Every year in the lead up to Mother’s Day, analysts and pundits are busy calculating the holiday’s economic impact. This year, consumer spending is expected to reach around $18.6 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. But maximizing the real economic value of women needs to be seen as a core strategy of the recovery and part of the dialogue year-round.

These were among the challenges discussed at the White House forum on women in the economy. It was a valuable opportunity for business leaders and our counterparts in government to focus on the best practices and solutions to help women–and our nation–get to where we need to be to fuel a stronger economy and greater competitiveness.

There’s no question that America has come a long way to bring women into the economic fold. Women make up half of the U.S. workforce and comprise $5 trillion in purchasing power, according to “The Gender Dividend,” a report released by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd. Global Public Sector. In addition, women influence half of private wealth in the United States, and surveys continue to reveal women often take the lead in spending decisions in the household.

But lately progress has slowed, in part because of the recession, but also because Americans have been lulled into a sense of stagnation. Our nation cannot afford to become complacent–there is still a long way to go to achieve equality, particularly in the boardroom. Though nearly 73 percent of Fortune 500 companies now have at least one female executive officer, just three percent are led by women and the percentage of women corporate officers has flatlined. According to Catalyst, it could take until 2075 before women have reached parity with men on corporate boards.

We need to do more to consistently move women into key decision making and leadership roles–the roles that have the greatest impact on business success. And this is only going to grow more urgent; all demographic data suggests that women are among our nation’s fastest growing workforce and consumer base.

More than ever before, supporting women in the workplace and marketplace should be viewed as a business and economic imperative. The return on investment–the gender dividend–is exponential. This means that every investment made to help women advance in the workplace and in the marketplace yields greater returns for our businesses, our communities, and our economy. For example, Fortune 500 companies that rank in the top quartile for women representation on their boards outperform the bottom quartile by more than 53 percent on return on equity, according to Catalyst. That’s the gender dividend in action.

In the U.S., Deloitte has seen this return first hand, experiencing a period of tremendous growth under the chairmanships of Sharon Allen and Punit Renjen–the first woman and first person of Indian heritage, respectively, to chair any of the Big 4 professional services organizations. Today, one-third of our partners and principals are women, up from seven percent 20 years ago. In addition, one-third of our board is also composed of women and 15 percent minorities. This progress has been possible because we’ve made leadership development and inclusion a priority, particularly for women. We’re investing in “sponsorship,” a more structured form of mentorship, with the goal of increasing the number of women in the pipeline for management and leadership roles. Our Deloitte University leadership center is a centerpiece of our learning and talent development strategy that enables all of our people to be the leaders of tomorrow.

Deloitte, like our nation, has come a long way, and while I am pleased, I am not satisfied. As business leaders we all must be intentional in our efforts and keep innovating for the next frontiers of women’s advancement. For example, one area of focus should be women of color. Unemployment rates among black and Hispanic women are higher than the national average – and higher than they’ve been for these groups in decades. Hispanic women make 54 cents for every dollar a white man earns, according to the National Women’s Law Center. And corporate strategies still fail to meet the needs of a culturally diverse workplace. Improving this is a business imperative.

The private sector can also do a better job of investing in women and girls before they enter the workforce. One particular area in need of innovation is moving more women into roles in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Today, fewer than 25 percent of these jobs are held by women. More can and should be done to develop skills and confidence that will encourage women to take a bigger lead in these industries poised for sustained job growth.

It’s not just about investing in women in the workforce, it’s about investing in all women, whether it’s through mentorship opportunities, corporate giving programs, or community initiatives. Last month, Deloitte announced that we are investing $110 million in pro bono services to help nonprofit organizations across the country, many of which have a tremendous impact on the lives of women and the issues important to them, particularly education.

For Deloitte, it’s more than being a good corporate citizen, investing in women makes us a better business by helping our clients and our stakeholders. We’re giving women a hand, not a hand-out. And by doing so, we’re also strengthening families, communities, and the world we’re going to leave for our children.

So rather than talking about the economic boom Mother’s Day brings but once a year, let’s change the conversation to how we in the private sector can increase women’s economic vitality all year round. But most importantly, we must act to ensure women’s economic strength translates into a stronger America for us all.

–Author Joe Echevarria is CEO of Deloitte LLP

This post has been republished from www.justmeans.com

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The United States isn’t broke; we’re the richest country on the planet and a country in which the richest among us are doing exceptionally well. But the truth is, our economy is broken, producing more pollution, greenhouse gasses and garbage than any other country. In these and so many other ways, it just isn’t working. But rather than invest in something better, we continue to keep this ‘dinosaur economy’ on life support with hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax money. The Story of Broke calls for a shift in government spending toward investments in clean, green solutions—renewable energy, safer chemicals and materials, zero waste and more—that can deliver jobs AND a healthier environment. It’s time to rebuild the American Dream; but this time, let’s build it better.

