Clinton Global Initiative Meeting

… so deeply. Dr. Biden, starting with you. I know you and President Biden last November really decided to make women’s health the priority of the Biden administration. And earlier this year, announced the $100 million spring for women’s health through ARPA-H, and the largest new investment of dollars into women’s health in a generation, or longer. Why did you decide this had to be a priority of the administration? What hopes do you have for this greater focus, and what’s next?

Well, I have high hopes. Women are living longer, but that means women are living longer with chronic pain. And so I think, I don’t know, Chelsea, when my friends get together or my sisters and I, we sit there and we talk about health and we provide one another with answers. Because really I think that we are always asking them like, “What supplements are you taking?” Or, “What do you do if your hair is falling out?” Or so many different questions because we don’t have answers. And I can remember when I was in my forties and I went to my gynecologist, and at that time they were talking about hormone therapy. And so I said, “Well, should I take hormone therapy? Should I not?” There’s this whole thing on breast cancer, whether it promotes it or hinders it. And so the doctor looked at me and she said, “Well, what do you want to do?”

(01:39)
And I thought, “What do I want to do? You’re the gynecologist. You should be telling me the answers.” But she didn’t have the answers. And I think that’s so true today, I don’t think, because research has been based mainly on men, and men’s bodies and what men need. And so I don’t think we realize that really the issue of heart health, how many women die of heart health or that Alzheimer’s affects women more than it does men. Same with MS. Same with autoimmune diseases. So I took this to Joe and I said, “Joe, we have to do something about this. We just don’t have the research. We just need the answers.” So Joe said, “Okay.” And that’s when he started Chelsea, the ARPA-H, and came up with $100 million dollars to fund the research.

(02:38)
And so that was going to prioritize ovarian health and everything. That’s all the diseases associated with menopause. And then it studied chronic conditions like arthritis and migraines, and why women were getting these conditions. So then the National Institute of Health got on board and they said, “Hey, we want to be a part of this.” And so they put in $200 million because they wanted to study menopause and how it affects our brain health, our heart health, our bone health. And so they were working on that. But finally, and the reason I’m so glad that you invited me here today, is this big announcement. So the Department of Defense has now committed half a billion, billion dollars to women’s health, to women in the service, which then transcends to all women. And so I was so excited about that. And so now this money is going to study arthritis and chronic fatigue and cardiovascular health. So anyway, it’s a big deal and it’s about time. So we’re going to get moving on this.

It’s a big deal. And it’s well past the time, but we’re only at this time because of just the extraordinary leadership of you and the president. Dr. Montgomery Rice. One of the things you and I have talked about extensively in different conversations over the years is the inequity in clinical research. It wasn’t until the NIH Reauthorization Act of 1993 and to give one man credit my dad for signing it, that required trials that were receiving NIH funding to include women in an equitable manner. It wasn’t until my mom was in the Senate that legislation was passed to require pediatric trials to include children. And so we know this is a history that isn’t that old, and yet even with a different legislation and different regulations, we know clinical trials were still not reflective of the population. What do you think the consequences are of this as someone who’s really dedicated her life to help equity in action, and what do you think we need to do about it now?

Well, first, let me say thank you to your parents having this hype to understand that advocacy is about really creating policy that creates sustainability. And the Office of Research and Women’s Health was a big deal. Dr. William Penn led it admirably with really making sure that we started to have basic conversations about even when you’re doing mouse studies, should you use female and male mice, something very basic. But initially, no one really thought about that, about the physiological and the biochemical things that were happening at the cellular level that really would impact drug, metabolism, all different types of things. And so we really had to really go way back and deep into the process to understand how to make a difference. When you think about why the inequities exist, there are multiple reasons. When we think about women’s health, we have to think about it more holistically.

