Good afternoon and welcome, everybody. We are in for certainly an important and informative discussion. Im the president and ceo of the u. S. Global leadership coalition. U. S. Glc is really honored to cohost todays event. I want to welcome a very special guest, ivanka trump and us aid administrator mark green. Todays Program Marks the first public event in the u. S. Of Womens Global Development and prosperity initiative. Today youll hear more about the launch of wgdp fund. This is an opportunity to highlight a Game Changing initiative dedicated to unleash the full potential of women in the developing world and to hear about some innovative activities and inaugural partners. Now, for the men in this room, no offense to you, but a topic like this, who could go wrong . The usglc has been really pleased to be part of this initiative almost from the beginning. Ivanka, i remember early on when our board had the opportunity to meet with you over in the white house compound, and your inspiring leadership, your passion, your unwavering commitment to bring the idea of womens Economic Empowerment to the center stage has been extraordinary, and i know everybody in this room joins me in thanking you for that. And mark, certainly we have been pleased to join you in discussions with you and your team at usaid for bringing your expertise on Global Development to the table. I know i was pleased to join both of you at the oval office at the signing of wgdp and all of us were very proud in this room to work with capitol hill on the passage of the womens entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment act, and we have some members of congress who will be talking about that shortly. The truth is that there are few agendas that bring together people that are as compelling and also as unifying as the one were going to talk about today. In this town its actually quite nice that we have a topic that does that. Gather here is a wide array of stakeholders that have come together because they believe in the initiative were going to be talking about. I see friends here from the administration, from the white house, state department, u. S. Aid, friends from capitol hill from both sides of the aisle. Our usglc leaders, also known as strange bed fellow coalition because we bring together unusual voices. There are businesses here such as p g, walmart, ups, ngos from care, save the children, our faithbased community, world vision and catholic relief services. There are military leaders and veterans here all because we believe in the initiative were going to be talking about. This issue doesnt just resonate here in the beltway. There are people around the country that really resonate with what were going to talk about. As you know, u. S. Glc is active in all 50 states. This year alone we have hosted forums and town Hall Meetings across the country with Business Leaders and mayors and College President s, faith leaders. Weve been everywhere in places like appleton and dayton and columbus and Salt Lake City and beyond. What i can tell you is when weve had these conversations, we talk about how leading global matters locally. But when we turn to the topic of women empowering women economically, our audiences literally light up. They understand the power of lifting up women, of investing in what ivanka calls Smart Development assistance. They are all in when it is about supporting programs that delivering results to our security, our economy, and our values. About this time last year, i hosted a conversation to celebrate the 15th year of pepfar. I brought together a group of people who were the original individuals who helped launch that event, that program. From the administration and from capitol hill. I asked them the question, sitting on the podium sitting on the stage, what was the secret sauce that endured through multiple administrations that created the success that saved 17 million lives. There were four ingredients that they mentioned, tireless focus on results, bipartisan support from both ends of pennsylvania avenue, local country leadership, Government Resources that Leverage Private sector involvement both from the business and Ngo Community. So perhaps wgdp has that secret sauce. Earlier this year, i went and saw a pepfar program. Im sure many in this room have done the same. But this was a different pepfar program. It was pepfar 2. 0. The program was called dreams. Its a program that doesnt just save lives, it gives lives. I met a young girl. She told me her story. She was 13 years old when she was abandoned by her more. At 15 years old she had hiv aids, she had two children, and she was homeless. A few years later was when i met her. She had been part of the dreams program that eliminated the barriers that empowered economically. She was healthy. She was safe. Shes now a fashion designer. She has a future, and she has dreams. There are so many more stories yet to be told. Thats what were going to talk about today. It is my honor to welcome to the podium and to welcome to the platform our first panel. Our moderator is a face thats wellknown and long time friend of our community, the state departments new spokesperson morgan or tegas and ivanka trump and ambassador mark green. Please welcome all three to the stage. Hi, everyone. Thanks everyone for coming today. Its so wonderful to see so many people here who care about womens economic prosperity. Thank you, liz. Youre a dream for this community and thank you to u. S. Glc for cohosting this event. This is my first event in my new role as state Department Spokesperson and im so honored that the both of you had me as part of this event. The state department is a proud member of the wgdp program. Its an inner Agency Working group that was established through the National Security president ial memorandum. We work with u. S. Aid, ambassador green, and we work to advance three pillars of wgdp, which is women prospering in the workforce, women succeeding as entrepreneurs and women enabling the economy. The state department was involved in review of wgdp funds award hes and will continue to engage with wgdp on upcoming projects, overcoming barriers to womens economic participation which will debut this fall. So of course lets get right to it with two of the betts people in the world