The Gates Foundation is committed to $ 2.1 million for gender equality in Gender Equity

The commitment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation arrived in Paris on the first day of the UN Forum for the Equality of Generations of Women.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $ 2.1 billion over the next five years to help advance gender equality worldwide, and this commitment was announced at the UN Forum for the Equality of Generations of Women in Paris.

At the opening ceremony of the forum on Wednesday, $ 40 billion was announced in new investments to benefit women and girls, including a $ 2.1 billion commitment from the Gates Foundation, $ 420 million from the Ford Foundation and investment by the World Bank for gender equality programs in 12 African nations. forum organizers he said in a press release.

In a statement On Wednesday, the Gates Foundation said its commitment is to “advance women’s economic empowerment, strengthen women’s and girls’ health and family planning, and accelerate women’s leadership ”.

“The world has been fighting for gender equality for decades, but progress has been slow. Now is the chance to spark a movement and bring about real change, ”said Melinda French Gates, president of the Gates Foundation. We need to seize this moment to build a better and more equal future. “

The Gates Foundation is committed to $ 2.1 billion in $ 650 billion in economic empowerment initiatives, $ 1.4 billion in family planning and health care, and $ 100 billion in accelerating women’s leadership roles, the organization said.

The Generational Equality Forum, co-organized by the French and Mexican governments, is held from Wednesday to Friday and is the first time in 25 years that advocates, government, civil society groups and private sector partners have come together. announced specific commitments and policy actions to advance the interests of women and girls around the world.

The last such meeting was the Fourth World Conference on Women in the United Nations, held in Beijing in 1995 and attended by thousands of activists.

It arose from that conference Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, is still considered a “key document of global policy on gender equality,” according to UN Women, and has been adopted by 189 countries.

About 40,000 participants are expected to attend the Generational Equality Forum due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Melinda is one of the keynote speakers at the French Gates forum. She and her husband, Bill Gates, announced it divorced after 27 years of marriage last month.

Bill, a billionaire founder of Microsoft, and Melinda, an author and businessman, announced their divorce in a joint statement posted on individual Twitter accounts on May 3, in which they wrote that “the foundation will continue our work together.” , but they no longer believe they can “grow up with their partner in this next phase of our lives”.

Since announcing the divorce, the two have continued to work with the $ 50 billion foundation other philanthropic efforts they help separately.