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A Life More Enlightened: Giving girls a second chance in Egypt

Submitted by Allie M. Glinski on Tuesday, June 4, 2013
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As part of a larger ICRW research project identifying effective strategies to prevent child marriage, Gender and Development Specialist Allie M. Glinski visited Save the Children's Ishraq program in Egypt to find out what makes it work.   

The lives of many adolescent girls living in Upper Egypt resemble those of young children in perpetuity, blindly obeying their parents– and then their husbands – with no control over their own destiny. Child marriage and a lack of education inevitably shape these girls’ futures, carving the direction their life paths will take. Nearly a quarter of girls aged 20-24 in this agricultural region have reported marrying before they turned 18. Most, if not all, first dropped out of school.

A Community of Practice on Gender and Agriculture in Tanzania

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Women play a central role in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. However their contributions to agricultural productivity at the household, community and national levels are limited by a diverse range of social and economic constraints that vary by crop and local context. Overcoming gender-related barriers requires innovative and practical solutions informed by a context-specific understanding of “how to” initiate and sustain gender transformative change in agriculture.

To help foster a deeper understanding and application of gender integration, ICRW, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is implementing a pilot program to develop a community of practice among agriculture practitioners in Tanzania.  This forum provides a space for peers to share knowledge and experiences in addressing gender within their work, creating a sustainable platform for technical support, problem-solving and new ideas on gender and agriculture.  Ultimately, this enhanced capacity will allow practitioners to increase the productivity and incomes of small-scale women and men farmers engaged in their projects.

The community of practice, named Tanzania Gender and Agriculture Forum (TaGAF) by its members, was launched in March 2012 and is comprised of interested BMGF grantees, as well as other agriculture and gender practitioners and resource persons currently working in Tanzania.  With 45 members to date, TaGAF uses workshops, technical briefs and an online platform to facilitate interactions and peer learning and sharing.   

Duration: 
2011 - 2013
Location(s): 
Tanzania

Payal Patel

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Payal
Patel
Gender and Development Specialist
Bio: 

Payal Patel is a gender and development specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this role, Payal conducts gender-analytical research and program evaluation in the areas of women and technology, enterprise development, women’s property rights and agriculture. 

Patel has expertise in research, monitoring and evaluation and capacity building related to women’s economic livelihoods and community development. She has published several papers on the role of technology, including mobile phones and the Internet, in strengthening women’s economic and entrepreneurial opportunities. Prior to joining ICRW, Patel worked as a consultant with CARE to evaluate the effects of an agricultural marketing and capacity development project in Uganda on the empowerment of women farmers and the sustainability of farmers’ market linkages. She also has experience building the capacity of local development NGOs in India and Guatemala in data collection and reporting.  

Expertise: 

Economic Empowerment, Women and Technology 

Languages Spoken: 

English (native), Gujarati (native), Spanish (fluent), French (basic) 

Education: 

Patel holds a master’s degree in international development from the George Washington University, and a bachelor’s in international relations and economics from Wellesley College. 

Allison M. Glinski

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Allison M.
Glinski
Gender and Development Specialist
Bio: 

Allison M. Glinski is a Gender and Development Specialist at ICRW, where she conducts research, programs and advocacy related to adolescent girls, population and development, reproductive health and family planning, monitoring and evaluation, and women and technology. She has provided technical assistance to partners by creating M&E systems for grantees and assessing programs’ gender-specific impact. She has conducted research on a series of population and development related topics including women’s demand for contraception, child marriage, and the links between adolescent girls’ education and successful transitions to adulthood. Specifically, she has conducted several research initiatives that aim to improve the lives of adolescent girls by assessing programs that have successfully delayed marriage and childbearing to mobilize funding, commitment, and action on girls' education, empowerment, and reproductive health. Prior to joining ICRW, Allison worked with the International Medical Corps where she provided research, monitoring and evaluation, project management, and technical support to nutrition, sanitation, HIV/AIDS, and maternal health projects. Allison also served as an AmeriCorps volunteer where she created and taught health classes to elementary and middle school students, as well as researched, compiled, and presented educational information for families regarding energy, housing, and healthcare assistance.

Expertise: 

Adolescent Girls, Child Marriage, Economic Empowerment, Education, Monitoring and Evaluation, Population and Reproductive Health

Languages Spoken: 

English (native); Spanish (proficient)  

Education: 

Allison holds an MA in International Development with a Concentration in Global Health from the George Washington University and a BA in English and Psychology from the University of Michigan.  

