It runs an hour. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the United States department of state. My name is kelly curry. I am the ambassador at large for women global issues here at the department. We are honored and delighted to have leaders from across the u. S. Government here in attendance for the inaugural meeting of the Interagency Steering Committee of the White Houses Womens Global Development and prosperity initiative. Thank you so much for coming. Its now my great pleasure to introduce our wonderful secretary of state, michael pompeo, to open our discussion. Thank you. Thank you, ambassador curry. Welcome, everyone. Ambassador curry will be heading this new wgdp unit here at the state department. Congratulations to you. Thank you. Its a privilege and, frankly, joyous for me to be here today to kick off this inaugural Interagency Steering Committee meeting. Thank you all for being here. Our country was founded on the self evident idea and truth that every man and woman is endowed with a certain set of rights and so deserves a chance to achieve his or her godgiven potential, something we, regardless of our political party, agree on. Whats more, womens achievements are americas achievements and its an historical and tangible expression of our founding values. Through this initiative, american interests are also served by having freer, more peaceful and prosperous neighbors at the heart of American Foreign policy in this administration. The need for the wgdp is clear and its urgent. Too many barriers have kept women from opportunities in far too many parts of the world. Tomorrow, ill leave for my trip to subsa harrahn africa. I look forward to meeting with women who i know ivanka met with last year when she was in ethiopia, a woman who worked with us to expand her local business to 500 employees, a true testament to the effectiveness and the goodness that comes from the wgdp programs. If we succeed there it can be many stories like hers. Thank you, ambassador. I look forward to working with you and your team and look forward to your leadership on this important issue. Thank you, secretary pompeo. My partner in crime, real star of this initiative, ivanka trump, adviser to the president. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, ambassador. To go from a Small Business to employer of hundreds of women that she teaches the skills to. Now the countrys largest exporter of woven textiles. Really an amazing story. And really thank you for being here and for supporting the dedicated men and women of the state department. And for your leadership in forging a legacy of bold diplomacy around the world. Womens Global Development and prosperity initiative, also known as wgdp. Anniversaries like this allow us an opportunity to highlight the incredible work thats been done by all of you and your team sitting around this table and set new goals to drive us into the future. Were especially excited to announce the state departments new role as lead coordinating agency, working to support the white houses continued direction on policy. The state department will establish a dedicated team to work on wgdp under the incredible leadership of ambassador kelly curry. States diplomatic and policy expertise is really incredibly critical to all elements of the wgdp initiative but particularly as it relates to driving the types of legal and regulatory reforms that are so important to sustainable change across the world. So i want to thank you again, secretary pompeo and ambassador curry and many others across the state department who share this priority and are committed to this. Thank you, mark green, for joining us. Essential for this to be successful and we know it will be. In december, we were thrilled to announce that wgdp dwot got its own line item, which is truly incredible for a Young Initiative and signaled the strong bipartisan support weve been so fortunate to receive in the collaboration on this initiative with members across the aisle on the hill since its inception. This past week the president reaffirmed his commitment to the initiative in the 2021 budget, which doubled the allocation to wgdp. So many individuals in this room have worked tirelessly over the past several years to get this initiative off the ground and i would like to thank everyone around this table for prioritizing womens Economic Empowerment efforts across your agencies and departments. Wgdp success relies upon the hard work that you and your teams put forward every day. So, thank you all. I also want to recognize and thank senator Lindsey Graham and senator jean shaheen for joining us here today. Youve both been instrumental in the creation of this initiative from day one and have worked on developing it with your experiences. We first worked together on women peace and security legislation and subsequent to that, the womens entrepreneurship, Economic Empowerment act and built a very constructive relationship based on a shared mission and shared goal. I am particularly pleased to be able to announce today that we will be introducing Bipartisan Legislation in the senate to promote the empowerment with women globally aptly named the wgdp act. This legislation would establish womens Economic Empowerment as a corps facet in line with the president s own National Security strategy. The Womens Global Development and prosperity act will also permanently elevate these efforts at the state department by establishing for the First Time Ever legislation, office of womens empowerment led by an ambassador at large. There have been continuous efforts to try to codify the role of women as a Foreign Policy priority. This white house looks forward to working closely with congress and passing wgdp legislation and realizing this long overdue goal. We thank you for your partnership and your commitment to helping us get this done. I would