working on these initiatives and of course to adviser trump. I dont think many people actually know this, that you had a major success in the president ed National Security strategy, which is the first time you got women written to National Security strategy. I have an oped on this if any of you would like to read it. Earlier this year when the president established wgdp initiative, can you tell us why it was important to get women written into the National Security strategy and how that ties into wgdp. First of all, happy birthday, morgan, and thank you for being here. 29. Were grateful for your hard work and service and advocacy for many of the issues well be discussing today over the course of many years predating your service. And thank you to mark who has been just an incredible partner in this initiative from the earliest days. And liz and the whole u. S. Glc team. It was you are one of the first groups we reached out to and a series of very comprehensive listening sessions which helped us sign this initiative. So stepping back for a moment, we started with the premise that there are unique obstacles and barriers to women in the workforce. We have this at home and were fighting those parriers and striving to lower them, whether its the lack of accessible affordable child care in this country, which were working to address, paid family leave, all sorts of other issues. But when you look global at the developing world, theres a whole separate set of challenges and unique problems. So we started with looking at all that had been done previously, what had been successful and where there was a void. And we launched several initiatives in the earliest days of the administration to fill those voids. So with the world bank, there was inadequate access to capital for small and medium sized entrepreneurs in the developing world. Later on we launched 2x with opec. We were the first of the Development Institutions to think about our lending through a gender lens. It was quite novel. We used g7 in canada as an opportunity to reinforce that and create at 2x call to action amongst the other institutions, the other countrys institutions and we were successful in that effort. Really we took a step back after launching these and other womens connect on International Womens day to help bridge the digital gender divide in the developing world. But we stepped back and said what are the most effective ways and what are the most important ways to economically empower women and how can we create a comprehensive all of government approach to doing this. That had never happened before. There had never been all in u. S. Government approach. We know its smart from Development Assistance standpoint. We know its critically important, which is often under played. Its critically important from a National Security perspective, which is why were very proud of the fact the president in his National Security strategy issued in december 2017 had a section on the role of womens Economic Empowerment to fostering peace and stability. So just one statistic that i think is really eyeopening. If you look at the countries that score the lowest on the index for gender discrimination, 80 of them had experienced Armed Conflict in the last two decades. 80 . So when you marry good Economic Policy in terms of growth and opportunity and prosperity, with smart defense policy and security policy, then you really get peoples attention. Thats what were quite excited for. The president launched wgdp as his 16th National Security president ial memorandum. So there have not been many since this administration has been in effect. And weve worked to design it with hundreds of lawmakers, ngos, advocates in the region and we came up with the three pillars that you mentioned. The first is women prospering in the workforce. This is helping women with Vocational Education that will help them secure jobs. But as importantly, and maybe more importantly, helping them gain access to markets, technology that will fuel the productivity of the existing work women are doing, which is often overlooked. The private sector has played a Critical Role in this regard because, of course, weve all heard of well intended programs that teach people skills. And after having graduated from those programs, those individuals are unable to secure a job because there are no jobs available. Coming in with the private sector on all of these pillars has been important. Promoting entrepreneurship, access to capital networks. The last one, which really there hasnt been a robust push on in a coordinated, cohesive fashion may be the most critical, which is changing tlaus that prohibit womens full and free participation in their local economies. So we focused on five specific laws. Actually today we were really excited to applaud and celebrate the changing of marriage law which will allow women to inherit property and acquire property, which was previously not allowed under the law there. So this was just built on a local living, local ngo, ncc i swrifted there this spring and addressed the essential nature of changing this law. Thats the type of thing that will create extraordinary transformative change. Im excited in addition to a great announcement for millions of women of cote divoire. So 100,000 women in 22 countries will benefit. There are 14 projects, each of which have been curated to a line of three pillars we just discussed and mentioned. Its 27 million u. S. Government dollars but we mobilized 160 million of private sector funds to match and accelerate that from hundreds of ngos and private sector companies. So were very, very excited about the private sector and Ngo Community coming alongside of us to amplify and accelerate our work. It is great. Youll be hearing from some of those recipients today that will help highlight each of the three pillars of the initiative and share with us a little bit of the great work they are doing. Thats incredibly exciting. Thats really great news special out of cote divoire. I have a soft spot, it was the first job in the bush administration. You did well. And i grew up. Look. So we know that u. S. Aid is, of course, very aligned with the goals of wgdp as ivanka just talked about. How are your programs specifically at usa working to implement this initiative . Well, first off for us its a moral issue, equal opportunity, a basic American Value we project throughout all of our work. Its also a very practical matter. Liz talked a little bit about pepfar and our Global Health programs. One of the best possible ways to advance an educated girl becomes an educated mother who can pass along life lessons and abscess services. Its also an economic issue for us. We talk about the journey of selfreliance and a country leading themselves. No company is selfreliant if it isnt tapping into the population. Its a very economic issue for us. Its interwoven in many ways where we work and all the programs that we do. I think what were seeing today is really how were using our new collaboration ethic to help unlock dollars. Weve gone beyond just grants and contracts well still do grants, well still do contracts but were looking for ways to move opportunistically, to unlock networks, to scale up work thats being done. For us, since the call for proposals didnt come until march and the closing date was in april, and we actually made decisions by june, thats lightning speed, just so were clear. I think youll see because it was an all of government approach, and we still had our expert review panels, all of these incentives together has made an enormous difference in a very short period of time. Were excited about what youll hear about today. Were more excited about the future and what we think this will do as we continue to unlock networks and build on great work so many people in this room represent. Thats wonderful. Just to dove tail on that for one moment, i do think its really important to obviously have a responsibility to the american taxpayer. And the goal of Development Assistance is selfreliance, as mark noted. If youre not unleashing potential of 50 of your population, then it is not going to achieve that goal. So we think of this as very, very Smart Development assistance. We also think that Development Assistance is in an entitlement. We talked about the laws and the need to change laws that prohibit women from participating in their economies. But to the extent we continue to provide Development Assistance to countries who refuse to make the structural changes that enable women to inherit property, to travel freely, to open bank accounts, to work in the same industries as men. There are 2. 7 billion women in 114 countries globally who are unable to work in the same industries as men, oftentimes the Predominant Industries in the economies. You said 114 countries . 114 countries. Oftentimes people dont realize how prevalent this issue is, and these economic barriers. The reason weve focused on five specific laws, i mentioned four of them. The fifth is being able to access credit on equal terms as a man in their societies. So these five laws we think are just so foundational, yet there are tremendous barriers all over the globe in geographically diverse regions of the globe to each of them. So were focused on that, because we think its one of the smartest places we can allocate our time and resources to creating an abling environment to make the programs in pillars one and two around promoting women in the workforce and Women Entrepreneurship sustainable and effective over the longterm. You just mentioned you have been traveling around the world and viewing these programs. Where would you say youve seen thats most effective, where women are grabbing onto these programs and making a change in their country. Mark and i were recently in africa together and we saw tremendous programs in ethiopia and cote divoire. I was blown away by a village we visited, a threehour drive from there and we saw firsthand a great example of a program u. S. Aid worked on with care that creates village savings and loans, where women come together and form associations and cooperatives and leverage their collective purchasing power and their collective bounty to gain greater access to markets, and to be able to secure the capital they need to grow their business. So we saw a very dynamic example of one of those associations. We also announced a new program for 300 more of them with the private sector, the world coke organizations, several product companies, nestle, mars, cargill and several others. It was really amazing to see this community of women working together individually, where they are they received the benefit of their individual work, but as a cooperative where each of their work builds upon itself and creates additional opportunity for the group as a collective. So it was it was really extraordinary, mark. I dont know if youd love to share thoughts on that. I think you captured it well. Again, understand that with each of these grants and each of these programs were unlocking things. Were not building things. Were unlocking and tapping into the entrepreneurial spirit this is at the heart of every family, of every woman entrepreneur. So thats really what were doing. I think its universal. Its what we saw in africa, but i think its just as true in latin america. Right. You have people who are simply looking for a chance by particularly attacking some of the enabling environment barriers. Were unlocking what is already there. Were going to continue this conversation but were actually going to bring a few more people to stage. Real heroes. More panelists. The founder of industry foundation, which is empowering women in the Creative Manufacturing sector. We also have president and ceo of a company which strengthens land rights globally. Candy wolf, executive Vice President of Global Government Affairs for city, a partner of u. S. Aid helping advance womens role in technology sectors. If the three of you could please come to the stage. So again, well get right into the conversation. Can you speak about how youre working on scaling businesses, artisan and manufacturing industries. Can you share a little more about how your project, power, works across all these sectors in india. Absolutely. Its a great honor to be here, and its a wonderful opportunity offend to us. As our program, this weve pitched with this, women own producers enterprises. Love these acronyms. In a nutshell. We build women on collectibles. We work on circular economy value chains that supply to global giants like ikea, h m, hoping to tap