[wanabidii] Press Releases: Ambassador Russell Announces New Global Women's Entrepreneurship Fund

You are subscribed to Press Releases for U.S. Department of State. This information has recently been updated, and is now available. Press Releases: Ambassador Russell Announces New Global Women's Entrepreneurship Fund 02/26/2016 12:45 PM EST Ambassador Russell Announces New Global Women's Entrepreneurship Fund Media Note Office of the Spokesperson Washington, DC February 26, 2016 Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Cathy Russell joined representatives from Kiva and the Inter-American Development Bank today to launch the Women’s Entrepreneurship Fund at Kiva’s headquarters in San Francisco. The Fund is a new initiative that will help expand access to finance for women in 83 countries. When lenders respond to a woman entrepreneur’s request for a loan through Kiva’s online platform, their contributions will be matched dollar for dollar by the Fund, to which donors are able to contribute at a minimum of $250,000. As part of the Fund, the Department will support data collection and analysis to measure how effective the initiative is in expanding women’s access to finance. The data will help illustrate the financial needs and activity of women entrepreneurs around the world by measuring several indicators, including the size of loans women are taking on, in which industry, and for what purpose. This new initiative responds to the steep challenges facing many women entrepreneurs looking to access capital. According to the International Finance Corporation, as many as 70 percent of women-owned small and medium enterprises in developing economies are unserved or underserved by financial institutions, contributing to a global credit gap of $260 to $320 billion for women alone. For more information on the Fund, please contact SGWI_PA@state.gov. For more information on the State Department’s work on global women’s issues, visit http://www.state.gov/s/gwi/. The Office of Website Management, Bureau of Public Affairs, manages this site as a portal for information from the U.S. State Department. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein. Stay connected with the State Department:       External links found in this content or on Department of State websites that go to other non-Department websites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views or privacy policies contained therein.  Update your subscriptions, modify your password or email address, or stop subscriptions at any time on your Subscriber Preferences Page. You will need to use your email address to log in. If you have questions or problems with the subscription service, please visit subscriberhelp.govdelivery.com. This service is provided to you at no charge by U.S. Department of State. This email was sent to wanabidii@googlegroups.com using GovDelivery, on behalf of: U.S. Department of State · 2201 C Street NW · Washington, DC 20520