Promoting gender equity and equality is a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy in Africa and around the world. Advancing the status of women and girls is not only a matter of human rights, justice, and fairness—it is also a strategic imperative that reduces poverty and promotes sustainable economic growth, increases access to education, improves health outcomes, advances political stability, and fosters democracy.
At the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, Vice President Kamala Harris announced new commitments to advance women’s economic participation in Africa, including the African Women’s Trade and Investment Project and the revitalization of the African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program.
These programs build upon a range of Administration initiatives to foster women’s economic, political, and social inclusion on the continent—many which advance the Administration’s priority to drive gender equality and equity investments and gender-aligned infrastructure development through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment.
Women’s Economic Participation
Advancing Women’s Entrepreneurship and Equality: The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced $358 million of new investments, including projects under DFC’s 2X Women’s Initiative, which has catalyzed billions of dollars of projects owned by women, led by women, or empowering women.
Investments include support for innovative entrepreneurship approaches, including an equity investment up to $15 million equity in the Norrsken22 Africa Fund, a women-led fund investing in high-impact technology companies across Africa, which will support entrepreneurship and technological advancements in finance, medicine, and education; a $20 million loan to One Acre Fund, which will provide financing for agricultural inputs, aiming to increase farm yields in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a strong focus on female farmers; and a $25 million investment in the Uhuru Growth Fund I-A, which will provide needed growth capital to small- and medium-sized enterprises in West Africa, including women-led businesses.
At the U.S.-Africa Business Forum, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) announced a Regional Transport Compact with the governments of Niger and Benin that includes $7.5 million for entrepreneurship and training programs for women and youth, to mitigate HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, trafficking in persons risks, and road enhancements to support poor and vulnerable women who sell their goods along the transport corridors. Earlier this year, MCC also signed a new Health and Horticulture Compact with the government of Lesotho that provides an estimated $21 million to advance women’s entrepreneurship, including pursuing reforms such as land rights for women, inheritance rights for daughters, stronger labor rights for agricultural workers, and protections against domestic violence.
African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP): The Vice President announced plans to provide $1 million for AWEP, which will provide small grants to train women entrepreneurs and support women-owned businesses in sub-Saharan Africa.
Accelerating Women’s Participation in Green Jobs: The Department of State will launch the Accelerating Women’s Empowerment in Energy (AWEE) project with an initial investment of $1 million to help secure women’s economic future through green jobs, with a focus on Kenya and South Africa. The program will provide grants to local organizations to address barriers to women’s entry, promotion, and retention in the workforce. USAID Power Africa is launching a new activity to support women’s participation in the energy sector in Nigeria through training and capacity building, policies that promote gender equity in the workforce; and job placement.
Mobilizing Networks for Dignified Work: The Department of State will launch the Middle East and North Africa Employers for Gender Equitable and Inclusive Workplace Policies initiative with an investment of $3.5 million to help create employer policies and practices that are gender-equitable, inclusive, improve the security of employed women, including advocating for national legislation in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. The project engages with local and multinational companies, governments, and civil society organizations representing women workers.
Economic Security for Survivors of Trafficking: The Department of State will launch the Fostering Economic Security Through Enhanced Reintegration Support for Victims of Trafficking program with an initial investment of $1 million. This project will enhance and extend reintegration options for trafficking survivors who choose to pursue entrepreneurship by developing tools and capacity building, increasing and extending support, and enhancing monitoring. Countries that may benefit from global programming are Ghana and Nigeria.
