Our Hope for U.S.

Leadership on Global Gender Equality

Our Hope for U.S. Leadership on Global Gender Equality

CAREThursday, 26 January 2017
By Michelle Nunn and Dr. Sarah Degnan Kambou
Millions of women and men gathered in Washington, D.C. and cities around the world over the three-
day Inauguration weekend to show their support for human rights and freedoms here and abroad. Now
days later, President Trump has issued an executive order reinstating the Mexico City Policy, limiting
access to life-saving health care for women abroad.
Prior to the Inauguration, the Trump transition team released a statement saying the new Administration
would ensure that the rights of women across the world are valued and protected while finding ways
of improving existing programs and promoting womens economic and political participation. In light
of this statement, we urge President Trump to continue the nations long-standing, bipartisan support of
women and girls around the world.
Continued U.S. leadership in human rights and humanitarian assistance efforts that include health care,
economic development and gender equity are critical because investments in women and girls pay big
dividends for individuals and for nations, including the United States. It is intimately important to
women like Salamatou.
When she was 13, Salamatou Dagnogo of the West African nation of Cte dIvoire was forced to
marry. By 20, she had five children with her 60-year-old husband, who regularly abused her. I had one
dress, which I washed every night, she says. I didn't know how to write and I couldnt go to school. I
had no life and no future.
That changed when someone knocked on Salamatous door and invited her to join a CARE community
micro-savings program. Salamatou used her first $2 loan to buy salt. She paid it back within two weeks,
took out another loan and bought more. Everything sold quickly in the local market and soon Salamatou
was a salt wholesaler.
From this small $2 loan, she was able to build a thriving business, buy her own home, send her children
to school and help her son start his own taxi service. Ive found a good place now, Salamatou says.
My story is the same for lots of women. We help ourselves and we change our situation.

Salamatou Dagnogo with CARE CEO Michelle Nunn in 2016. Forced to marry at 13, Salamatou's life
was transformed when she joined a women's group that gave her a microloan to start her own business.
Research substantiates Salamatous experience: The International Center for Research on Women
(ICRW) has demonstrated that fostering economic empowerment keeps girls in school and fosters an
enabling policy and legal environment. Empowering girls with training on their rights and how to
exercise them is not only effective in ending child marriage, but also in advancing larger social and
economic development.
Moreover, McKinsey Global Institute studies found that a full potential scenario, in which women
and men play identical roles in labor markets could add $28 trillion, or 26 percent, to the global annual
GDP by 2025.
Knowing that womens empowerment and gender equality are associated with peace and stability in
society, both Republican and Democratic administrations have seen the wisdom of investing significant
resources and diplomatic capital in womens health, economic opportunity, rights and education.
There has been a growing focus on the rights of women and girls as fundamental to our diplomacy and
foreign policy. In 2001, President George W. Bush signed the Afghan Women and Children Relief Act,
which invests in womens health and education. His emergency AIDS relief initiative, PEPFAR,
recognized the particular vulnerability of women to HIV and their essential role in prevention.
Knowing that countries with more girls in secondary school tend to have lower maternal and infant
mortality rates, lower HIV/AIDS and better child nutrition, President Obama launched Let Girls Learn
in 2015.
But there is a great deal more to do. United Nations data show that a girl under 15 gets married every
seven seconds. Today 130 million girls are out of school.
The Trump Administration should expand these kinds of investments. Imagine the possibilities if, for
instance, the U.S. government and private sector set a goal to equip 125 million more women with
savings programs like the one that changed Salamatous future. A program like this could generate $12
billion in savings and allow 24 million additional children access to education.
With the Inauguration and Womens March on Washington behind us, leaders in government, the
private sector, citizen advocates and representatives of humanitarian, faith-based and nonprofit
organizations must continue working together to ensure that U.S. global investments in women and
girls grow and achieve their intended impact.
President Trump, we urge you to stand by your statement that you will ensure the rights of women
across the world are valued and protected. We are deeply concerned that your reinstatement of the
Mexico City Policy will have exactly the opposite effect. Evidence shows that blocking health services
and counseling to vulnerable women in countries affected by this policy puts them at increased risk and
has dangerous and even deadly consequences for women, families and communities all over the world.
We hope you will reconsider the scope of your order and invite you to join our efforts to support girls,
women and families who are living in poverty. Making gender equality and womens empowerment
central to your efforts to promote Americas prosperity and security around the world is the smart thing
to do.
Michelle Nunn is president & CEO of CARE. Dr. Sarah Degnan Kambou is the president of the
International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).