(06:23)
It is way beyond our reproductive health. It is way beyond just menopause. You think about adolescence, you think about the things that happen in those first couple of years of your cycle, or your nutritional balance at that time, which will clearly influence your cycle because your estrogen levels are everywhere. Your estrogen levels start to fluctuate even throughout your reproductive cycle. Then when you get to the end, when you don’t have estrogen anymore, where it starts to significantly decrease, then you start to see the consequences of that. So we have to think about lifespan changes that are happening. And the only way that we will be able to understand those two introduced interventions are to include women in the studies, and to include women in the studies early on from a preventive mindset. Then as we start to see disease processes and we think about drugs and other opportunities that can be created, then we must include women so that we can understand the differences.

(07:27)
Now, we also though have to think about the social determinants. One of the things that we have to really be considerate of that will allow people to participate in a clinical trial, that starts with the trial design, that starts with who are going to be the investigators. I always think about when I was at the University of Kansas, I was the only African-American person on the faculty in the Department of OBGYN, and I started the clinical research center there, and then started that clinical research center. A couple of things that I figured out when I was going to do studies with birth control pills or menopause studies, was that I needed a clinical research nurse that looked like the people who were going to be recruited. Because that’s where the trust began, who that person was, who was going to be going out into that community saying, “Would you participate in this trial?”

(08:25)
And then when they came into the center to see themselves, it participated in this trial. Did they actually see themselves? Did they see other people that looked like them? Did we speak at a level that they could understand? And did we ensure that they understood that they had choice, that they were not a patient at that point, that they were a subject and they had a choice. And so that inclusive process allowed us at the University of Kansas to have the highest enrollment of people of color in birth control trials. We’re looking at third generation progesterone, the SWAN study or other studies where we are looking at the impact of medications on menopause. And I think it was because we thought about the steady design, and we thought about who would be the participants in helping us to enroll the right people in the trials. So we’re inclusive from the beginning.

Dr. Biden was listening to the audience reactions when you were talking about things like Alzheimer’s or autoimmune disease that disproportionately affect women. And I got the sense that there may be people here who didn’t know that. And so I wonder, with this major push from the administration with, thankfully, the extraordinary announcement today of the half a billion dollar of DOD funding, what do you hope the effects are of this new, the confusion of not only investment, but interest and focus of the US government to be beyond health? How do you hope it’ll shape the conversation and form the conversation, broaden the conversation, not just you and your friends but, hopefully, all of us.

No, all of us. I think women are really hungry for this kind of knowledge. At least that’s what I’m finding as I travel the country. And we don’t have the answers. And actually women, we lose here in the United States, $1.8 billion dollars a year due to the loss of working time because women don’t go to work due to menopause. So they either have insomnia and they don’t sleep all night, they get migraines, whatever it is, they’re aching, their joints, or osteoporosis, or whatever it is. And just this morning, I have to give you an example. I was watching the morning news and one of the newscasters was giving the news, and all of a sudden she just kept hugging. All of a sudden she’s going like this. And I thought to myself, you don’t even know you’re doing that. And so it affects us all that we really need answers. And so I think it’s going to then add more money into our economy for women to work, to go to work because they can’t, because sometimes it’s so debilitating.

And to help normalize the conversations around women’s health so that they’re not just happening in quiet corners with groups of friends but, hopefully, on stages like this one and places like this. I wonder, Dr. Montgomery Rice, how you think about this also as the head of a medical school, how do you think about training the next generation of clinicians and people like you who are physician, scientists, so that they’re asking different questions? And hopefully, then more quickly getting to the answers that Dr. Biden alluded to that we all could benefit from.

Well, probably you are aware that 50% of the persons who go to medical school now are women. So it’s not the previous 20 years of conversations, it’s different conversations. And when you have diversity in the room, whether it’s race, gender, ethnicity, orientation, you are going to have people ask different questions because of all of those characteristics that I just named have given them different distances that they’ve traveled in life. They’ve had different experiences, and so they’re going to approach questions and solutions differently. And so what we’re seeing now, is that we are able to have much more thoughtful conversations, and they’re not uncomfortable conversations. I always say, you know menopause is an equal opportunity event. If you live beyond the age of 52 and you’re female, it will happen for you. And so the question is how do you prepare yourself for it? Knowledge,

… right? Engagement, all the different things that we put out there that can help you, but hot flashes and all those things are going to occur. And so when we are educated in training in this next generation. We’re having them thinking about who is that person sitting across from you? Even though they came to you with this chief complaint, you got to have a whole list of approach to look beyond their reproductive health and to think about the impact of the changes, the life stage changes that are going to happen that are going to affect them in a way that may impact their chronic disease. And so we are always teaching a holistic approach to how we educate and train. And I think it’s been helpful that we have been able to see more women in medicine because we can have more comfortable conversations.

Because now what you experienced in the University of Kansas hopefully wouldn’t happen today. Hopefully you wouldn’t be the only woman or the only woman of color.

Rare. I mean, at some institutions, yes. But clearly we are seeing definitely an increase in the number of women who are participating. Now, we have a little bit of a challenge if you start to move up the ranks and get to … I am the only African American woman who is the president of a medical school in this country.

You were the only black woman to be president [inaudible 00:14:23]?

Yes. Yes.

Wow.

We got a little bit of work to do.

Yes, ma’am.

There are a whole lot of other smart women out there who can be in this seat. So that we have a little bit of work to do, but we are making some progress. And so we have to do more development, more opportunities. We have to think more about, again, these life stages. How do women not get penalized when they have a life stage? One of the stages in life is when they start to have kids. And they make a conscious decision that they’re going to slow down the pace, because of how they want to contribute to the household differently. How do we not penalize them for that? How do we continue to find meaningful ways for them to contribute and be a mom and be an honest sister and all the other things that we are, and them to continue to advance in their careers? And so again, having more women in leadership and having more women at the table when we’re having these discussions really allows us to create better solutions.

And women of color.

And women of color for sure. Definitely makes a difference.

Dr. Biden, you were sharing how receptive audiences have been when you’ve traveled around the country. I’m just curious, have you heard any stories that you really carry with you as like, “Yes, this is exactly why we need to be doing what we’re doing?” Someone who didn’t have something diagnosed early enough to get the treatment they received?

Oh, all the time.

Or researchers who are like, “I have so much work I want to do. If only I had funding.” Could you just share some of those?

No, I hear it all the time. And women tell their stories. I mean, that’s the great thing about women when we get together, whether it’s in your book club or at your church or just out to lunch. I would ask the audience, how many of you have gone to your doctor’s offices and come away with more questions than answers? How many of you?

(16:10)
Wow, look at this. That’s amazing. So Chelsea, you can see how much work we need to do with this, the answers we need to find.

As I was sharing an anecdote with Dr. Biden earlier about talking to someone about our maternal health crisis here in New York City. While certainly our maternal health equity is tragic at a national level, that black women are more than three times as likely to die in childbirth. And white women and all women are more than 50% more likely to die in childbirth than our mothers were, here in New York City, it’s actually nine times.

(16:51)
And thankfully the New York City Department of Health is leading a effort across all sectors. And we at CGI are proud to be part of this effort. But that’s a quite serious segue into a somewhat light-hearted, but also revealing anecdote. So I went to go see someone that I hoped would invest in this effort. And after pleasantries, he looked at me, Dr. Montgomery Rice, and he said, “So tell me about this innovation of midwifery.” And I was thinking, well, what I was thinking was, I know-

The innovation of midwifery.

… that the kind of popular conceit is that prostitution may be the oldest form of labor. But actually midwifery has to be oldest form of labor because where did we all come from? I didn’t say that though. [inaudible 00:17:42]. So grateful to have the chance to share with you about the innovation of midwifery. [inaudible 00:17:46] had access to midwifery. We do live here in New York City.

