In the past decade, India has stepped into its new role as a rising economic monolith, providing a counterbalance to China and recasting a new global landscape. Yet underlying its spectacular growth is a current of discontentment. India’s growth has been expansive, but it hasn’t been equitable or inclusive. India must now turn to its greatest untapped resource — women — if it wants to become a global superpower.

Women in India represent nearly 10% of the entire world population, yet discrimination against them is widespread. As India’s GDP has grown steadily around 6%, female labor force participation has from nearly 37% in 2005 to 27% in 2013. During this period, approximately 20 million women of the workforce, equivalent the entire population of Sri Lanka.

At the same time, violence against women and girls in India has drastically increased. finds that today India is the world’s most dangerous country for women, well ahead of Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan and other conflict-afflicted countries. Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum’s gender Gap Report India 108 out of 149 countries in 2018, identifying it as one of the worst countries on gender parity based on factors including health and survival, education and economic opportunity.

India has taken some steps to support women’s economic empowerment under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but it hasn’t done nearly enough. In 2017, India co-hosted the first with the US government in Hyderabad to showcase its support for women in business. More than 1,5000 participants from 150 countries attended the event. Yet behind the façade of diplomatic handshakes and carefully crafted remarks about the value of female entrepreneurship, it was clear that India would only commit at a surface level, and it soon returned to the status quo.

To enhance the economic status of women and girls in India, the country’s next prime minister should focus on educational access that includes technical and vocational training. Reforms should target the country’s often-neglected rural areas, where 70% of the population lives. India must simultaneously address challenges around its urban-rural divide. The country’s rapid urbanization has created more jobs, but not enough women have been able to access urban areas due to the lack of safe transport and public safety in the country.

Finally, India must also mobilize emerging technology to invest in women’s financial inclusion. In particular, blockchain technology and the country’s new biometric ID system, Aadhar, may help to provide women with access to credit. Digital IDs also have endless social benefits. On the most basic level, they help women to gain access to land rights and take out loans, which are critical for women opening small businesses.

Yet their reach extends even further: Elderly women will be able to have pensions credited to their accounts, girls will be able receive scholarships to cover their education, and federal government benefits will be sent digitally so that women and girls do not have to travel to unsafe areas to collect money. With the help of these new technologies, financial inclusion of women in India has already in the past three years as have begun to open and operate their own bank accounts for the very first time.

For India to maintain its position as a global leader, more concerted efforts at local and federal levels will be necessary to bring women to parity with men. India’s current situation is a waste of human capital, a liability to its reputation, and will ultimately inhibit the country’s ability to continue inclusive and sustainable development in the next two decades.

The predicts that if reforms were made to engage half of India’s women in the workforce, the country would boost growth by 1.5 percentage points, to 9% per year, catapulting it well above China’s growth rates at the highest point. In the long run, women’s economic empowerment will also help to reduce poverty across the board, as studies show that women tend to more heavily in children and their communities than men.

An attitudinal shift is essential for women to be considered as equals within their homes, careers and in broader society, but even more so political will is needed at the highest levels of Indian politics where leaders have the capacity to establish a new standard for gender equity. In our present era, serving as a global power requires leadership at every level. India can no longer afford to neglect its women.

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, 48.3% of the population in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is female. Yet despite their prominent place in society—and the fact that women and children are —the counterterrorism community has done little to assess their roles in preventing, promoting and participating in violent extremism in the region. As the Islamic State (IS) digs in to defend its last Iraqi stronghold in and launches a counterattack in , it is clear that a more comprehensive strategy is needed now more than ever.

From Marrakech to Tunis and beyond, the most current research on countering violent extremism (CVE) in the Middle East and North Africa demonstrates the nuanced roles women play in civil society, not just as victims but also as perpetrators of conflict and dynamic agents of community resilience.

Historically, women have (VEO) by providing structural support and serving as educators, fundraisers, recruiters and members of frontline security forces. “While conventional militaries have hesitated in bringing women on board, terrorists across the ideological spectrum have used women for a wide range of tasks, ranging from logistics and recruitment to a frontline role, say as a suicide bomber,” says former in a report for the Institute for Inclusive Security.

These roles are often heavily involved, and women have increasingly begun serving in combat roles as IS has grown in tactical and geographical scope—a major shift from strategies used by other terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, which is more likely to use women solely for operational support.

Building Community Resilience

Yet women also act as dynamic purveyors of change across the MENA region, including helping to detect early warning signs of radicalization and building social cohesion and resilience networks as entrepreneurs, advocates, law enforcement officers and community leaders.

The 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit highlighted the US administration’s emphasis on building community resilience by .��The World Bank followed suit, launching a new Women for Resilience Initiative to provide business support services to female entrepreneurs in the region as a means of bolstering resilience value chains.

A great body of research affirms the value of this work, demonstrating a definite positive correlation between women’s empowerment and a reduction in acts of violent extremism. For example, a conducted in Morocco and Bangladesh confirms that when women are given access to education and are empowered economically, socially and legally, violent extremism is less likely to spread. The study reports that��“in microlending, for every $1US a woman earns, she reinvests 90 percent back into her family … and has 2.2 children who are healthier and better educated.”

These positive outcomes, when coupled with targeted CVE interventions—including training moderate female imams on promoting religious moderation and tolerance—have created effective counternarratives to radical ideologies at a grassroots level.

Gatekeepers

Women in the MENA region are also uniquely positioned as community gatekeepers and civil society leaders. CVE expert :��“Not only do��—formally or informally—strengthen its fabric, women themselves are among the most powerful voices of prevention in their homes, schools, and communities. Women as mothers, caretakers, partners, teachers, and faith leaders—can, uniquely, help build the social cohesion, sense of belonging, and self-esteem that youth might need to resist the appeal of a violent group. Community engagement in CVE requires the participation of women to be successful.”

A report from also affirms their critical role CVE efforts, noting: “[W]omen are often uniquely positioned within their families and communities to provide essential information to those working to counter extremism. In many cases, CVE practitioners engage with only certain community gatekeepers and neglect the input of women and women’s civil society groups who may also have access or intelligence. Anecdotal evidence also shows that family ties are a strong predictor of extremism, and that women are central to understanding how to leverage the role of the family in promoting positive change.”

While more empirical data is needed on the impact of programs to engage women in deradicalization efforts in MENA specifically, the US State Department is currently in North Africa to help women’s civil society groups speak out against violent ideologies.

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Several counter-messaging programs also exist in South Asia and elsewhere that might be tailored to provide culturally relevant solutions to extremism in the region.

First, Sisters Against Violent Extremism (SAVE)—the world’s first female counterterrorism platform—established , a family-centered security platform to sensitize mothers to recognize early signs of radicalization in their children. These�� now work to strengthen local resilience in communities that are most vulnerable to violent extremist ideologies, including Kashmir, Tajikistan and Nigeria, and offer a unique model of community-led prevention interventions that could be highly successful in the MENA region.

Similarly, has worked very successfully with mothers and at-risk youth to offer counter-messaging to extremist ideology in Pakistan’s conflict-ridden Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). By working holistically with various stakeholders, including clergy and elected officials, the organization has effectively educated entire communities on the impact of radicalization and the roles that individuals can play as peacebuilders.

Policy Toolbox

As international policymakers seek to develop gender-based approaches and frameworks into their CVE policies, the most obvious instrument available is to address CVE within the broader women, peace and security (WPS) framework espoused by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and the six subsequent resolutions on WPS that have followed it. The groundbreaking resolution laid the foundation for addressing women’s role in the security sector, bringing into focus the ways in which women can serve as leaders and partners in conflict prevention and resolution.

More recent legislation—namely ,��which “focuses on the emerging threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters and calls for the need to empower women as a prevention response to the spread of violent extremism”—are also highly underutilized resources in CVE policy toolbox.

