Washington, DC – Today the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced the SPRING initiative, a partnership aiming to accelerate economic empowerment for girls. The project, with initial funding of $29 million, will help businesses bring products to market that enable girls to learn, earn, invest and save. The announcement commemorates International Day of the Girl, celebrated each year on October 11 to promote the rights of girls and address the unique challenges they face.

A public-private partnership between USAID, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), and the Nike Foundation, the SPRING Initiative’s objectives are to:

• Identify and provide early-stage ventures with technical and financial support
• Ensure delivery of grantee’s products to directly enhance the economic outcomes of up to 200,000 girls over the next five years
• Share lessons learned on partnering with entrepreneurs to meet girls’ needs
• Scale up products to ultimately improve the lives of 50 million adolescent girls living in poverty by 2030

“The SPRING Initiative will bring together a dynamic group of eighty companies from eight countries as part of a groundbreaking program focused on business acceleration, design, and investment,” said USAID Senior Coordinator for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Susan Markham. “We recognize that empowering girls and addressing their challenges will directly benefit their communities and ultimately help to end poverty and create stronger societies.”

Headquartered in Nairobi, the program will run for a minimum of five years and will roll out across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and later to Tanzania, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal.

For more information on the SPRING Initiative, visit their website at http://www.springaccelerator.org