You got quiet so quickly. Good afternoon and welcome everyone. We are in for an important discussion. I am liz schrayer the president and ceo of u. S. Global Leadership Coalition usglc . We are honored to cohost todays event. And i would like to welcome our special guest ivanka trump and usaid administrator mark greene. Todays program is the first public event in the United States of the u. S. Global initiative. This is an opportunity to highlight a Game Changing initiative. Unleashing the full potential of women in the world. And to hear about innovative activity. For the men in this room no offense to you but a topic like this, to go wrong . U. S. Global Leadership Coalition usglc has been pleased to be part of this initiative. I remember early on when the board had the opportunity to meet with ivanka trump your unwavering commitment to bring the idea of womens Economic Empowerment to the center stage has been extraordinary. And everybody in this room joins and thank you for that. And mark, we have been pleased to join you in discussions with you and your team at usaid for bringing your expertise of a Global Development to the table. I was pleased to join you at the oval office of the signing and we were very proud to work with capitol hill on the passage of womens entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment act. We have some members of congress who will be talking about that shortly. The truth is there are a few agendas that bring together people that are as compelling and unifying as the one we are going to talk about today. In this town its quite nice that we have a topic that does that. Gathered here is a wide array of stakeholders that have come together because they believe in the initiative that we will be talking about. I see friends from the administration, from the white house, the state department, usaid, friends from capitol hill on both sides of the aisle. Leaders that are known as a strange bedfellow coalition. We bring together unusual voices. There are businesses here like walmart, png, and faith based communities, and catholic relief services. There are military leaders and veterans here. All because they believe in initiative that we are going to be talking about. This issue does not just resonate here in the beltway. There are people around the country that really resonates with what we are going to talk about. As you know usglc is active in all 50 states. We have posted forms in town Hall Meetings across the country with Business Leaders , mayors, College President s, faith leaders. We have been everywhere in places like appleton, dayton, lummus, Salt Lake City and beyond. When we have had these conversations that we talk about how leading globally matters a locally. When we turned the topic of women and empowering women economically our audience literally lights up. They understand the power of lifting up women. Of investing in what ivanka trump calls a Smart Development assistance. They are all in when it is about supporting programs that deliver results to our security, our economy, and our values. About this time last year i hosted a conversation to celebrate the 15th year of pepper farm. I brought together a group of people who were the original individuals who helped launch that event. From the administration on capitol hill. I asked the question sitting on the podium, what was the secret sauce that endured through multiple administrations that created the success that saved 17 million lives . There were four ingredients that were mentioned. Tylers focus on results, bipartisan support from both ends of pennsylvania avenue, local country leadership, Government Resources that Leverage Private sector involvement, both from the business and the Ngo Community. Perhaps w gdp has that secret sauce. Earlier this year i went and saw one of those programs. And im sure many of you in this room have done the same. But this was a different, it was 2. 0. The program is called dream. It was a program that doesnt just save lives, it gives life. I met a young girl, she told me her story. She was 13 years old when she was abandoned by her mother. At 50 years old she had hiv aids, two children, and was homeless. A few years later was when i met her. She had been part of the dream program that eliminated the barriers that empowered economically. She was healthy, safe, now a fashion designer. She has a future, and she has a dreams. There are so many stories yet to be told. That is what we are going to talk about today. It is my honor to welcome to the podium and to this platform our first panelist. Our moderator today is a face that is well known and a longtime friend of our community. The state department has a new spokesperson morgan ortega. And the special guest, the advisor to the president , ivanka trump and the administrator of usaid ambassador mark greene. Please welcome all three to the stage. Hi everyone. Thank you everyone for coming today. Its so wonderful to see so many people here that care about womens Economic Development and prosperity. Of course, thank you liz. Youre just a dream for this community. And thank you for cohosting this event. This is actually my first event in my new role as a state department spokesperson. And i am so honored that youre having me as part of this event. The state department is a proud member of the wgdp program. And we were to advance the three pillars of wgdp. Women prospering in the workforce, succeeding