Catalytic Capital | March 16, 2018

Gates Foundation to commit $170 million to women and girls by 2022

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The foundation’s gender equality initiative will target women and girls to help cut poverty.

“No society can achieve its potential with half of its population marginalized and disempowered,” Melinda Gates writes. “We have not always been as intentional in this area as we might have been or as we intend to be in the future.

As a result, we have lost opportunities to maximize our impact across all of the areas in which we work.” The foundation will invest $170 million in women-centered projects in financial inclusion, land ownership, market connectedness, and “self-help groups” — connecting women and girls on topics including health and digital technology.

It has experimented with self-help group models in India and plans to expand to Africa.