 Strength in numbers: financial services benefit women at all economic levels—By Liesa Wise Dutra, Synergy Financial Published: March, 2008 As we celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8, I am inspired by women like Maria Landa of Peru who at 17 learned how to weld from the humanitarian organization CARE. She then took out a loan — which she repaid in just a year — to start a successful welding business. Today, Maria’s company makes everything from toys to jet engines, and she is at the top of her field. Despite the success of Maria and women like her, too many women around the world still live in extreme poverty. Some 550 million people in sub-Saharan Africa alone — more than the combined populations of the US, Canada and Mexico — live on less than $2 a day. That isn’t enough for food, housing, education or health care. However, with just a little outside investment, women like Maria have the will and the power to turn small amounts of capital into self-sustaining livelihoods. One solution to poverty is ensuring the poor have access to capital. As a financial advisor, I often hear, “I have no money, so why do I need help managing it?” The fact is you can leverage the resources you do have to save more effectively and even invest. This is the same for countless women in the developing world. In countries like Ethiopia and Madagascar, the ratio of bank branches to people is less than 1:100,000. This underdeveloped financial sector makes it impossible for the poor to save, borrow or get insurance. However, data show that when women can get loans from community group lenders, repayment rates by participants reach nearly 100 percent. When women are no longer struggling to survive, they can start and run small businesses, send their children to school, provide medicine for their families, and finally break the intergenerational cycle of poverty. All it takes to help women both overseas and here is a bit of financial know-how. For women like Mihayo Mangombe from Tanzania who takes part in one of CARE’s Village Savings and Loan programs, loans of less than $10 have made a real difference. Her incentives to borrow — and to quickly repay the group of lenders made up of other women in her community — are the 11 children she is supporting as well as the small fish business she now has up and running. Before this project, Mangombe was hard-pressed to find paying work, but now she has a small cash flow that is hers to manage. Resources and responsibility are empowering to women business owners of all sizes, whether you sell fried fish or run a fishery. The return on investing in women is significant, and it can even have unexpected payoffs. Remember Maria from Peru? Not only was her business a success, but when a devastating earthquake hit Peru in August, CARE called on Maria to weld steel framed tents to house thousands of survivors. This International Women’s Day we can honor Maria, Mangombe, and the millions of potential women entrepreneurs around the world by committing to better financial management of our own right here in the Bay Area. Rich, poor, or somewhere in between, financial services are available in a form that is affordable and accessible. Whether you are starting out or starting over, you can learn powerful financial skills that will allow you to build economic security and achieve your goals. Liesa Wise Dutra is a registered financial advisor and investment strategist in the Bay Area. | ||
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