Canada pledges $20M for women's entrepreneurship program

Canada will contribute $20 million Cdn to help female entrepreneurs in developing countries, Prime Minister Justin Trudeauannounced Saturday while he attendedthe G20 summit in Hamburg.

He joined otherleaders in congratulatingthe World Bank on news that it was launching thepublic-private loan program, aninitiative championed by U.S. President Donald Trump's daughter,IvankaTrump.

Initial funding of $325 million USfor the project includes large donations from Germany, the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the bank said. Trump has said the U.S. will commit $50 million US to the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).

The program, formally rolled at the summit,will address the difficulty women-owned small and medium-sized businesses face in developing countries. It's estimated 70 per cent of these businesses either cannot get loans from financial institutions or obtain financing that meets their needs.

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"Canada's support for We-Ficomplements our new Feminist International Assistance Policy, which recognizes that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls are the best way to build a more peaceful, inclusive and prosperous world," Trudeau said in a statement.

"Though Ivanka Trump will be an advocate for We-Fi moving forward, the White House has said she will play no operational, administrative or fund-raising role in the initiative," CNN reports.

Trump on Saturday praisedhis daughter, Ivanka, and acknowledgedthe challenges he hasadded to her life.

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In a rare, self-deprecating moment, the president said during remarks in Hamburgthat he's been proud of his eldest daughter from "day one."

"If she weren't my daughter it would be so much easier for her," he said, adding with a laugh: "That might be the only bad thing she has going, if you want to know the truth."

The candid aside came as Trump was speaking at the launch of a new women's entrepreneurship fund that Ivanka Trump helped bring together.