as entrepreneurs, and women enabling the economy. The state department was involved in the review process for the wgdp awardees. I will continue to engage on upcoming progress. Such as the International Leadership program, overcoming barriers to womens economic participation. That will debut this fall. Lets get right to it with two of the best people working on these initiatives. I dont think many people know this, but you had a major success in the president S National Security strategy which was the first time you got women written to the National Security strategy. I have an update if youd like to read more. Earlier this year when the president established the wgdp initiative. You tell us a little bit about why its important to get women written into the National Security strategy, and how that ties into wgdp . First of all happy birthday morgan. And thank you for being here. We are grateful for your hard work and service and the advocacy for the issues that we will be discussing here today. And thank you to mark greene who is been an incredible partner in this initiative from the earliest days. And liz and the entire usglc team. You are one of the first groups that we reached out to in a series of comprehensive listening sessions that helped us with this initiative. We started with the premises that there are unique obstacles and barriers to women in the workforce. We have this at home and we are fighting those barriers, and striving to lower them, whether its the lack of affordable and accessible childcare in the country. We are working to address that. Paid family leave, and other issues. We look globally at developing wealth there are a separate set of challenges and unique problems. We started looking at all that has been done previously. What had been successful and where there was a void. We launched initiative in the early stages of the administration to build those forward. For example with the world bank, because there was inadequate access to capital for small and medium size of female entrepreneurs in the world. We launched with opec. The First Development institution to think about lending through a gender level. Its quite novel. And we used g7 in canada to reinforce that and create a call to action among the other countries and institutions. And we were successful in that effort. We took a step back after launching these in a series of others after we connected with mark greene to help bridge the gender divide. We step back and say what the most effective ways, the most important ways economically to empower women . And how can we create a comprehensive government approach to doing this . That never happened before. They had never been in a government approach to womens Economic Empowerment. We know it is smart from a Development Assistance standpoint. And we know it is critically important, which is often underplayed. It is critically important from a National Security perspective, which is why we are very proud of the fact that the president S National Security strategy issue from december 2017 had a section on the role of womens Economic Empowerment. Fostering peace and stability. One statistic that is really eyeopening. If you look at the country that score the lowest on the index for gender discrimination. 80 of them experienced Armed Conflict in the last two decades. When you marry a good Economic Policy in terms of growth, opportunity, and prosperity with smart defense policy and security policies. Then you really get peoples attention. And that is what we are quite excited for. The president launched wgdp as his 16th National Security president ial memorandum. There hasnt been many since the administration has been affect. We work to design it with hundreds of lawmakers, ngos, advocates in the region. And we came up with the three pieces that you mentioned. Women prospering in the workforce. This is helping women with Vocational Education that will help them secure jobs. And as importantly it may be more importantly helping them gain access to markets, technology that will fuel the protect deputy productivity for the existing work that women are doing. We have all heard of well intended programs that teach people skills, and after graduating from those programs those in vigils are unable to secure a job because there are no jobs available. Coming with the private sector on all of these are important. Promoting entrepreneurship, access to capital, and the last one which are really there hasnt been a robust push and a coordinated fashion. And i think its the most critical. Which is changing laws that prohibit women from participant in the local economy. We focus on five specific laws. Today we were really excited to applaud and celebrate the change of the marriage law which will now enable women to inherit property and acquire property, which was previously not allowed under the law. [ applause ] thank you. This builds upon great work done at the local level. And through funding with local ngos and advocates. It reinforces the central nature of change in the law. That is the type of thing that will create extraordinary transformative change. Im excited that today in addition to that great announcement for millions of women, we are also announcing the awarding of the first launch of grants from usaid to empower and move forward wgdp. 100,000 women and 22 countries will benefit. There are 14 projects, each have the three pillars that we just discussed and mentioned. It is 27 million of u. S. Government dollars, we mobilized 160 million of private sector funds to match and accelerate that. Hundreds of ngos and private sector companies. We are very excited about the private sector and the Ngo Community coming alongside of us to amplify and accelerate our work. It is great and you will be hearing from some of those recipients today that will help highlight each of the three pillars that the initiative has and share with us the great work that they are doing. That is incredibly exciting. That is really great news. Administrator mark greene i have a soft spot in my heart for usaid. That was my first spot. We trained you well. And i grew up. We know that usaid is very aligned with the goals of a wgdp. How are those specific programs working to implement this initiative . First off, for us it is a moral issue, equal opportunity of basic American Values that we project throughout all of our work. Its also a very practical matter. Liz talked a little bit about the Global Health programs and one of the best possible ways to advance Global Health is an educated girl becomes an educated mother, who passes a long life lessons and accesses the services. Its also an economic issue. We talk about the journey of selfreliance. Helping countries leave themselves. No country isnt a selfreliant if theyre not tapping into more than half of their population. It is interwoven in many ways, and every country where we work and all the programs that we do. What we see today is a really how we are using the new collaboration to help unlock dollars. We have gone beyond grants and contracts. We will still do those, but were looking for new ways to move opportunity to unlock networks, to scale up work that is being done. And for us a sense the call for proposals didnt come until march, and the closing date was in april. We made the decisions in june. That is a lightning speed. I think you will see because it was a different approach and we still had the expert review panel, all of these incentives together made an enormous difference in a very short period of time. We are excited about what you will hear about today and are more excited about the future and what we think this will do as we continue to unlock these networks and build on the great work that so many great people in this room represent. Thats a wonderful. Just a dovetail on that. I do think its really important, obviously we have a responsibility to the american taxpayer. The goal of Development Assistance is self reliance. If youre not unleashing the potential of 50 of your population, then it is not going to achieve that goal. We think of this as a very Smart Development assistance. We think the Development Assistance isnt an entitlement. We talked about the law and the need to change laws that prohibit women from dissipating their economy. We continue to provide develop assistance to countries refused to make structural changes that enable women to inherit property, to travel freely, to open bank accounts, to work in the same industry as men. Their 2. 7 billion women and 114 countries who are unable to work in the same industry as men. Oftentimes the predominant industry within that economy. 114 countries . Oftentimes people do not realize how prevalent the issue is. The reason why the we focused on five specific laws. The fifth is being able to access credit on equal terms as a man in their society. These five laws we think are so foundational. Yet, there are tremendous barriers all over the globe. In geographic diverse regions. We are focused on that because we think it is one of the smartest places that we can allocate our time and resources to create an environment to make the program into promoting women in the workforce and Women Entrepreneurship that is sustainable and longterm. You mentioned that you been traveling around the world. Where would you say that using the most effective issues were women are really grabbing onto these programs and making a change . Mark and i were recently in africa and we saw tremendous programs. I was blown away by a village that we visited. It was three hours from the capital. And we saw firsthand a great example of a program that usaid worked on creating villages savings and loans. Women come together and form associations and they leverage their collective purchasing power to gain greater access to markets, and are able to secure the capital that they need to grow their business. We saw a very dynamic example of one of those associations. We also announced a new program to create 300 more, with the private sector and several private companies. Nestli, moores, carr gill. It was amazing to see this community of women working together individually. Where they receive the benefit of their individual work. But as a cooperative. Where they build and create opportunity as a collective. It was really extraordinary. I think you captured it well. Again understand that with each of these grants and programs we are unlocking things. Were not building things. We are unlocking and tapping into the entrepreneurial spirit that is at the heart of every family, every woman entrepreneur. I think its universal. Its always on africa, but its just the same in latin america. Youre looking for women that are looking for a chance by attacking some of those enabling environmental barriers. And we are unlocking those opportunities. Will continue this