For more info visit: www.thestoryofstuff.org

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During the current global financial crisis, immigration from developing countries has been blamed by several political parties as the source of unemployment in their countries. Even though there hasn’t been a single study, so far, that has proved that immigration has had in fact a meaningful role in the employment crisis, this belief remains strongly anchored in the minds of many.

Another phenomenon is also strongly anchored in the fabric of many developed societies: the increase in frequency of humanitarian campaigns around the holiday season.

Indeed, at every year’s end in the more developed countries, one can observe campaigns that encourage their citizens to make donations to fight poverty in distant, less fortunate countries.

In addition to the recurring images of extreme poverty around the holidays (also referred to as “poverty porn” in the development sector whenever pictures of poor people are excessively exploited by charities), there are some worrying statistics: 1.4 billion people live with less than $1.25 a day. Despite some undeniable economic progress in many African nations, social inequality is still even more striking on the African continent.

Economists also project that 1/3 of the poor in the world will reside on the African continent by 2015. In fact, economic hardship is one of the key factors mentioned by the 700 million people worldwide who are eager to leave their countries of origin.

Nomads in Morocco on Flickr by Antonioperezrio (CC-NC-2.0)

It often seems that the least developed countries just cannot escape the scourge of poverty, apparently powerless against the magnitude of the task at hand. Moreover, these countries are often reminded of their inability to meet the needs of the population without international support. Although international aid is a consequence of urgent crises, this situation is often felt as a recurring affront to national pride.

Various experts postulate, however, that extreme poverty isn’t inevitable. The most radical solution to drastically reducing global poverty would be, for many economic experts, opening the borders between countries and allowing workers to migrate where labor is most needed.

Professors Marko Bagaric and Lant Pritchett are two of the first scholars to introduce the concept of “open borders” as a solution to reducing global poverty.

To this effect, Bagaric writes::

Sending resources to impoverished places has merit. But it is a slow and fickle way of enhancing well-being. Instead, we directly pursue this aim by freeing up the flow of people so they can travel to where the goods are. [..] The starvation crisis is simply one of food distribution, not shortage.  The best way to ameliorate Third World poverty is by massively increasing migration to the West. Left to their own devices many people would gravitate to life-sustaining resources, leading to a rough equilibrium between the world’s resources and its population.

Lant Pritchett explains this notion in details in his book: Let Their People Come: Breaking the Policy Deadlock on International Labor Mobility. He quotes the results of a study claiming that:

Eliminating the planet’s remaining trade barriers would increase global GDP by around $US100 billion.
Eliminating immigration barriers, by comparison, would as much as double world income: that is, increase global GDP by $US60 trillion.
This added wealth would be shared, but the overwhelming beneficiaries would be people who now live in poor countries.

The World Bank published a study about immigrants’ contribution to the economy of their native countries through remittances from abroad. The study also shows that remittances are expected to reach as high as 351 billion dollars to the developing countries, and 481 billion dollars globally including the high-income countries. The study also mentions that:

Remittance flows to four of the six World Bank-designated developing regions grew faster than expected — by 11 percent to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 10.1 percent to South Asia, 7.6 percent to East Asia and Pacific and 7.4 percent to Sub-Saharan Africa, despite the difficult economic conditions in Europe and other destinations of African migrants.

Needless to say, these non-orthodox theories are questioned by various experts and politicians. Frank Salter explains that the main concerns come from the inherent dysfunctions of every multicultural society:

Unrestricted migration would harm (Australia’s) national interests in ways documented by scholars in economics, sociology and related disciplines. Much of the harm is predictable from what is known about the dysfunctions of diversity. They include growing inequality in the especially invidious form of ethnic stratification [..] Diversity has also been associated with reduced democracy, slowed economic growth, falling social cohesion and foreign aid, as well as rising corruption and risk of civil conflict

Demonstrations held in favor of the immigrants’ right to work in Paris by austinevan on Flickr (CC-NC-SA-2.0)

From a political point of view, Europe is far from opening the borders, rather the contrary. In France, the Guéant Act restricts foreign graduates’ possibility of recruitment, giving birth to various reactions. Julie Owono, Global Voices member, describes the implications of this law and the reactions of various African bloggers that see this law as an additional reason to contribute to the development of their countries. On the Rue89′s blog, Owono adds that the Guéant Act also ostracizes financially limited foreign students [fr].

