That Development Lady

President Clinton opened the second day of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Annual Meeting by reciting damning statistics about women’s economic marginalization, including that only 30% of the world’s workforce is made up of women. Women do 66% of world’s work, make only 10% of world’s income, and own only 1% world’s property. He said investing in women “can unleash an estimated $15 billion in annual productivity.”

Investing in Girls and Women was hosted by Diane Sawyer. The panelists were: Edna Adan, Director and Founder, Edna Adan Maternity and Teaching Hospital; Lloyd Blankfein, Chairman and CEO, The Goldman Sachs Group; Zainab Salbi, Founder and CEO, Women for Women International; Rex W. Tillerson, Chief Executive Officer, ExxonMobil Corporation; Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Women’s Issues, U.S. State Department; and Robert Zoellick, President, The World Bank Group.

For the businessmen on the panel “empowering” women seemed to be more about using them as the person that funds go through. Blankfein said investing in women has the highest leverage because they support their families. The point was reiterated a number of times by a number of speakers that funds are best used when they go to women.

While the businessmen seemed to lack much of a focus on anything but investing in women to benefit their own bottom line, the women on the panel who are actually engaged in this work brought excellent incite.

Salbi was amazing. She said women are dying, being displaced and raped at alarming rates during warfare. “But they have no choice but to stand up on their feet because they have children.” Women are the ones who maintain culture. They’re the only ones not raping, pillaging, murdering, but they are not included at the table to discuss solutions.

Salbi said in southern Sudan 9 year old girls are being exchanged for cows in marriage agreements. She said we can criticize these cows or we can invest in women’s education and show the economic benefit of empowering women as an alternative source of income for parents.

Tillerson made a number of remarks that were either incomprehensible or deeply problematic (or both). In response to Tillerson saying that funding is not the issue, Salbi emphatically pointed out that 1 cent of every funding dollar goes to women. There is a need for both education and resources so women can renegotiate the decision making process in households and countries.

Sawyer asked Tillerson: given the extreme poverty of women in Detroit, how do you decide to invest here or overseas? Once again Salbi jumped in with an important point: women’s issues and girls issues are not just a third world issue. it’s a global issue.

Salbi emphasized three needs: political will and the will of leadership; women organizing, which is happening globally; and societal acknowledgement of women’s role.

Edna Adan, Director and Founder, Edna Adan Maternity and Teaching Hospital, was also an amazing speaker. She focused on the importance of skilled birth attendants in Somalia. “Reproductive health is affected by nutrition, is affected by age at which she is married, so many other factors.” She said women are dying in childbirth, “because nobody cares… [People think] she’s dying because she was meant to die. She was not meant to die. She could be safe.” “The decision of whether she has treatment must be left to the woman. often its a husband or a brother or a father who decides whether she will be taken to the hospital or not.” There is a view that the husband owns the unborn child and therefore the decision is his, which must be countered through education.

Adan said these issues are not just women’s issues and that we need to engage men: “It is demanding men stand up and recognize women belong on this earth.”