Now imagine if you are a woman, brought up having to obey the family dictum and with a limited circle of interaction. You may be seen as a burden to an impoverished family, yet have to bear the weight of caring for its members.

Imagine now you have summoned the courage to step up before a panel of local officials, all older than you, all male, and perhaps of another class and caste. What will you say?

Majeda Begum Shiru says that in her community of Patiya in the south eastern Chittagong district of Bangladesh, her fellow citizens are not afraid to speak up.

"The women say, 'I am unable to send my child to school. How do you plan to solve that problem?' Because of these kinds of questions being asked, [the officials] must answer to the public directly."

It was not always this way. Shiru herself rarely used to go into government offices. "Even if I did, I felt uncomfortable," she says. A local NGO, Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS), with support from USAID, provided public speaking and leadership training to Shiru and many other women, strengthening their confidence and ability to engage in public.

Today Shiru has become one of the locally-elected officials she used to fear.

Shiru is a leader in the District Public Policy Forum (see her pictured right with her with her fellow forum leaders), where citizens and civil society groups engage with local members of Parliament, departments of education and health, and local government officials to discuss issues of importance to the community. These forums in Bangladesh are supported by a USAID and Asia Foundation project called "Promoting Democratic Institutions and Practices", and in the Patiya District by USAID's local partner BNPS. The process of having regular forums such as these raises awareness of government's responsibilities among citizens, and can lead to reduced corruption or abuse of government funds when Parliamentarians are more connected to the issues the community faces on a day-to-day basis.

"Women can now speak out and voice out their problems directly. The MP [promises] his community that their concerns will be discussed in the house of Parliament," Shiru explains.

Strong women like Majeda Begum Shiru are using the forums to address the high rates of maternal mortality and primary school drop-outs in their area. Recently, during a District Public Policy Forum (DPPF) meeting in Patiya, the group Shiru leads to support the local hospital successfully advocated for adding an additional doctor to the gynecology ward and improvements to the ambulance. In response to calls from Shiru and the community to improve the education system, the local school will soon be providing breakfast and lunch for the students on a trial basis, in an effort to encourage better attendance.

"Whenever there is a school gathering, or any sort of general gathering in the area, there are a large number of women present. We speak out to make these pressing issues known," says Shiru. "It is only after I joined the DPPF that I found out new ways to empower women. I saw that to acquire [government] funds, we had to exert a lot of pressure to get it."

USAID invested in long-term skills development in women in the "Promoting Democratic Institutions and Practices" Project to ensure they can share their concerns and opinions regarding health and education needs for themselves and their families in public meetings well into the future.

At the Patiya District Public Policy Forum in July 2012, the convener Pankaj Chakroborti said, "Citizens, they are aware of their rights and thus can demand for better treatment, so the scenario is slowly changing. The authorities at all levels, in all sectors, are becoming more proactive."

Shiru believes this will continue. "BNPS has opened our eyes about our rights and place in the community, we have learned how to speak up for ourselves," she says. "We will continue to do so long after this project has expired."

In recent years, the US government launched policy reforms that make US foreign aid more accountable to you and local leaders like Majeda Begum Shiru.

Aid works best when it supports local actors to take action and change the circumstances which place or keep them or their fellow citizens in poverty—supporting them to build a dream, build a business, support their family, or help their community.

That's why Oxfam America is working to deepen the US government's commitment to making aid more effective. They can do so by putting more US aid dollars directly in the hands of people like Majeda Begum Shiru.

Read more stories at: www.oxfamamerica.org/aidworks/

Note: Oxfam America doesn't take federal funds, but we do support effective development programs. In 2012, the Aid Effectiveness Team conducted research to highlight effective uses of the 1% of foreign aid the U.S. government spends on poverty reduction and other life-saving assistance. The people featured in this series are not necessarily receiving direct assistance from Oxfam.

