Ivanka Trump to lead new White House global women’s empowerment initiative

Ivanka Trump will lead a new White House initiative aimed at developing economic stability for 50 million women in developing countries around the world.

The initiative, dubbed the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, will be introduced on Thursday by President Trump, the president’s eldest daughter and senior adviser wrote Wednesday in an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal.

“The economic empowerment of women shouldn’t be viewed as a ‘women’s issue,'” Ivanka Trump wrote.{mosads}

“Smart development assistance benefits families, communities and nations,” she added. “By investing in women, we are investing in a future in which countries can support themselves by unleashing the potential of their own people.”

Ivanka Trump told reporters on a call Wednesday that the initiative would cement America’s status as “the most generous” nation on Earth, according to The New York Times.

“‘America First’ does not mean ‘America Alone,’” Trump said, according to the Times.

In her op-ed, Ivanka Trump wrote that the initiative would allocate $50 million from the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) existing budget to “coordinate America’s commitment to one of the most undervalued resources in the developing world — the talent, ambition and genius of women.”

According to the Associated Press, USAID and Pepsi Co. are slated to announce a partnership geared toward women in India. USAID and UPS are also expected to ink a deal to support female entrepreneurs exporting their goods, the outlet reported.

“This fund will implement the administration’s new strategy of foreign assistance, which emphasizes investments that produce measurable results and help recipient countries become self-reliant,” Ivanka Trump wrote. “It will also facilitate complementary private-sector investments to achieve our shared goals.”

A senior White House official told the Times that the president’s daughter would travel to Germany next week to promote the initiative at the annual Munich Security Conference. Ivanka Trump, the official said, is expected to encourage officials to build a stronger connection between women’s empowerment and national security.

“We think women are arguably the most under-tapped resource in the developing world for accelerating economic growth and prosperity,” she told the AP.

The Times noted that Ivanka Trump helped launch a World Bank fund aimed at producing $1.6 billion for women entrepreneurs in developing countries.

An official announcement of the program is set for Thursday afternoon at the White House.