U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Https

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock () or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Fact Sheets

Was this page helpful?

FACT SHEET: Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity Upskilling Initiative for Women and Girls

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

On September 8, 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce launched the IPEF Upskilling Initiative primarily for women and girls in support of the objectives of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) to achieve sustainable and inclusive economic growth while advancing greater competitiveness in the region. Over the next decade, the Initiative will bring 7 million or more training and education opportunities that use digital tools to women and girls in the IPEF emerging economies and middle-income partners. These partners currently include Brunei, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

This Initiative represents the economic leadership and strong commitment of the United States to the Indo-Pacific region and in support of IPEF objectives by:

  • Bolstering U.S. private sector engagement in the most economically-dynamic region of the world in ways that will pay long-term dividends for companies and workers in both the United States and the IPEF partner countries; 
  • Supporting the region’s ongoing efforts to strengthen economic resilience, equity and inclusion, and sustainability, all of which will help grow the region’s middle class and expand export opportunities for U.S. goods and services and regional trade and investment; and 
  • Facilitating training in areas such as data, cloud, and cybersecurity to enable IPEF partners to achieve high-standard commitments, including around promoting cross-border data flows and online privacy and to combat disinformation, corruption, and cyber-theft.

The Upskilling Initiative reflects the deep and abiding support of both the U.S. government and its private sector to the long-term economic competitiveness of the IPEF partners. Fourteen U.S. companies –Amazon Web Services, American Tower, Apple, Cisco, Dell, Edelman, Google, HP, IBM, Mastercard, Microsoft, PayPal, Salesforce, and Visa –will each provide 500,000 or more upskilling opportunities that use digital tools for women and girls in IPEF emerging economies and middle-income partners by 2032.

To implement the Initiative, the U.S. Department of Commerce is partnering with The Asia Foundation, a non-profit international development organization with deep expertise in supporting good governance, women’s empowerment, and inclusive economic growth throughout the Indo-Pacific region. 

The participating U.S. companies will work with both governmental and non-governmental partners in the region to leverage their long-standing commitment to and deep experience in upskilling in the United States and the region to provide training and education opportunities that use digital tools in support of both IPEF objectives and the region’s ongoing priority of addressing inequities in labor force participation, pay, and access to financial services. Some of the opportunities provided by the U.S. companies may include: 

  • Providing training for girls in fields such as data science, cyber-security, AI, and robotics;
  • Developing and providing female small business owners with a comprehensive digital toolkit that includes website planning and development, search engine optimization and marketing, budgeting, and social media;
  • Supporting digital literacy and entrepreneurship training for rural girls and women via solar-paneled mobile bus training centers;
  • Training authors and illustrators in digital content creation designed to empower girls and providing that content through low bandwidth reading apps to enhance girls’ literacy.

This type of public-private engagement is a clear demonstration of America’s commitment to IPEF and its partners. It further underscores the benefits of a high-standard economic framework that incentivizes greater private sector engagement and contributes to long-term economic growth, competitiveness, and sustainability throughout the region.