Financing with Dignity: Aligning Capital and Values for Gender Justice
by Frank McCann, CSJP-A
April 2024
The UN’s 68th annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) took place between March 11 and 21 at the UN headquarters in New York. The goal of CSW is to seek equality for women in all areas including health, governance, the workplace, and in economics.
On the ides of March, I attended Financing with Dignity: Aligning Capital and Values for Gender Justice, a side event presentation made by Mercy International Association. There were four panelists: Sister Marilyn Lacey, RSM, Bryan Pini, Elizabeth Garlow, and Ciara Feehely. Jemima Welsh, the Women’s Leadership Development Associate for Mercy Global Action, moderated the panel discussion with key questions regarding how women benefit from the work Mercy International Association is doing and how the organization approaches this work.
Left to Right: Jemima Welsh, Sister Marilyn Lacey, Elizabeth Garlow, Bryan Pini, and Ciara Feehley.
Sister Marilyn Lacey, RSM, founder of Mercy Beyond Borders, provided direct witness to her work on the ground, which includes training and encouraging women to earn money. Women who become part of the economy can increase the GDP of their communities and nations. They can use their earnings as they see fit, which usually means putting their children in schools. However, one problem that Sister Marilyn confronts is the ongoing tradition of child marriages, sometimes of 12-year old girls being given in marriage to 70 or 80-year old men. It is hard as an outsider for her to change the culture that permits such indignities, but, by running a school for women, Sister Marilyn is able to teach them about their rights. Hence, the women of the community will make the changes themselves.
Next, Bryan Pini, President of Mercy Investment Services, discussed how he oversees projects all over the globe whether run directly by the Sisters of Mercy or by other groups that the sisters invest in.
Panelist Elizabeth Garlow is a Co-founder of the Francesco Collaborative, a movement of mostly young entrepreneurs whose vision of a more just economy is fashioned by Pope Francis who, in 2019, wrote that the current economy needs a soul. Elizabeth was a leader of the Livable Futures course I took in 2022 that introduced me to Pope Francis’ vision for a new economy. She challenges investors to ask themselves the question: “How much of a return on investment is enough?” Elizabeth provided the philosophy and theology behind the types of investments Pope Francis wants to see and which Mercy Investment Services practices. She addressed the need for an economy that serves women.
The final panelist was Ciara Feehely who is Head of Communications and Fundraising at an Irish nonprofit called Vita. Vita tested and sought investments in a uniquely designed project that would supply clean water and efficient cookstoves to women in Ethiopia. The clean water means that women do not have to spend half their day searching for water that would then have to be boiled before it could be used. While the cookstoves create employment for the women, who build them with contributed materials, and enable cooking with much less wood. Together the reduction in wood use and shorter cook times, due to having clean water, earn carbon credits for the community that will provide reimbursement for those who invest in the project.
As a matter of full disclosure, I met Ciara Feehely at the Livable Futures course I took with Elizabeth Garlow. Ciara and I were both participants in a small group during the course and continue to meet in another group. Our Congregation has also made a modest investment in the Vita program for Ethiopia.