On that midwifery note, though… I’m an OB-GYN. I trained at the Grady in the nineties. And so the midwives were not my friend, in fact. Because we were doing 10,000 deliveries a year, and they had a much more holistic perspective of how they wanted to take someone through the process. Now, I was young and somewhat naive. After I had my kids though, I definitely understood that we have to have options for women. We have to have options for women and midwives and doulas and other opportunities for support while you’re going through this significant time, and this beautiful time where you are bringing another person into the world, we need to have all hands on deck. And when you look at our maternal health crisis, we are not doing something right. And I think it begins with how we are educating young ladies about their bodies and about their choices. How we are intervening early on for them to understand their bodies, so that they can be as healthy as they possibly can when they get ready to conceive, that they have choice about when they want to conceive.

(19:12)
So birth controls and other options, are they available for them?, You know, this ain’t the 2000s. We’re not in the 1900s. We should have choice. And women can make informed decisions about when they want to build their family, how they want build their family and who they want to help support them through this process. And then we, in our education and training, are really taking this culture competency and culture humility in the maternal health space to another level. Where we are going back and retraining providers who are out in the community.

(19:51)
And we’re using women’s stories because we have so many near-misses. That someone had preeclampsia or eclampsia. And they didn’t die, but they talked about their experience. If somebody had gestational diabetes or someone didn’t feel something right, and someone wouldn’t perform an ultrasound when they just said, “Would you just take a quick look?”

(20:15)
We have to listen to women, women know their bodies better than anybody else. Even when it’s their first time having a baby. There’s something instinctive that happens, could be nature that kicks in. And we know these things. And we as providers have to be humble enough, have enough humility to listen to women, and then to try to co-create solutions along the way and learn from those. So we’re taking those stories, and this is funded by the NIH with NIH grants.

(20:51)
And we’re using that as curriculum that were taken back to providers. And it’s in video form. It’s in written form. It’s about education. And many of them, because sometimes they’re so busy, it’s so chaotic when you’re delivering. You got two patients. You got the patient, the woman who’s delivering, and then you have the baby that you’re taking care of. And then you have all the other people in the room who want to take a picture, okay? Manage all of that. In the process of doing so, sometimes we lose, particularly lose our perspective when things start to go awry. And so what we are trying to do is bring back this culture of humility and competency and really appreciate that the woman knows best and taking that into consideration as we address this maternal health crisis.

Great. And we know how important it’s to listen to women. And yet we also know from now reams of research how often our pain is treated less seriously, less acutely. And that too is exacerbated for women of color.

Right. Yes, yes, yes.

I think what was so evident to Dr. Montgomery Rice, and I would feel just insincere, candidly, to not acknowledge how much harder we’ve made it in Georgia, where you live in my original home state of Arkansas. And in many others to be able to have safe and healthy pregnancies in the last two years. And so while we continue to champion efforts like those that thankfully Dr. Biden has helmed and catalyzed for the Biden administration and the work that Dr. Montgomery Rice is doing on clinical trials and changing the way in which we educate not only the next generation of clinicians but previous generations of clinicians, we also of course have to continue to push on the legislative front, as well. To help protect women so that we can make the right choices for ourselves.

(22:47)
Our last couple minutes, I want to ask both of you about what really is the role of the private sector here? In trying to drive more investment into research around women, innovative solutions to help better protect and promote women’s health and well-being. Sometimes those old-fashioned innovation solutions like the Whitbury. Because Dr. Biden, I know something that you’re passionate about as am I is trying to move the needle from the 2% of venture funding that currently goes to women’s health. To double it as a first starting point and then going up from there.

Well, I think the private sector has a nonprofit, so they have a huge role to play. We’re de-risking the investments in health through ARPA-H. But we see what works and what doesn’t work. So then the private sector can then take what does work and come up with all these innovations. And the researchers that I’ve seen… We’re going to be giving out grants in October. And I mean, there’s just such amazing work on the horizon. And I think we’re going to get there, but it’s going to just take some time. And all of us, government, the private sector, we all have to be involved to make a difference.

