No matter how you measure it, women and girls bear the brunt of poverty. But it's also clear that women are also our greatest hope for ending it. We at CARE have long believed that if you change the life of a girl or woman, you don't just change that individual, you change her family and then her community.

There are plenty of risks when we encourage "investment" or commoditization of natural resources, as power dynamics may mean that poor people (who are often marginalized and have less power) are sidelined by more powerful interests when money is involved.

If you educate a girl, you educate a nation.

Early marriage is most prevalent in communities suffering deep, chronic poverty.

Learn to forgive yourself and move on.

There is no doubt that a woman's economic empowerment is very much interconnected to her health and the well being of her children.

What keeps me motivated is going out to the field and seeing programs that incorporate a focus on both people and the planet, and seeing how mutually reinforcing they can really be.