How can we use the things we share in common to address some of the most challenging problems facing the world? This course examines issues concerning poverty, the environment, technology, health care, gender, education and activism to help us understand better how to initiate positive change.
Education and Building Human Capacity
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来自 Wesleyan University 的课程
How to Change the World
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从本节课中
Women, Education and Social Change
Discussion of gender issues and the upward mobility of women, across business and education.
与讲师见面
Michael S. Roth
[MUSIC]
So the idea of a, community bank, a community development
is such a powerful one. Tell us a little bit about
the obstacles you have to overcome in, in, in Kenya and and
or are there political issues? Are there, competing, organizations?
What, what's the, what's the lay of the land?
>> So
I, I, I now they, they.
Oh, you know how much of the political issues
so far, because I've now shown interest in politics?
And I learned [UNKNOWN] from politics.
I did it because I live in H, and that's something I will, I believe you so much.
And other things that, there's no, the competition is
that, I think we are the only, gusto initial that.
Came from the grass
root, from down to up, you know? And, I think I'm, we're in a good place.
At the same time I was born in [UNKNOWN] I grew up in [UNKNOWN].
And sure enough I went to Wesleyan.
[LAUGH] You know? So that give me a big begetting power.
You know?
I mean despite my -
>> You can sort of go between [CROSSTALK]
>> Yes. Yes.
>> And the larger community. The grass roots community.
So that was [UNKNOWN].
Really out-dated.
The challenge is that maybe some people might perceive [INAUDIBLE]
>> Yes.
>> That can be a challenge, you know, hard for some people.
[INAUDIBLE] You know?
And, what is another challenge?
This. >> Mm-hm.
>> Another challenge we're facing now we're I.
Let me tell you. Where we are, we are not big.
That big.
We are not that small. >> Right.
>> And that is a crossover every company or any nonprofit will face.
We have.
We have been able to lucky to be in the media.
How much?
And that put us out. But even now.
But it is still small.
[FOREIGN] >> [FOREIGN]
[CROSSTALK]
>> [FOREIGN] >> You're too small.
But. >> [CROSSTALK]
>> [FOREIGN] We've grown so quickly. >> Yeah, we've grown so.
>> You know four years ago we were nothing,
very tiny and now we have over 124 employees.
And so, I think that was a challenge to manage.
>> And I know that there are people who
are interested in taking the model you have in Kibira.
And trying to scale it in other places, and to use it in other places.
And I guess that is, a danger of
your early success, is that you've grown quickly.
And, and that, people are trying to imitate your model.
Which is a, a good thing.
But I guess, at the same time. You are, you're so grounded in Kibera.
You have local knowledge and local support which might not be
the case if you just started a school in another country.
Is this, is this one of the things you talk about in the organization?
>> Well, we talk a lot about what does scaling look like for us, and sort
of, part of our success is that people can be taught that and it's From, you know,
the bottom up and that the ownership and the commitment to
success comes so deeply from the community in which we work.
And so actually we're at an exciting point.
We're about to go to our second community in Kenya.
>> Uh-huh.
>> So, so we're going to expand in the next few weeks to the Mathare slum,
>> Oh, really?
>> Which is the second-largest slum in Nairobi.
About 82,000 people so [CROSSTALK] the second [INAUDIBLE]
in Kenya.
And how actually that happened is a group
of young people reached out to Kennedy and said.
>> Mm-hm.
>> We've seen what you've done, we heard your story, how do we do that?
And so for about two years we've done support
for them, buildings, [INAUDIBLE] their technical capacity lending them our
staff to do training, but they've been completely self-funding,
what they've done, so they've really demonstrated a deep commitment.
And now at this
point, we're, we've been working together for a while, and working
with our board and other people have decided that We're ready to
build a school for girls, and then we'll connect it to the
sources that are the most valuable in Methare, which might be different
>> Yeah.
>> From what we've done in Kibera.
>> And, and when you're out on the road raising money and raising
awareness of the issues that you're
addressing, what are the most effective things
that you find to get other people to care?
In another words, they don't maybe, people who are not living
in, in Kenya but who might be interested in your work.
I know you might, you are in the
media very successful and, and very, very powerfully.
What do you find works as you build support for, for your programs?
>> [INAUDIBLE] be interested?
>> Well
that's a good question.
What is happening is that the issues that you
have to be, harnessed yourself, in what you believe in.
Don't ever say that you don't believe it, okay?
I think what happens that people see the passion that we have [INAUDIBLE] you know?
