Here’s my latest blog on the Huffington Post website, from my visit to Mozambique and Ethiopia with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. 

Today I met a future doctor, accountant and engineer. They were all 13 year old girls. The aspirations of these Ethiopian girls is heartening. The engineer says she wants to train to help “build up her country”. I wouldn’t bet against her doing just that. And the UK Department for International Development (DFID) is working with Ethiopia to make sure she is joined by many others.

The deputy prime minister and I are in Kokebe Tsebeh school in Addis Ababa this morning to launch the first Girls Education Challenge Fund projects in Ethiopia, following a launch in Mozambique yesterday. These projects together will help educate 89,000 girls in remote areas, targeting whatever holds them back – using radio to emphasise the benefits of girls’ education to the community, giving grants for uniforms to the poorest students and bicycles to the most remote, and making schools feel safer. But this is just the start, with the Challenge Fund due to benefit one million girls in total around the world.

Lynne Featherstone and Nick Clegg meet school children at the launch of the Girls Education Challenge Fund in Mozambique. Picture: Crown Copyright 

Girls education just makes sense. With education, girls are likely to have children later and are less likely to experience HIV or AIDS. Its not just the health benefits for the girl – benefits often accrue to any children she may have too. And each year of education can add around 10-20% to her salary later in life.

We went on to meet Bethlehem Tilahun at her SoleRebels shoe factory. She’s showing just what women can achieve here, building up a business from scratch to now employ 120 people making fantastic shoes (Nick Clegg was given a rather stylish bright yellow pair, with recycled tyre soles). And she did it with little help.

How can we make more Bethlehems? Ethiopia and its partners, including DFID, are working on just that. Maybe access to finance or business training is the answer. Maybe extending education to those without, particularly girls, will help. Either way, Ethiopia and its girls are on the move. Sometimes in bright yellow shoes.

Here’s my latest blog on the huffington post website. I am currently in Mozambique with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. 

There is money in the air in Mozambique. The deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and I have just watched Nilza and Herculano transfer 100 meticais (about two pounds) via mobile phone. They may both be standing in front of us for this demonstration, but in a country where less than 12% of adults have a bank account, the benefits of these mobile money systems can be large.

The Department for International Development (DFID) supported the launch of M-Pesa mobile money transfer when it was first launched in Kenya in 2007, and we went to check it out ahead of its launch in Mozambique. Mobile money means more small, safe, cashless transactions can happen – urban workers can send money back to rural homes; small shops and stalls can trade more and grow their business.

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and international development minister Lynne Featherstone in Mozambique. Picture: Crown Copyright

It is these small and medium-sized businesses that are critical for inclusive growth and job creation in Mozambique. And in the north of the country, in the Beira corridor, DFID is supporting such companies in the agricultural sector, helping them grow and link into supply chains, providing access to funding that might not otherwise have been available through our partner AgDevCo. We met several of the businesses today, and had the privilege of talking to their managers. Their enthusiasm, their commitment, was palpable (and their products weren’t half bad either, I can recommend the Chibuku, a non-alcoholic soya banana and maize drink).

What links these two things, mobile money and support to small agricultural business, is inclusion, in this case financial. 80% of Mozambicans are excluded from the financial sector (be it bank account or loan).

And inclusion matters here. You may have seen Mozambique feature in the news, as large natural resource finds have grabbed headlines. It’s still a very poor country, but these finds have the potential to transform all that within a generation. Yet poised as it is for massive growth, the challenge Mozambique faces is making sure all are included in that growth, that all can benefit. And Nick and I are proud to have seen today the UK already working with our Mozambican partners to tackle this.

Today is the International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation. Here’s the text from my Huffington Post blog on this issue: 

Why in this present day does female genital mutilation or cutting (FGC) continue? For far too long it has been an issue that people have tended to shy away from, and in my view, neglected.

But we can no longer shy away. What FGC actually entails is difficult for most of us in the UK to imagine. But to dispel the taboo, we need to talk about the details.

FGC is a cultural practice involving the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia. In its most extreme form the external genitalia are cut out and the girl’s vagina sewn up, to be cut open on her wedding night and for each birth. It’s commonly done by a village elder or family member – often without anaesthetic or surgical equipment.

The effect can be devastating, causing severe, life-long physical problems and sometimes even death. Yet, according to the World Health Organisation, more than 100 million women – including in the UK – have undergone the practice and an estimated three million girls are at risk each year in Africa alone.

So there’s no question that it’s a sensitive matter but that’s no reason to ignore it, especially when we know what a devastating impact cutting has on women’s and girls’ physical and mental health, wellbeing and future opportunities.

Today is International Day of Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Cutting and it is an opportunity to highlight what is still a relatively little-known practice.