Lyric Thompson

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Lyric
Thompson
Special Assistant to the President/Policy Advocate
Bio: 

Lyric Thompson is a policy advocate and special assistant to the president at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this capacity she provides technical and substantive guidance to the President on various topics relating to gender and development; conducts advocacy on a range of issues, including as co-chair of the Girls Not Brides USA coalition; and has conducted fieldwork on gender-responsive urban development in slum communities of Mumbai, India.

Thompson brings expertise in policy advocacy and communications on such issues as women, peace and security; violence against women; and women’s economic empowerment, and has advocated for gender-equitable policies at the United Nations, White House, State Department and on Capitol Hill. She is a women’s issues expert and blogger for TrustLaw Women, a project of the Thomson-Reuters Foundation and a primary expert and strategist for Amnesty International USA’s women’s human rights program. In 2012 she served as a leadership and empowerment expert on the selection committee for the Women Deliver Top 50 Innovations and Ideas that Deliver for Women. In 2011, Diplomatic Courier Magazine named her among the Top 99 Under 33 Young Professionals Impacting Foreign Policy.

Prior to joining ICRW, Thompson served as Senior Policy Analyst and External Relations Officer at Women for Women International, where she advised officials at the White House, State Department and Department of Defense officials in the crafting of the United States’ first-ever National Action Plan on Women, Piece and Security. Prior to this, she worked on USAID-funded conflict mitigation and democratic governance projects in Sudan and Serbia for Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), where she conducted fieldwork on post-conflict reconstruction efforts in Sudan.

Expertise: 

Adolescents, Economic Empowerment, Violence against Women, Advocacy and Policy Engagement

Languages Spoken: 

English (native); Spanish (proficient)

Education: 

Thompson is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated with highest honors for her thesis on development and human rights work in Ghana, West Africa. 

Investing In Women For Economic Growth

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Tue, 03/12/2013
Forbes

Forbes further explores Gap Inc.'s P.A.C.E. program and focuses on the impact that investing in women can have on economic growth. The article touches on women reinvesting in their families, saving and investing in the future, and building confidence as a result of participating in the P.A.C.E. program. ICRW's President Sarah Degnan Kambou is quoted extensively about the potential for programs like this to create change. 

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Global Women's Initiative Reaps Great Rewards

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Thu, 03/07/2013
Forbes

ICRW President Sarah Degnan Kambou discusses Gap Inc.'s P.A.C.E. program, which helps build life and work skills among female garment workers. Kambou speaks to the programs impacts and the effects of unlocking women's potential. To date, the program has reached 17,000 participants in 7 countries. 

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The Intel® Learn Program Through a Gender Lens

The Intel® Learn Program Through a Gender Lens

Kirrin Gill and Allison M. Glinski, with Gillian Gaynair
2012

ICRW conducted an assessment of the Intel® Learn program, an education initiative that provides technology education to youth around the world, in order to understand its impact on female learners. The program equips learners with skills in digital literacy, collaboration, creativity, and critical problem solving. ICRW’s assessment found that the strategies and components of the Intel Learn program have successfully targeted girls’ needs and interests, provided girls and women with necessary skills and resources, empowered them to have control over their resources and make decisions, and set them on a path for economic empowerment. Thus, the program offers important lessons on how to enrich the lives of girls and women through technology education.

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Sustainable Development Powered by Women

Submitted by ICRW Communications Staff on Tuesday, June 19, 2012
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Women have central roles in achieving our goals for sustainable development. In this blog post, ICRW draws on its recent research on energy and agricultural technology and finds that giving women the technology tools they need can help us move toward the “future we want.”

When world leaders gather in Brazil this week for the Rio+20 summit on sustainable development, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon will highlight the global initiative to achieve "Sustainable Energy for All." The needs are great: One in five people on the planet still lacks access to modern electricity. This energy poverty disproportinately affects the world's poorest, many of whom are women.

Scaling Up Corporate Social Investments for Education

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Mon, 06/11/2012

A new report from the Brookings Institution holds up ICRW’s continuing evaluation role in Gap Inc.’s P.A.C.E. program as an important ingredient for its successful expansion.

Gap P.A.C.E.A new report from the Brookings Institution holds up ICRW’s continuing evaluation role in Gap Inc.’s P.A.C.E. program as an important ingredient for its successful expansion. Scaling Up Corporate Social Investments in Education examines private sector efforts to further education in developing countries and outlines five effective strategies to guide future business engagement. Among the principles is the need to measure the impact of corporate social investments in order to scale up successful programs. Gap Inc.’s Personal Advancement and Career Enhancement (P.A.C.E.) program, which ICRW helped develop and evaluate, educates female garment worker with life and technical skills to help them advance personally and professionally.

>> More about P.A.C.E.

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