conversation and bring some of those real stories to the stage. We have the president and ceo of a company that advances a womens role in technology. Can you speak about how you are creating networks related to scale their businesses . Specifically in the artisan and manufacturing industries. And share a little more about how your projects in power and work across all the sectors in india . Its a great honor to be here. Its a wonderful opportunity offered to us. Our program that we pitched with usaid is a producer owned enterprise. I love these acronyms. We build women collectives. We work on supplementing the economy that supplies to global giants like ikea and hoping to tap into the world market. Its a huge opportunity and we build these collective properties. We create a wealth for poor women. India has the fifth largest economy. We also have the largest number of poor in the world. A large number of people that live on less than five dollars a day. And that impacts women the most. Through these collectives women start seeing their income triple, a lot of women that are earning for the first time in their lives and it leads to phenomenal no impact. And the value change that we have focused on is biodegradable options to replace plastics. And its for the tribal part of india. Im sorry to say that women are warning less than 50 annually. Now they will be in a state where they will start earning 500 a year. That is the power of the global value change. These enterprises will fit into the global value change. That is it in a nutshell. Thats fabulous. Chris your organization focuses on expanding womens land rights . Explain to us why these land rights are so important for women and girls . What is going on as it relates in africa to supporting Property Rights activity . Thank you. And thank you to usglc , usaid and the. Its a privilege to be here. Property cannot own property. I heard that said recently, and not for the first time. A man was trying to explain why womens land rights dont make sense. Because property cant own property. I think that phrase really gets to the issue of womens empowerment that we are here to talk about today. In many parts of the world, even here the United States historically. A womens right to own determines their status. Landowners get the right to vote in their community, they are the authority figures. Women in 90 countries because of law or custom cannot own, inherit, or manage land. They are really relegated to secondclass citizenship. And a life in a constant state of vulnerability. If we want to empower women we have to start with the inequity. It is the foundation for everything we care about. Most People Living in poverty, most women living in poverty live off the land. It is a home survival a chance to feed, close, and house their children. Land is a chance for entrepreneurship. Land is more than that. Its about dignity, voice, agency. Isnt that what this is all about. As new states try to define the alternative visions for development. Land rights in the agency they promise is quintessentially and american idea. Land rights provide the foundation for empowering women, empowered women of United States knows is the best pathway to selfreliance. Landesa has been working for 50 years in over 50 countries to help governments secure land rights for people who live in poverty. Some years ago we realize that just securing land rights was not going to just get us there. Without ensuring that women have the same rights as men, we are at risk of locking in inequality and missing the multiple benefits that come with investing in women. Now all of our work includes a gender filter weve seen the widespread benefits that occur when governments support womens land rights. In tanzania a recent study showed that women with a stronger land rights earned almost 4 times as much is women that didnt have those rights. In ethiopia, the household Land Certification Program led to a 50 increase in the probability that women could decide which crops to grow on their land. Starting in the early 1970s in vietnam landesa has worked closely with the u. S. Government and usaid across many administrations. We are very excited to hear the announcement that wgdp would prioritize womens land rights. The three pillars of wgdp. Women puts patient a workforce, entrepreneurship, enabling environment, they are all undergirded by womens rights to property and land. Our work on the initiative entitled Property Rights and womens Economic Empowerment supported by the wgdp aims to strengthen womens land rights in five african countries. In each of these countries will be working on four basic issues. Securing or helping governments change laws and policies to support womens land rights. Joint titling schemes that ensure that man and women have their name on title. And offers massive opportunity for benefits. Addressing discrimination that happens under customary legal systems, where womens land rights are most often at risk. And addressing responsible Land Investment by the private sector. We know that companies recognize that land conflicts, land grabs , and avoiding them along with strengthening womens land rights is one of best and they can do for the long term bottom line. Approximately 100 million women live in these five countries, this project will go a long way to bolster their entrepreneurship opportunities. We work with these women at landesa. We know that theyre