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The Girl Effect - Nike Foundation

发布时间:2018-06-08
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  1. The Girl Effect Explained

“Girl Effect, noun. The unique potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world”

The Girl Effect, is a term coined by the Nike foundation as part of in a campaign to raise awareness of the ripple effect caused by investing in adolescent girls. It proposed a simple, yet radical idea to tackle poverty: “Invest in a girl, and she will do the rest”[1]. This concept exploded onto the development scene, and considering the idea is eleven years old its success has been remarkable. It has managed to influence policy of the UN, WHO, DFID, UN Women, UNICEF, UNESCO and the World Bank and has successfully made adolescent girls at the forefront on the Post-2015 Development agenda. This movement has grown exponentially so it is now:

“not a singular entity, but an assemblage of transnational policy discourses, novel corporate investment priorities, bio-political interventions, branding and marketing campaigns, charitable events designed to produce a social movement for change and designer goods that invite young women in the North/West to express pride in ‘being a girl’ – an act that Girl Effect marketing suggests will contribute to efforts to improve the lives of girls in other parts of the world.”[2]

The Girl Effect concentrates on adolescent girls as this “is a critical period when girls are at a greater risk of many events with irreversible negative consequences…. that not only impact themselves but also the next generation”[3]. Even though primary school attendance rates and gender parity in primary education have improved for girls all across the developing world, many girls drop before they reach secondary school, usually due to reasons outside of their control such as “early marriage and cultural norms that prioritise investments in boys”[4]. If you get girls to continue onto secondary school at this age they tend to “marry later, have fewer and healthier children, earn higher incomes and contribute far more to their families, communities and countries”[5]. Also when the girl does decide to have children, they will more than likely be educated like her and this will carry on from generation to generation. This is seen as tackling poverty at its root. Human development theory advocates wellbeing as being important in development. “The wellbeing of girls today has a direct impact on the wellbeing of their families tomorrow”[6] . The girl effect has quite lofty claims to have the ability “to eradicate global poverty”[7] and possibly “could lift the global economy”[8]. In this research study I intend to evaluate these claims using my knowledge of Development Theories to analyse The Girl Effect.

Investing specifically in girls (and women) makes a lot of sense, as they make up half of the population. They are disproportionately affected by poverty:

“Of the 1.4 billion people living on just over a dollar a day, 70% of them are women and girls. Women do two-thirds of the world’s work, but earn only 10% of the income. Women produce half of the world’s food but only own 1% of the world’s land and of the almost 900 million adults worldwide who cannot read or right, over two-thirds of them are women”[9].

Thus if you want to make the biggest impact, it makes sense to invest in women and girls. Consequently, Having a Feminist Development Theory is so important, as it allows us to see the development community through a gender lens and take into account women and girls. In my opinion, “if the…(development) community leaves out women’s experiences and views, they deprive themselves of a huge body of information, which has the potential for opening up new ways of thinking about…(development) and also increasing the range of options and solutions we have to solve …(development) issues”[10].

Girls face specific adversities that make them even more vulnerable, and ae. When agencies invest in education in developing countries families will send their sons to school as they perceive they have a high economic value.

  1. Problems with the Girl Effect

The Girl Effect is unique in many ways. First of all the notion of a ‘ripple effect’, is quite an extraordinary idea, that investing one area, in this case girls education, can also expand and have a positive impact on other development problems. In human development theory, it advocates helping people to help themselves and giving them the opportunity and freedom to help themselves. Yet the ripple effect described by organisations advocating The Girl Effect seems like this idea on a far bigger scale. Additionally from a business perspective it seems like the dream investment strategy. That is if you have a “limited amount of funds and you want to have an unlimited impact”[11].

