By now you have probably heard about Deliver for Good, a global campaign that applies a gender lens to the SDGs to fuel concrete action for girls and women. The beauty of Deliver for Good is that it focuses on the whole girl and the whole woman—not just her health needs, her educational needs, or her rights. And it does so via twelve high-yielding investment areas.

Over the next year, Women Deliver and partners will dive deep into each of these 12 investments. Every month, we will bring you stories, research, advocacy tools, and opinions centered around the Theme of the Month. First up? Sustainable Financing and Partnerships.
You may be asking yourself, “why start this initiative with a topic so dry?” But the world of financing is one of today’s most innovative fields, experimenting with technologies like mobile banking and cash transfer programs that go straight to the female heads of households. And then there are partnerships. Our community knows that much more can be done when we work together, and no one understands that better than Adviser on 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, David Nabarro, who calls for sophisticated coordination and an SDG agenda that is “feminized, from top to bottom.”

When we boost financing and partnerships for girls and women, we see a ripple effect of outcomes – better health, increased education, economic growth, and the reduction of poverty. Even with this knowledge, investments to empower, engage, and open access for girls and women remains insufficient.

Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group, talks about the importance of coming together to invest in girls and women. "This day and age, we have the evidence. I can go around saying that sexism is a bad economic strategy."