If you want to lift up an economy in Africa, you basically start with the women.

That's universal - we all want to bring every good thing to our children. But what's not universal is our ability to provide every good thing.

As a woman finds economic opportunity, even if she's only earning a couple of dollars a day, if she can save it on her phone, she then makes different decisions for her household than her husband might.

If you invest in a girl or a woman, you are investing in everybody else.

Kids are falling through the cracks and nobody notices it. That to me is what's wrong with the school system.

Bill [Gates] and I believe philanthropy can only be effective if it starts things and proves whether they actually work or not. That's the place that governments often don't want to, or can't, work.

When we better understand the realities of these women's lives, we are able to design and deliver solutions that are more useful to them.