Gates Foundation Commits 2.1b Dollars in Support of Gender Equality

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on June 30th announced a commitment of 2.1 billion dollars to advance gender equality across the globe over the next five years.

The commitment is part of the Generation Equality Forum convened by UN Women and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and France and is aimed at enhancing women’s economic empowerment, strengthening women and girls’ health and family planning, and accelerating women’s leadership.

The forum, which commenced on June 30 to July 2, 2021, brings together governments, the private sector, and civil society partners to commit to specific actions and announce financial, political, and programmatic commitments that will accelerate gender equality and advance women’s rights.

This is the second biggest event since the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 when 47,000 participants and activists traveled to Beijing to take ambitious action to advocate for a transformational impact for women and girls.

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“The world has been fighting for gender equality for decades, but progress has been slow. Now is the chance to reignite a movement and deliver real change,” said Melinda French Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation.

“The beauty of our fight for gender equality is that every human being will gain from it. We must seize this moment to build a better, more equal future,” she added.  

The forum takes place at a critical inflection point. While we have seen progress over the past quarter century, nowhere on Earth are women on equal footing with men. Waves of opposition to women’s rights have emerged, and structural barriers to gender equality and women’s health still exist.

The foundation’s 2.1 billion-dollar commitment will advance activity in three areas: economic empowerment, health and family planning, and accelerating women in leadership.

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Funding includes:

• Economic Empowerment: 650 million dollars over five years: An expansion of the foundation’s existing work on women’s economic empowerment, this funding will support women’s empowerment collectives, strengthen the care economy, improve women’s financial inclusion, and reduce barriers to paid work.
• Family Planning and Health: 1.4 billion dollars over five years: This reaffirms and expands the foundation’s commitment to family planning and women’s health, with a focus on increasing options and access to contraceptives and support for a network of family planning partners, including UNFPA Supplies Partnership, Family Planning 2030, the Global Financing Facility, and the new Shaping Equitable Market Access for Reproductive Health initiative.
• Accelerating Women in Leadership: 100 million dollars over five years / 230 million dollars over 10 years: This is an all-new funding commitment to accelerate women’s inclusion in leadership roles, primarily in health, law, and economics. It includes a contribution to a new fund by Co-Impact that aims to dismantle systemic barriers to gender equality and women and girls’ leadership around the world.

“Gender equality must be at the center of the world’s efforts to make progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. Prioritizing gender equality is not only the right thing to do, it is essential to fighting poverty and preventable disease. The Generation Equality Forum is an opportunity to hold leaders accountable so that we can ensure that all people, everywhere, have the opportunity to live healthy, productive lives,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation.