What’s The Deal With Ivanka’s Female Entrepeneurs Fund?

Image by Getty Images

By Steven Davidson May 22, 2017

This weekend, The World Bank announced Saudi Arabia and The United Arab Emirates will donate a combined $100 million to a fund conceived by Ivanka Trump, which will support women entrepreneurs worldwide.

Critics — particularly some former Hillary Clinton supporters — are crying foul. The donations are being made by countries ranked 109th and 141st out of 144 on the Global Gender Gap Index, with Saudi Arabia infamous for its ban on women driving and requiring women in public to have a male chaperone at all times. Detractors further point to Trump’s criticism of the Clinton Foundation for accepting donations from Saudi Arabia last June, when he complained “Saudi Arabia … want women as slaves and to kill gays. Hillary must return all money from such countries!”

But there are significant differences between the two initiatives. The Clinton Foundation is run by the Clinton family. The Women Entrepreneurs Fund, which is still in the developmental stage, will be controlled by the World Bank, not Ivanka Trump. Although she will remain the face of the project, the first daughter will not be involved in the fund’s management or solicit funds, according to White House officials. Despite these measures taken, suspicions of pay-for-play remain.

In spite of the outcry, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim was elated to announce the massive donations over the weekend. “This is really a stunning achievement,” said Kim on Sunday. “I’ve never seen anything come together so quickly, and I really have to say that Ivanka’s leadership has been tremendous.”

Steven Davidson is an editorial fellow at The Forward.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email opinion@forward.com.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO