The Women Entrepreneur Finance Initiative, an effort Ivanka Trump spearheaded in part to empower womens' business endeavors in developing countries, became operable this week.
“The progress that the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (WeFi) has made over the past few months is encouraging and exciting,” the first daughter said in a statement, reports ABC News. “I look forward to continuing my work with the World Bank Group via this facility to support women entrepreneurs around the globe and remove existing barriers to their growth and success.”
WeFi was announced during the G-20 Summit in July, and is working to leverage more than a billion dollars to help finance small-and medium-sized business enterprises.
Anta Babacar, manager of the largest agricultural business in West Africa, told ABC the fund is the "biggest opportunity" that one could dream of, as women struggle to get loans for business projects.
She also said she had a hard time finding women to look up to while running her family business.
Caren Grown, senior director for gender at the World Bank Group, says the new fund is the first of its kind, and has never done to the sale of the current initiative.
"[It is] something that really brings together the commercial private sector with governments,” said Grown.
Collectively, 14 countries have contributed $340 million for the fund, with $50 million coming from the United States. The contributions will allow at least $800 million more from international bank and commercial financing.
Grown said Trump's advocacy, as well as that from high-level persons such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and IMF Managing Director Christine LaGarde, has proven important for the fund.
According to the White House and World Bank the fund's concept grew following a conversation between Trump and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim. She has no role in running the fund but will continue to play an advocacy role.