Women with Skills Spur Economic
Development
André Roussel/USAID
All over the world, we can find models that illustrate
various strategies women have used to enter and succeed in
fields that their communities still consider “nontraditional.”
For example, a growing number of rural women—
largely from an older generation and with limited formal
education—are working as solar engineers after a six-month
training program at Barefoot College in India’s Rajasthan
state.
Participants in the training program come from remote
areas where conventional electricity has never been readily available. Program coordinators have found that these
women are more likely than men to return to their communities to work and to share their knowledge with others.
This is because the accepted applicants are deeply involved
in local life.
The solar engineering classroom at Barefoot College
illustrates the college’s guiding principle: solutions to rural
The Ambassadors Girls Scholarship Program (AGSP) puts a
smile on Rachida Moussa, right, and her mentor, Madame Bernadette Ouinin Mora. The program provides meals and mentors to
help keep Benin’s poorest girls in school.
4
World Bank/Arne Hoel
problems lie within the community. Program advisor Anu
Saxena described the scene one morning: “30 participants,
from various countries, sit side by side on benches, working
with concentration to connect w ires on a circuit board,
assemble a solar lantern, or draw what they have just created
in a small notebook.
“A short distance from the classroom, two impressivelooking 2.5-square-meter parabolic solar cookers glisten in
the sunlight. The cookers are attended by Shahnaz and Sita,
two Barefoot Solar Engineers.” Both women specialize in
the production of cookers, traditionally a male task since
it involves metal work and welding. They are now training
other women to make the cookers.
Villages that have switched to solar power have reduced
environmental pollution and forest degradation, and
enabled women to do income-generating work and students
to study after sundown. As women become leaders in
environmental management, they also gain more influence
in local politics. In some countries, Barefoot College alumni
have started women’s associations—for example, the Solar
Warriors of Bhutan.
There are many other examples that illustrate our
point—that women from impoverished backgrounds are
often motivated students who quickly acquire skills that
enable them to contribute fully to their country’s economic
development. Here are two brief stories from Latin America.
In Brazil, Zenaide Pereira da Silva is the first woman at
the Santo Antonio hydroelectric dam to operate a gantry
crane, a 20-meter-high crane that assembles the turbines
necessary to construct a hydropower station. A 29-yearold single parent, Zenaide is earning about three times the
country’s minimum monthly wage—income that is needed
to support and educate her daughter.
In Chile, as recently as 2000, women were simply not
allowed in copper mines because of superstitions. Now,
more than 7 percent of the industry workforce is female, and
this proportion is rising quickly. As machinery operators,
many are earning five times as much as in their previous
jobs, according to Andres Leon, human resources manager
at El Teniente mine. El Teniente is part of the largest copper
producer in the world, CODELCO.
Ambassador Melanne Verveer emphasizes that hard data
support the argument that the world cannot possibly end
hunger and extreme poverty without the full participation
of women. The numbers show that countries where men
and women are closer to equality in areas such as education
and political participation are far better off economically.
U.S. development assistance programs that integrate
women fully help partner countries move closer to the
improved economic prospects that come with 100 percent
participation in economic development.
too common, all over the world. Instead of a list of statistics, here we’ll give a brief example of a creative response.
Women in Cities International promotes women’s safety in
four major cities (in India, Tanzania, Argentina, and Russia). In 2009, the organization started a “gender inclusive
cities” program that engages women and girls in creating
safer cities. In order to protect women’s rights in an urban
context, the program targets the circumstances that make
women vulnerable and gets local communities involved in
changing conditions in public spaces.