microfinance As A Solution

Comprehensive impact studies have demonstrated that:

• Microfinance helps very poor households meet basic needs and protect against risks;
• The use of financial services by low-income households is associated with improvements in household economic welfare and enterprise stability or growth;
• By supporting women’s economic participation, microfinance helps to empower women, thus promoting gender-equity and improving household well-being;
• For almost all significant impacts, the magnitude of impact is positively related to the length of time that clients have been in the programe.” (UNCDF Microfinance)

My friend Ali worked at Pro Mujer (“for women,” in Spanish) for over two years at a Financial Analyst for the microfinance, Spanish nonprofit that supported women in Latin-America. I’ve written about microfinance a few times before on my blog, maybe now you can see why. Their historical loan repayment rate in 18 years was 99%. Women want to succeed and create a better life for the family; they just needed access to credit and a lending hand; someone to invest in their dreams.

Ali told me a story about Angela Narváez. She is pottery maker and a client with Pro Mujer Nicaragua. Angela’s first loan was $80. Today, almost nine years later, her loan is $670. Angela uses her loans to buy clay, pieces of wood, paint and cement and to travel to larger markets where she can get a better price for her pieces. Angela said her family has also benefited. Her daughters attend school, everyone is eating better, and they bought furniture and appliances that have raised their quality of life.

So my “teach them to fish” theory comes to rest. I like to think about paying it forward, but in this case, you’re investing in the future, that will benefit beyond the ‘one-time donation.’ It’s like you’re a social venture capitalist, helping women with their own startup, worldwide.

Action

If you’re interested in learning more or even donating a loan for a specific woman in a specific country here are some great organizations (I’ve donated with) to get started: Pro Mujer, Kiva, and The International Alliance For Women.

“Poverty is not created by the poor. It is created by the structures of society and the policies pursued by society. Change the structure as we are doing in Bangladesh, and you will see that the poor change their own lives. Grameen’s experience demonstrates that, given the support of financial capital, however small, the poor are fully capable of improving their lives.”- Banker to the Poor - Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank, Founder

The Changemaker

Grace Boyle is a 20-something adventurista. She lives in Boulder, CO and does Business Development for startup called Lijit. She blogs at Small Hands, Big Ideas where she writes about the startup world, technology and daily inspirations. She loves to travel, meet new people, laugh and she aspires to be an entrepreneur.

Connect with her over at her blog, Small Hands, Big Ideas, or on her Twitter at @Gracekboyle!

Learn more about the ethics of today’s economy by studying microfinance and business development at Axia College.

A couple of days back, I was on a plane from London to the U.S. and I had the opportunity to sit back, relax, and watch movies. I ended up watching the Kiera Knightley flick, The Duchess - and I was definitely not expecting what I saw. If you haven’t seen the movie, it’s a tragic tale of Georgiana Spencer, who is married off to the Duke of Devonshire at age 17. Unfortunately, she soon realizes that her marriage will be loveless and that entire purpose of life is now to produce a male heir for her husband. She continues to disappoint the Duke on this end, provoking his anger and indifference over the years as she has two daughters. On top of this, her husband is not a man of faith, and he openly has affairs with countless women in their own house.

But she’s stuck in this loveless, painful, abusive relationship because of social convention and the constraints on women at the time. The double standard is stark - her husband is allowed to continue his unfaithful ways while she is required to pose as the picture perfect wife. People talk, they feel bad for her, but beneath all this, there is implicit societal acceptance of this double standard.

In much of North America and Europe the status quo has clearly changed since the 1700s. But the movie truly saddened me as I was reminded that my counterparts in much of the developing world are still stuck in lives governed by Victorian-era (or worse) social conventions. I’m from India, and I know that while the middle and upper classes there are becoming more liberal, the stigma of divorce is still unbearable. I’m not condoning divorce, but I am saying that in India - especially amongst the lower classes - this stigma coupled with arranged marriages, the practice of dowry, and the pressure to produce male children is still debilitating for many women. While women in the middle class are increasingly gaining employment and financial freedom, women in the lower class remain just as constrained as ever.

The situation seems to be similar in Pakistan, as an anecdote from a recent New York Times article alludes to. When Saima Muhammad, a woman living in the slums of Lahore, had two daughters, she experienced domestic violence and shame from even her close relatives:

“My husband beat me up. My brother-in-law beat me up. I had an awful life.” … Then when Saima’s second child was born and turned out to be a girl as well,her mother-in-law, a harsh, blunt woman named Sharifa Bibi, raised the stakes.

“She’s not going to have a son,” Sharifa told Saima’s husband, in front of her. “So you should marry again. Take a second wife.” Saima was shattered and ran off sobbing. Another wife would leave even less money to feed and educate the children. And Saima herself would be marginalized in the household, cast off like an old sock.

As you can see, the situation is desperate. I often regard myself as immensely lucky to have had the chance to grow up in the United States, where I have financial freedom and most of all - choice in how I lead my life. Many poor women in countries like India and Pakistan, among many others, are simply denied these choices. I could have just as easily been in their place.

