The U.N.-sponsored global forum to promote gender equality produced around $40 billion in pledges recently to support women and girls accomplish that goal, partly fueled by a remarkable $2.1 billion fund from Bill and Melinda Gates’ namesake foundation.
Further, the foundation also said it would allocate the money on health and family planning programs, economic empowerment schemes, and other initiatives in the next five years.
The pledge was done at the Generation Equality Forum gathered by UN Women in Paris. At the same time, private donors, government officials and civil society leaders met to offer financial and political promises to help lead gender equality universal.
Some of the pledges came from different foundations, including the Ford Foundation, which said they would fund $420 million in the next five years on gender equality actions. Similarly, the George Soros-founded Open Society Foundations and PayPal — each guaranteed more than $100 million.
Promoting gender equality is a focus area for the Seattle-based foundation, the most comprehensive private charitable group in the United States with a revenue of nearly $50 billion. It gives about $5 billion annually through its charitable work.