In Africa, only a few experts have studied the concept of open borders, an idea that is, without doubt, too distant from the continent realities to persist. McGill University philosophy professor, Arash Abizadeh, doesn’t encourage the opening of borders, yet states that the current border system can’t be justified by a liberal egalitarian logic. Abidazeh states that if we want to stick to the belief that “All men are born free and equal”, the constitution of borders is by itself a violation of such a principle.

Malagasy blogger Sly writes about the risks of opening the borders:

I’m African and while it seems that this would be a good idea there are some drawbacks
-child trafficiking
-drug trafficking
-spread of HIV and other diseases.
-refugees will form camps in more prosperous nations causing some problems.
Having said this some countries in Africa do have open borders with some neighbouring countries.

Sly refers to the fact that opening the borders between Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, in an attempt to increase regional economic integration, raised some major challenges in the region during the recent food crisis.

This concept of using open borders to reduce global social inequalities implies that reducing global poverty would be the highest priority in the world. It would come before other important considerations such as national security and the national interests of each country. This theory of Pritchett and Magric certainly has a contentious side that aims to provoke a debate.

However, despite the claims of the international community that wants to reduce poverty worldwide, the open borders solution is only to be considered in specific contexts and won’t take precedence over other items on the international agenda.

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One of the most difficult aspects of sex trafficking is that it runs so deep into many other issues.  Poverty, corruption, lack of education, hunger… All have ties to the terrible crisis of sexual slavery that is happening all over the world.

There are a few fantastic organizations like the International Justice Mission that are dedicated to rescuing trafficked girls.  There are also many safe-houses and reintegration organizations working to care for girls once they have been taken out of the system.

But there are only a handful of organizations that are working to eradicate the root causes of sex trafficking in the first place.

There aren’t many, but there are some.

In a small slum community in Phnom Penh, for example, one organization is dedicated to reversing the cycle of misery…

Welcome to “The Alley,” a tiny community of seven small shacks in Phnom Penh. Too poor to own property,
too poor even to rent, the residents of the Alley have built their homes illegally on a strip of government property.
They live, in essence, in a drainage ditch.

Perched above an open sewer, the people of this tiny “village” live a pretty miserable existence. Kids in the Alley play in the mud, seemingly oblivious to their terrible environment.

(Left photo) This tiny baby was born with fetal alcohol syndrome.
She’s almost two years old.

(Right photo) Because their daughter left to work in Malaysia, this grandmother and her husband must care for their three grandchildren by themselves.

When I gave prints of their picture to some of the boys in the Alley, the one in blue asked me, “Which one is me?” He didn’t even recognize his own face.

Some of the mothers in the Alley are part of byTavi, making a livable wage and learning a life-long trade so that their daughters need not be at risk. Thankfully, the Center for Global Impact is active in this community, attempting to bring holistic restoration to its residents. Some of the girls are loved and protected as part of the Daughter’s Project. They will soon enter a year-long residential program that will train them to make dresses.

There may be misery and hardship in the Alley.                                         But there is also life.

They can enjoy their childhood in peace. The girls of the Alley can be just that…

For more info visit www.worldnextdoor.org

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Part 4 of a multi-series blog. Read Part 1-3 here

Fair Trade International and Fair Trade USA have both had a positive impact on the corporate social responsibility goals of big businesses. FLO has maintained its leadership in Europe with Sainsbury as the largest fair trade retailer in the world. Each minute Sainsbury sells 1,200 FLO bananas, generating almost £4million in Fair Trade premium (sainsburys.co.uk, 2009). The following chart shows the fast-paced growth of Fairtrade (FLO) certified products in the UK. In less than 10 years, the revenue from fair trade products increased by almost 500%.  Big businesses like Sainsbury and Marks and Spencer have made FLO products part of mainstream culture in Europe. Sainbury’s push for more fair trade products on their shelves came from the help of Comic Relief, a major charity in the UK which purposes to end global poverty. Together with Comic Relief, the Sainsbury’s Fair Development Fund was kick-started with an initial commitment of £1 million and is being used to support a number of Fairtrade initiatives over a four-year period (sainsbury.co.uk). This initiative will empower producers in some of the poorest of the Third World nations to meet the Fairtrade standards so that they can sell their products through FLO. The Sainsbury’s Fair Development Fund should help farmers – especially in Africa – find new routes to market, (O’Neill). Already, Sainsbury has helped farmers in Malawi and Uganda become FLO certified and is purchasing their dried fruits and sugar to make Fairtrade fruit bars. Fairtrade has become a major part of the CSR plan of Sainsbury.

