International Women’s Day Celebrates the Contribution of Women and Girls as Climate Solution Multipliers

Mar 8, 2022
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the past three years led the Obama administration in making international women’s issues central to progressive foreign policy. A number of important documents and initiatives illustrate the administration’s commitment to this priority, including the State Department’s first-ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which recognizes that “women are at the center of our diplomacy and development efforts—not simply as beneficiaries, but also as agents of peace, reconciliation, development, growth, and stability.” In doing so, the United States joins other international institutions, including the World Bank and the United Nations, in recognizing the critical, efficient, and proven way investments in women and girls spur broader economic development for communities around the world.

With the growing recognition that there are important links between women’s rights and empowerment on one hand and development and security on the other, the Obama administration took a broad-based set of concrete steps to realize the potential of women and girls around the world. New development programs and policies targeted at women and girls are now underway, and the first National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security guides the policymaking.