A Conversation with Trevor Noah and Melinda French Gates

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so I'm going to tell you I feel very far away from you so I'm going to scoot myself a little closer this is very much US versus them and we're all together trying to solve very big problems apparently you needed to be surrounded by two women this is how I've lived my life so my mom and grandmother would be proud thank you you should be very very comfortable with us right I am I am actually and what a topic to cover so when I was asked by a MasterCard to join in this conversation I was particularly thrilled because what you are all trying to achieve is the dream of so many millions of people worldwide my personal story I will share with you that my grandmother was married off in Colombia at 13 years old by the time she was 26 years old she had eight [Music] how's that the Crux of the story guys no so by the time my grandmother was this is here we go by the time my grandmother was 26 years old her husband who was 12 years her senior said that it was too much responsibility and left her with an eighth grade education to care for eight children she is of afro-latino descent in Colombia so it's the barriers that she faced were insurmountable but she deeply believed in education so she worked hard to ensure that every single child of hers had at least a high school education for folks who understand the socioeconomic disparities of Colombia that's not easy my grandma my mother who had a high school education came to this country with a very clear focus of what I needed to do and that was to graduate from high school from college and get a higher degree now that sounds nice but it was hard because as an immigrant child navigating systems with the expectation of going to college but not knowing how I needed to better understand that it was my mother's dreams my job and thank goodness for government Partnerships because I am the recipient and the product of Pell Grants now my story is not unique to the American Latino experience what most folks don't realize is that the person that is our custodians the ones that are mowing our Lawns they are entrepreneurs and their products are their children their investment and as we get into this conversation about the power of Education not only transforming their personal lives in the lives of their Community but the impact that that transformation has on whole economic and democracy Democratic systems and there's no better person to share this stage with than with individuals who recognize that education centered around women change the world so with that I'm so excited to be here with both of you for the work that you're both doing to ensure that we're achieving this so Melinda I want to start with thinking so Melinda I want to start with you very simply because in reading your journey you talked very much about the importance of how language matters how when you started it was very much about women's empowerment but you transformed it and says no women's power what does that mean okay I will talk to that but I'm going to say one thing too also just to give a little background my parents my dad was um an engineer there were four children in the family two girls I'm the second of two girls and then two boys and my parents were absolutely determined that all four of us would go to college and we could look around and see that my dad's engineering salary was not going to put four of us through college in the United States because they saw that as the opportunity they saw what had done for my dad who was first generation to go to college and so I they started a small real estate business with about 14 rental properties and I was the one who mowed the Lawns and who easy off the ovens because that income was what put me through college so today when I sit on a stage like this and talk about women and how do we ensure they have their full power you know we've talked so long as a development Community about empowering women but if we just talk about empowering women we're we're not looking at all the societal barriers that hold them back and what we really need to talk about is how do women have their full power which means having decision-making Authority having seats at the table setting policy having control of their finances having control of course of their bodies um but when we have to make sure that what we do in society elevates women into their full positions of power or we will never create the society that I think we all dream of of creating and I think that's absolutely right and it's one of the reasons why education is so integral to making sure that folks get out of poverty so Trevor can you talk a little bit about what your vision is you started in South Africa but the Trevor Noah Foundation is actually growing exponentially talk a little bit about it please well on my side I would often be asked um the how you know people would say to me how did you get here how are you in the U.S how do you travel around the world how how and while there were a myriad of reasons that probably were the reasons that I got to where I got to there was there was one kernel of truth that always came back to and it was education it was education that had bled throughout my entire family it was education that had affected every single generation of who I became you know I I think of the the meager education that my grandmother and my grandfather got and how that education and how they valued it became what they instilled in my mom and then I look at my mom who grew up in in apartheid South Africa in a country where black people were restricted from learning and then a woman was even told that she needs to learn even less because her role in society doesn't require that and here she was she insisted on teaching herself and learning in spaces but again I think of you know the fact that she only learned what she learned because she encountered missionaries in the trans guy