However I suspect that the impact of investing in adolescent girls as a development strategy is exaggerated, as it is far too simplistic, reductive and basically too good to be true. Due to the fact it was created by the corporate giant Nike, a lot of its rhetoric is similar to that which you would see in the marketing or advertising industry, even in policy documents. They are using emotive language, exaggeration, simplifying complicated issues and making bold statements. For instance Nike uses phrases like “The clock is ticking”[12], “50 million girl’s 12-year old girls living in poverty, equals 50 million solutions”[13], “What if there was an unexpected solution…A Girl”[14] and “It’s no big deal, it’s just the future of humanity”[15]. Following their example, the normally sterile and careful UN agencies are saying phrases like “Unleash the Power of Girls”[16], “Where there is a girl, there is a way”[17] and claiming that investing in girls is “the unexpected solution to many of the world’s most pressing problems”[18]. Theorist Koffman and Gill call this the girl-powering of development.

Using feminist development theory, I have found some fundamental flaws in the girl effect. As I mentioned earlier, gender equality/feminist views and women’s agency are separate issues inextricably connected. The first major flaw I noticed, is that the girl effect is based on the two biologically deterministic views on women and girls:

  1. The essentialist view that women and girls are naturally the care givers. The reason they give investing in girls is so effective is that women when educated tend not to leave their communities, and often start a family and are the primary educators in their own homes. Therefore the local community benefits. This is true and we should invest on girl’s education based on this fact. However in my opinion this puts pressure on women, rather than empowering them. This is because it calls on women to carry the dual burden or to do ‘the double shift’ of housework/looking after a family and being the breadwinner. They should at the same time be working on changing men’s perception on housework and childcare being just a woman’s work, reform the structural factors which and showing them that women are just as valuable outside the home.
  2. The essentialist view that girls/women need to be saved or rescued[19]. The Girl Effect insinuates that all girls in the global south as victims of a backward and cruel patriarchal structure[20]. In the West we are given a stereotypical and damaging image by the media and charities of helpless girls living in poverty all the time. The Girl Effect uses this binary of the enlightened ‘west vs the rest ‘and makes them seem helpless. The girl effect claims to be empowering girls by saying girls are agents of change and have extraordinary potential. But in reality, it is empowering people in the west to give money to charity, to rescue these girls and you will feel less guilt about your privileged western life. It gives agency to western people, not girls in developing countries.

Although there is a place for women’s only projects, by leaving males or boys out may not be helping. “Conceivably male involvement may have made men more sympathetic”[21]. To issues associated with women. By being left out of the mix, nothing is being done to change the patriarchal structure and the beliefs of the men and communities. I believe it would be more effective to have an “inclusive, re-socialisation of roles, component in the programme”[22]. There needs to be more focus on systemic problems underlying and reinforcing gender discrimination in poor countries if the girl effect is going to work. If not, you leave women open to more discrimination and possibly violence.

Another issue with the girl effect is that it oversimplifies a complex development issues. A one-size-fits-all approach to development is both exaggerated at best and unrealistic at the worst. Educating girls can have a positive ripple effect, but it is far too early to definitively show the totality of this ripple effect. Something that works well on paper, rarely goes as smooth in real life. And in spite of the fact that this concept was discovered and developed through results seen through active development policies and foundations work, something that works in one state will not necessarily work exactly the same or at all in another state. Developing countries are not all the same, although they are categorised together. They have different cultures, political regimes, socio-economics circumstance and can be as different as comparing developed and developing states. Each state has different issues and needs policies tailored to these. Also instead of putting the focus on eradicating poverty, it seems to being encouraging the poor to cope with it themselves.

The Girl Effect, seems to suggest that the reason for poverty is that women are being oppressed. It does not mention capitalism, colonialism and other processes at work which probably have a greater effect on poverty. This basically excuses the west and its capitalist economic structure from the blame on global inequality and poverty. This is a major flaw, as if we don’t challenge the global political and economic structures that cause global inequality we cannot eradicate poverty. Investing in girls may be able to help solve a number of issues, but it cannot effect this.

Finally, private and public organisations may be exaggerating the success of the girl effect as a part of marketing scheme. Charities are dependent on donors, just like any other business and to entice people to donate money they need to use emotive language and tug at the heart strings. Presenting the girl as a victim and utilizing popular girl power narratives is an effective marketing ploy and has managed to make girls visible to policymakers. Before girl’s education was being considered a development strategy, “less than two cents of every international development dollar goes to girls”[23]. As Human Development Theorist Sen talked about the millions of ‘missing women’ in the developing world, there are also millions of missing girls. “As long as girls remain invisible, the world misses out on a tremendous opportunity for change”[24].