into the world market soon. But huge opportunity and we build these collectibles at scale. The whole idea is we create wealth. India is supposed to be hitting the fifth largest economy this year, according to imf but we also have the largest number of poor in the world, largest number of people who live on less than 5 a day. Obviously this affects the women the most. Through these collectibles, they start, incomes triple. A lot of women running for the first time in their lives. It leads to phenomenal impacts which ill talk about later. The value chains we are focused on are biodegradable leaf plates, huge plan locally, huge markets available. The region where we are doing these biodegradable leaf plates is a very poor tribal part of india, which im sorry to say women are earning less than 50 a year. A year. Yeah. So now they will be in a state where they will start earning 1 1500 a year. These enterprises will fit into global value chains, and thats it in a nutshell. Thats fabulous. Chris, your organization focuses on expanding womens land rights. Explain to us why these land rights are so important for women and girls. What is going on, as it receipts in africa, to supporting Property Rights activity . Great. Thank you and thanks to u. S. Glc, aid and wgdp teams, its a privilege to be here. Property cant own property. I heard that said recently and sadly not for the first time. The man that said it was trying to explain why womens land rights dont make sense because property cant own property. A i think that phrase gets to the issue of womens empowerment were here to talk about today. In many parts of the world, even here in the u. S. Historically, a persons relationship to property defines their status. So landowners get to vote and landowners get a voice in their community decisions, landowners are the Authority Figure on the household and on the farms. Thats a problem for women. The fact women in 90 countries either by law or custom cant own or inherit or manage land means they are relegated to second class citizenship and a life in constant state of vulnerability. If we want to empower women, we have to start with this fundamental inequity. Land is literally and figuratively the foundation for Everything Else we care about. Today most People Living in poverty most women living in poverty live off the land. Land to them is a home, survival, an income, a chance to feed and clothe and house and educate their children. Land is also a chance for entrepreneurship. Land is more than that. Land is about dignity. Its about voice. Its about agency. Isnt that really what this is all about. As new states increasingly try to define the alternative divisions for development, land rights and the agency they promise is a quintessentially american idea. Land rights provide the foundation for empowering women. And empowered women, as the United States knows, is the best pathway to selfreliance. Landesa my organization has been working over 50 years in 50 countries to help governments secure land rights for people who live in poverty. Some years ago we realized just securing land rights wasnt going to get us there. Without ensuring that women have the same rights as men, we were at risk of just locking in inequalities and missing the multiplier benefits that come with investing in women. Now all of our work on land includes a gender filter, and weve seen the tremendous and widespread benefits that occur when governments support womens land rights. In tanzania by one recent study, women with stronger land rights earn almost four times as much as women who didnt have those rights. In ethiopia, a household Land Certification Program led to a 50 increase in the probability that women could decide which crops to grow on their land. Starting in the early 1970s in vietnam, landesa has worked closely with the u. S. Government and later with u. S. Aid across many administrations, so we were very excited to hear the announcement that wgdp would prioritize womens land rights. The three pillars of the wgdp, Women Participation in the workforce, entrepreneurship and enabling environment are all undergirded by womens rights to property and land. Our work with u. S. Aid and partners on initiative entitled Property Rights and womens Economic Empowerment supported by wgdp aims to strengthen womens land rights in five african companies, liberia, mozambique, tanzania annette oppose and ethiopia. Each will work to work on policies to support land rights. Joint titling schemes, which ensure both the man and the woman have their names on titles and offers massive opportunities for benefits at scale, addressing discrimination that happens under customary Legal Systems where womens land rights are most at risk and finally addressing responsible Land Investments by the private sector because we know companies recognize now increasingly that land conflicts, land grabs, and avoiding them, along with strengthening women land rights, is one of the best things they can do for their longterm bottom line. Approximately 100 million women live in those five countries and this project should go a long way to bolstering their entrepreneurship and economic opportunities. We work with these women at landesa and we know that they are not going to wait for their rights to own property not to be property. We hope youll all join us on that journey. Thank you. Chris, that was so powerful. I think were all going to remember what you just said, property cant own property. Its really amazing what youre doing. Thank you. Candy, youre representing the private sector. We all know this doesnt work without the private sector. It hale has to be a collaborative partnership. Youre working closely with a group in latin america to equip women with skills specifically for the tech sector. Can you tell us a little bit more about that. Happy to and happy to represent all the businesses partner with u. S. Aid as we look to enable growth and progress. Before i talk specifically about the program, i just wanted to make one point that administrators and advisers have said around for the economic benefits. We had some of our own recent studies that showed that if you just increase the female Labor Force Participation in hours, right, and try to get it to be parity of men, it will raise gdp