who were teaching despite what the apartheid government was saying and then I look at how she then installed that within me you know my mom never wanted to buy me nice clothes never we couldn't afford any of these things but the money that she did have she would spend on books the money that she did have she would spend on school she would find a way you know she'd get me scholarships or whatever it would be to get me to learn and I think the thing that I I realized throughout my life was it's the foundation of everything you know I I've been lucky enough to meet some of the most powerful some of the richest people in the world and you know what's really fascinating is you'll talk to somebody who has you know hundreds of millions of dollars or billions of dollars whatever it is and what's interesting is you'll say to them what if you you lost it all today what what would happen and they and they look at you and they'll say well the difference is now I know how to make it and that's what's always interesting to me is that the true power comes in the education that they have in that space knowing how to Source funding knowing how to grow their money knowing how to sustain a business all of these things that's education and so when I realized that I I realized that I wanted to be part of creating not just a conversation but an incubator that would try and create an environment where we could try and you know have young people in South Africa who could become that that first step where we would say to them we're going to help you we're going to help you get in touch with the business we're going to help you get in touch with a major company we're going to help you get in touch with your career path long before you would have gotten access to it and we're going to get you in touch with the basics as well you may not have a door in your classroom you may not have a classroom to begin with let's begin with the basics and then let's get you to that place where you have an education that is far larger than just what is a perennial river and what is a cumulative numbers Cloud just really educating you about the world that you're going to need to exist within and that's that's what we we do at the Trevino Foundation about that is that I remember when I was growing up my mother always said the only thing someone cannot take away from you it's what you learn yeah and one of the things that we're learning coming out of the pandemic are the massive inequities and fault lines that the pandemic showed us we are right now on the eve of the world Banks one of those topics is inclusivity and making sure that women are part of that equation Melinda what we saw during the pandemic though was the vast inequities among women but also the great opportunities that we can because the rest of the world faced it equally and reset so what opportunities do you see today that could be a catalyst for change because there's an understanding globally of the need for women's participation yeah I think one of the things that's important to realize about the pandemic is what it did was just expose these gaps that were already in society and so who was hit the hardest the people that were were the gaps in the cracks were and so when I look out and think about okay so what's the opportunity I mean you know as Trevor said education is is it's been foundational my parents wanted all four of us to be college going they were determined I honestly have not met a parent in any country and I talk I try to be on the ground and talk to lots of people when I travel a parent who doesn't want their child educated because if you educate your child they see the opportunity what I feel like we're missing at some of these conversations today is the world is in a tough Place food prices for people all over the world the war in the Ukraine all these compounding crises and the economic scarring from covid but we're talking luckily about climate because that's really important but we're not talking about this amazing opportunity women are economic engines of growth and so when they have their own digital bank account on their mobile phone which is it's all over the world you can't go anywhere and not see it but when you look at certain countries that survived better through covet and whose economies actually survive better take India in the last 10 years women have grown from having 28 of women having a mobile digital bank account to 78 percent and so if we do certain things to really look at this opportunity we have with women make sure they have a great education make sure they can plan and space the births of their children and then making sure they have networks to get into a great job and a mobile money and part of the banking system to save money you will absolutely accelerate their growth and guess what they're going to accelerate your economy well and I think around that is how do we actually transform systems that ensure that accessibility and so what I found really interesting in learning more about your foundation is how you focus very much not just on students but ensuring that teachers are well equipped right and by what I mean by that is that I think that many of us who have kids that are school-aged we learned that during the pandemic teachers weren't just teaching but they were a source for social well-being for balance talk a little bit how you are centering teachers as well so that they are equipped to talk not just about one plus one but also about under recognizing perhaps the underlying issues that a child may have at home so a lot of how I see the world has been shaped by the way my mom sees it and how she educated me and one of my favorite things that she instilled in me is a yearning to see the causations and the correlations in society I think we often take those for granted we will talk about Learners children let's educate them let's get them educated let's do the education but oftentimes we then neglect the teachers who are the