What is it about?
Development practitioners might consider the totality of a girls' life and not just her narrow potential to earn an income. As someone from an international non-profit noted at a conference in November 2015, education is not the "silver bullet" that will solve all of her problems. Drawing on the history of women''s empowerment projects, we show the flaws of the current logic that treat girls as instruments of economic growth. What questions might be asked that enable more holistic development of girls in developing countries?
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Why is it important?
One who cares about impact and the efficient use of donor funds should be wary of new interventions that reproduces projects that have not worked in the past. Simply changing the target group of an intervention (from women to girls in this case) is not a justification for investment. The very logic of the intervention and the assumptions embedded within it need to be challenged.
Perspectives
Development practice is complicated; the variables that need to be taken into consideration can often be overwhelming. But the narrow focus on a girls future potential to be an engine of economic growth actually limits her potential and what she could be. And in who's best interest is this programming: girls in developing countries or donors that fund these interventions? As someone who worked in adolescent girl empowerment programming, we need to reflect and ask tough questions about the interests of donors and what is in the interest of those that 'development' is meant to serve.
Professor Cynthia M Caron
Clark University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Rescuing Girls, Investing in Girls: A Critique of Development Fantasies, Journal of International Development, September 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/jid.3146.
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