not going to wait for their rights to own property , not to be property. And we hope you will join us on that journey. Thank you. That was so powerful. I think well all remember what you said. Property cannot own property. Its amazing what youre doing. Candy, you represent the private sector. And we know this doesnt work without the private sector. It really has to be a collaborative partnership. We know that you are working closely with the group in latin america to equip women with this skill specifically for the tech sector are . Could you tell us a little bit about that . Im happy to represent the businesses that are been partnering with usaid and other nonfor profits as we look to enable growth and progress. Before i talk specifically about the program. I want to make one point that the ministers and advisors have said. Around the economic benefit. We had some recent studies that showed that if you increase the female labor force, anticipation and ours. It will raise the gdp from 6 to as high as 20 . We have to remember that this is about growing the economy. It is a human rights issue as well, but its really about empowering women to grow economies. As we look out at the different programs. One of the ones that we have been engaged with is headquartered in peru. And is run by a woman. I women by the name of mariana runs it. Its a program that trains women to be web designers. To work in the technology field. What the program does is allow for binding training programs. In brazil, mexico, and with the support of usaid in this new program they can expand to columbia and cover more women. There will be about 1700 women. Which is a 120 increase in women they can get jobs in the technology world. As noted earlier on this panel. What is really important is not that just we as businesses are investing in these impact organization, but that we are hiring. We in mexico have gone out, and we need to make sure that we have a diverse workforce, and that we are meeting the needs and empowering women as well. The women that are getting trained in these programs are getting hired. And thats the important part. I think as ivanka trump noted earlier. We are hiring and making sure that there are jobs that come from these relationships. We are pleased to be up to support and partner with these companies and look forward to the opportunity when they get the grant to expand and that technology area. Keeping on this theme of the private sector you would say that this is essentially one of the main things that you do is partner with private sectors to bring additional expertise and resources to the table. Can you explain why that is such a focus for usaid . We will never have enough money to take on every problem the world. What we do try to do is tap into the economic mine and might of the private sector. There is remarkable ingenuity and innovation taking place in the private sector. Each and every day. If we can help apply that towards some of these challenges, the sky is literally the limit. I should say that i am the guy that always says i dont do wish projection. Every one of these proposals, every one of these awards has gone through a rigorous program. We check, double check, test, and kick the tires. This is precious money. What i think you are seeing is by looking at the networks that they have already tapped into. And the work that they are already doing, scaling up on that. We are able to unlock the might of the private sector in ways that create economic benefits of broadly across the community. We are also able to create opportunities to build upon the work that is already being done in ways that will lifted even higher and unlock the might of more than half of the economy. Ivanka trump we have talked a lot about the various programs today. And youve been traveling the world working on this. Where are the remaining economic barriers for women having access . And what specifically is wgdp doing to take down those barriers . We talked about the five legal barriers that we view as a fundamental, that they will have a transformative effect if we can start to change country by country. I think one of the challenges beyond that, its not just about the law. There are countries all over the world with laws on the books that once you get outside of that capital and the urban center, those laws are not being implemented. The individuals within villages and communities do not know their legal rights. I think that that is a critical part of this initiative. To make sure that we are focusing on countries from a legal perspective may have checked the box. Its not a small thing. It is actually the rights of individuals outside of the city , that they are known and that these women are aware of their rights. And that is something that we have been very focused on as well. Implementation of the law. I also think that what we are able to do through this program and the networks that we tap into our creator role models. Do not underestimate the importance of role models. It breaks through cultural barriers, showing the economic might that is there. And what can be achieved with fairly modest changes. By creating role models and showing the possibilities, a lot of these things will accelerate and address themselves. Further to the role models. As you announced earlier this week, as part of wgdp week creating an exciting new program. A new program from the state department. An exchange where