And I saw that I have an example, I
have many opportunities in my life I can run things.
But I, I chose, thanks to Wesleyan, now I
can choose what I'm doing. [LAUGH] Before I had no choice.
But [UNKNOWN] is something I love.
And people will see that passion, you know, the [UNKNOWN].
So people are watching and they can see what is really these [UNKNOWN] And the
other thing is that you also have to whether you're happy or not, is to look
for smart people, work with people who are making you better, the smartest
people in [INAUDIBLE] work with Lexi and other people
who are [INAUDIBLE] It is not about one person.
It is not about Jessica.
It is not about [UNKNOWN]. You know, it is about the cause.
I mean, when people, if people can see
that, they can really open their heart for it.
And I always tell people most important, be passionate.
[INAUDIBLE] and we transform other people.
>> I think also like people are interested,
especially in this day and age, on impact and accountability.
>> Yes.
>> And [INAUDIBLE] was different than a lot of organizations.
And we have invested significantly into our, our evaluation infrastructure.
Actually, everyone who uses our services Do you have a moment?
To have use as an ID card.
It has a scannable bar code and so when they first
register they do sort of an initial survey to
see where they're at and then over time any
time you go the library or the clinic you scan it with their bar code and so to
keep the level of transparency and accountability in Rob's
label to To demonstrate impacts in a way that
people can actually see if they're involved and invested,
this is what they've done and this is the results.
So I think that's one part of it
is just really investing in that.
And I think another part of it is just storytelling, I mean, you know.
>> Um-huh.
>> I think people connect to other people, and
making it personal like Kennedy said, and Sharon [UNKNOWN] said.
We both have very different reasons that we're.
Here and we're passionate about this.
And I think other people connect to that too.
If people want to be part of something that's
moving forward and it's gaining momentum and that's actually doing
what it says it's doing. >> So in, in this class it's a six
weeks long and we're learning about. Organizations that fight extreme poverty.
We're learning about organizations that are dealing with climate change.
We've been talking about organizations that deal with global health issues.
And deal with questions of education.
And the lack of education.
Thousands of the students in this class, most of them outside the
United States, we think Are looking for ways to make a positive difference.
You two have been so engaged in doing just that,
I wonder if you have advice for the students who'll
be watching this video of you know of they'll be
from of all ages, from 15 to 85 probably, what should
they, how can they get involved to be part of the movement that's going forward?
>> Does the United States often [INAUDIBLE]?
[LAUGH].
So, in order to [INAUDIBLE] additional number, they will eventually
agree they're missing [INAUDIBLE] because of the power of which.
And unless we [INAUDIBLE] a special [INAUDIBLE] that's
unique and to think [INAUDIBLE] put for [INAUDIBLE].
And it's too easy.
You have to really. You have to really [INAUDIBLE]
in the course. No, you have to identify.
You're [INAUDIBLE].
Would you want to? Yeah.
>> [INAUDIBLE] what is the connection? Connection to
me is Jessica [INAUDIBLE] we're walking together.
[INAUDIBLE] You know what I mean?
So she also has a [INAUDIBLE] you know what I mean?
And everybody must help find a way you know, of why they agree not.
Ask us you know, because I think the globe, the world
is such a big place you have to find a small patch.
>> Yes. >> They, they know that.
You cannot build Rome you know, in one day.
I mean, just know that the little thing that you're doing has an impact.
And most of the time nowadays, the world is confused with the stability.
We may be changing thousands
of people's lives.
But I thoroughly believe that it's one at a time.
>> Okay.
>> If I had that gun on the streets of [INAUDIBLE] who will be the future leader?
Because we have seen a potential. We have seen what she's passing through.
For me that's also big. You know what I mean?
So just don't get [INAUDIBLE] you're not really that big.
Start small.
>> Start small. >> It will grow.
Hm. >> Yeah, I think that.
There's so much buzz about sort of social entrepreneurship but not
enough about social intrepreneurship. [LAUGH]
>> Hm.
>> And I think that there is such a,
an ability to, you don't have to like [INAUDIBLE]
that start an organization We didn't even really plan
on starting an organization, so I think that it
comes from, what Kenny said, what you're passionate about,
what you feel urgently compelled to act on, and
that might be around the world, it might what
we're doing, it might be something in your own backyard.
>> Right.
>> And there are so many
ways to do that.
You know, there's ways to volunteer and there's ways to raise small amounts
of money that go incredibly far and ways to you know, let people know.
Make a presentation in your school about an issue that people might not
be aware, so I think there are so many different ways big and small.
