How educating women helps eradicate poverty.

The development community has long recognised that women’s education is a crucial prerequisite for eradicating poverty. The World Bank highlighted this in 2018, when they estimated that limited educational opportunities for girls and barriers to completing 12 years of education cost countries between $15 trillion and $30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings.

When women are educated, they bring vital skills and knowledge to the workforce, driving productivity and sparking innovation. Women, their families and their communities all benefit from female education, since educated women tend to enjoy higher incomes, have fewer and healthier children, be more informed about nutrition and healthcare, and marry at a later age – all of which contributes to breaking the cycle of poverty.

However, these benefits are only achievable if women have equitable access to education at every stage of life. This is sadly not the reality, with 120 million girls across the world remaining out of school. Without access to education, the immense value that these women could offer to their families, communities, and economies is compromised.

Recognising the critical role of female education for eradicating poverty, GIF has funded multiple educational innovations, including a gender-blind entrepreneurship and mentorship programme for young people in Sub-Saharan Africa and an adaptive digital learning software aimed at disadvantaged children in India.

In 2018, we also launched our Innovating for Gender Equality sub-fund, through which we invest in innovations that improve the agency of women across the developing world. Through this fund, we have not only supported interventions educating young girls on gender-based issues, but have also invested in educational opportunities for adult women, enabling them to challenge gender norms and lift themselves and their families out of poverty.

One of the earliest grants made under our gender equality fund was towards Buildher, a Nairobi-based social enterprise advancing gender inclusivity in the Kenyan construction sector. Buildher empowers women to step into the highly profitable but traditionally male-dominated construction sector, where they are supported to gain accredited skills and transition into skilled employment in safe workplaces.

“I have learnt life skills from Buildher, like how to come up with ideas and how to be a leader. I have learnt how to make stools, chairs, and tables” says Stacy Akinyi Odhiambo, a 23-year-old participant of the Buildher programme.

“What has changed for me since joining the programme is my self-esteem. I did not have confidence before but I have come to believe that I can do more than I could ever imagine.”

The 80% of women that transition into full-time employment following their time on the Buildher programme more than double or triple their incomes, helping not only them but also their families and children to secure better futures and break the cycle of poverty. Since 2021, Buildher has been supported to expand its programme by a GIF grant of $230,000.

Our gender equality sub-fund is also supporting Gender Intentional Safety Nets, an innovation educating marginalised women in India to improve their access to bank accounts and earnings. By teaching women how to open and use their own bank accounts, this programme helps them to overcome the gender norms that often discourage their access to the workforce by preventing their access to earnings.

This intervention highlights how filling educational gaps can empower women to work to lift themselves out of poverty. Since last year, an $800k GIF Test and Transition grant has been funding a research team from Inclusion Economics India Research Center and Yale University to work with PRADAN to develop and test a scalable model of this intervention.

By supporting these initiatives, we aim to empower women across the developing world, giving them the tools they need to improve their lives and contribute their skills to the workforce. As women gain greater agency and financial resources, they not only lift themselves but also their families and communities out of poverty, helping to build a better future for the next generation.