As equal opportunity and education take centre stage around International Women’s Day, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) asked social entrepreneur and girls’ education advocate Kennedy Odede about the ripple effects of better education for girls, for a Q&A commissioned by the United Nations Foundation.
This is the third in a series of Q&As that will explore progress towards and what remains to be done to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 UN-backed goals that more than 190 countries agreed to prioritise as national targets in 2015. These targets include reducing environmental degradation and improving education, health and industrial innovation.
Raised in the well-known Kibera slum outside Nairobi, Kennedy Odede made expanding access to girls’ and women’s education his mission following a job at a soccer ball factory that helped lead him out of the townships to a US education and ultimately to found and fund his NGO. His organisation, Shining Hope for Communities, provides tuition-free schooling and holistic social services to girls and has helped infuse Kibera with a sense of hope and opportunity.
Excerpts from an interview, as told to the EIU.
EIU: You’ve said that that a community benefits when its girls become change-agents. What is the most effective way of measuring the positive ripple effects that educating girls have on a community?
Kennedy Odede: When women are empowered [and] make money, they spend their resources in the home, on schooling and food. They start businesses. Resources made by men are more often used outside the house—on drinking and gambling—without benefits.
We have to educate girls and women in a way that involves men because educating women sometimes makes men ... scared. At our school, we provide clean water and a health clinic. When the men use the water, they allow the women to go to school. Their way of thinking [about girls’ education] changes, because they benefit directly from what we provide. They support the school.
Data helps improve community programmes and a community’s level of support, investment and participation in these programmes. This ultimately makes a community stronger.
Without data, one cannot measure results. But many donors are unwilling to pay for data collection. This can be done by companies, but we need to encourage them to help.
Communities can also conduct surveys without partners through direct communication. For example, the parents of students at the Kibera and Mathare Schools for Girls are required to volunteer at the school to promote community engagement. They are more willing to participate in surveys about educational programmes because they are deeply invested.
We measure [the impact of women’s progress] with data. We track everyone who uses our services in areas such as their income before and after they were involved in the school. We survey men about the girls’ education. Who is benefiting?
EIU: The path out of poverty is through stable employment and a liveable wage. But barriers to fair working conditions are high for the 767 million people worldwide living in poverty. Hurdles to gainful employment include high education costs.
What tools best incentivise governments, NGOs, lending institutions or the private sector to help the most marginalised—especially girls and the poor—overcome barriers so they can enter the workforce?
Kennedy Odede: There is no free lunch for education. Companies seek stable people to employ, but can’t find them. If companies and government leaders invest in education for girls, they will have the workers they need and we will have a productive continent. It must be a win-win to incentivise companies.
Governments can use tax breaks to incentivise companies to support the social sector or female education programmes. But such incentives have not progressed much. You can’t rely on government.
I believe in grass-roots incentives. We bring religious and community leaders together every month to discuss issues and [get their] support for girls’ education. Every month, community members donate a dollar to help fund death services for those who have lost someone, because people can’t afford them.
The money is an incentive to organise. It’s a side thing, not why we meet. But it’s had amazing results! One hundred percent of members participate. Violence against women has fallen. Men support the school. Religious leaders—Christian and Muslims!—are sharing our message. Grass-roots incentives can be as simple as money for burial fees, but must meet community needs.
Though local incentives can’t replace government incentives, involving a community in investing in its future also creates ripple effects for the government and private companies. There is power in numbers.
But to partner with companies, NGOs must approach the private sector with knowledge of the items and services most commonly used in their community.
For example, [the] Kenyan telecommunications company Safaricom invested in clean water and free Internet for our community. A big portion of Safaricom’s clients are in low-income areas. Almost everyone in Kibera uses Safaricom. The government, private sector and NGOs need to view people in urban slums as an opportunity for growth, not a burden.
EIU: Can you point to specific education or job-training programmes for girls that have materially improved communities by advancing the economic conditions of workers?
Kennedy Odede: When women and girls go to jobs from the slums, they don’t last long in those jobs because they are unprepared. We teach girls how being on time helps them be prepared and be confident. We help them with résumés. We’ve trained over 600 girls to be prepared to work for companies such as [solar company] M-Kopa and Barclays. When they go to work, they grow because they work harder than other people. They see [jobs] as their only way out.
Poverty is about isolation. When even a few [girls] get jobs, other people in the slums begin to get jobs through their network.
EIU: Should funding for educational SDG programmes be led by the private sector? What do you believe will encourage policymakers to more fully engage and invest in educational campaigns? Why?
Kennedy Odede: The private sector has to lead. It’s more efficient and it works. It can drive an agenda. The government needs the private sector for growth. We saw this in Tunisia, where the private sector came together with the government to address corruption. It led to negotiations.
It’s [also] critical for government to invest in youth. No government investment creates problems. This goes back to the grass-roots level: People have voting cards. Nobody wants to be voted out.
Increasing government support is a challenge. But failing to address social problems or joblessness creates a time bomb.
But many African governments are corrupt and resources earmarked for education end up in a few officials’ pockets. So if the government isn’t doing its job, NGOs need to fill the gap. Until trust in government is established, the government and private sector should fund educational programmes and legitimate grass-roots organisations should implement programmes.
Civil society also needs to prioritise its needs—and, by extension, grass-roots organisations should be the primary partners.
Accountability is key. The government must ensure a high standard of education for its population—irrespective of its role as funder or service provider. The private sector should do due diligence on and track the execution of programmes led by their organisation and government partners. And local communities must voice their opinions to ensure that such services work for and not against them.
EIU: What can and should be done to increase buy-in to and collaboration for educational programmes among all sectors?
Kennedy Odede: The problem is simple: There is no ground-level coordination. Decision-makers are in a city and the people they serve are in the slums. Often they aren’t consulted by project leaders.
It’s like buying someone a pair of shoes without knowing their size. I know of an NGO that built showers, but the people turned them into houses.
NGOs have to talk to community leaders. Have a town hall, a place for a community representative at their organisation. The community must be brought into the process at a programme’s start.