I believe that with the right support it will be possible to see the elimination of FGC within a generation. Across Africa there is increasing momentum to end FGC. In December, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution banning the practice. This resolution was led by the Africa Group and should encourage us all to support efforts to end FGC. The time is right to act and Senegal is leading the way. In January, 427 Senegalese communities came together for the first ever regional declaration of abandonment not just of FGC but also forced marriage.

The UK is committed to playing its part in supporting these African efforts to end FGC. We are developing a major new regional programme to support efforts to end the practice in many countries across West and East Africa and beyond. In addition in Sudan, which has one of the highest rates of FGC in the world, we are working on a long term programme to support national efforts to end the practice.

But the scale and the nature of FGC is such that UK government action alone will not be enough. As the Government’s International Champion on Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Overseas I want to see FGC recognised internationally as part of the mainstream development agenda and for other countries and donors to be supporting the elimination of this practice.

This is something I will be pushing for in March when I attend the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN in New York. This year’s meeting is specifically tackling the issues of violence against women and girls and will be vital in raising the profile of one of the world’s most pervasive yet hidden forms of gender-based violence.

Join an online discussion with me today at 12.45pm (UK time) on ending FGC in a generation. The live Google+ Hangout event is taking place with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),UNICEF, as well as representatives from Senegal, Egypt and Kenya. Send us your questions by leaving comments below, tweeting @DFID_UK using #endFGM or posting questions to the Google+ page.

Today was definitely a day to remember! Equal Marriage came to the Commons for 2nd Reading and passed with a majority of 400 to 175 – a huge leap forward on the journey to full equality. Equal Marriage will become a reality.

A real hurrah for the happiness that this will bring to those who have been discriminated against and prevented from expressing their love for each other in the way that everyone else can.

As the originator of this change to legislate for full equal marriage I have fought for its safe passage throughout. On this journey I have been helped by many, many people who believe in equality and fairness – and I want to thank them profoundly for their support. There are too many to mention – but here are just a few.

So – thank you to the superb team of civil servants who worked tirelessly to ensure that a very challenging and difficult proposal was executed to the highest of standards including handling the biggest response to any consultation in history.

Of course – above all – a massive thank you to the Liberal Democrats who have always been staunch campaigners and believers in equality and have the stand out record on LGBT rights. Special thanks obviously to Nick Clegg who when I first ‘phoned him to say I was going to embark on this endeavour said I had his full support and who has been there every step of the way. Also thanks to Ed Fordham, Brian Paddick, Adrian Trett, Stephen Gilbert, Stephen Williams, Caron Lindsay and many others in the LibDems for continually pushing and pushing to get the messages out there. And congratulations to Stephen G and Stephen W for great speeches in the chamber today.

Less obviously in terms of public perception as having a major role in this – but a big thank you to Theresa May. She was my Secretary of State and without her support – genuine support – this would not have got out of the stables. David Cameron, very helpfully and also genuinely – at the Conservative Conference made it a key commitment himself – and he has been steadfast throughout – despite the angst of some of his backbenchers. Thanks to my colleague during my time at the Home Office, Nick Herbert, who went out to bat for this whenever necessary?

Thanks too to Labour’s Angela Eagle, Chris Bryant and Ed Miliband for making sure that cross party support helped see this through. And thanks to Labour for taking so many of those earlier steps up to and including Civil Partnerships.

Then there are the LGBT groups who have at every trial and tribulation – and there have been many – kept pushing forward and kept responding with reason to the appalling things that have been said during the passage of equal marriage. It was whilst listening to these campaigning groups as Equalities Minister when I was working on Civil Partnerships in Religious Premises that I realised that only equal marriage would answer the call for equality. And I am very glad that the legislation is permissive and will allow those religions who wish to perform marriages to do so.

Huge thanks also go to the LGBT media and LGBT people who work in the media – who have worked tirelessly to raise the profile of the campaign. And special mention for the Out4Marriage campaign – a fantastic effort.

Huge thanks also go to those brave individuals from religious groups who put their heads above the parapet and have stood up for equality against some of the most depressing and terrible things that have been said. I respect and have respected all the way through the opinions and views of those who do not support this change. I can understand that for some people it seems strange and for some it is against their religious beliefs – but nothing really excuses some of the awful things that have been said and written in this regard.

And thanks too to all the countless individuals who have had to endure the sort of attacks and foul comments on websites and who with endless patience have responded and tried to explain what equality actually means. And to all those others who simply believe in equality.

So heartfelt thanks to all who sped this very important Bill on its way. Apologies to anyone I have omitted. No doubt there will be amendments and many arguments as the Bill wends its way through its legislative journey – but change will come.

Good wishes to the team who will now take this through – Maria Miller, Hugh Robertson, Helen Grant and Jo Swinson.

And one very happy LibDem going to have a glass of wine to celebrate a great day in politics.