And Dr. Montgomery Rice, I think it’s appropriate that we give you the last word as someone who’s very much on the front lines. As a researcher, as a physician, as an educator, what do you want us to take away as our call to action here for trying to help continue to drive more investment into the research around women’s health? And then to have real responses to those answers so that our conversations are different than the ones that Dr. Biden was referencing earlier. Because there will be more evidence-based answers.

So the first thing I would say is that we are all accountable to women’s health. I’m a reproductive endocrinologist and fertility specialist. None of you got here without a mother. I thought about cloning myself. It doesn’t look like it’ll be a good clone though. And so in all seriousness, we owe it to women to understand that we play a role in how they get to experience life. Starting with our young girls, through adolescence, then through the reproductive years, through menopause and thereafter. And there are many, many questions that we have yet to answer. Because we have not included women all along the way in the questions that should be answered, the decisions that should be thought of, and the interventions that should be studied. And so that takes dollars. And so just like ARPA-H is coming up with… ARPA-H has

There’s one study that we are looking at in maternal health and we’re pulling in the private sector because there’re going to be increased opportunity for resources if we can document outcomes along the way. And that brings the researchers more dollars. Private equity and other entities, the private sector should be helping to support that. It should not just be the government alone. And so my call to action is for all of us to feel and to be accountable to women’s health and to think about in your circle of influence where you can help shift resources. And resources are not always dollars. Some of it is time. Some of it is the human capital expertise. Some of it is going to be AI solutions of how we evaluate data sets. All of that is really, really important to us moving faster and more efficiently and more effectively in changing a paradigm for women and women’s health research.

So thank you.

We need all of us.

Need all of us.

Please give Dr. McGovern Rice and Dr. Biden a very big round of applause.

Thank you.

Thank you.

This is great.

No, thank you.

(27:09)
Thank you so much. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we thought the two doctors deserve a little surprise. Thank you for a great panel. It is now my honor to welcome a friend of 40 years and an extraordinary leader who spent his entire life fighting to make America better, fairer and stronger, and to build a world where we have more friends and fewer enemies, where we can all live together and grow together. Three and a half years ago, Joe Biden came to office in the midst of multiple crises. In that time, he lifted us out of an unprecedented pandemic. Rebuilt the battered economy from the bottom up and the middle out, and created millions of new jobs. We don’t know what the final total will be, but we’re sure it will be the most ever created in any four-year period in our country’s history.

(29:53)
And he defended democracy in America and around the world. I, personally am very grateful to him for standing by the people of Ukraine. And America will always be proud of that. But he has strengthened our alliances for freedom and security all over the world. And he’s [inaudible 00:30:30] the passage from the most significant climate regulation legislation in American history. And especially personal to me, given what we’re seeing in America, he and I worked together 30 years ago to ban assault weapons. And as president, he signed the first major gun safety law passed since then. He has bridged divides, he has built coalitions. We had an agreement with the most conservative Republicans in the Senate to control immigration that was undocumented and to properly vet all those who were waiting in line. But it got derailed by short-term politics. I hope you and the American people will remember that. He’s provided a playbook for getting things done. So we honor him today, not just for what he’s accomplished, but for the way he has done it.

(31:49)
Joe Biden has led this country with uncommon decency and goodness and grace, and never allowed personal tragedy to harden his heart, only growing deeper into his humanity, helping others to survive their sorrows. So ultimately they can dream their dreams. That courage and compassion is what has allowed him to advance his all stated goal of restoring the soul of our nation. So on behalf of Hillary, Chelsea and the entire CGI community and countless people all over the world who are living better today than yesterdays because of his actions, I am pleased to present President Joe Biden with the 2024 Clinton Global Citizen Award. [inaudible 00:33:10].

(32:59)
Since I’m just an ex-president, I will hold his [inaudible 00:33:28] for him while he says whatever he wants to say. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you.