growth anywhere from 6 to as high as 20 for oecd countries. We have to remember this is about growing the economy. Its a human rights issue as well but really about empowering women to help grow economies. So as we look out at the different programs, one of the ones weve been engaged in is one called lab oratoria. Its headquartered in peru. Its run by a woman, woman founded, woman run. Its a program that trains women to be web designers and to work in the tech field. What the programs do and the way its been funded is to allow for Training Programs currently in peru, brazil, mexico, chile. Whats going to be great is with support of u. S. Aid and this new program, they are going to be able to expand to columbia and cover more women. Theres going to be about 1700 women, which is 120 increase in the number of women who can get jobs in the tech world. And as noted earlier on this panel, whats really important is not just that we as businesses are also investing in these impact organizations but equally important were hiring. We in mexico have gone out and we really need to make sure weve got a Diverse Workforce and that were meeting the needs and empowering women as well. So the women that are getting trained in these programs are also getting hired. Thats the important part that i think adviser trump had noted earlier, its really important were also hiring and making sure theres jobs that come from these relationships. So were pleased to be able to support and partner with lab oratoria and look forward to the opportunity to expand in the tech area. Mark, keeping on this theme of the private sector, u. S. Aid, thats essentially one of the main things you do is partner to bring additional expertise, resources to the table. Can you explain why that is such a focus for usa. First off, well never have enough money to take on every problem in the world, nor should we try. What we do try to do is tap into the economic might of the private sector. Theres remarkable ingenuity taking place every day. If we can help channel that towards some of these challenges, the sky is literally the limit. I should say im the guy who doesnt do wish projection. Every one of these proposals, every one of these awardees were talking about has gone through a rigorous program. We check, we doublecheck, we test, we kick the tires because this is precious money. What i think youre seeing here is by looking at the networks that they already have tapped into and the work they are already doing and scaling up on that, were able to, again, unlock the might of the private sector in ways that create economic benefits broadly across the community but also create oportunities to build upon work thats already being done in ways that will lift it even higher and unlock the might of half more than half the economy. Ivanka, we have talked a lot about the various programs today. Obviously youve been traveling the world working on this. What are the remaining economic barriers for women having access and what specifically is wgdp doing to take down those barriers . We talked about five of the legal barriers that we view as so fundamental that will really have a transformative effect if we can start to change country by country. But i think one of the challenges beyond that is its not just about the laws. There are country all over the world with the laws on their books. Once you get outside of the capital and the urban centers, those laws are not being implemented. And the individuals within villages and communities dont know their legal rights. So i think that is also a critical part of this initiative to make sure that were also focusing on countries who from a legal perspective may have checked the box. Its not a small thing on all of these laws but that its actually the rights of individuals outside of the cities are known and that these women are aware. That is something weve been very focused on as well. Implementation of the law. I think also what were able to do through this program and the networks we tap into are create role models. Dont underestimate the importance of role models. It is breaking through cultural barriers, showing the economic might that is there in women and what can be achieved with fairly modest changes. So by creating role models and showing what the possibilities are, a lot of these things will accelerate and address themselves, i think. Further to the role models, you announced it earlier this week, we as part of wgdp, we created an exciting new program, ray royce is here from the state department for an exchange. Were asking advocates to come to the u. S. And share with us the barriers that exist in their economies, the legal barriers, and how we can most effectively address them. These problems will be solved only with regional guidance, Regional Input and regional leadership. We want to elevate those role models, learn from them and use their feedback to inform these programs going forward. Speaking of that, you have experience here. You have five core impact in your program has helps sustain livelihood in india. Can you tell us more about those five core areas . Absolutely. Core areas were working on is increased income. Once theres an income in income of women social empowerment goes through the roof. Now she has a voice in the family. Shes heard. The next thing were tapping on is resilience to lifes crisis. Because it can just be one illness, one flood, one calamity and everything is wiped out. Therefore we encourage them a lot on their savings. Thats being monitored. Everything is quantitative monitoring for us. The third focus area is increased expenditure on education and a better life for the next generation. The fourth area is womens empowerment. They need to take on more leadership roles. They have to move from being workers, sprfrsers, leaders, paraprofessionals to these other kinds of things weve planned for them. These are some of the impact areas. And what i just wanted to press back on his point, i think hes completely right, this is a core i think the amount ive spoken to u. S. Aid team in india, we will grant, this we could leverage to 10 times. Weve got indian Corporate Social Responsibility law, right, so were already in talks with mastercard, bank of me america. All this operations they have to do Corporate Social