Marks and Spencer, a department/specialty store in the UK has also made FLO’s products a part of their goals to become more sustainable. In 2010, sales of Fairtrade products increased by 40% at M&S, and the retailer now sells more than 300 different items of Fairtrade food, drink and flowers (Smithers). They were also the first retailer to carry Fairtrade vegetables. The photo below shows a Kenyan farmer holding his Fairtrade, green beans. As one of the five pillars of Marks and Spencer’s CSR plan called “Plan A: Doing the Right Thing,” M&S plans to convert 10% of their cotton from conventional to Fairtrade by 2012 (marksandspencer.com). The company also has goals to reduce waste and give profits to breast cancer research. Fairtrade is one piece of their larger CSR plan.

Fair Trade USA has also had large US businesses grab on to their standards and labeling as part of larger CSR plans. As part of Wal-Mart’s Global Sustainability plan, Sam’s club became the first mainstream retailer to offer Fair Trade USA certified bananas. As of December 2009, the sales of these bananas generated more than $900,000 to fund community development projects in Colombia while eliminating the need to use more than 875,000 gallons of herbicide, (walmartstores.com). Additionally, Ben and Jerry’s, now owned by Unilever,  prides itself in being the first company to certify ice cream under Fair Trade USA’s standards.

Many smaller companies in the USA have used Fair Trade USA to certify their products as well. Kopali Organics, an organic chocolate company, sources only Fair Trade USA cocoa from Peru. ”We are friends with Paul Rice [President of Fair Trade USA] and believe that they are going to raise the FLO standards,” stated Jacqueline Holmes, President of Kopali Organics. Other companies like Mocha Joes in Brattleboro, Vermont and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in  Waterbury, Vermont have used Fair Trade USA’s standards as one part of their larger mission to become sustainable businesses . But are these businesses using fair trade as a way of marketing? Critics of fair trade have deemed the label as “fairwashing” consumers and that is being used by many companies, not to change the lives of small farmers, but to make more profit.  But Paul Rice doesn’t think so. In an interview with him this month, he commented that many companies with fair trade certified products are in fact, not using the label to market their products.

“How does Dunkin Donuts market their fair trade espresso?  They don’t. You wouldn’t even know Dunkin Donuts carries fair trade certified espresso unless you asked,” Rice stated. I know this firsthand to be true.  I only knew about Dunkin Donut’s fair trade espresso because a friend told me about it. When I asked a Dunkin’ barista if she could confirm they carried fair trade espresso, she looked confused and asked, “What’s fair trade? I’ve never heard of this.” It wasn’t until I was drinking my latte that I noticed the coffee cup sleeve. It was marked with Fair Trade USA’s black and white label and a few sentences defining fair trade. There was no other marketing material in the store about their fair trade certification. Later I logged onto the Dunkin Donuts website, expecting to see the fair trade label front and center on their homepage, but it wasn’t there. Why then would Dunkin Donuts care about selling fair trade coffee if they aren’t using it as a marketing tool?

Stay tuned for thoughts on this question and a full interview with Paul Rice, CEO of Fair Trade USA. This and more, coming your way soon!  (To obtain a copy of the citations, please contact Julie directly)

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How do we work with Jesus to undo oppression? How do we live the gospel within a violent context or war-zone? How do we build just communities of faith that really are good news to the poor? How do we challenge the status quo and work to reconcile communities?
The Let Justice Roll Down Seminar is in many ways a response to these questions. A response to the ever growing awareness of young people entering the missions field who are overwhelmed with the realities of Human Trafficking, Poverty, Violence and War. It’s a response to an ever growing cry within the margins of society from oppressed peoples who are singing liberation songs and for people young and old who want to learn those songs but don’t know where to start.

For the truth is that in the wake of a world ripe with injustice most of us feel at a loss when it comes to actually doing something. We read the gospels and see Jesus creating holy mischief all over Palestine and feel inspired, but when it comes to our own communities and nations struggles, we can’t connect the dots. Into this tension, the Let Justice Roll Down Seminar will connect young radicals with veteran faith-based activists and peacemakers in order to transfuse a vision of practical peacemaking and works of justice modeled after Jesus! Through a three week intensive workshop and seminar series participants will find themselves rooted within the vast history of faith-based activism and peacemaking, learn a biblical vision of justice, craft a practical tool-belt for engagement and return home ready to insight holy mischief within their communities, nations or missions field.

