Ivanka Trump Unveils Massive Investment For Administration’s Women Empowerment Initiative

On Tuesday, White House Adviser Ivanka Trump and other top officials from the Trump administration unveiled a $122 million investment in new partnerships for the Trump administration’s Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative.

“With the initiative, the United States is trying to ‘advance women’s economic empowerment, with a goal of reaching 50 million women by 2025’ through U.S. government programs and partnerships with businesses, according to the State Department,” Fox News reported. “Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, Microsoft president Brad Smith and Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga are also expected to participate, according to the White House official.”

“I am proud to share that in the first two years, the W-GDP Fund invested $200 million across more than 60 countries around the world and catalyzed more than $400 million through more than 450 partnerships with the private sector and nongovernmental and local organizations, as well as government – country governments,” Trump said at a news conference. “Additionally, today we are releasing interagency W-GDP legal reform Action Plans responding to the President’s directive to address the legal and cultural barriers to women’s full and free economic participation throughout the world.”

“This is the type of bold action to expand the efforts of the federal government, the private sector, and other partners that restrict women’s ability to participate in their local economies that has been the American model for success,” Trump added. “W-GDP will reach 50 million women across the world by 2025 through three key W-GDP pillars: enhancing workforce development; expanding entrepreneurship; and critically, ensuring economic equality for women under the law.”

In announcing the $122 million in new partnerships and programs, Trump said that the fund had already invested $34 million in “16 new activities across 43 countries.”

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PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT PROVIDED VIA THE STATE DEPARTMENT:

IVANKA TRUMP: Thank you so much, Deputy Secretary Biegun, for that incredibly gracious introduction and for your steadfast support of women’s economic empowerment at the State Department and around the world.

I’d also like to thank National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick, and Ambassador Kelley Currie for joining us at today’s event. The success of W-GDP and our new announcements today would not be possible without your strong leadership and dedication. We thank you.

I’d like to further recognize our private sector partners who are joining us today remotely. These include Walmart, Mastercard, WEConnect, and the Reliance Foundation. Public-private partnerships are a key component of W-GDP’s success as they ensure long-term sustainability and scalability of our programs.

A combination of impactful programs, a whole-of-government effort, and strong partners is having a major impact.

I am proud to share that in the first two years, the W-GDP Fund invested $200 million across more than 60 countries around the world and catalyzed more than $400 million through more than 450 partnerships with the private sector and nongovernmental and local organizations, as well as government – country governments.

Additionally, today we are releasing interagency W-GDP legal reform Action Plans responding to the President’s directive to address the legal and cultural barriers to women’s full and free economic participation throughout the world.

This is the type of bold action to expand the efforts of the federal government, the private sector, and other partners that restrict women’s ability to participate in their local economies that has been the American model for success.

W-GDP will reach 50 million women across the world by 2025 through three key W-GDP pillars: enhancing workforce development; expanding entrepreneurship; and critically, ensuring economic equality for women under the law.

The U.S. has prioritized this work through W-GDP, the first ever all-of-government approach to helping millions of women achieve their full economic potential. This critical work is now more important than ever as the world seeks to recover and rebuild from the pandemic, which has adversely affected women.

Since launching W-GDP less than a year ago, more than 12 million women have benefitted.

Today, I am pleased that W-GDP Fund is announcing 122 million in new partnerships and programs with unbelievable reach and potential for impact.

This year, the W-GDP Incentive Fund has already invested 34 million in 16 new activities across 43 countries. One of our Incentive Fund partners is here with us digitally today. Thank you to Walmart and CEO Doug McMillon for your dedication to facilitating market access for women-owned businesses in Guatemala.

Building on commitments towards Pillar 1, we are now launching Round Three of the WomenConnect Challenge, a $4 million challenge to support private-led efforts to bridge the gender digital divide. We are excited to partner with Reliance Foundation and founder Nita Ambani on this newest round of WomenConnect Challenge funds in India.

We are also announcing a new $5 million partnership with Microsoft Airband that will work to extend high-speed broadband internet connectivity in developing economies to millions of women over the next three years. Thank you to President Brad Smith of Microsoft for your partnership.

To continue our investment in entrepreneurship, we are pleased to launch the $23 million W-GDP Invest in Women Portfolio, which will work to promote systematic reforms in financial systems and encourage private-sector investment in women through innovative blended finance approaches.

We will also continue to work regionally, partnering for example with Mastercard in Colombia to improve access to markets and networks by equipping early-stage women fintech entrepreneurs with the direction needed to connect to Mastercard’s wider network.

We’ll also be partnering with Mastercard to empower women-owned, small-scale retailers in India to become part of the digital economy. Thank you to my friend, CEO Ajay, one of W-GDP’s earliest advocates for the partnership.

To further build on these investments, we are expanding our partnership with WEConnect International in developing a multilingual and multifunctional Artificial Intelligence Platform to connect women-owned businesses with markets and investors.

We have always viewed W-GDP’s Pillar 3 legal reforms as foundational and are committed to evolving and expanding our efforts on this front.

Programmatically, and building on W-GDP’s legal Action Plans, we are investing $7 million in the W-GDP Women’s Land Rights program to strengthen women’s land rights in Malawi, Mozambique, Ghana, Zambia, and India.

Finally, we are continuing to advance women’s economic empowerment worldwide.

Pillar 3 efforts through the launch of the W-GDP’s Grand Challenge: Women Enabled in the Economy is a multi-year effort that will grow in its goal of bringing together the most innovative ideas and partners in women’s economic empowerment.

The activities we’ve announced today offer just a glimpse of the life-changing and society-shaping work that W-GDP is doing around the world.

The Trump administration is proud to have developed the W-GDP Initiative and we applaud all of our partners who continue to prioritize women’s economic empowerment and implement W-GDP.