The policy community should also take advantage of a recent shift in focus from conventional, security-focused counterrorism measures to counter violent extremism to approaches to prevent violent extremism, which place additional emphasis on the importance of community resilience and civil society engagement as the solution to counter groups like IS.

In a recent Brookings report, that “CVE has acted as the soft side of counterterrorism and has evolved greatly in recent years. International governments and practitioners are crucially recognizing that a preventive approach is critical to addressing the roots of radicalization and to more effectively counter recruitment into violent extremist networks. Despite women being active members in a range of terrorist organizations for many years, it is only more recently that CVE has begun to include a more comprehensive recognition of the gender dynamics at play within the processes of radicalization.”

Although US policymakers have been notoriously divided on this shift to , preventing violent extremism (PVE) was the focus of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s on violent extremism that was released in December 2015 and will likely remain at the forefront of the international community’s work to address violent extremist ideologies going forward.

Ultimately, it is well past time to transition beyond a military-focused CVE approach into an inclusive security model to defeat extremist ideologies and the groups that espouse it. At the same time, it is essential that we not overly securitize women’s roles, but rather see CVE within a broader conceptual lens of gender and security.

As a report from Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace, and Security :��“[E]ffective CVE strategies must be coordinated, multi-sectoral approaches that include high-level diplomacy and leverage military action with governance, development, and human rights programming that include the promotion of gender equality.”

CVE policy in the Middle East and North Africa can no longer avoid the role of women. The risk is far too great.

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In June, President Barack Obama joined over 1,200 promising entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from 78 countries at Stanford University for the annual (GES) to discuss how entrepreneurship can build resilience to extremism.

Now in its��seventh year, the summit works to support the development of new��public-private partnerships and��innovation ecosystems. At a time in which the media’s eye has been heavily focused on the rise of the Islamic State (IS) and other radical groups, its fresh-faced focus on market growth and innovative technology as a means to combat extremism is a welcome approach.

In his remarks at the summit, highlighted the tie between economic opportunity and peace building. “There is an intimate connection between the creation of economic opportunity and the potential of political stability or peace … between economic policy and foreign policy, which I have long argued are two sides of the same coin,” he said.

This level of public-private cooperation isn’t exactly new. In fact, the US government has been quietly partnering with young people and tech moguls for years to curtail extremist messaging on social media. Most recently, for example, the State Department teamed up with Facebook to support the to challenge university students to develop and execute their own campaigns and social media strategies against extremism.

What is new—and will take these efforts to a new level—is an expanded focus on engaging women and marginalized groups in this mission. If economic growth truly is a catalyst to community resilience, it will need to be more inclusive.

Promoting Resilience

In a nod to the US administration’s efforts toward (CVE), the World Bank launched a new Women for Resilience Initiative at the summit to provide business support services to women entrepreneurs from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) who contribute to resilience value chains in their respective countries.

A multifaceted problem such as violent extremism requires a multifaceted solution.

And entrepreneurship—when supported by both men and women—provides a strong positive counter-narrative to the nihilistic ideologies espoused by terrorist groups. Although women suffer disproportionately from violent extremism and conflict around the globe, it is critical to reframe their role not just as victims, but also as powerful actors who can help to build strength and community resilience across every sector of society, including in the business sector where their participation has often been faced with significant barriers.

Noting the unique potential of women entrepreneurs to transform their communities, others have also joined in. Most notably, US Department of State, the��Multilateral��Investment Fund and Kiva—the world’s largest crowdfunding platform for loans—joined forces to launch a new Women’s Entrepreneurship Fund.

Although the joint initiative was technically announced in late February, it comes directly out of meetings during last year’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Kenya. It��aims to help loans to support one million women entrepreneurs over the next five years and focuses on “women entrepreneurs in the growth phases, offering loans greater than the average microfinance loan.” To date, an estimated $500,000 has been pledged, and the State Department will invest in data collection and analysis going forward to monitor the fund’s success to inform future public-private collaborations.

