CIFF is delighted to announce an ambitious commitment totaling US$500 million over the next 5 years – with US$460 million for Bodily Autonomy and Sexual and Reproductive Health and US$40million for Economic Justice and Rights, based on 2021 investment levels.[1]

Investing in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), and academic, vocational and life skills for girls and young women, represents some of the greatest opportunities for sustainable and inclusive development. Where women and girls can make decisions about their own bodies, fulfil their educational potential and earn their own income, they have a stronger voice within their families and communities, and more control over all aspects of their lives.

As a co-lead of the Bodily Autonomy & SRHR Action Coalition, we are proud to announce investments focused on scaling gender transformative approaches to contraception, safe abortion and post-abortion care services, through comprehensive sexuality education, social norm change, quality SRH commodities at low cost, and frontline service delivery that reaches millions of the poorest women and girls. This also includes a founding commitment to the SEMA Reproductive Health partnership, which will build healthier, more equitable, and more resilient SRH markets, so that women and girls have sustained access to comprehensive, quality and affordable SRH products.

Our commitment to the Economic Justice & Rights Action Coalition will support expansion of our Girl Capital portfolio, focused on transforming girls’ and young women’s education, skills and income pathways. This includes an investment in the Skill India Impact Bond, the world’s largest skilling and employment impact bond for women and girls, in partnership with the Government of India and a multi-partner consortium led by the British-Asian Trust; and an investment in Co-Impact’s Gender Justice Fund which has a unique focus on addressing barriers to female participation in public leadership and policy-making spaces.

Straddling our commitment to both Action Coalitions is our ambition to expand our portfolio of partnerships with young feminist networks and movements, which already encompasses multiple programmes, including in India and Kenya. We are also proud to join the Global Alliance for Sustainable Feminist Movements, to learn how CIFF and the wider sector can improve financial and political support for feminist movements over the next five years.

“When girls and women can learn, earn and lead, economies grow and nations advance,” said Kate Hampton, CEO of CIFF. “We see the Generation Equality Forum as a critical moment to catalyse progress over the next five years, ensuring that women and girls in all their diversity become a political priority and making gender equality an integral part of the post-COVID-19 recovery agenda.”

“Our commitment reflects an important step in our own journey towards gender transformation. We look forward to working with our partners, governments and local communities to support women and girls and address critical gaps in opportunity, health and rights.”

Underpinning this overall commitment is our ambition to embed gender transformation and equity across our work on climate, adolescent sexual health and child health, which ultimately will make our investments more sustainable and impactful for the communities we serve. This work includes increasing interventions aimed at reaching the most marginalised women and girls within our programmes, increasing participation of communities in investment design and tracking, promoting greater accountability through disaggregated data collection and standardized equity measurement tools, and shifting more resources to local and community organisations.

The Generation Equality Forum, which culminates this week in Paris, is a global multi-stakeholder pledging event for gender equality. Convened by UN Women and co-chaired by the Governments of France and Mexico, in partnership with civil society, it brings together countries, philanthropic donors, charities, youth-led organisations and the private sector to catalyse action around six key themes.

The Forum was launched at a virtual three-day event held by the Mexican government in March. It is expected to catalyse global momentum for gender equality and shape multi-stakeholder commitments and investments over the next 5 years.

[1] Figures are estimates based on the split of investments in 2021 excluding the surge investments, i.e. 92% SRHR and 8% Girl Capital.