So whether you’ve been involved with addressing injustice issues for years, work within the mission field or simply have a yearning to learn how to actively engage injustice and violence in your own community with a “Jesus-centric” witness…The LJRD Seminar is here for you.

Stay tuned for videos, podcasts, blogs and conversations coming from the conference, right here, on Eye See!

By: Tetyana Bohdanova

The average Ukrainian woman is highly educated, yet earns about 30 percent less than the average man in a similar position. She is more likely to become unemployed or not get hired at all because she might get pregnant. Even if she has no children, she is still carrying out the majority of household duties, which prevents her career development. She also has a nearly 50-percent chance of experiencing violence in her home.

While the laws in Ukraine, including in the country’s constitution, establish legal equality between the men and women, closing the gap between the legislation and its implementation is a difficult task. However, traditional attitudes and values are slowly changing, and ordinary citizens as well as women’s rights advocates, are playing an important role in this process. In August 2010, for instance, over 1,000 people marched [en] in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv to condemn domestic violence, and hundreds of volunteers joined the domestic violence awareness campaign.

Video competition for young Ukranians

From June 17 to September 10, 2011, a group of talented youth submitted [en] their entries to a short film competition about gender called “Gene of Equality”. Participants had to produce 5-minute films in one of two categories: “5 minutes of gender equality” or “5 minutes on domestic violence prevention.” The competition is sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme and the European Union Delegation to Ukraine.

The winners will be selected by a jury, while short films will also be voted on by YouTube users. Already, the online videos have been viewed nearly 50,000 times, and the best will be screened at the short gender film festival scheduled to take place in Kyiv in October 2011.

Below is a selection of films that can be understood by speakers of any language, and you can see more of the films submitted on the YouTube page, GenderTube.

“Violence in the family – a life ripped to pieces” – by “Infinity”

“Change your focus – don’t perceive a woman just as a sex object” – by “Just a kilo”

“And What About Your Family?” – by “Divine Animators”

“Craftsmanship has no gender” – by “NONAME_GROUP”

Loveworks is an organization that helps to create change. By inspiring and empowering a young generation to work together to bring change for people.

Below is their latest campaign to help restore the homes in Burundi after the long and forgotten civil war.

Overview.

Burundi is a small and beautiful country in the heart of Africa that is filled with incredible people. It is also one of the poorest countries in the world. Burundi was profoundly affected by the same genocide that hit Rwanda and a 10 year civil war that ripped the country to pieces, leaving in its path a Burundi that is broken yet beautiful.

What’s next?

Now, it’s time for us to rebuild. Together. We want to work with the people of Burundi rebuild a hopeful future simply because we love them and believe that they deserve to live full lives with dignity and hope. We want to help empower them to feed their own families, to start their own businesses, to educate their own children, to care for the orphans in their communities, to have access to clean water and affordable medical care, to live in houses that protect them from the elements and keep them safe, and to build strong peaceful communities.

Living in Burundi is a tribe called the Batwa. This is a neglected people group within one of the poorest countries in the world. Their average life expectancy is only 27 years! In our efforts to help empower and rebuild Burundi we are starting with the Batwa…the people that no one else is caring for.

We figured that the Batwa people know best what they need to build a hopeful future so we asked them how we can help to empower their community. Among the many needs of the Batwa, they have identi- fied 5 priorities: clean water, shelter, food security, medical assistance, and education.

We are starting by focusing on a Batwa village called Busiga through our local partner Onesphore and his organization. Onesphore and his team were able to bring clean water to the village last year, which has already dramatically improved the lives of the Batwa, so we are now turning our attention to work with the community on their next most pressing priority… shelter.

There are 76 Batwa families in Busiga and our next goal is to help provide houses for every family. 26 houses have already been built, which means we still have 50 to go!

This is where we need you! Here is how you can help… 

Launch a “Building Burundi” campaign in your school or university, at your church, in your neighborhood, with your friends, or online. Every dollar donated equals one brick in a house for a Batwa family.

$1 = 1 Brick! To build an entire house, it only costs $500! To build all 50 houses, we need a total
of 25,000 bricks or $25,000.

These houses are important building blocks for the community of Busiga. With these bricks, you are partnering with some amazing people to help Build Burundi by giving hope to the Batwa community and to the families that will live in the homes.

We need YOUR help. We believe that by working together, we can be a part of helping our friends in Burundi build a strong hopeful future!

For more info visit www.ourloveworks.com

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More Than Me is an organization that help get girls off the street and into school in one of the poorest slums in the world in Liberia, West Africa. This is a repost from their latest blogpost.