Today, USAID joined consumer goods multinational companies PepsiCo, Unilever, Danone, McCormick & Company, and Nespresso in launching a new public-private partnership that aims to accelerate gender equality and enhance environmental sustainability in agricultural supply chains. The new initiative, Advancing Women for Resilient Agricultural Supply Chains, aligns with the Women in the Sustainable Economy (WISE) initiative - a partnership launched by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2023 to bolster women's economic security in sectors that address climate change.
With a planned, collective investment of $50 million to start - including over $11 million of USAID funding - this new agricultural supply chain initiative will help catalyze industry-level change through learning, scaling, and providing evidence on how supporting women in agricultural supply chains can help deliver environmental sustainability goals. The initiative will drive scale by bringing in new organizations and additional funds, with a total target of $90 million over the next five years.
In parallel, USAID also welcomed the Skoll Foundation as the newest partner to WISE through its support of the USAID-led Climate Gender Equity Fund - a public-private partnership with Amazon, Reckitt, the UPS Foundation, and the Visa Foundation that seeks to increase access to climate finance for women-led and women-benefiting organizations working at the forefront of climate action. Three of its newest grantees - Altree Capital, The Rallying Cry, and Villgro Philippines - were also announced.
Finally, Acumen, Germany, Heading for Change, the Republic of Cyprus, and the United Kingdom announced $339 million in new aligned commitments to advance the WISE Initiative through their independent efforts that advance WISE objectives. The Millennium Challenge Corporation, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, and the U.S. Department of Energy announced $289 million in additional aligned U.S. government commitments to the WISE initiative. In all, today's announcements total $681 million in direct and aligned commitments - bringing the collective commitment of 33 governments, corporations, foundations, and civil society organizations to a total of over $2 billion towards the WISE Initiative.
