Ivanka Trump, U.S. President Donald’s Trump’s daughter and senior White House adviser, spoke Wednesday to a summit of women entrepreneurs in the Ivory Coast.“Societies that empower to succeed are more peaceful and more prosperous.
And this is evident in all the research that we see,” Trump told an auditorium full of female business owners, community organizers, politicians and students. Her appearance at the Women Entrepreneurs Financial Initiative (WeFi) summit in Ivory Coast was Trump’s last stop on a four-day tour of Africa to promote a $50 million initiative signed by her father in February that is aimed at encouraging women’s employment in developing countries.“We launched WGDP, the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, in February of this past year. It is the first-ever whole-of-government approach to women’s economic empowerment in the developing world, and the goal is to empower 50 million women by 2025,” she said at the summit. The WGDP is one of many international funding projects that will work with the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank to distribute money to projects throughout the continent. The summit touted successful businesswomen speakers and panels, to discuss the potential of women in business on the continent meanwhile, at a cocoa farm about 100 kilometres from Abidjan, Trump announced a $2 million commitment to help women in Ivory Coast’s cocoa industry.