Responsibility. If we link it all up to the same, this almost acts like seed capital. The other thing i wanted to pointous was grant equity, like incubation funds but it has become selfsustainable. They can give women income in p perpetuity. They become selfsustainable, they grow, and they keep and she has access to regular incomes across 10, 20 years. I cant believe were actually getting close on time. Its hard to believe. I could talk about this for the next two hours. But chris i want to give you a chance to talk a little more about implementation of legal reforms on land rights. Specifically why is it important in i think we all have a general idea, of course, as you just so eloquently told us about land rights but why is it so important to reform these legal structures . Well, unfortunately there are many countries where these discriminatory practices are baked into law. That has to be the first target because from there Everything Else flows. Adviser trump is right, though, its not enough. Its necessary but not sufficient. So after reforming laws, we have to work on implementation issues, which means you have to educate the population about their rights. You have to bring in other actors that can support implementation and then you have to work on strong institutional governance. All of those issues are right in the bailiwick of usaid. One other thing. People often say whats to mot vad a country to change their laws like ivory coast, for example. Where is the incentive to do that . One thing is having strong actors like the u. S. Government and private sector actors, no doubt. There are many other strong economic and political reasons why governments decide to do this. We find, in fact, that its not that hard to move governments in this direction with a little bit of advice and pushing because you have your tax base, your economic growth, political stability. You have a whole series of constituencies that will support governments that strengthen land rights. The incentives are there. Now we just have to move things a little bit. I think this project wgdp generally and the focus on womens land rights just offers such enormous potential for many times the benefits. Mark, any closing thoughts . Well, this is just the beginning. This is what were able to incentivize in a regular tifl short period of time tapping into networks. I think this is going to pick up speed. I think the more people learn about it and the awareness thats created really is the sky is the limit. So were thrilled. This is a core part of our vision of the world, the journey to selfreliance, so we think its a great day. So before i gave ivanka the final work, i have to say it has been President Trump and secretary pompeo have given me the honor of my life to be state Department Spokesperson. Its a dream job. One of the reasons im sitting here is because ivanka and jared have been advocates of mine. Were all in this room because we all care about womens rights and womens Economic Empowerment. But ivanka specifically has used her influence, has used her agency. She could be doing anything. The last thing she needs to be doing is the battles of washington. I see her and jared take on the world on a daytoday basis when they dont need to. She could be doing a million other things. Im so impressed at her work ethic and so moved by her ability to literally go around the world to try and change the world for women, to try to make the world a better place for women despite all the critics. Youre a hero of mine. Thank you. That means a lot. You know, the reward of this journey is the impact and the individual stories that you learn and you hear firsthand. So really it is the honor of a lifetime to be able to do this work and have so much incredible feedback. We mentioned the private sector, lgo community. Id also really like to thank the members of congress, bipartisan members, several of whom join us here today. Its all coming together. Theres been a focus on womens empowerment for a long time but all the pieces are now coming together where there is a universal agreement. I was on the hill with Senate Foreign relations talking about womens peace and security and the Critical Role women playing ensuring peace and in conflict negotiations is a permanent result of being at the table, just by being present. The role of conflict and negotiation is so important and the administration rolled out a corp. Hencive strategy two operationalize gdp a few weeks ago. The we act, which congresswoman frankel was a tremendous advocate for and chairman mccaul, a tremendous advocate for was signed into law bully the president last year. This is critical underpinning today. Enable flexibility to lend to small and medium sized Women Owned Business but also collect data in a way that will make you smarter and more educated in terms of the choices youre making. Mark was talking before about how rigorous our metrics are when we talk about each and every investment. Foreign Development Assistance dollars are finite. This is precious taxpayer money and we need to spend it responsibly with the goal of achieving selfreliance for the countries where were involved in. So we are very excited as mark mentioned. This really is just the beginning. We are Just Launched and were already seeing impact. Teaming up with the people on the stage as just a representative sample of this first tranche. We have no doubt is going to enable us to really achieve extraordinary things. So thank you all for being here and thank you to the members of congress who have joined us. Thank you, liz, for giving us the forum and for championing this Initiative Since inception. First theres two more things today. First and foremost, lets thank these fabulous individuals, ivanka, mark, morgan and our three implementers. This was i think all of us would agree this is a very Exciting Initiative as i said in my opening remarks, we are all here and excited to continue to work. But the theme that i heard is this is about partnership. Partnership of whole of government, partnership in terms of the sampling we just heard of the ngo and Business Community and partnership in terms of bickacameral and bipartisan, we going to close hearing those individuals who are the driving force of the legislation ivanka just talked