The scope of the fund—which will reach women in 83 countries—and its capacity to bring together actors in the public and private sectors, represents a major win for impact investing. On average, start companies with 50% less capital than male entrepreneurs, and access to capital remains a critical barrier to the establishment of women-owned small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in many countries.��In fact, , as many as 70% of women-owned SMEs in developing economies are underserved by financial institutions, contributing to a global credit gap of $260 to $320 billion for women alone.

Challenges Ahead

Empowering women to build resilience networks in conflict-prone states and addressing global credit gap for women, particularly in rural areas, are important steps, but many challenges remain.

As we now prepare for next year’s Global Economic Summit in India—the first time the conference will be hosted in Asia—much work must be done to maintain this momentum to reduce financial access barriers for women as we work to build more resilient communities through economic growth.

��India itself is a perfect case study of the issue. Although India boasts that it is the world’s fastest growing economy, it has noticeably struggled to pursue an agenda of inclusive economic growth. Among BRIC countries, a recent indicates that��“India’s performance in female workforce participation stood at 27 per cent, significantly behind China (64 percent), Brazil (59 percent), Russian Federation (57 percent), and South Africa (45 percent).”

Alarmingly, these numbers have actually decreased over time. Women’s participation in the workforce fell from 31% in 2004 to 24% in 2011 despite the fact that India’s economy grew 7% during the same time period, and the International Labor Organization (ILO) ranked India 11^th from the bottom in the world in female labor force participation in 2013.

To address this issue, the Indian government launched , a program that will provide educational training and facilitate seed funding for start-ups with a focus on empowering women and disadvantaged communities. However, it will need to prioritize female labor force participation across the board if the country seeks to maintain its status as a burgeoning economy.

Can entrepreneurs and start-ups save the world, empower women and dampen the rise of extremism violence while making a profit? Only time will tell.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51�Թ�’s editorial policy.

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Few scholars have envisioned a day in which African security and economic prosperity were no longer dependent on a constant flow of blue helmets and aid packages. While exceptionally belated, the day has finally arrived in which African private investment has finally surpassed aid exchanges. Today, it is impossible to ignore the continent’s newly radiant economic complexion, and more astoundingly so when one considers the obstacles that hindered the African economy from solidifying its hold on the international marketplace in the first place: a global recession, donor budget cuts, and the adverse affects of climate change to name a few.

Just ten years ago, I had the pleasure of assisting the planning team for the 2012 US-Africa Business Conference, the United States State Department’s highest-level event with sub-Saharan Africa. An extension of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the forum hosted six hundred participants, including top US and African government officials, private sector leaders, and civil society representatives, and strived to expand physical infrastructure to make Africa “ready for trade.” At the time, investors clearly recognized that the continent was on the precipice of change, but it was also painstakingly clear that Africa had a long way to go. Ghana, one of the continent’s key economic powerhouses, was investing in its green energy portfolio, particularly its solar capabilities. Meanwhile, Zambian officials sought investors to finance their endeavor to turn the Lusaka airport into a dynamic regional hub with the ultimate aim of maximizing regional integration. The resolve for change was tangible.

Over the course of the subsequent decade, Africa did what nobody thought was possible. While the rest of the global economy cowered during the recession, Africa remained the only developing region that demonstrated a dramatic increase in economic growth, trade, and foreign direct investment. What is perhaps even more impressive is the fact that it maintained a steady growth trajectory even after its major donors experienced serious budget cuts, at which point it was steadily forced to expand grassroots business networks to replace the neo-colonial aid structures on which it had once been dependent.

Now home to the world’s fastest growing economies, Africa boasts the global economy’s highest foreign investment rates. Its path to success, however, is incredibly unique when compared to growth periods of other developing regions such as Latin America or Asia. Essentially, the continent has leapfrogged past periods of industry development that most budding industrial economies impatiently withstood, instead free riding off of pre-existing technologies and adapting them for its own unique needs.

