• Economic empowerment: $ 650 million for an expansion of the Foundation’s activities by strengthening the care economy, developing the financial inclusion of women and reducing barriers to entry into paid work.
• Family planning and health: $ 1.4 billion to reaffirm and expand the Foundation’s commitment to family planning and women’s health, with a focus on 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.
• Female leadership development: 100 million dollars in 5 years, which will then become 230 million in 10 years. This represents a new funding commitment to accelerate the inclusion of women in leadership roles, mainly in the fields of health, law and economics. The chapter includes a contribution to a new Co-Impact fund that aims to dismantle systemic barriers to gender equality and leadership for women and girls around the world.
“Gender equality must be at the heart of the world‘s efforts to make progress towards sustainable market development,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Gates Foundation, adding: “Prioritizing gender equality isn’t just the right thing to do, but it is essential to fight poverty and preventable disease. The Forum on Generational Equality is an opportunity to hold leaders accountable so that we can ensure that all people, everywhere, have the opportunity to live a healthy and productive life. “
A worsening situation
The Gates Foundation has also released new data showing how inequality has grown in pandemic times at an alarming rate, driven by disruptions in health services for women, job losses in sectors where women are overrepresented and a strong increased needs for care and unpaid care work. “The ripple effects of the pandemic have had a combined effect in robbing women and girls of opportunity,” said French Gates.