about, the Women Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment act that was signed into law at the end of last year. I first want to thank again ivanka, mark, morgan and our panelists chris and neelum and candy, thank you for joining us. I want to briefly introduce our elected officials. So were honored today the program is going to end very briefly but were honored today to have two tremendous friends of the usglc and wgdp with us today who have been instrumental in advancing women Economic Empowerment. Let me briefly just mention how they connect to this issue and invite them both to come up to the podium. Representative mccaul hails from texas, as i think many of you know. Is not only a sponsor of the we act but actually joined ivanka and mark in africa to launch wgdp overseas. Congressman, you may be new as the lead republican to the powerful House Foreign Affairs committee, but when it comes to already creating an extraordinary legacy in terms of advancing americas interest in the world, all of us owe a great debt of gratitude to you. Were so honored to have you here. Youll be joined on stage by an influential members of the appropriations committee, the cochair of the bipartisans womens caucus and one of the original cosponsors and driver of the we act, florida congresswoman lois frankel. Congresswoman, your commitment to womens Economic Empowerment has truly forever changed the lives of many women here in the u. S. And throughout the world, and we, too, all are very grateful for you. Everyone please welcome congressman mccaul and congresswoman frankel. See if you can see me. These podiums first things, podiums are designed for me. I think you can see me. Liz, thank you so much for your leadership and for hosting this administrator green, adviser trump, thank you so much for your leadership and to the implementers i thank them for being here. To all of you, i know i thank you for advancing the United States interests around the wor world. I want to tell you why im here for a couple of reasons. First of all, i did want to hear about these new partnerships. Second, i to emphasize that advancing the economic status of women globally is bipartisan. Isnt it nice that something is bipartisan . [ applause ] and i think you mentioned, it was mentioned that last year he had royce who was a great chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee along with a bipartisan effort in the senate we joined forces on the womens entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment act, it was signed by President Trump with the goal of reducing gender gaps in economic opportunity. I want to thank you, ivanka, for championing that for us in the senate. But i want to tell you what propelled my interest in this subject is not just my feminist inclinations, which are great, but actually i think like most mothers i was probably most influenced by my son ben, who after graduating college went into the marines and i saw him sent off to two wars, afghanistan and iraq. Hes home safe. But when i was elected to congress i asked i specifically asked for an appointment to the Foreign Affairs committee because i literally wanted to learn about the world and how to keep the peace so that no one elses son or daughter would go to war. And in my seven years on Foreign Affairs or six years on Foreign Affairs, i traveled the world to almost every war zone and country in strive, i will just name a few, nigeria, iraq, afghanistan, ukraine, tunisia and i got to talk to lots of people and i heard hideous stories of violence and disrespect towards women and girls, i heard about girls being unable to get an education, you remember what happened with boca had a ram in nigeria and women with marginal skills an no resources to advance. What i realized is it takes more than tanks and bombs to keep us safe. As noted by the United States chamber of commerce, investing in women produces a multiplier effect. Women reinvest the majority of the income in their families and communities and womens economic participation is a gateway to household and community security. Im not going to repeat i have to say, ivanka or adviser trump, that i actually agree with everything you said today and who would ever believe that . And i thank you for saying that. But here is this, i want to conclude, and i want to add this, that its important as we look to advance women and girls we have to look at it holistically. With he can no the unleash the full potential of women without making sure that they live free from genderbased violence, like Human Trafficking and female gender mutilation, child marriage, so forth. We have to make sure that they are educated and most importantly that they have access to health. Research shows that access to Family Planning boosts womens workforce participation, education, wage growth. Its not enough to just promote womens entrepreneur ship and access to financial markets. We must recognize that for true equality and empowerment women must have control over their own bodies and, yes, that means access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health, and you knew i was going to mention that, right . Im sorry. [ applause ] as i said, but here i am here in a bipartisan spirit. Let me just end by saying this, here is where we all can agree, that when women are educated, when they are healthy, when they are free from violence, when they have opportunity to economic success we all win. More countries to trade with, less parents sending their kids off to war. When women succeed the world succeeds. Thank you. [ applause ] lets give a warm round of applause to representative frankel. [ applause ] i stand here today not as a woman, but as the husband to a very strong woman in my house and the father of four daughters that really keep me on my toes back up here and back home, but i really believe in this cause. I want to thank ivanka, adviser trump, and mark green and morgan, congrats on the new job, you picked a good one to be the state departments spokesperson. I have had a lot of opportunities to work with ivanka, whether it be childhood cancer, Human Trafficking issues. She has a big heart, but this is really truly a global energizing effort that she has taken on her own, working with mark, as a team, and working with the