Savings groups –15 to 25 people, usually women, who combine their own modest weekly savings into a group fund—are an essential means to bring financial services to the poorest communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, says Sophie Romana, Oxfam’s deputy director in the Community Finance department. “Savings groups promote financial inclusion; they help poor, remote communities with no access to banks to save, borrow, and invest.” Savings groups leverage their own funds, rather than relying on credit from banks and other microfinance institutions, which usually do not serve the poorest of the poor.

There are now more than six million members of saving groups in 60 countries. Oxfam America’s Saving for Change program, started in 2007, helped establish more than 27,000 groups now serving 576,000 members.

The conference will focus on promoting savings groups, and participants will discuss ways to integrate savings groups into more formal financial systems, to help small businesses access larger loans as they grow, and how mobile technology can play a role in this process.

Participants will also discuss another important aspect of savings groups: They are, as Romana puts it, “highly efficient platforms” for business training, public health promotion, and other activities designed to increase well-being and reduce poverty. “Savings group members retain what they learn and always demand more,” Romana says. “We want big organizations to ally with those working with savings groups, so they can train group members in things like family planning, and other subjects that will help women in particular, since most saving group members are women and we can see when countries invest in women, their economies do better.”

Research findings

Oxfam America, Freedom from Hunger, Catholic Relief Services, and the International Rescue Committee are sharing the results of their randomized controlled trials at the conference. Kathleen Odell, an assistant professor of economics at Dominican University will lead the session on research. “The results will show that savings groups are having a positive impact on members and their families,” Romana says.

Other notable speakers and conference advisory committee members include:

• Candace Nelson, editor of Savings Groups at the Frontier and an advisor to the SEEP Network
• Guy Vanmeenen, Catholic Relief Service’s Advisor for Microfinance in Africa
• Jason Wolfe, Senior Household Economic Strengthening Advisor, USAID
• Joanna Ledgerwood, Access to Finance program, Aga Khan Foundation
• Kathleen Stack, Vice President, Freedom from Hunger
• Jeff Ashe, Director of Community Finance, Oxfam America
• Maude Massu, Senior Microfinance Advisor, CARE International
• Michaela Kelly, Head of Program Delivery Unit, Plan International
• Prabhat Labh, Program Manager-Microfinance, MasterCard Foundation
• Salah Goss, Program Officer, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Lauren Hendricks, Executive Director, CARE USA Access Africa initiative
• Nisha Singh, Director of the Financial Services Community of Practice

I didn't understand then what he meant. Now as an adult, I can appreciate what he was looking for. He was looking for stewardship and the relationship between the farmer and the land they tended. Any farmer worth his or her salt would have straight rows, showing their skills and the pride they had in their craft and their livelihoods.

Emiliana Aligaesha also feels that same pride. I knew it when she said,

"My mother told me, 'If one goes to the farm and finds weeds choking the banana trees, then harvests a banana and proceeds with cooking, one should consider herself a thief.' I have always remembered this principle."

Any farmer worth their salt in Tanzania would ensure that their banana trees were well-tended, free from weeds. This was the sign of a good farmer to Emiliana's mother, the same way straight rows were to my father in Nebraska. You do not take from the land, unless you have upheld your responsibility to it.

Emiliana Aligaesha and her fellow community members know this principle well. They are part of a local group of farmers that formed a successful private company selling coffee and beans in the northwest Karagwe district of Tanzania in 2007, known as Kaderes Peasant Development Ltd. The World Food Programme has been a customer and USAID has been helping them to guarantee better prices.

As well as growing coffee, bananas, beans and maize, Aligaesha owns six cows, operates her own irrigation systems, and also supplies quality seedlings to other villagers. But her efforts were recognized before she was named a Female Food Hero runner-up this year. Even though she has had little formal agricultural training, local leaders declare Aligaesha's farm to be an exemplary one – well-kept and with rich produce. In addition to her encouragement of women to be more involved in agriculture, Aligaesha has become a kind of researcher in the village, testing out new agricultural techniques for others to follow.

Aligaesha is a former teacher. Most important to her is that her eight children have all been put through college as a result of her hard work.

In recent years, the US government launched policy reforms that make US foreign aid more accountable to you and local leaders like Emiliana Aligaesha.

Aid works best when it supports local actors to take action and change the circumstances which place or keep them or their fellow citizens in poverty—supporting them to build a dream, build a business, support their family, or help their community.

That's why Oxfam America is working to deepen the US government's commitment to making aid more effective. They can do so by putting more US aid dollars directly in the hands of people like Emiliana Aligaesha.

Read more stories at: www.oxfamamerica.org/aidworks/

Note: Oxfam America doesn't take federal funds, but we do support effective development programs. In 2012, the Aid Effectiveness Team conducted research to highlight effective uses of the 1% of foreign aid the U.S. government spends on poverty reduction and other life-saving assistance. The people featured in this series are not necessarily receiving direct assistance from Oxfam.

American poverty-fighting assistance saves lives and helps millions of people create a sound future for their nations and their neighborhoods.

And all for less than 1% of the federal budget.

- Martha Kwataine is leveraging a tiny investment of US foreign aid to protect the health of people in rural communities across Malawi. Click here to read more or download briefing note. Also see Martha Kwataine on The Hill's Congress Blog: Foreign Aid: A Beltway Outsider Perspective.

- Alexis Nkurunziza is leveraging a tiny investment of US foreign aid to open up budgets in Rwanda. Click here to read more or download briefing note.

- Majeda Begum Shiru is leveraging a tiny investment of US foreign aid to enable women to speak powerfully to improve health and education in Bangladesh. Click here to read more or download briefing note.

- Tanzanian farmer Emiliana Aligaesha is leveraging a tiny investment of US foreign aid to ensure the success of an early-stage, high-potential start-up. Click here to read more or download briefing note.

- Village Chief Kojo Kondua IV is leveraging a tiny investment of US foreign aid to train fishermen and protect jobs and the environment in Abuesi, Ghana. Click here to read more or download briefing note.

- Mayor Manuel Dominguez is leveraging a tiny investment of US foreign aid to budget for a sound future for his community in the Peruvian Amazon. Click here to read more or download briefing note.

...and many more stories to come!

Take action.

Oxfam America is working to deepen the US government's commitment to making poverty-reducing foreign aid more effective. We can't afford to let Congress duck their responsibilities and that's why we need your voice right now.

» » » Click here to tell Congress: Don't cut effective, poverty-reducing foreign aid.

Join us in person.

Interested in hearing these stories in person? Oxfam America is partnering with Dining for Women to spread the word on effective aid. Dining for Women chapters across the country are discussing Martha, Emiliana, and Majeda's stories at their chapter meetings. To join, find a Dining for Women chapter near you. Look out for events in New York, and Texas in May by following the Dining for Women and Oxfam America event calendars. We hope you can join us!

Learn more about making foreign aid more effective.

• Foreign Aid 101: A quick and easy guide
• Smart Development: Oxfam on making aid work
• Ownership in Practice: Foreign aid that strengthens the voice of the poor and the responsiveness of the state
• Fighting corruption with aid dollars
• Cutting aid that fights poverty? You must be quackers!

What others are saying about Oxfam's campaign for effective aid

• A compilation from Twitter
• Impatient Optimists: Interview: Oxfam and Gates Foundation Discuss How We Change the Conversation About Aid
• CS Monitor: Changing the face of aid, literally
• Everyday Ambassador: Flipping the foreign aid narrative
• Going International: We're all in this together
• Osocio: Don't Cut Aid: It's Working!
• Spirit in Action: Investing in Individuals
• whydev.org: The changing landscape of advertising on Aid & Africa: Oxfam's new campaigns

Note: Oxfam America does not take US federal funds, but we do support effective development programs.