we are asking advocates to think about and come to United States and share the barriers that exist in their economy. The legal barriers. And how we can most effectively address them. These problems will be solved only with regional guidance, regional input, and regional leadership. We want to elevate those role models. To learn from them, and use their feedback to inform these programs going forward. Speaking of that. You have five core impact areas in your program Neelam Chhiber. Can you tell us a little bit more about those five core areas . Absolutely. The core areas that we are working on is increased income. Once there is an increased and the income of the woman then social empowerment goes through the roof. Because now she has a right in the family to be heard. The next thing that we tap into is life crisis is. It could be one illness, flood, calamity. And everything is wiped out. We encourage them to have savings. And that is being monitored. Everything is quantitive monitoring. And the third focus area is increased expenditure on education. A better life for the next generation. The fourth area is womens empowerment. They need to take on more leadership roles in the cooperative. They need to move from being workers to supervisors and leaders. To these other kinds of things that we have planned for them. These are some of the impact areas. What i want to press back on this point. I think it is completely right. I have spoken to the usaid team in india. We can leverage this at 10 times. All we are already in talks with mastercard, bank of america, target. All of these have operations, and they have to do the corporate social responsibility. If we link it all up. Its like a seed capital. The other thing i want to point out is that these funds are like a grand equity. They are like incubation funds. The cooperative becomes a self sustainable. They can give the women income perpetually throughout their working life. This is just a seed fund to start the cooperative. But they become self sustainable, they grow. And then the women will have access to regular income. I cant believe were getting close on time. Its hard to believe. I could continue to talk for the next two hours. Chris to give you a chance to talk about the indentation of the legal reform on land rights. Specifically why is it important . We all have a general idea, but why is it so important to reform these legal structures . Unfortunately there are many countries where the discriminatory practices are baked into law. That has to be the first target. From there Everything Else flows. Advisor ivanka trump says it is not enough. And she is right. Its not sufficient, after reforming we have to educate the population and bringing others to support that implementation. And work on the strong institutional governments. In all of those are right in the values of usaid in this project. For that reason we find it so important. One other thing. People often say what is to motivate a country to change the laws like the ivory coast . Wheres the incentive to do that . Part of it is having strong actors like the u. S. Government or private sector role models. There are many other strong economic and political reasons why governments decide to do this. We find in fact that it is not that hard to move governments in this direction with a little bit of advice and pushing. You have a tax base and economic growth, and stability. You have a whole constituency that support land rights. The incentive is there. We just have to move things a little bit. And i think this project wgdp and the focus on womens land rights offer such enormous potential for many times the benefits. Mark, any closing thoughts . This is just the beginning. This is what we are able to incentivize in a relatively short period of time. Tapping into networks. I think its going to pick up speed, and the more the people learn about it, and the awareness that is created. It really the sky is the limit. We are thrilled. This is a core part of our vision of the world. A journey to selfreliance. We think its a great day. Before i give ivanka trump the final word. It has been trump ski and secretary pompeo has given me the honor my life to be state department spokesperson. The one of the reasons that i am sitting here is because ivanka trump and Jared Kushner have been acumen since porters of mine. She has used her influence, agency, she could be doing anything. The last image probably needs to be doing is the battles of washington. But i see her and a Jared Kushner take on the world on a daytoday basis when they dont need to. She could be doing 1 million other things. Im so impressed by her work ethic and im so moved by her ability to literally go around the world to change the world for women. And try to make the world a better place for women. Despite all the critics. You are a hero of mine. Thank you. That means a lot. The reward of this journey is the impact. An individual stories that you learn and hear firsthand. It is the honor of a lifetime to do this work. We mentioned the private sector and the Ngo Community. I would like to thank the members of congress. And the bipartisan members that join us here today. It is all coming together. Theres been a focus on economic power, but all the pieces are coming together. Where there is a universal agreement that this is critical for the defense policy. I was just on the hill with bipartisan members last week with