This week the Department of State welcomes the 18 participants of the inaugural International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) “W-GDP: Overcoming Barriers to Women’s Economic Participation.”
The Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP), established by the White House and championed by Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump, is the first whole-of-government approach to empower women globally to fulfill their economic potential. The W-GDP initiative demonstrates the United States’ commitment to advancing women’s economic empowerment with a goal of supporting 50 million women globally by 2025.
This new IVLP was created to support W-GDP with a focus on identifying and reducing the legal, regulatory, and cultural barriers that constrain women’s full and free participation in the global economy.
These 18 participants represent leaders in both the public and private sectors from around the world, including Burma, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Republic of Kosovo, Lesotho, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Paraguay, Philippines, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and Uganda.
The participants will travel to five different U.S. cities – Washington D.C.; San Francisco; Kansas City; Des Moines; and New York City – to meet with federal, state, and local governments, private companies, multilateral and non-governmental organizations, business incubators, and financial institutions. While in the U.S., participants will develop action plans to overcome barriers to women’s economic participation in their home countries and further advance W-GDP.
Join the conversation on Facebook or Twitter using the hashtag #WGDP. For media inquiries, please contact the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at eca-press@state.gov.
For more information on the White House’s W-GDP initiative, please visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wgdp.
For more information on the W-GDP IVLP, please visit: https://eca.state.gov/ivlp/overcoming-barriers-womens-economic-participation.