(34:06)
This is called being trapped. Mr. President, [inaudible 00:34:10] when you ran, please have a seat. I’m not going to be long. Because I didn’t think I was going to be talking about this. I’ve known the Clintons a long time. I think it’s fair to say, Bill, I was one of the early supporters of your presidency because what I saw in you was not an incredible intellect, or the decency that you taught and gave me credit for. It was always about the other guy, always about somebody else. And you and I have something very much in common. We were married way above our station.

(34:53)
I am Joe Biden’s husband, he’s Hillary Clinton’s husband. And your great friend and CGI has actually transformed philanthropy. Hillary, I want to thank you. And I maybe shouldn’t do this publicly, but thank you personally for the way you have helped me, way you’ve spoken up for me with such passion. I can’t tell you, ask Jill. Anyway, I love you.

(35:50)
We have something else in common. We have beautiful, very bright daughters who ended up, to their detriment, listening to their fathers and mothers. My daughter is in Philadelphia running. She got deeply involved in violence against women act with me. She runs homeless shelters. She’s providing housing for abused women in Philadelphia that she spends all her time doing. And I tell you what, make us incredibly proud. As a point of personal pride, I think Jill’s work on women’s health research, and this is Jill’s idea, this was Jill’s movement, that was going to go down as one of the most significant programs in our administration. So I want thank you for being here, especially Chelsea, Thank you. Dr. Rice, thank you for your leadership. She’s [inaudible 00:36:46] other way.

(36:48)
And most important issue I could say is that we were talking inside before while we were watching this take place back in behind the curtain. My dad used to have an expression. He said, everybody deserves a chance. Just a chance. No guarantee. That was my dad, everybody deserves an even chance. And the thing that I was pointing out, the majority of women, all the commencements I’ve done since I’ve been vice president and President of the United States, close to 70% of all the valedictorians have been women. So folks, thank you for everything. Thank you for supporting CGI. Thank you for what you’ve been doing. And I remember when I was ill some years ago with cranial aneurysm and I was being wheeled down in the operating room and they had one of these observatories where all the docs sit up and watch it go on. And before they started, put me under, I said, “Would all the Democrats please raise their hand?” Not many did. I asked the anesthesiologist on the way down, I said, “What are my chances?”

(38:16)
“Oh, they’re good. They’re between 30, 50%.” And I said, “Good.” After it was all over we were discussing whether it’s congenital, an aneurysm is congenital or environmental. And he just looked at me and he said, “I don’t know.” I try to explain to him, I said, “Just do what you have to do.” And he looked at me and he said, “You know what your problem is, Senator?” I said, “No.” He said, “You’re a congenital optimist.” I am congenital optimist about this country. I really am. We’re good people. We really are. We just have to live up to what we expect of others. So thank you all very

[inaudible 00:39:00].

Here is what we do when we’re at our best. Care is essential to families, communities, and economies all over the world. We have to support caregivers so they know they’re not alone. Please welcome back Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Thank you. You know I’m thrilled to welcome my friends and CGI partners, Jen Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council and Ambassador Isobel Coleman, deputy administrator for Policy and Programming at USAID to the stage.

(41:50)
Now, Jen and Isobel are leading the Women In the Sustainable Economy, known as the WISE Initiative, which is flagship effort of the US government to empower women’s economic participation and growth while tackling the climate crisis.

(42:10)
We’ve long known that climate change is a women’s and girls issue because women and children are 14 times more likely than men to die during an extreme weather event. Climate change is threatening women’s livelihoods, their health, their safety, and threatening to reverse decades of progress toward building a more gender-equal world. But women aren’t just victims of climate change. They’re also at the forefront of climate solutions on farms, in their communities, at major international climate conferences. Women are leading the way on ambitious actions to mitigate the crisis.

(42:57)
Despite their roles as essential drivers of progress, women, however, are chronically underrepresented in leadership of climate initiatives. And women-led ventures receive just 3% of climate capital funding. The intersection of climate innovation and economic growth offers an opportunity to make real progress on both the climate crisis and on gender parity. But if we’re going to succeed, we need to double down on our efforts to promote women’s leadership and participation in these spaces. And thankfully, we are joined by CGI commitment makers who are doing just that.

