Ha Joon Chang is a renowned economist from South Korea. In his book, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism, he writes that the invention of the washing machine transformed more lives than the internet. I know he is writing about women in the West and not here in Liberia where wooden washboards are still very common, and many, many people still wash clothes by beating them on a rock.

I often think about that analogy whenever I have to deal with modern institutions, our development partners and other friendly folks. “How many farmers do you work with?” And by the time I start trying to answer that one, comes the next: “...and how many of your farmers are women?”

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