Economic Development through Gender Equality in Rights, Resources and Voices

This panel provided an overview of gender equality in development with four panelists and organized by the Muslim American Leadership Alliance.   The purpose of this parallel event was to give a broad range of approaches in supporting girls and women through the validation of their voices in economic empowerment and development.   An important focus of the event highlighted the use of local NGOs at an individual and country level as partners in supporting broad-based initiatives for economic empowerment.  With a focus on supporting girls in telling their own stories panelists, Rachel Steinburg, Dr. Emad Rahim, Gretel Truong, and Dr. Sadaf Jaffar gave context to the ways in which organizations are working in women and girls’ empowerment.

            With a focus on supporting girls in telling their own stories, creating local partnerships  “give a platform for girls to speak for themselves” and provide opportunities for a shift from girls as the recipients of the benefits of empowerment to becoming advocates in their own communities.  As girls involved in education projects are given platforms for their stories through blogs, photography and film they maintain the power gained through their own advocacy throughout their lifetime.   The partnerships that form between organizations such as UNICEF and local NGOs allow for the development of such platforms while also providing scholarships and catch-up classes to support the endeavors of girls.  This message of transformation was also highlighted in Dr. Rahim’s S.A.L.T. (Surviving, Adapting, Loving and Transforming) paradigm, which supports resilience and learning and uses stories to improve lives. 

            This discussion of gender equity and economic empowerment places girls at the center of their own empowerment by asserting that their stories are key in transformation and power and that they should be the ones telling those stories.  These organizations focused on providing tools, platforms, and strategies as the main form of support for girls and women, but leaving the story telling and knowledge of their own experiences in their own hands.  This moves away from development approaches in which empowerment is something to be given by others outside of the lives of girls and women living these experiences.  From Cambodia, to Pakistan, to the United States, a shift to focusing on girls’ voices and their experiences as gender advocates is an avenue for supporting partnerships between broad, global initiatives and local NGO work.