Today, on International Women's Day, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) celebrates more than 50 years of promoting equality and empowerment for women. Our investments in women are vital to our mission of promoting self-reliance and resilience among our partner countries, as well as to the goals of worldwide stability and prosperity we all share. As the President's 2017 National Security Strategy notes, "Societies that empower women to participate fully in civic and economic life are more prosperous and peaceful."

Our Agency's work to improve women's health helps them contribute to their economies, and their children grow up to be healthy and productive citizens. Likewise, our education programs address the global challenge that nearly 132 million girls and young women are not currently in the classroom. Even one extra year of secondary school can increase their future earnings by as much as 20 percent. And by providing women farmers with the same access to land, new technologies, and capital that men have, we could increase crop yields by as much as 30 percent.

The numbers behind these initiatives speak for themselves. Women account for one-half of the potential human capital in any economy. More than half a billion women have joined the world's workforce over the past three decades, and women own one-third of formal businesses. However, too many women still face inequitable barriers in the workforce.

To address these concerns, USAID was at the center of two important Administration-led efforts this year. On January 9, 2019, President Trump signed into law the Women's Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment (WEEE) Act to improve programs and activities to empower women. The law expands the Agency's authorities to finance micro, small, and medium-sized businesses owned, managed and controlled by women.

On February 7, 2019, I joined President Trump and Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump at the signing ceremony for the National Security Presidential Memorandum to launch the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP), the first-ever whole-of-Government approach focused on advancing women's full and free participation in the global economy. This initiative also establishes the W-GDP Fund at USAID, capitalized with an initial contribution of $50 million, to finance innovative and effective programs that advance women's economic empowerment.

We know that private enterprise is the most-powerful force for lifting people out of poverty, because businesses create nine out of ten jobs in the developing world. For that reason, investing in women is a large part of our new Private-Sector Engagement Policy, which is changing the way we create partnerships with commercial firms. For example, our new Memorandum of Understanding with the United Parcel Service will help women entrepreneurs around the world export their goods to foreign markets. A new partnership with PepsiCo will economically empower women by strengthening their land rights-as well as their opportunities for entrepreneurship and livelihood.

We're just getting started. By the next International Women's Day, we hope to have many more of our partners join with W-GDP to advance women's economic empowerment around the world.