Take its telecom technologies, such as its mobile agriculture apps and mobile banking programs. Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile banking program, an exemplary model of Africa’s expanding communications infrastructure, now hosts millions of cell phones. The mobile banking trend also thrives in Somalia, once considered a failed state, as it has begun to realize the liquidity of its highly developed banking and finance systems. Mobile apps are now employed for everything from conflict mapping to the regulation of local agricultural production. Likewise, communications infrastructure financiers have invested in powerful undersea fiber-optic cables from Durban to Accra, which have brought Internet capabilities to even the most rural communities. By providing a sense of autonomy to previously unconnected youth, the proliferation of new technology systems has electrified a new generation of entrepreneurs by endowing them with the tools necessary to interact within the globalized realm.

The rise of a new class of motivated young elites and female entrepreneurs is another extraordinary African phenomenon. Small businesses have exploded and markets have gained liquidity, contributing to the doubling of discretionary income and consumer spending and a remarkable entrepreneurial boom. Most importantly, rapid urbanization and the rise of the middle class in countries such as Ethiopia have produced a new generation of problem-solvers with a stake in their own nations. While unemployment still plagues Africa’s urban capitals, entrepreneurship has been a driving force of economic growth and is a direct response to many problems of the past, from capital formation to social inclusion. The fact that the world’s largest population of youth has begun to mobilize out of city slums and into improvised office buildings is, if anything, a major win itself. To that end, regional institutions, led by the East African Community (EAC) and African Union, have extended the vibrancy of African markets by fortifying cross-border trade relations between grassroots businesses on the continent. Efforts to increase economy of scale and reduce trade and transportation costs have yielded dramatic results.

Yet while the growth of its physical and human infrastructure has been exceptional, the most praiseworthy deliverable of Africa’s economic boom is its growing commodities and agriculture markets, providing its largest export revenue. Though it has always had potential in Africa, the agriculture industry did not thrive until governments were pressured by necessity — global food insecurity — and until improved political stability and democratization contributed to business-friendly regulatory infrastructures. Agricultural growth has radically transformed the African economic model as exports to “food-insecure” nations have increased returns to the land and have created a sustainable solution to unemployment. Progress regarding regulatory infrastructure has also helped African commodities markets. Infamously known for its “resource curse” following the legacy of King Leopold II’s imperialist stronghold in the Congo and the 1990’s “blood diamond” scare in Sierra Leone, Africa now sees the most export growth via its commodity markets. The increased transparency in these markets is truly cause for celebration. Following the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s Dodd-Frank legislation in 2010, multinationals on the U.S. stock markets are finally starting to be regulated. Major private sector players, led by Apple and Intel, have henceforth cleaned supply chains of conflict minerals found in common technologies, such as coltan and tungsten. Additionally, the Kimberly Process, a mechanism in place to monitor the world supply of rough diamonds, has improved its enforcement structures and supports development initiatives to decrease governments’ reliance on minerals for national income. Together, these steps have improved Africa’s largest industry, giving the international community fresh hope that the industry might increasingly promote human rights rather than perpetuate intractable internal conflicts.

Of course, the African economy still faces obstacles in the coming years. Neopatrimonial marketplaces and competitions for rent still threaten the internal political dynamics of the continent’s resource-rich economies, such as Nigeria and the DRC, while China and the West continue to scavenge its remaining resources. Terrorist finance is still prominent in Western Africa, where Al Qaeda and its affiliates have taken strongholds over the Malian economy, and drug trafficking remains a primary artery of trade within international clandestine markets. Most importantly, future African governments will be forced to protect the growth made within their new economies as climate change begins to take its toll on the global South, whether by seeking additional funding or by simply adapting to the stress of agriculture-debilitating weather patterns.

Nevertheless, there is no denying that the vision of the continent we see today is practically unrecognizable when compared to the struggling continent that was once the focus of international aid missions. After decades of struggle, Africa has finally begun to find sustainable and local solutions to its own problems. Indeed, it is finally Africa’s turn.

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