Lorie Jackson, Women’s Economic Opportunity Initiative, ExxonMobil Corporation (CGI 2010)
ExxonMobil Corporation made a $1 million commitment at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) to invest in the expansion of high impact, sustainable technologies that advance women economically in the developing world. The program is expected to directly benefit more than 13,500 people, with indirect benefits reaching more than 475,000 in the next two years.
The new commitment will help innovators in scaling up technologies that benefit women economically and were identified through ExxonMobil’s partnership with Ashoka’s Changemakers in the Women Tools Technology: Building Opportunities & Economic Power Challenge, launched at the 2009 CGI. The new financial support from ExxonMobil will help provide consulting support; facilitate the innovators’ connections with other social entrepreneurs, business and technical experts; and identify best practices.
ExxonMobil grants will be provided to select innovators who advance technologies to increase access to energy through innovative sources to address the energy gap. These technologies help women increase their productivity and effective participation in the economy. The grant recipients include Kopernik, Solar Electric Light Fund, Solar Sister, Productive Agricultural Linkages and Marketing Systems (P.A.L.M.S) and smallsolutions.
“My country will be a better place when more women have access to technologies,” said Leticia Brenyah, an ExxonMobil-supported innovator from Ghana who spoke at CGI as part of the meeting’s Empowering Girls and Women focus area. “When women thrive economically they improve their lives, families and country.”