The U.S. Agency For International Development (USAID) is partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to promote “digital gender equality” in Africa and around the world by providing millions in taxpayer and private funds for the project.
The money will come from the newly inaugurated Women in Digital Economy Fund announced by Vice President Kamala Harris, and will go toward organizations that provide women with phones, “media literacy,” and do research on responding to “social norms” in the technological world, among other initiatives.
“Working with Congress, USAID plans to commit up to $50 million in Gender Equity and Equality Action (GEEA) fund resources toward this effort over the next four years, subject to the availability of funds, and the Gates Foundation will commit $10 million, with at least half of each of these commitments focused on Africa,” USAID announced on Monday.
USAID said the initiative was a good opportunity for public and private sector collaboration. The fund will “support, wherever possible, women-led solutions, products, and tools,” according to the development agency.
The “digital gender equality” push comes as USAID released a new “gender equality and women’s empowerment” framework last month that suggested ensuring access to abortion as a policy goal to support around the world.
According to the policy, one goal of USAID was helping to bring “improved access, quality, and use of health care for all individuals across the life course — including gender-diverse and LGBTQI+ individuals — with a particular focus on sexual and reproductive health and rights.”
“USAID affirms that the promotion of the rights of gender-diverse individuals — those with a gender identity beyond the binary categories of man or woman — is integral to the advancement of gender equality,” the new framework added.
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This tied into another goal of USAID described in the framework of strengthening “health services to provide integrated, client-centered, respectful, gender-affirming, and high-quality care.”
USAID has previously supported the launch of “India’s first transgender clinic,” which provides “guidance and medication on hormone therapy and gender affirmation procedures.”
Other entities in the Biden administration have also pushed gender ideology abroad, which has included pushing other countries to expand legal identifications from male and female to promoting transgender health clinics.
For example, the U.S. Consulate General Kolkata aided in the opening of “the first transgender clinic in eastern India,” in February 2020, according to Share America, the State Department’s news platform.
Elsewhere in India, the U.S. Consulate Chennai has promoted “pride” and hosted events about “pride in American literature.”