"Agents of Development"

We couldn't talk about sustainability, without talking of social impacts. Those are not bad words, they are a reality for millions of people, men but mainly women and children.

The UN raises awareness since few years thanks to the 17 SDG, and, at my humble level, I try to raise consciousness step by step since few years now in the fields of health, education of children and women empowerment.

One of the most inspiring ideas on girls' education comes from Mexico. Some of the best ideas in development are simple ideas - as for instance the Kangaroo methods, already evoked two years ago .. (a new story should be written as the subject is very important to me).

In 1997, I was working as a trainee in Venezuela, in one of the most (maybe the most at that time) dangerous regions of the world. Criminality rates were very high (still high but no more bullets nowadays... No more anything...). It was also located in one of the most magnificent and inspiring valleys in the world, El Edo Aragua, in the heart of the Aragua Valley. I had the chance to bike alone in El Consejo and did chats with some funny little faces, eating mangoes in the trees and deliciously sharing some with me. It was amazing sharing times with these kids, as we were so curious at each others!

In the same time, in Mexico, a man named José Gomez de Leon and his colleagues put forward a new idea, which is developing in The Moment of Lift, beautifully written by Melinda Gates. Here is her story.

"José Gomez de Leon and his colleagues believed that women and girls were "agents of development", and they put that belief into practices.

The government would treat education as if it were a job and pay families to send their kids to school. Payments would be based on what children could earn if they were working for pay. They made sure the payments for the children were given directly to the mothers.

And because girls were more likely than boys to drop out, girls got a bit more money than boys to stay at school.

The program helped nealry 6 million families.

Twenty years later after the program began, Mexico has achieved gender parity in education - not only at the primary school level but also in high school and college. And Mexico has the world's highest percentage of computer science degrees awarded to women.

The World Bank called Mexico's effort a model for the world and said it was the first to focus on extremely poor households. Fifty-two countries now have some form of the same program.

#unicef #girl #education #lift #themomentoflift #sustainablegoalsdevelopment #childreneducation #woman #health #venezuela #proyectoalcatraz #rse #casasblancas

The Moment Of Lift, Melinda Gates. How empowering Women changes the World.