Funding Commitments for Women Announced at Clinton Global Initiative

The formal start of the Clinton Global Initiative, which begins with a plenary featuring President Obama, President Clinton, President Michelle Bachelet of Chile and others, is less than an hour away. But there have already been announcements of commitments to and calls for funding for women and girls, a key theme of this year's meeting.

The formal start of the Clinton Global Initiative, which begins with a plenary featuring President Obama, President Clinton, President Michelle Bachelet of Chile and others, is less than an hour away.  But there have already been announcements of commitments to and calls for funding for women and girls, a key theme of this year’s meeting.

The Novo Foundation, for example, has announced two multimillion dollar commitments to end targeted violence against women and girls in and around the Democratic Republic of Congo, where gender-based violence has reached epidemic proportions. 

These commitments, notes a NoVo Foundation press release:

will each specifically fund the development of programs and resources to provide woen survivors of war the tools they need to secure a pivotal role in rebuilding their countries.

According the NoVo’s release, the first initiative calls for a $2 million commitment to three organizations, the International Rescue Committee, V-Day, and Women for Women International.  The second will support Women for Women International in programs to alleviate poverty and create sustainable livelihoods for women in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, the DRC, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda and Sudan, targetting a total of 103,000 women survivors of war and working in turn to improve the livelihoods of more than half a million men, women and children. 

We will update on these and other initiatives as information becomes available.