USAID Administrator Mark Green and Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump have announced an additional $5O million for the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, known as the W-GDP.
Established in February 2019, the W-GDP is the first whole of government effort by the United States to advance global women’s economic empowerment. Its goal is to reach 50 million women in the developing world by 2025 through U.S. government activities, private-public partnerships, and a new innovative fund, managed by USAID. The addition of $50 million brings the total investment in the initiative to $100
million for its first year. Going forward, the Administration has also requested an additional $100 million for the fund in the most recent President’s Budget for the fiscal year 2020.
On November 18, Special Advisor Trump and Administrator Green announced and launched eight new partnerships and activities totaling nearly $11 million that support the three pillars of W-GDP: women prospering in the workplace; women succeeding as entrepreneurs; and women enabled in the economy.
The announcement included a $2 million investment in three winners of the second round of W-GDP WomenConnect Challenge grants. This money will be used to deploy digital innovations to help close the digital divide among women and support the three W-GDP pillars.
Also announced was a more than $1.5 million collaboration with the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, the Visa Foundation, and USAID to implement the Advancing Women’s Empowerment Fund, a catalyst fund in South and Southeast Asia that will help close the financing gap for women-led businesses. The W-GDP Fund invested just over $600,000 while the Visa Foundation contributed $1 million to the collaboration.
A $1 million dollar joint program was also announced between USAID and the Peace Corps to promote women’s digital and financial literacy. USAID will help create materials, resources, and programming to help Peace Corps volunteers provide training to women in digital and financial literacy skills.
And finally, an $800,000 implementing partnership was announced with international advisory and management firm Palladium, that will expand USAID’s Partnering to Accelerate Entrepreneurship initiative, or PACE, in Colombia. The partnership will facilitate a new type of financial product that catalyzes private sector investment in early-stage, women-led businesses.
The goal of each of these partnerships and programs is to unlock women’s entrepreneurial spirit and create environments for women to thrive. As Advisor Trump wrote in an op-ed when the W-GDP first launched, “By investing in women, we are investing in a future in which countries can support themselves by unleashing the potential of their own people.”
Anncr: That was an editorial reflecting the views of the United States Government.
