The co-founder of Women Thrive Worldwide documents her advocacy work in three impoverished nations, evaluating broad poverty-inducing forces while describing how women she has met have successfully overcome restrictive systems.

"'I see multiple colonial governors,' says Ghanaian software entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse of the international development establishment in Africa. 'We are held captive by the donor community.' The West has positioned itself as the protagonist of development, giving rise to a vast multi-billion dollar poverty industry - the business of doing good has never been better. Yet, the results have been mixed, in some cases even catastrophic, and leaders...