How much has the Gates Foundation spent on women’s empowerment?

In 2020, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Gender Equality Division, which aims to ensure that gender equality is integrated into its works. A year later, during the Gender Equality Forum, the foundation pledged $2.1 billion over the next five years to advance gender equality across the globe. Of this, $650 million was committed toward women’s economic empowerment. The foundation’s gender equality initiatives focus on economic empowerment, leadership, data, and innovation in science and technology for women’s health. Devex examined how the foundation spent its money on these programs from 2009 to January 2022, who received it, and what it was spent for. Where is the money going? Based on its grants portal, the Gates Foundation has awarded $765.42 million for 228 grants under the “empower women and girls” category since 2009. This includes both grants that are primarily for women’s empowerment and those with cross-cutting priorities. The “empower women and girls” is a focus area under the foundation’s grant categories that aims to shift the perspective toward women — from mere recipients of development programs to catalysts of change. Global and regional grants were a mix of primarily women empowerment-related and cross-cutting priorities. The activities for primarily women empowerment-focused grants include supporting policies and laws for equal rights, increasing women’s economic opportunity, and improving gender data and statistics. On the other hand, grants with multisectoral objectives focused mainly on maternal and reproductive health, in which women’s empowerment was included as one of the key goals. Overall, these grants ranged from $50,000 to $60 million, or an average of $3.9 million per grant. In terms of scope, $354.4 million went to global grants, $143.9 million to Africa, and $81.2 million to Asia. Meanwhile, some country-specific grants supported women’s social and economic empowerment. Others focused on more specific areas affecting women such as education, food and nutrition, and health. Country-specific funding also included grants supporting government agencies and local organizations in advancing gender goals. These grants ranged from $150,000 to $12 million, or an average of $1.8 million per grant. Among the countries, $31.1 million was allocated in India, $29.6 million for Kenya, and $20.7 million for Nigeria. Who is winning Gates Foundation grants? U.S.-based organizations received $607.64 million, more than 79% of the Gates Foundations’ women empowerment-related grants. Grantees from the United Kingdom ranked next, with $37.42 million. Among low- and middle-income countries, India received the most grant money, with $32.91 million. Kenya comes second, with $25.3 million, then Ghana, with $9.95 million. Nine out of the top 10 organizations among the top grantees are U.S.-based, receiving a total of $445.45 million. The New Venture Fund, an NGO that manages and implements projects, received the most funding at $185.71 million, or 24.3% of the total disbursement for 228 women empowerment-focused grants. Only the India-based Institute for Financial Management and Research, which is ranked ninth, is from an LMIC. Two multilateral agencies were also among the top recipients: UN Women and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. While this is odd for a private donor, the Gates Foundation has been partnering with a number of multilateral agencies to support global projects. In fact, based on OECD data, the foundation channeled $1.1 billion, or 27% of its gross disbursements in 2019, through the multilateral system. Its partnership with UN Women focused on gender equality and improving gender data, with $80 million pledged in 2016. A year later, it also announced a $200 million commitment to the World Bank’s Global Financing Facility in support of the United Nations' Every Woman Every Child initiative. Top projects Here are the biggest grants that are primarily focused on women’s empowerment: • $50 million to New Venture Fund to support women’s representation in key fields within the global south. • $25 million to New Venture Fund to support women’s leadership in global health. • $12 million to IBRD for social and economic empowerment of women in Nigeria. • $10.9 million to UN Women to support the Generation Equality Forum. • $10.7 million to UN Women to strengthen gender statistics. • $10.6 million to the United Nations Foundation to improve the use of gender data. • $10 million to IBRD to promote the care agenda in Africa and Asia. • $7.4 million to the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation for technical interventions on building livelihoods focused on poor women in India. • $5.3 million to the American Institutes for Research for women’s empowerment collectives in India and East Africa. • $5 million to Plan International USA for assessment of SDG implementation for girls and women. Try out Devex Pro Funding today with a free 5-day trial, and explore funding opportunities from over 850+ sources in addition to our analysis and news content.