President Trump and Elon Musk’s attempt to gut the decades-old USAID agency is likely to end millions of dollars in U.S. funding earmarked for women’s economic empowerment across the globe, including programs championed during Mr. Trump’s first term by his daughter Ivanka.
While Mr. Trump’s bid to put virtually all of the agency’s workers on leave is currently tied up in a U.S. court battle, the pause ordered by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the end of January on all new U.S. foreign assistance programs funded by the State Department and USAID remains in place.
The Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative was intended to help 50 million women “realize their economic potential” by 2025, an issue the president’s daughter called at the time a crucial area in which Republicans and Democrats could find common ground.
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Lillian Achom was a projects manager for AFCHIX, a network for women in technology, that was part of USAID’s Women Connect Challenge. In 2019, she was invited to the White House to meet Ivanka Trump, who was then an advisor to her father, and to attend the W-GDP announcement.
To coincide with the launch, Ivanka Trump wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which she said W-GDP would, “for the first time coordinate America’s commitment to one of the most undervalued resources in the developing world — the talent, ambition and genius of women.”
Achom was one of nine grantees who were invited to the White House, where President Trump signed the memorandum in the Oval House on February 7, 2019. Mr. Trump’s administration pledged $50 million to W-GDP — to be allocated by USAID.
Achom told CBS News on Monday that while the president had made supportive comments about the initiative, Ivanka “was somebody who really cared,” saying the president’s daughter seemed genuinely concerned about women’s development and economic empowerment.
“I could see that she really loves stories of our success, stories of how…
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