Educators who are these people who are teaching who teaches the teachers you take that for granted do the teachers have the resources they need you take this for granted and and and in many ways I think of it like a like a leaking buckets you know sometimes we we focus so much on pouring water into these buckets that we don't think about the buckets themselves are they holding the water that we pour into them and and in the foundation we think of all of these things so we go one fantastic teacher has the ability to shape thousands of lives and yet oftentimes people don't think of that they don't think of the investment in that teacher being the investment in a thousand young people's lives those become the pillars those become the caissons that you build this entire foundation on and and so we look at that we train teachers we Empower them we give them tools we give them access to education we give them access to mental health facilities sometimes because that's what they need and you see the net result you see the the students experiencing a different environment that then helps them grow and you see the teachers enjoying it you want teachers to stay in the profession you want them to grow in the profession I hate the idea of teaching being like a charity profession why not be able to teach and ball out of control you're doing the best for the world you know and so I want to be part of a world where we say that is a cool job to have because it's a necessary job to have and and I try and think of this for everything in the world you know it's funny you're saying about the dots and I always talk to you about this like the dots around the world sometimes we we make the mistake and I understand it's it's reflective it's reflexive as humans we're very good at looking at them now and we make the mistake of then reacting to the now and then not thinking about the next now what will the next now be ahead of time so the pandemic the warning signs were there and then we we didn't listen to them the same goes for what's happening now in the world you know you look at what's happening in Ukraine and how the world is supporting Ukraine everything they're doing it's Valiant and it's wonderful but then I often say to the world why not have that same impetus and that same power and energy when you're helping developing nations because though it's not an immediate War it's not an immediate crisis it is a tidal wave that will affect the entire planet you know if if you have a continent like Africa that is the youngest and fastest growing content on the planet everyone gets excited by that oh economic growth this is fantastic this is wonderful yeah but if the people can't access it you're going to have an entire continent of young people who have no access to an economy no access to growth no access to money no access to a future and then what happened time and time again what happens they slip into some sort of extremism and then people will say well let's get money to fight the extremism let's send the Jets let's send the missiles yeah but why not spend the money now on a missile of compassion that gets the people out of that you know what I'm saying can I build on this because I think you're completely right like I've traveled to many African countries over the years but like when I go to Kenya and I see the dynamism and you meet these young entrepreneurs and they are getting their businesses and then they need to get capitalized like so often we don't look at okay how do we then capitalize our businesses but when you see the dynamism that's there I mean the mobile banking all really started in Kenya I mean now you see it all over the world but it was there early and look how far they've taken it now and then look how other countries have built on that so there is this unbelievable amount of talent that is just waiting to have the right teacher the right Mentor the right capitalization of their build of their business and I think back too like on my education somebody asked me this morning like who is the most influential person in your life so many people answer their teacher I had a female teacher who brought computers into our school I would never have studied computer science without that I never would have gone to Microsoft and so I think of all this amazing talent that I see in all these countries and I think why aren't we tapping into that and funding that and so as we come to these big meetings at the World Bank and the IMF we need to be thinking about not just the immediate crisis but absolutely let's make that an engine of investment and growth for the world and I think something Trevor that you're talking about too and what you're saying is the importance of access to Capital and thinking big not leaving anybody behind but you conversely alluded to something else in a world right now we where oftentimes as the President of the United States says that we are living right now in a struggle between democracy and autography democracy is oftentimes thrives in stable countries in middle-income countries and in educated countries the reason I dedicated my work to voter Latino is that just like in Africa the median age is 19 years old in the Latino Community here in America as the second largest group of Americans it's 30 years old it's three years younger than India but this get this in the Latino Community while the most common age in the United States of whites is 58 and African-Americans is 32. it's 11 years old and so when we're talking about the importance of galvanizing people and making sure that they are educated and actively participating it's important to recognize that it's not just the economic well-being of a global system but it's also the Democratic well-being of a global system talk a little bit about that so personally I don't believe that there is any type of democracy if people are not financially included if people are not able to participate in the world that they live in if people are