(43:43)
WISE and its partners are announcing a Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action to invest an additional $681 million to support the meaningful economic participation of women and girls in the fight against climate change. All told, WISE’s 33 partners have now committed to leverage more than $2 billion to expand women’s access to good-paying jobs in the blue and green economies in climate finance and in land rights. So I want to make sure that we recognize what a transformational commitment to action this is because we could not be more excited by it. Now, I will hand things over to Jen to share more about what this commitment will do.

Thank you, Secretary Clinton, for your lifetime of leadership, advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. At the start of the Biden-Harris administration, President Biden created the White House Gender Policy Council, which I am privileged to lead. The council is guided by a basic principle, which of course I learned from Secretary Clinton. To address the world’s greatest challenges, we need the full and equal participation of women.

(45:27)
Tackling the climate crisis is no exception. That’s why last year, Vice President Harris launched the Women In the Sustainable economy or WISE initiative to promote women’s participation in industries that address climate change. Today I’m proud to announce that Germany, the Republic of Cyprus, the United Kingdom, Acumen, and Heading for Change are making additional commitments totaling $339 million to this initiative. With their support, as Secretary Clinton just shared, we’ve now mobilized more than $2 billion for WISE from 33 governments, corporations, foundations, and civil society organizations. We thank our partners for their commitment and call on all of you to join us in this effort. Together we can defend the future of the planet while building a more equal world.

Thank you, Secretary Clinton and Director Klein for your leadership. I am pleased to share two key commitments towards advancing our WISE objectives. First, I’m delighted to announce the launch of a new USAID public-private partnership called Advancing Women for Resilient Agricultural Supply Chains. This five-year USAID partnership with PepsiCo, Unilever, Danone, McCormick and Nespresso will support women with the tools and resources they need to boost agricultural production, enhance sustainable livelihoods, and improve environmental stewardship. USAID and our corporate partners are here today contributing an initial planned investment of $50 million.

(47:29)
Behind me, I am joined by incredible leaders representing the significant commitment from each of our partner companies. Jim Andrew, executive vice president and chief sustainability officer, PepsiCo. This partnership will further advance PepsiCo’s positive agricultural agenda and will support PepsiCo positive the company’s vision to deliver a more sustainable people- centered future. Rebecca Marmot, chief sustainability officer, Unilever. Unilever aims to use this partnership to advance its livelihoods and nature sustainability goals. Nathalie Alquier, senior vice president, Sustainability, Danone. Danone will advance its impact journey, helping expand the non-surgenerative agricultural programs with a strong focus on women’s empowerment. Michael Okorafor, chief sustainability officer, McCormick. McCormick will leverage its flagship Women’s Empowerment Framework and Grown for Good framework to continue to advance women’s opportunities and sustainability in agricultural communities. Julie Reneau, head of Coffee Sustainability, Nespresso. Nespresso will expand its existing programs such as its gender learning program to more countries.

(48:53)
Next, USAID is pleased to announce the Skoll Foundation as the newest owner and first private foundation to join our climate, gender equity fund. This public-private partnership also includes Amazon, Wreck-It, the UPS Foundation, and the Visa Foundation, and is dedicated to helping women gain greater access to climate finance around the world. A special thanks to Marla Blow, president and chief operating officer of Skoll Foundation, who is with us on stage for making this partnership possible.

(49:25)
I also want to welcome three of the climate gender equity fund’s newest grantees, the Rallying Cry, Villgro Philippines, and Altree Capital who are with us here today. They’re at the forefront of helping women entrepreneurs get the capital they need to deliver climate solutions across Africa and Southeast Asia. Together with our private sector partners, USAID remains committed to supporting women around the world in building a sustainable, prosperous future. Thank you.

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It is time finally to make it old news to say that women’s rights are human rights.

[foreign language 00:51:47].

Women and girls are leading the way, and we should do everything we can to support and uplift their work. We have never been-