also like to recognize and thank representative mccaul. Thank you, representative, and his counterpart, wrangel. Happy to announce that under their leadership, they will be introducing a companion bill in the house of representatives in the coming days and we thank you again for your steadfast commitment to advancing this work, representative mccaul. Really thank you. And thank you for being here. To put all of this in a little bit of context, last february the president signed the National Security president ial memorandum to officially launch wgdp. Wgdp is the firstever all of government coordinated approach to womens Economic Empowerment across the agencies. This nspm also established an ambitious goal of reaching 50 million women across the developing world by 2025. Today, we will release the first annual wgdp report in front of everyone today, detailing our impact. And i am beyond excited to be able to announce that we have reached over 12 million women in the last year alone. All of this through innovative programs, all of which is itemized in the report. One of the key components wgdp is recognizing the role of the public and private sector in achieving large scale and lasting results, the private sector is an absolutely critical partner in our mission as we seek to address barriers to womens economic inclusion. I would like to call out a few of our partners with us from inception, including mastercard, visa and u. P. S. For helping us generate this tremendous impact. These partnerships have made it possible to source and scale Innovative New projects across all three of the peculiars. Under peculiar one, Workforce Development by eqiuping them with jobs to secure local economies and to enhance the productivity of the work theyre doing. Weve launched programs like women connect, a call for solutions to include womens participation in everyday life by meaningfully changing the way women and girls access and use technology. Through this program, usaid has awarded 2. 9 million to 12 grantees working to bridge the digital gender divide in our country. In pillar two, were empowering women to succeed as entrepreneurs. We know that womenowned or womenrun businesses make up a third of small to Medium Enterprises in emerging markets, yet some of the greatest obstacles to growth include access to capital, mentorship and trading markets. Through initiative launch by this administration, such as the wgdp 2x challenge we galvanize the rest of the g7 nations in committing 3 billion through the world bank womens finance initiati initiative, otherwise known as wefi. Weve mobilized more than 2. 6 million to date. This weekend i will travel with ambassador curry, World Bank President and imf managing director to the wefi summit in dubai. Were making historic progress on closing the gender gap and empowering Women Entrepreneurs to create jobs in our communities. Finally, and maybe the most importantly, pillar three recognizes the central role of a Legal Framework that enables women to thrive. Today in 90 countries, theres still a law on the books that restrict womens ability to hold the same positions as men n 75 countries theres at least one law that prohibits women from owning, managing or inheriting property. We can and we must address these laws and regulations. To that end, two of the most significant milestones weve seen are that the governments each amended laws to womens Economic Empowerment by addressing womens property and land rights. We commend those Government Force making the important and bold reform. The United States stands eager and ready to work with every country willing to take action, to address discriminatory legal and regulatory barriers that hold women back and impede economic progress for all. In a landmark report, economic advisers, thank you, thomas, for being here, estimates that fully addressing the five legal barriers of wgdp, owning and managing property and removing employment restrictions could increase annual global gdp by 7. 7 trillion. 8. 3 . Its a really amazing report and we suggest that everyone take a close look at it. In the coming year, we can work to empower millions of women to lift their families out of poverty, to reduce dependency and to deliver on the promise of Greater Peace and prosperity. I look forward to working with each of you around this table as we advance this ambitious goal. Now i would like to turn it over to my dear friend, senator graham, to follow up with a few words. Thank you, senator. Well, thank you very much. I dont know where to start except to say thank you to ivanka and her team for not taking no for an answer. Its just so much easier to pass this bill than it is to meet with her all the time. Lindsey, its genetic. You have a determination thats good for washington. Secretary pompeo, thank you for putting the state department behind this initiative. This idea needed a home and i think its found a good home here because you will nurture and make it grow. To jean, we live in tough, turbulent times. Youre always somebody who is willing to work on things that matter, you have an ability to compartmentalize whats healthy for the country. Were trying to memorialize this in legislation so its not just one administrations idea, but becomes the United States governments standing commitment to women. And thats where the bill matters, by making it a part of our law that will be passed on from one administration to the other. Very quickly, ive been to iraq and afghanistan, pushing 60 times. And what do you learn over and over again . That when a mothers voice is silenced its not a very good place to live. When a womans future is determined on the day shes born and theres no hope is a very discouraging place. To fix a problem, you have to identify it. Trying to make africa more self sufficient when it comes to food. Empower africa to make sure africa can