Statement on the Bosnian Women's Initiative Fund

Today, I am pleased to announce an initial contribution of $5 million to establish the Bosnian women's initiative fund. A peaceful, prosperous Bosnia will require the full participation of its women.

Many Bosnian women now find themselves sole providers for their families. They have lost their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers. Despite the hardship they have suffered, these women have displayed incredible strength, endurance, and resourcefulness, qualities that are essential to rebuilding their country.

To do this successfully they need resources. They need training. This initiative means loans for income-generating projects that women can do from home. It means loans to women-owned businesses or to companies where large numbers of women work. It means training in business management, marketing and accounting, farming techniques for those returning to agricultural communities, and in skills vital to rebuilding their country, like engineering, architecture, plumbing, and construction.

The fund will be managed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with international and national nongovernmental organization as implementing partners.

Even as I am making this announcement, over 500 Bosnian women leaders are meeting in Sarajevo. They have traveled from every part of the region, crossing ethnic lines, to work together on plans to rebuild their country. These plans will be incorporated into this initiative, for it is the Bosnian women themselves who hold the key to their future.

By providing new programs focused on women's reintegration into the Bosnian economy, we will enable them to support their families, to work as full partners in society, and to promote prosperity. I believe that the enhancement of Bosnian women's economic and political participating will help foster stability in the region.

I urge our fellow members of the G-7 and other countries to join the United States in supporting this initiative and contributing funding for it.