The good news is that change seems to be abuzz in the air. Muhammad Yunus‘ groundbreaking Grameen Bank model focuses solely on women — and similar microcredit organizations are popping up everywhere, providing new hope for many women. Of course, microfinance has it’s critics and its effectiveness may not be known yet. It’s also not a panacea to all the world’s problems. But I still think it’s a good step in the right direction - ensuring financial independence for women. When women become the holders of the purse strings, they channel more of a family’s money towards the kids, and they gain bargaining power in the household. It’s common sense - but with microfinance, there’s a new way to concretely improve women’s financial freedom.

But beyond this, I think part of the next step is really reaching the next generation of men, and reaching them young. If we want to truly change the future, we have to create a society-wide shift in consciousness. We have to ensure that young children are taught to value their female counterparts, and that young men grow up with a different mindset than previous generations. We have to ensure that men themselves are strong proponents of women’s rights. My mother always tells me how her father, in the 1960s and 1970s in India, always insisted on his three daughters - along with his son - gaining the maximum education possible. Without my grandfather’s belief in his daughters, I certainly wouldn’t be where I am now.

A very good example of this is the project of Ashoka Fellow Magdy Aziz in Egypt. Aziz is working to promote gender equity in Egypt by teaching children about their rights and empowering them to exercise these rights. He is working to provide boys and girls avenues to freely express themselves while exploring gender-related themes in school. The program lays “the groundwork for long-term changes in social attitudes toward women inside and outside school walls.” By reaching kids when they are young and educating them in the language of tolerance, I really believe programs like this have the right vision for the future.

Strangely, even though this blog talks a lot about human rights, I haven’t once written about women’s rights or domestic violence issues. I guess it’s because I somehow feel like it’s already a movement in it’s own right, and I don’t need to bring attention it here. True, we have all heard of the issues. But just because there’s awareness does not mean there is sufficient effective action. There is ample room for innovation and change, but the best thing is - I think it’s happening right now, before our very eyes.

Photo credit: here

Here’s the second installment of Feature Friday this week: Beyond Good Intentions.

Beyond Good Intentions is a wonderful ten-part film series investigating the effectiveness of international aid. According to the website:

The Beyond Good Intentions film series follows the round-the-world journey of first-time filmmaker, Tori Hogan, as she investigates how international aid can be more effective. Shot on location in eight different countries, the ten-episode series takes viewers along for the ride as Tori meets with countless aid workers and recipients to uncover more innovative approaches to helping communities in need.

The film series is great because it brings to light a lot of the criticisms of international aid that are often unknown to the general public. People assume volunteering abroad is great — but perhaps it’s not truly sustainable. People assume the Peace Corps is wonderful — but is the program really effective? With the advent of Muhammad Yunus’ innovative approach to ‘banking for the poor,’ microfinance has almost universally began to be viewed as a panacea to the world’s poverty…but is it really delivering for the world’s poorest communities?

Tori explores these, and many more important, controversial, challenging questions. What’s more, she presents the information in a series of engaging and enjoyable short films which are accessible to the general public. These films don’t use grandiose rhetoric or useless jargon…which is what is usually employed in these debates, often put forth by academics. Tori makes these issues interesting and easily understandable, thus reaching a large proportion of the population and drawing in young people.

Check out the clip below, where Tori investigates the practices of Kiva and microlending. Click here to access their YouTube channel and watch the rest of the videos.

Today I want to feature United Prosperity, a truly innovative organization that takes the concept of microfinance to the next level. Most microfinance institutions (MFIs) simply provide small loans to poor entrepreneurs who want to pull themselves out of poverty through their small businesses. However, this approach does not strengthen the local banking system or create domestic linkages that allow the entrepreneur to eventually borrow from local banks. Instead, the entrepreneur is often constantly borrowing from MFIs and can never move on to the next stage.

United Prosperity tackles this problem in a very unique way. Instead of directly providing loans to people, United Prosperity invites you to donate part of a “loan guarantee” which a small business owner will receive. The entrepreneur can then take the loan guarantee to a local bank, use it as collateral, and then obtain a larger loan from the bank. This empowers entrepreneurs to be able to borrow from local banks, and thus strengthens local institutional linkages. I think it’s a very powerful and innovative idea, and I can’t wait to see how far it goes.

United Prosperity is also great at social media. I first stumbled upon the organization after following it’s founder - Bhalchander Vishwanath - on Twitter. Bhalchander consistently posts the latest news and resources related to microfinance, social business, and development. He interacts with his followers, getting to know people on a one-on-one basis. As a result, he’s created a powerful community around his passion for microfinance, and has been able to successfully leverage this community to bring attention to his organization - United Prosperity. After I ran across the organization, I was taken by the innovative idea and I suggested that we work together. Now, students from a group I am part of - the Student Microfinance Development Initiative - are working with United Prosperity on research, marketing, and publicity. This is a prime example of how social media can be utilized to empower nonprofits and how connections can be leveraged to bring attention to your cause. Ultimately, a personal brand can do much to raise awareness of an associated nonprofit - building and maintaining a community isn’t easy, but it’s vital. The bottom line is that social media works - and United Prosperity has been doing a great job of carving out a clear online space for itself!

As you can see, United Prosperity has a unique idea and a fresh approach. The organization is in need of more loan guarantors. So head over to their website today and provide a loan!