grow economically by having affordable power. But the one thing i can say above all else is that the way a nation presents Economic Opportunity to women will determine their future and ours. To those who wonder why does this matter to you in south carolina, i promise you, in places where women can be part of the economy, we have more customers. In places where women can have a say about her childs future, youll have peace. And a place where theyre treated poorly, put in soccer stadium for sport, mass rape under the name of religion, our soldiers will soon go there because that ideology will eventually come here. This goes to the root cause of the problem. Imagine a world where your daughter cannot inherit approximate property that your wife or sister cant go to a bank to borrow money simply because youre a woman. Empower women and hold governments accountable who refuse to recognize the value of a womans voice for their society and the benefit of mankind in general. This could be the most consequential. You have my commitment to make sure its done this year and long into the future that this program will be maintained, nurturd and grow over time. Thank you, senator graham. Your commitment is inspiring and i hope it inspires your fellow senators to get behind this initiative. I want to turn things over to senator shaheen, who has been such a rock star in leading this bipartisan effort. Thank you. Thank you, ambassador. Im pleased to be able to join all of you in this whole of government approach. I appreciate, ivanka, your leadership on this issue. And, you know, as noted in the 2014 report from the world bank, women are more economically excluded than men. 2. 7 and 104 countries have laws restricting the types of jobs that women can take as well as where and when they can work. That number is a little different than the number ivanka used but because it defines it a little differently. Regardless of whether its 90 some countries or 104 countries, the point is too much of the world still discriminates against women. And the impact of economic inequality is not born by women alone, as lyndsey said so eloquently. The Global Economy are all hurt by the fact that women are not allowed equal opportunities. Research estimates that closing the gender gap in the workforce could add as much as a trillion to the global gdp by 2025. If women achieve paid equality with men the capital wealth would increase by over 100 trillion, according to the world bank. I think theres a lot of support and enshrine it in legislation, it will continue in future congresses that will make a huge difference around the world. We need a multiprong approach in order to truly help women and girls succeed and this legislation aims to do just that. Wgdp, which this legislation codifies, takes a whole of government approach to gender equality, as all the speakers have said to date. Im particularly pleased that ambassador kelly kurry is here, leading this effort. And the direct line to the secretary of state, which i think all of us would agree is important in adding the credibility and really the weight to this effort. I know the house members and senators appreciate, ensures that legislative branches are working together to address womens global issues. As everyone has said, u. S. Leadership on womens empowerment is absolutely critical. The u. S. Must continue to be the standard barrier on gender policies, best practices, Development Programs that support over half of the worlds population. So thank you all for the works youre doing. I look forward to joining you in continuing this effort. Thank you. Thank you, senator shaheen, again, for your leadership. I would like to recognize representative mccaul. Thank you. Congratulations to you on your new position. Secretary, its an honor to be here with all of you to celebrate the oneYear Anniversary of the Womens Global Development and prosperity initiative. Last year, i had the honor to travel with senator Lindsey Graham and ivanka trump to launch the support and effort. The energy and excitement around this initiative was incredible. And ivanka, you are a rock star. And youre a rock star over there. And im so proud to support you in this critical work. You set a deadline, as lindsey mentioned and we met that deadline, im proud to say that. In this very polarized time in our government, theres very few things we get to work on that earn such bipartisan support. And senator shaheen, thank you for your work as well. Its truly a bipartisan effort. Thats because we know the impact we are having here today. When a woman is empowered and activity participant in her community, the economy and society, we mow countries are more stable and more prosperous. Thats why lindsey and i passed the act to stabilize nations. To me, that gets to the root cause of the problem of extremism. Secretary pompeo talks about fighting instability and terrorism, when mark green talks about supporting a countrys journey to self reliance, when larry kudlow talks about opportunity, business investment. This effort to empower women is central. To all these u. S. Policy objectives. This is a National Security issue. The biggest threat, in my judgment, to extremism is an empowered woman. And that is why wgdp sets a goal to reach out to 50 million women think about that, 50 million women. So i work with all of you to meet and surpass that goal and i applaud senators graham and shaheen for todays introduction of the wgdp act, building on the success. This legislation will codify the important interagency coordination and Senior Leadership dedicated to advancing this work. Most importantly in the house, im working together with chairman engel. We will introduce the house companion to this legislation in the very next few days and i will take everyone working together, well take everyone working together this int interagency, ngos th