Rethinking the US Development Policy-A Smart Investment: $1 Billion for Promoting Women’s and Girls’ Economic Empowerment

The US has a unique opportunity to lead in improving economic opportunities for women and girls by establishing a global vision and a corresponding fund with significant financial resources to spur change, implemented through bilateral, multilateral, and innovative financial channels, and involving both government and private sector actors. Therefore, the next US administration should allocate at least $1 billion in additional resources—equal to a little over two percent of current US overseas assistance—exclusively dedicated to advancing gender equality in developing countries, with a specific focus on improving women’s and girls’ economic opportunities and outcomes.

The fund should spearhead initiatives in the following main streams that directly address gender-based constraints to women’s economic empowerment and respond to best practices as follows:
• Narrowing global gender gaps in STEM and other non-traditionally female sectors
• Increasing women’s access to capital
• Improving economic opportunities in post-conflict and fragile states
• Incentives to development actors to narrow additional gender gaps
• Laws and regulatory frameworks
• Data and evidence