World Bank program to aid women entrepreneurs
Ivanka Trump helped start new global initiative
Following a push from first daughter Ivanka Trump, the World Bank unveiled a new program Saturday that is designed to boost women entrepreneurs in developing countries and to fight the norms that hold them back, such as uneven access to loans and shaky property rights.
The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative, as the bank calls it, announced it had raised $325 million from numerous countries, with $50 million coming from the United States and other contributions from Germany, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, China, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and the Netherlands. The World Bank hopes the program can raise an excess of $1 billion.
At an event Saturday morning at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, numerous world leaders praised the initiative, with several singling out Trump for helping the program get up and running.
Trump will have no authority over the initiative’s investments or operations.
The program — which will support loans, mentorship programs and gender equality advocacy — is funded by individuals, companies and foreign governments. The first countries to make a public commitment were Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which pledged a combined $100 million after President Trump and his eldest daughter visited Saudi Arabia in May.
Less than a third of global businesses are owned by women, and the initiative aims to grow women-run enterprises across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
It will also help facilitate loans to entrepreneurs, ranging in size from between a few hundred dollars to several hundred thousand dollars, depending on the applicant’s needs. World Bank officials said they hope to make the capital available later this year or in early 2018. The Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative will be the first World Bank-led effort to change public policy in countries where men tend to have far more legal and social power.