To become a part of something.
>> There's many ways of telling [UNKNOWN].
For example, I remember spending four years at Wesleyan University.
I was taught by professors, you know, who really helped me to be who I am, uyo know?
And they don't [UNKNOWN].
It is you, and me.
So everybody can, change their mind in a different way.
Can improve business, you can be that doctor who cares about their patient.
You can be [INAUDIBLE] who cares about, people [INAUDIBLE].
So that's how I see the mind.
>> Yeah.
>> Mm-hm Well you certainly have made an extraordinarily
positive difference in [UNKNOWN].
And I know, have inspired people around the world, with your work.
And I'm confident will inspire the many people in this class.
To find ways to get involved. To raise awareness, to help raise funds to
make a difference Either in their own backyards, or across the globe.
So Jessica and Kennedy, thank you very much for having this conversation with me.
Say hello to the beautiful girls of the Kibera School, they are so adorable.
We'll make available on the website the video music video so our students can see
some of the things you're doing and again
thank you for being part of this conversation.
[CROSSTALK]
[MUSIC].
[SOUND]
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
I know I can, >> I know I can,
>> Be want to want to be, >> Be want to want to be,
>> If I work hard on it, >> If I work hard on it,
>> I'd be want to want to be. >> I'd be want to want to be.
>> I know I can. >> I know I can,
>> Be want to want to be. >> Be want to want to be.
>> If I work hard on it. >> If I work hard on it.
>> I'd be where I want to be.
[MUSIC]
Kibera School for Girls, listen up! You can be anything in the world.
You only must realize that it ain't no guarantee.
Nothing's in the way of what you want to be.
So, follow your dreams, always shoot for the stars.
No matter which direction you be sure to go far.
This is our first step as we get an education.
This nation
[MUSIC]
[MUSIC]
[INAUDIBLE]
>> We are a school for girls let's look ahead.
We asked them what they want to be and this is what they said.
Jen will be a pilot, Jen on the plane.
[UNKNOWN] is the teacher who will keep you sane.
Making lots of money will be [INAUDIBLE].
[INAUDIBLE] the doctor, she'll be saving the day.
Selma the lawyer, don't get on her bad side.
Vanessa is the dentist so open wide.
You don't have to hide [INAUDIBLE] and the future is
[MUSIC]
[INAUDIBLE] although you don't know what you're going to be or where you'll go.
Let me tell you something from the bottom of my
heart, this is not your whole life, no, just a part.
Kibera School for Girls, this is only the start.
[INAUDIBLE] dream [INAUDIBLE] future, not a wish.
Girls dream together, say it like this. I know I can.
I know I can
[MUSIC]
[FOREIGN]
>> So I'd like to talk a little bit about some
of the ways that social scientists have found that we can change
incentive structures in families and in neighborhoods and even in, in regions.
I, I mentioned a little bit about scholarships and
I'll talk about that in, in a couple of minutes.
But, the, there are ways that you see this in the report, from the poverty action lab
on adolescent girls, you see that there are ways
in which, you can begin to change the expectations
that families have about girls. through, kind of force in some way.
But then once you've done that the changes seem to take root.
I, I'm speaking too abstractly. Too confusingly.
Let me try to be clearer. An example would be.
They are uh,uh, countries, many countries in the world established quotas.
If you have to, if you have elected
officials, a certain percentage of them have to be women.
and, at first these are met with some resistance at many places.
But after the quota exists for a while and women
assume leadership positions and do the work that political leaders do.
The, the quotas are no longer necessary.
In other words the expectation changes that women can be leaders.
Women can get the job done and
actually, you then, you don't need quotas for
for people to elect women into leadership positions.
What that shows is that, you can change habits with new incentives
or new Controls like a quota system or a cash payment system.
But once the performance of the women in education,
in government in business.
Once that hap-, takes root you can remove the control, the, the cash incentives
or the quotas and people's expectations for what women can do have changed.
And women's expectations for what they can do And what they must demand to protect
their ways of life that has changed and no longer needs the intervention of, quotas
or cash incentives.
So I'll talk a little bit about the
poverty action labs work in changing the incen-, incentives
any you're reading is discussed to experiment by Robert
Jensen and, and he was interested in what happens.
When families become aware that women can hold high paying jobs,
once they understand that the girl that they're
taking care of can actually grow up to be somebody whose going to earn
a significant amount of money, it seems
from Jensen's experiment, that they begin to
value girls differently, they We'll invest in their girls because the girls will
not only sustain themselves economically but contribute
to the well being of the families.