Senate Foreign relations talk about womens peace and security and the Critical Role the women play in ensuring and securing peace. In conflict negotiation as a permanent result by being at the table. Just by being present. The role of women in conflict mediation and negotiation is so important. The administration rolls out a comprehensive strategy for wgdp in just the last couple weeks. We asked and we had tremendous support and it was signed into law by the president last year. This is going to be critical to the underpinning of everything that we discussed here today. And its going to enable usaid to have the flexibility to support small and mediumsize women owned businesses. And to collect the data in a way that will make you smarter and more educated in terms of the choices you are making. Mark greene was talking before about how rigorous the metrics are when we think about each and every investment. Foreign Development Assistant dollars are finite. This is precious taxpayer money that we need to spend responsibly with the goal of achieving selfreliance for the country. We are very excited as mark mentioned. This really is just the beginning. We are just launched. We are already seeing the impact. Teaming up with people who are on the stage is just a sample of this first launch. We have no doubt that this will enable us to achieve extraordinary things. Thank you all for being here. And thank you for the members of congress that joined us. And thank you liz for giving us the form. And for champion this initiative. There are two things today. First and foremost lets think these fabulous individuals. Ivanka trump , mark greene , Neelam Chhiber , Chris Jochnick. I think we would all agree this is a very Exciting Initiative as i said in my opening remarks. We are all here and excited to continue to work. The theme that i heard is that this is about partnership. Partnerships with government, in terms of the sampling that we just heard. Of ngo and the business community. And partnership in terms of bipartisan support. We will close by hearing from some of those wonderful individuals who are the driving force of the complement of the legislation that ivanka trump just talked about. The Women Entrepreneurship and economic act that was signed into law at the end of last year. I want to thank ivanka trump , mark greene , morgan, Neelam Chhiber, Chris Jochnick and candi. I like to introduce our elected officials. We are honored today. The program will end briefly. We are honored today to have two tremendous friends of the usglc and the wgdp with us today who have been instrumental in advancing women Economic Empowerment. Let me briefly just mention how they connect to this issue and invite them both to come up to the podium. Representative mccall hails from texas. I think many of you know, and is not only a sponsor but joined ivanka trump and the mark greene in africa to launch wgdp overseas. Congressman you may be new as a lead republican to the powerful house of Foreign Affairs committee. When it comes to already creating an extraordinary legacy in terms of advancing americas interest in the world. All of us owe a great debt of gratitude to you. We are so honored to have you here. You will be joined on stage by an influential member of the appropriations committee. The cochair of the bipartisan womens caucus. And one of the original cosponsors, florida congresswoman lois frankel. Your commitment to womens Economic Empowerment has forever changed the lives of many women here in the United States and throughout the world. We are very grateful for you everyone please welcome congresswoman mccall and congresswoman frankel. First these podiums are designed for men. Can you see me . Liz, thank you for your leadership and for hosting this. And for administrator mark greene and advisor ivanka trump. Thank you for your leadership. And i think all of you for being here. And i thank you for advancing the United States interests around the world. I want to tell you why i am here. For a couple of reasons. First of all, i did want to hear about the new partnerships. Second, i want to emphasize that advancing the economic status of women globally is bipartisan. Isnt it nice that something is bipartisan. [ applause ] i think you mentioned that last year and writes it was a great chairman of the Foreign Affairs committee, along with bipartisan effort from the senate. We joined forces on the Economic Empowerment act it was signed by trump ski to reduce gender gap. What propelled my interest in this subject isnt just my feminine inclinations which are great. Like most mothers i was influenced by my son who after graduating from college went into the marines. And i saw him get dissent into two wars. Afghanistan and iraq. He is home safe. But when i was elected to congress i specifically asked for an appointment to the Foreign Affairs committee. I literally wanted to learn about the world and how to keep the peace so that no one elses son or daughter had to go to war. In my seven years on Foreign Affairs, six years. I traveled the world to almost every war zone country. Nigeria, iraq, afghanistan, ukraine. Child marriage and so forth. You have to make sure that they are educated, most importantly, access to health. Family planning, boosts womens workforce, and education wages. Its not enough, we must recognize that for true equality and empowerment women must have control over their own