congress, and it is refreshing to see things in a bipartisan fashion in the congress. Im the lead republican on Foreign Affairs, chairman ingle and i have a saying that partisanship stops at the waters edge. That we shouldnt take our Party Affiliation overseas. Indeed when we travel like you talked about, we stand not as republicans or democrats, but as americans, with the american flag, representing the interests of america. And what better way to represent america than to empower women throughout the world. This is a very ambitious goal, very ambitious legislation that at the end of the day could lift up 50 million women across the globe. Its a very powerful statement and i was at the World Bank Summit with mark and ivanka and, boy, you know, i never saw more of a rock star than ivanka was at that World Bank Summit. I think every woman there wanted to get their selfie taken with her and it was just great to see that representation from a woman in africa with all those women who look up to her as a beacon of hope. Someone who is there to help. Wants to lift up their lives. Thats what the message is really all about and thats what we are all trying to do across the aisle is to lift up womens lives all over the planet. Weve done a few things in the congress, but this is about 50 million, we have 27 million being launched today, and this will continue. A few of the things we had done in the congress that complement, i think, this effort very well is we passed the well, the we act was a big deal, and thank you for introducing that bill, and i will never forget 7 00 a. M. Texas time and i got a call and it said no caller id, i said that must be the white house. I answered the phone and it said, congressman, this is ivanka. I was like she woke me up, it was 7 00 in the morning. I said, yes, ivanka, what can i do to help you . Well, we need a little help kind of nudging this thing along with the senate. And sure enough we got it done and we got it signed into law and that was a very proud moment, i think, for ivanka and mark and congresswoman frankel and myself to be standing there watching them sign that bill, but he also signed another document that i think speaks volumes about what this is all about, and he signed a National Security executive order. Ive spent an entire career in National Security, whether it be at the Justice Department or as chairman of Homeland Security and now Foreign Affairs. This truly is, i believe, stabilization of nations. Lifting up women and empowering women helps us in the fight against terrorism. The build act was a significant piece of legislation as well. It complements this. It allows opic to really operate on steroids to provide that financing through the private sector as well to lift up people and invest in the world, the global fragility act that senator coons and Lindsey Graham and i introduced and we talked a lot with ivanka and mark about this one, and the one campaign has really taken this on as one of their biggest sort of lobbying procedures on the hill, and we are looking at it from a stabilization standpoint. The more the globe is stabilized and not fragile, the more theres governance, the more theres economic prosperity, the less extremism you see, and the safer the world will be. So i want to thank i would like to call her ambassador trump because what i saw overseas was quite remarkable, but the great work they are a great team working together. This is going to go a long ways and its great that we can Work Together as Americans First to put the goals of women womens rights, its a human rights issue and its a National Security issue, so i want to thank you all so much for your work. [ applause ] i would say that america is certainly fortunate to have two fabulous members of congress, thank you both, congresswoman frankel, congressman mccaul. This has been an amazing conversation. It is now time to stop talking and to get to work and to empower women economically throughout the world. Thank you all for joining us for this conversation today. [ applause ] on capitol hill this week the Senate Resumes debate on the nomination of mark esper to be secretary of defense. A confirmation vote is expected tomorrow. Also tomorrow votes on the house passed 9 11 Victim Compensation fund. In the house members will consider a bill later this week to help secure Retirement Savings for workers and retirees. Also legislation to address Border Security and accountability at the Homeland Security department. Watch the house live on cspan. The senate live on cspan 2. And you can see both on cspan. Org or listen to congressional debate on cspans free radio app. And tomorrow fbi director Christopher Wray is expected to testify before the Senate Judiciary committee about oversight of the fbi. Live coverage tomorrow morning at 10 00 eastern here on cspan 3. Live online at cspan. Org or listen live on the radio app. Robert mueller testifying to congress on wednesday about possible obstruction of justice and abuse of power by President Trump and russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. Our live coverage starts at 8 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan 3, online at cspan. Org or listen wherever you are with the free cspan radio app. Before the hearing listen to the complete Mueller Report at cspan. Org on your laptop or mobile device. Type Mueller Report audio in the search box. The audio is courtesy of timberline media. The house will be in order. For 40 years cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. And around the country, so you can make your up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. The house modernization of Congress Committee explored best practices on how to recruit and retain a diverse congressional staff. Human resources executives and an author of three books on workplace topics testified and answered questions from committee members. This is about an hour and a half. Okay. All right. The committee will come to order without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. This hearing is entitled cultivating diversity and improving retention among congressional staff. I now recognize myself for five minutes to give an opening statement. One of the main ways in which we retain staff is by having it be a 90 degrees in here, so