This Week, Global Leaders Face a Test: Will They Fund Women or Weapons?

This week, world leaders are meeting in Seville, Spain, for the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) to confront urgent financial challenges threatening progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals — a global blueprint agreed upon by UN Member States a decade ago that includes goals to eradicate poverty and hunger, address the climate crisis, and achieve gender equality. 

But the global financial system must change urgently if we are to unlock meaningful resources for women and girls.

Over the last few years, national defense budgets have surged. At the 2025 NATO summit in The Hague, member states pledged to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP by 2035, claiming it will make the world a safer place. Indeed, global military expenditure rose by 6.8 percent between 2022 and 2023 — the steepest year-on-year increase in over a decade. Open-source security and intelligence organizations further forecast a 3.6 percent rise in 2025, pushing global spending to $2.56 trillion, led by Europe, Russia, parts of Asia, and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, conventional aid models — reliant on annual government budgets and short-term philanthropy — are failing. Nonprofits warn that shrinking public funding, inflation, and rising global demand for aid are straining budgets and making private finance increasingly difficult to secure. Britain alone has slashed its aid to 0.3 percent of national income while increasing defense spending to 2.5 percent. In the U.S., the Trump administration has axed over 80 percent of USAID programs under its “America First” approach. Both UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. President Donald Trump are also noticeably absent this week at FFD4.

These seismic shifts expose a hard truth: the current global financing system is failing women and girls. Without bold reforms, they will continue to be sidelined in the very development agenda meant to uplift them. As a new era of development approaches, we must learn from success stories to reimagine the lives of women and girls for the better.

Amplifying Grassroots Movements

Blended finance approaches combine public, private and government capital to amplify impact. Through attracting new investment and involving different groups of experts, they take a more holistic approach than traditional development models.

Nowhere is this more needed than for women and girls. The Equality Fund leverages capital towards a singular mission: resourcing the grassroots movements that power change for women and girls. In 2022, we launched a dedicated grantmaking stream called “Prepare, Respond and Care,” disbursing $3.7 million through 18 grants responding to crises, including droughts in Kenya, the Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Targeting organizations that are responding to urgent crises, our approach moves beyond traditional humanitarian assistance. By encompassing cross-cutting issues such as female genital mutilation (FGM) and systemic problems like anti-LGBT laws, the program demonstrates the two-fold ability of the model to respond to different needs of women and girls.

Five years in, we have scaled these approaches through a robust gender investment portfolio, which has preserved its initial $300 million investment from the Canadian government, while distributing $100 million to women’s rights organizations around the world. This reinforces the power of blended finance approaches.

Backing Local Changemakers 

The old guard of financial institutions in Africa, for example, have historically viewed African-owned funds as high-risk, barring African entrepreneurs from loans and capital and prompting alternative sectors like microfinance, fintech, and peer-to-peer lending to step in. Through the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund, Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA) cultivates economic opportunities through the creation of dignified jobs for women and girls. The $200 million Fund of Funds invests in African Investment Vehicles (IVs), locally managed investment funds focused on deploying capital into African businesses. 

One such example is ARUWA Capital, a Nigerian women-led growth fund that invests in untapped markets empowering women. Support for vehicles like ARUWA improves wider health outcomes for women and girls, with one of their investments Wemy Industries producing affordable hygiene products for low-income families in Nigeria.

ARUWA’s first fund faced challenges raising capital, as many financial institutions declined support, citing a lack of experience. Seeing the fund’s promise, the Africa Growth Fund stepped in with an anchor investment and capacity-building assistance. This not only changed market perceptions but also sparked strong financial returns. One standout success is Wemy Industries, a Nigerian hygiene product manufacturer that, thanks to this investment, created over 300 jobs for women in sales and distribution and expanded access to affordable hygiene products for women and girls in rural and underserved urban areas.

Not only has the Africa Growth Fund supported women and girls in Nigeria, it has shifted the wider financing landscape. Development finance institutions are now actively seeking co-investment for ARUWA’s second fund, where the Africa Growth Fund is a core investor.

Collaboration Across Sectors is Key to Helping Women and Girls  

The strength of governments, public and private sectors to scale solutions for women and girls is multiplied when they come together. Opening FFD4, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez highlighted how collaboration can create innovative and transformative initiatives that change the development financing architecture.

The Equality Fund and MEDA show us what’s possible when finance and gender justice come together. The Equality Fund’s grant-making model goes further than traditional support for women and girls, investing in organizations focused on building movements. The ARUWA Capital example demonstrates how working with financial systems, we can reshape the system to better serve women and girls. 

FFD4 presents a critical crossroads. Instead of waiting for outdated models to catch up, we must turn the page to a new era of development financing—one that is bold, sustainable, and designed for the future. Innovative funding approaches are ready to bridge the growing gap left by shrinking aid.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has set an ambitious tone. Now the real test begins: will global leaders match their words with the bold action women and girls urgently need?