Organized by the Alliance for the Defense of Rural Women’s Rights and Oxfam’s GROW campaign, the San Salvador event was an opportunity for women like Henríquez, a mother and small farmer, to present their demands to members of the National Assembly and government officials.

What Henríquez is fighting for is good and healthy food for her and her family, and a sustainable way of producing it.

“If I have food security, I have it all: a variety of healthy food, land, physical health—my children and grandchildren won’t fall sick because they eat healthy— and education,” said Henríquez.  “To me, sovereignty is the guarantee we have to food security [and to] be the owners of our land, our lives.”

Thanks to the training she has received from different institutions, Henríquez now knows how to make organic fertilizer, conserve soil, and work with bees to make honey.

She also benefits from a government program that provides the poorest families with about 100 pounds of fertilizer and two pounds corn seeds. But from Henríquez’ point of view, that doesn’t add up to food security, because when the program ends, the situation will be the same as before. What rural women need, she said, are native seeds which will guarantee sustainability by not only producing crops, but a new round of seeds for planting the following season.

Seed variety isn’t her only worry. Small farmers like Henríquez also face severe challenges from increasingly unpredictable weather.

“This year we lost our crops because of the drought. Last year we lost the whole bean crop because of Tropical Depression 12E,” said Henríquez. That storm dumped five feet of rain in nine days. “I took a loan to invest again, and when this (the drought) happened, I was crying because I didn’t know how to pay back the loan. Thank God the bank came to study my case and canceled my loan.”

Despite the hurdles she and her fellow rural farmers are confronting, Henríquez is confident that all the work they do as part of Alliance for the Defense of Rural Women’s Rights will bear fruit.

“If we go back to using native seeds, we can produce more and more permanently,” she said.” If we have irrigation systems to store water for the dry season, if we have access to information to what is happening in our country—economy, education, health—access to knowledge about soil conservation and how to conserve the environment, than we will have everything we’re all longing for: a dignified live and health.”

Henríquez speaks with the authority of an empowered and independent woman. She is convinced that by speaking out and engaging in the fight for women’s rights, change will come.

“Even if I don’t get to see the changes I’m fighting for, others will, and that gives me great satisfaction,” she said.

Last year thousands voted via mobile phones for the winners of Tanzania's national competition, whose stories were shared with about 25 million people via TV and the media. This year’s winners will also be determined by public voting, and will be announced on World Food Day, October 16.

Below, Oxfam’s Mwanahamisi Salimu profiles one of Tanzania’s 15 Female Food Hero finalists, Sister Martha Waziri. Read about the other finalists on Oxfam’s East Africa blog.

Everywhere I travel in Tanzania I meet women who work the land, but are unable to own or inherit it because of cultural restrictions. In Kondoa district in Dodoma I met a remarkable woman, Sister Martha Waziri, who was determined to change this.

Now 45 years old, Martha began her campaign to reclaim land in 1984. As a young woman she began her calling in the Catholic Church, enrolling in Catholic schools but forced to drop out three times due to ill health. Disheartened and landless, and with no hope of inheriting land from her parents, she saw a possibility to claim a wide sand-ridden seasonal furrow on the border of her village.

The land was completely barren and none of the men wanted it. But not everyone shared 17-year-old Martha’s vision, and when she asked the local authority if she could use it, they laughed at her.

“I became an object of ridicule to other villagers, and when my first attempt to reclaim land failed it was a bonus to them,” she recalls.

Eventually, though, she managed to claim 18 acres of that land. As both a farmer and a pastoralist, she now cultivates 9.5 acres of this land, growing sugarcane, maize, sweet potatoes, cassava, bananas, and a variety of beans. She also rears eight goats and 26 chickens.

She has reaped the economic benefits of her initiative, but has also become a beacon of change in the village. More than 300 villagers, organized into five groups, have now emulated her.

Donasian Kassian, a fellow villager, told me: “When we joined Sister Martha in reclaiming sand-ridden furrows, people dubbed us mad. But 28 years ago this place was a huge useless canal. Today we eat sugarcanes, maize and beans from this land.”

Following her religious calling, Sister Martha has supported 12 orphans and vulnerable youth over the years. Her farms have secured food for her extended family and generated a reliable income to build 10 rooms that the orphans can call home, and from where they can pursue their dreams.

Sister Martha’s success has not been without challenges. She says her first experience of climatic changes was when her fishpond dried up as water levels in the area decreased. She says the land has become increasingly dry, affecting her banana farm most of all.

Sister Martha is not an agro-science expert. She doesn’t use high-tech machines. But this extraordinary woman from an ordinary rural community has made a substantial contribution to conserve her environment and made a remarkable difference in the lives of her fellow villagers. I cannot acknowledge her in any better way than to call her a Female Food Hero.

On the edge of the Taffoga cooperative, in a clearing among the huge mango trees that populate the community, we are welcomed by about 30 women, who describe the horticultural work they are able to carry out with the support of Oxfam, through its local partner ATAD.  In the vegetable plot they have planted cabbages, aubergines, gombo (a local vegetable), onions, and garlic. These will enable the women to improve the variety of their diet and they will be able to sell any surplus.

Ramata Zore stops for a few minutes to talk to us while her colleagues water and weed the plot.  She is 25 and has 4 children to look after. And at the moment she is on her own, as her husband has gone to the Ivory Coast to look for work.

“The vegetable plot is a help to me, because what I get from it goes somewhere towards feeding my family,” she says. “If I sell some of the vegetables, I can buy millet, which is the staple part of our diet. Also, in these difficult times, we make a recipe based on millet with a few cabbage leaves, which the children love.”

But gardeners here face a daily struggle: Water.

“There isn’t enough water and the wells are drying up,” says Zore.  “We’ve had to organize ourselves into two groups: one group does the watering one day and the other does it the following day. In fact…after a few hours of watering, the well is dry and we have to wait a while before we can fill up the buckets again”.

After we have been talking to her for a few minutes, we notice that the coming and going of the women up and down the rows is starting to slow. The four wells on the perimeter of the garden have dried up and the women are congregating around them with their buckets and watering cans, waiting for the water levels to rise again.

“I live in Taffogo and in spite of our having large fields for growing crops, we’ve only harvested four sacks of millet this year, compared with the 20 we can get in a normal year,” says Zore. “But it’s a long time since we had a normal year.  Last year, the floods destroyed much of the harvest. We go from one catastrophe to another, either because of too much water or too little.”

“Before, when rain wasn’t in short supply, we had 15 small sheep and cattle,” Zore says. “But we’ve had to sell them all and have now only got one small goat left. As I’ve got nothing else, I’ll have to sell her to buy seeds for next season.”

How to feed her children is always on Zore’s mind.

“Often they tell me they’re hungry and all I can offer them is comfort,” she says. “If there’s something to eat, I give it to them, and if not, I ask the neighbors.”

“My dreams?” Zore asks, surprised at my question about her wishes for the future. “To have enough food to feed my family and a house built of bricks, instead of a shack like the one I live in now. I’d also like to keep up the vegetable plot for five years.  Then, if I manage to find something else to do which will enable me to supplement my income, I’ll be able to start a small business. I want to carry on with the vegetable plot and earn money to help my children.”

Oxfam is aiming to help 1.2 million people across seven countries with programs that include cash transfers and cash-for-work initiatives, veterinary care for the livestock on which many families depend, and access to clean water and sanitation. We are also campaigning to change the root causes of this crisis. Find out how you can support our efforts.

Many of these plants have been cultivated by Kichwa people for generations, but are in danger of disappearing as growers turn to cash crops like coffee or cacao instead. This shift to a single crop can leave farmers more vulnerable unpredictable rainfall caused by climate change, and more dependent on purchasing food from outside rather than growing it themselves—putting them at risk of hunger.

“Food prices are increasing. Sometimes we don’t have money for bread,” said Luz Sinarahua, who leads the group of women growers in Chirikyacu. “That’s why we’re glad to have the beans, yucca, and plantains from the garden.”

See a photo slideshow of the women and their gardens

Oxfam program officer Lorena Del Carpio said the ancestral Kichwa methods of harvesting and planting year-round can help people adapt to changes in the climate. “Indigenous people have important knowledge about how to work with the environment,” said Del Carpio. “[Their traditional way of] growing diverse crops helps ensure food for their families.”

The idea for the gardens came from listening to Kichwa women, who first raised concerns about the loss of their crops in an AIDESEP workshop designed to build women’s leadership and advocacy skills. These efforts are part of a larger Oxfam program that helps indigenous people in South America protect their cultural, political, and territorial rights.

In the future, “we want to make sure we have enough for food, [but] our main goal is to sell crops so we can increase our incomes,” said Sinarahua of the women’s plans. AIDESEP aims to organize a sellers’ fair where growers from these remote towns can exchange seeds and connect with potential buyers. And, eventually, they hope to expand the project to other communities.

To learn more about the traditional gardens and the women who grow them, see the article in OXFAMExchange magazine.

In Boston women are innovators in building a better food system that provides healthy and sustainable choices.  Celebrate women’s achievements here and worldwide in changing the way we grow, eat, and share food so that everyone has enough to eat, always at a panel and dinner event this Saturday, March 10 at 6 PM at Northeastern University. Panelists include Anna Oloshuro Kalaita, Masaai farmer from Tanzania; Ashley Stanley, Founder, Lovin’ Spoonfuls Inc., Boston; Molly Anderson, College of the Atlantic, Partridge Chair in Food & Sustainable Agriculture Systems; Melanie Hardy, Farm Manager, Land’s Sake Farm, Weston; Keely Curliss, Youth Intern, The Food Project, Boston.  The panel will be moderated by Jennifer Hashley, Director, New Entry Sustainable Farming Project, Tufts University.  To RSVP contact hdasilva@oxfamamerica.org.

“Hunger and poverty affect women and men alike, but because women make up the majority of those living below the poverty line, they carry the heaviest burdens,” said Nancy Delaney, community engagement manager at Oxfam America. “While most of us think of hunger as lack of food, it is actually lack of power. We grow enough food to feed everyone, yet hundreds of millions of women continue to go hungry.”

Women produce a majority of the food in many developing countries, but they are often first to go hungry. Around the world 925 million people do not have enough food to eat, and women and young children are especially vulnerable.

In many poor countries, women are the ones who collect food, water and fuel, maintain the home and look after the children. When food is scarce, women often eat less so other family members can have enough. Most of these rural women rely on farming to earn a living. But although women produce most of the world’s food, they often lack access to vital resources, like a steady source of water or a market where they can sell their crops for a fair price. Climate change poses an added threat, with erratic rainfall and droughts that disrupt the growing season and risk further hunger. Meanwhile, women have fewer opportunities to learn new skills, access credit or find well paying jobs. Sixty six percent of the world’s nearly 800 million illiterate adults are women.

“Human rights are not contingent on gender, ethnicity or money in the bank,” said Delaney. “Human rights are fundamental and non-negotiable. In a world where there is still plenty of food, no one should go hungry no matter who she is and where she lives.”

Oxfam's work—whether helping Guatemalan women organize to fight gender violence, funding irrigation projects in Ethiopia, or standing with people in Darfur—is about building the resilience of local communities over the long haul. We cannot prevent shocks, but we can help our sisters and brothers access some of the same resources we have to cushion us when times are lean.

We cannot rush from crisis to crisis with short-term fixes. What more evidence do we need than what is happening in East Africa now? This is not the region's first famine, but imagine the headline: Africa's last famine.