bodies, that means access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health. You knew i will mention that. [ laughter ] lesson, listen, i am by me just say, we can all agree that when women are educated, when they are healthy, when they are free from violence, and have opportunity to economic success, we all win. More countries to trade with it , and less parents sending their kids off to war, and when women succeed, the world succeeds. Thank you. Lets give a warm round of applause. [ clapping ] i stand here today not as a woman, but as a husband to a very strong woman, and the father of four, that keep me on my toes. I want to thank advisor trump, youve had and ive had a lot of opportunities to work with ivanka, she has a big heart, this is really truly a global energizing effort that she has taken on, on her own working with mark, as a team and working with congress, it is refreshing to see things in a bipartisan fashion in congress. I am the lead republican on Foreign Affairs. Chairman ingle and i have a saying that partisanship, stops at the waters edge. We shouldnt take our Party Affiliation overseas. Indeed when we travel on these codons that we have talked about, we stand not as republican or democrats but as americans. With the american flag, representing the interest of america. And what better way to represent america then to empower women throughout the world. This is a very ambitious goal. Very ambitious legislation, at the end of the day, cant lift up to 50 million women across the globe. So it is a very powerful statement. I was at the World Bank Summit with mark and ivanka and kurt, and i never saw more of a rock star then ivanka was at that World Bank Summit. I think every woman there wanted to get there selfie , taken with her. It was just great to see that representation from a woman. In africa, with all those women who look up to her, as a beacon of hope. Someone who is there to help. Who wants to help lift up their lives, that is what the message is about. That is what we are trying to do across the aisle. Is to lift up womens lives all over the planet. We have done a few things in congress, but this, is about 50 million we have 27 million, being launched today. This will continue. The few things we have done in congress that complement, this effort very well. Is that we passed the we act , that is very in good interests. I got a call, it said no caller id and you it was the white house i answered the phone, and it was like carson, this is ivanka. She woke me up it was 7 am. I said yes ivanka, what can i do to help you . And she said we need some help nudging this thing along in the senate. Sure enough, we got it done, and signed into law. Those are very proud moment i think for ivanka and mark and congers woman frankel and myself to be standing there, watching them sign that bill. There is also another document signed i think speaks volumes about what this is about. He signed the National Security executive order. I have spent an entire career in National Security. Whether it be at the justice department, or chairman of homeland security, and Foreign Affairs. This really is, i believe, stabilization, of nations south extremism. Lifting up women and empowering women helps us in the fight against terrorism. The build act was a significant piece of legislation as well. A couple minutes this. It allows opec to operate on steroids to provide financing to the private sector, as well, to lift up people and invest in the world the global fragility act that senator kerns and Lindsey Graham and i introduced, and we talked a lot with ivanka and mark about this one. The one campaign has really taken this on as one of their biggest sort of lobbying procedures on the hill. We are looking at it from a stabilization standpoint. The more the globe is stabilized and not fragile, the more there is governance, the more there is economic austerity, the less extremism you see. The safer, the world will be. I would like to thank ambassador trump. Which was white remarkable. They are a great team working together. This will go a long ways. We can Work Together by Americans First and come together for womens rights, its the human right issue and a larger issue. I want to thank you all so much. [ clapping ] i would say america is certainly fortunate to have two fabulous members of congress. It is time to get back to work, and empower women economically throughout the world. Inc. You so much for joining us for this conversation today. [ clapping ] this is a special edition of American History tv. They air every week and on American History tv. Like lectures and history, american artifacts, real america, the civil war, old histories, the presidency and special event coverage about our nations history. Enjoy American History tv, now and every weekend on cspan3. Next, American History tv with a look at u. S. Foreign policy. After world war ii the u. S. Government promoted democracy in japan. Their central logical campaigns meant to win over the populace. Dartmouth College ProfessorJennifer Miller describes his foreignpolicy campaign in her book cold war democracy the United States, and japan. The Wilson Center and National History center, cohosted this discussion. It is about 90 minutes. I think we will get started. It is 4 pm on monday afternoon which means its time for the washington history seminar, welcome everyone, to the center, to the installment of the washington h