When, it, it, Jensen's studies shows that families kept girls in
school longer, and girls seemed to have better, better health and
nutrition because the expectation of the families changed that.
Yes, my daughter is not just going to be a, drag on my family's household
economic situation, but my daughter, is actually, if I give her proper schooling,
if I give her proper healthcare, she will be able to earn significant amount
of money and be able to take care of us later on, so the
incentives changed. And, investment in girls changes.
This is a quote, your reading, from Jasmine Shah.
While deeper social and cultural factors may be
responsible for women's low status, some parents are
not investing in their daughters because they do
not see an economic value in doing so.
And so Jasmine Shah and
Jensen and others in this ah,doing randomized control
trials, they're interested in providing economic value
to girls thereby changing this expectations
that fathers and mothers have a bad girls. That will then become a virtuous circle.
They think of the family as making rational decisions about which
child to care for.
Because which child is going to give me a better return on my investment.
The boy is going to do that traditionally.
But if I can make the girl do that, by
providing the family with cash for sending her to school.
Or showing more and more examples of women earning significant
salaries, then I change the incentive structure in the family.
This really does assume that the families are caring
less for girls, not just because of deep cultural
factors but because of straight forward economic decision making.
The work of many social scientists today is trying to convince
families that taking care of girls is a rational economic decision.
The other text that you've been assigned for this week really takes a very
different approach to this question.
It's not incompatible with changing the incentives approach.
But it really takes a more philosophical approach, that is, and a broader one.
This is the work of Martha Nussbaum that I've asked you
to look at, much influenced by Amartya Sen and, and others.
And she, she points puts herself in an Aristotelian tradition.
Martha Nussbaum sees herself as Operating
in a kind of liberal, aristotelian tradition.
She's interested in identifying cross-culturally, what
human capabilities are, and she lists
ten of them in, in the reading for this week with some sub-divisions.
And how it is a violation
of of human dignity that, that some people and many of them girls
and women some people are not allowed to have their human capacities flourish.
She's not interested so much in changing incentives but in changing the mindset,
the cultural approach we take to thinking
about gender biased to thinking about gender
discrimination as a violation of human dignity the common realities
of women especially in a developed world It, are violations
of basic human dignity, of the ability to flourish.
This, of course, I mean Martha Nussbaum knows this.
It lowers economic growth, it erodes
human capital But she wants to think of this more broadly than that.
And I quote her here.
She says that, all too often, women are not treated as ends in their own right,
persons with a dignity that deserves respect from laws and institutions.
Instead, women are treated as mere instruments of the ends of others.
They're treated as reproducers,
Caregivers, sexual outlets, or agents of a family's general prosperity.
And Nussbaum thinks that we can't treat any person as
simply a means to something else, we should treat them as ends in themselves.
Notice the difference from our pov- poverty action lab folks
and the social scientists who are trying to actually change
the way a person thinks of the girl as a means.
You know, as a, as a as a vehicle for prosperity.
[UNKNOWN] says no, we don't want to treat anybody as just a vehicle for prosperity.
We don't want to treat anybody as a As an investment for ourselves.
We want to treat with them dig, dignity
that deserves respect from law and institutions.
And as,
as individuals who have um,the capacity. For happiness.
For our capacity for pleasure, our capacity
for learning, for interacting with others and other
things she identifies and denying or cutting off
that capacity is a violation of a basic.
Human rights violation
of our own humanity.
And so for Nussbaum he wants us to think
not just about economic development, but about human development.
And she writes in conclusion that women lack essential
support for leading lives Leading lives that are fully human.
This lack of support is frequently caused just
by their being women, and this should offend
our political, moral, religious sense of the world.
We should not want to live in the world where in order to get basic
respect and dignity, you have to be able to make more money for your family.
We want to live in the world no spend, urges,
where we identify capabilities that all human beings share.
And we ensure that people have the
opportunity to exercise their capacities to flourish.
A word she uses in other books.
To flourish in the world.
So we have here one commonality.
That between the social scientist and the philosopher.
That commonality is that women are suffering differentially.
They're suffering much more than men as, and second, that,at, at identifying the
sources of that suffering and fixing
it has widespread reverberations across the globe.
That, that all of our authors this week have in common.
But what Nussbaum wants to do beyond just changing the incentives
is to identify what it means to,
exercise our humanity.
And to energize us to create
social movements, to create educational structures,
social structures, and economic structures through
which we help others around the world.
Exercise their human capabilities.
[BLANK_AUDIO].