excluded from growing and building what they do then then it there is no democracy to celebrate I think people take this for granted people often say oh why is why is uh you know why these autocracies growing around the world or why are these dictatorships growing around the world there's a direct correlation between how people are living and what they are experiencing and what they're trying to do a populist will take advantage of a situation where people are what starving undereducated and frustrated so if you want to solve the problem don't tell people to vote differently make them live in a world that makes them want to vote differently people are responding to something that is happening to them you know and so it's often easy for people to preach down and say oh how could they vote this way how could they do because people are voting for Rapid change people are voting for radical change unfortunately the people who promise it often don't deliver it but then those who come from a lofty position and say ah we will be patient and we they often don't see that they're thinking top down as opposed to bottom-up and so in all these conversations you'll often hear people say oh you know with women and that's why I love when you say like the power of women I think we also take for granted how much it alleviates the pressure on men I think that's one of the biggest parts of the conversation that we take for granted we make it seem like it's this wonderful do-good thing that we will do for women but time and time again you see you give a woman the power she deserves you give her the equity you give her the inclusion the household changes the society changes the pressure that men feel changes and when that pressure changes you then just start to see a society that stabilizes itself and this it's just it's a little more peaceful it's a little more calm it's a it's just it's a more pleasurable place to be and I think sometimes we think to ourselves oh yeah no let's do that it's not doing it for the ladies no no it's not that you want a balanced household sort of is which gives you I don't know but I'm saying you're not doing it four it's not the four you know you you're going we're doing it for us and and I think once we think of it through that lens you know anyone can tell you if they grew up in a household where Mom and Dad earned an income that was a very different household if you grew up in a society where women had access to money I'll tell you now from Africa that's one thing we've learned time and time again give your grandmother the money see how long that money lost in the house give your aunt the money see how long that money lost in the house a dollar goes a lot further when it's in a woman's hands and it's not because men don't have the ability to hold that dollar but it's because for so long women have borne the brunt of not having the dollar and so I think they think about that very differently and so I think if we create that Equity that you know I love your foundation working on we just create a space where as men we get to go like okay we get to breathe a little bit more and the economy that we're always chasing it will grow it's a byproduct of a world that is well run let me just one thing I want to just add to this is I'm speaking with a woman in the last couple of years in a low-income country and she had finally gotten some economic means in her hands and had control of it and she literally said my son sees me differently because I bought him a bicycle my husband sees me different differently because I can buy fuel for his motorcycle everybody in my community knows my name now and that's why I think we have to talk about money and women having their own financial means in their hands because then she has her power and then it does change and the world just gets better just for all the reasons you said it absolutely does and I know that I have one more question that I really want to ask you Melinda because it's very much on this idea of conversing of being able when you vote you actually vote and change one of the things that we learned that is one of the reasons why women are not being integrated into the workforce fast enough is it the lack of child care and one of the the inflation reduction Act of the President Biden included to make sure that women's Child Care was covered here in the United States you recently announced what the World Bank that that is also a very important part for women internationally the vice president was just recently in Africa and announced that that investment and for if I understand right what you're saying is that that investment of having women who have child care it will basically produce globally a gross domestic product of three trillion dollars you have the last word what does that mean to you that means to me we have to look at this dual burden that women have we expect women to care for the children some of its Loving Care work they want to do some of it is laborious tasks but without a place to safely put their children they cannot go into the labor force I hear it from women in Kenya I heard it from scientists in Senegal I just met with I hear it in the United States we have the worst the worst paid family medical leave policy in this country and so why are women coming out of the workforce why is women's labor force participation down to in two-thirds of the country around the world after pandemic women's labor force participation is down the number one reason is they don't have a quality safe place to put their child we've got to fix that both of you let's go to our audience [Applause]

Channel: Mastercard News

Views: 424,032

Keywords: Trevor Noah, Melinda Gates, Global Inclusive Growth Summit, Mastercard, Gates Foundation, Maria Teresa Kumar, Financial Inclusion, womens empowerment, inclusive growth, Diversity Equity Inclusion, DEI

Id: kPuCpUVPR4E

Length: 23min 52sec (1432 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 19 2023