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Carella, Anna (2011) ‘So Now We Have to Save Ourselves and the World, Too? A Critiqueof ‘‘The Girl Effect’’’.Aid Watch, January. Available at http://aidwatchers.com/2011/01/so-now-we-have-to-save-ourselves-and-the-world-too-a-critique-of-‘the-girl-effect’’ (accessed 8 August 2011).

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[1] Nike Foundation, The Girl Effect, Girl Effect YouTube, 24th May 2008, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvmE4_KMNw (accessed on 7th December 2014)

[2] Koffman, O. & Gill, R. (2014) ‘I Matter and so Does She: Girl Power, (Post)Feminism and The Girl Effect’, In: Buckingham, D. et al.(eds), Youth Cultures in the Age of Global Media, Ch 14, p.243.

[3] Chaaban, J. & Cunningham, W. (2011) “Measuring the Economic Gain of Investing in Girls: The Girl Effect Dividend”, World Bank, p.4.

[4] Chaaban, J. & Cunningham, W. (2011) “Measuring the Economic Gain of Investing in Girls: The Girl Effect Dividend”, World Bank.

[5] http://www.un.org/womenwatch/feature/ruralwomen/facts-figures.html

[6] Nike Foundation, Bill Clinton, Ashley Judd and many more back the girl effect, YouTube, Girl Effect, September 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfB5giecehM (accessed on 30h March 2015)

[7] Oprah, Save a Girl, Save the World, Interview by Kate Roberts, June 2010. http://www.oprah.com/world/PSI-Interviews-Jennifer-Buffett-and-Maria-Eitel#ixzz3Xxkts46I (accessed 29th April 2015)

[8] http://www.oprah.com/world/PSI-Interviews-Jennifer-Buffett-and-Maria-Eitel#ixzz3Xxkts46I

[9] CARE, Unlocking the Potential of Women , YouTube, 26 May 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZCTdKPv7o8 (accessed on 14th November 2014)

[10] O’Malley, A. (2013) ‘What do gendered lenses add to our understanding of International Security’, Coursework IP2024, p.1.

[11] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfB5giecehM

[12] Nike Foundation, The Clock is Ticking, Girl Effect, YouTube, 13th December 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e8xgF0JtVg (accessed on 7th December 2014)

[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e8xgF0JtVg

[14] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvmE4_KMNw

[15] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e8xgF0JtVg

[16] UN Interagency Taskforce on Adolescent Girls (n.d.). Girl Power and Potential leaflet. http://www.unicef.org/adolescence/files/UN_IATF_Girls_post cardFINAL.pdf (accessed 2 February 2013)

[17] UN Foundation (2011b). Girl Up website. http://www.girlup.org/ (30th October 2014).

[18] UNFPA (2011). Unleashing the Power and Potential of Adolescent Girls. http://www.unfpa.org/public/cache/offonce/home/news/pid/7324;jsessionid= 1C6B7A464ACBAB326818F4498AE587DA (accessed 30th October 2014)

[19] Aidwatch, So now we have to save ourselves and the world, too? A critique of “the girl effect”, article by Carella, A., January 2011. http://aidwatchers.com/2011/01/so-now-we-have-to-save-ourselves-and-the-world-too-a-critique-of-%E2%80%9Cthe-girl-effect%E2%80%9D/ (accessed on 17th March 2015)

[20] Koffman, O. & Gill, R. (2014) ‘I Matter and so Does She: Girl Power, (Post)Feminism and The Girl Effect’, In: Buckingham, D. et al.(eds), Youth Cultures in the Age of Global Media, Ch. 14, pp.242 -257.

[21] Chant, S. & Gutmann, M. (2000) ‘Mainstreaming Men into Gender and Development: Debates, Reflections and Experiences’, Oxfam Working Papers, GB: Oxfam, p.26.

[22] Chant, S. & Gutmann, M. (2000) ‘Mainstreaming Men into Gender and Development: Debates, Reflections and Experiences’, p.26.

[23]

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