Google, Gates Foundation join digital payments initiative

WASHINGTON - A new nonprofit charity unveiled plans Wednesday to promote digital payments for people outside the financial system, with support from Google and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Mojaloop Foundation said it would work on free and open-source software that can be used by disadvantaged communities and the unbanked around the world.

The initiative aims to serve an estimated 1.7 billion people who lack access to digital financial services, according to a statement by the organization, which is also backed by Omidyar Network and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Mojaloop executive director Paula Hunter said the aim was to provide "more affordable, accessible digital financial services" to people outside the banking system.

The move comes amid an effort by the Facebook-backed Libra Association to create a new digital payments system to help make financial transfers easier and less costly for people outside the financial system.

The announcement Wednesday aims to create an inter-operable system based on the Mojaloop software project.

Named after the Swahili word for "one," Mojaloop is a reference model for payment inter-operability to barriers to money transfers large or small, the organization said.

The open source software was first established by the Gates Foundation in 2017.

"Our vision of universal financial inclusion is a world where everyone, everywhere, can access and use the digital financial services they need to build economic security and resilience," said Kosta Peric, the chairman of the Mojaloop Foundation and deputy director of financial services for the poor at the Gates Foundation.

Agence France-Presse

Melinda Gates pledges $1 billion to women's rights

NEW YORK - Philanthropist Melinda Gates plans to put $1 billion toward expanding women's power and influence in the United States over the next decade, saying on Wednesday she loses sleep over fears the nation will stop caring about inequality and diversity.

Women's marches, the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and record numbers of female political candidates can mean real, immediate change, said Gates, co-chairwoman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"There is no reason to believe this moment will last forever," Gates, founder of investment and incubation company Pivotal Ventures, wrote in a Time.com opinion piece.

"Too many people - women and men - have worked too hard to get us this far," she wrote. "There are too many possible solutions we haven't tried yet."

Pivotal Ventures will fund partners who pursue innovative approaches to expanding women's power and influence, Gates said, adding: "One billion dollars is a lot of money, but I also recognize that it's only a small fraction of what's necessary."

Goals include dismantling barriers to women's job advancement such as care-giving obligations and sexual harassment and fast-tracking women in influential job sectors such as technology, media and public office.

The effort also aims to encourage shareholders, consumers and employees to pressure companies to reform.

"Here's what keeps me up at night: I imagine waking up one morning to find that the country has moved on," Gates wrote. "That the media has stopped reporting on systemic inequalities.

"That diversity remains something companies talk about instead of prioritizing. That all of this energy and attention has amounted to a temporary swell, instead of a sea change."

National Organization for Women head Toni Van Pelt wrote in an email that she welcomed Gates' investment, saying: "The more we see women in positions of power and influence, the more it will become the norm rather than the exception."

Such an investment can be a big incentive driving other contributions, said Barbara Gault, acting co-president of Institute for Women's Policy Research, a Washington-based think tank.

"The non-profits and advocacy groups that are trying to make change often are underfunded and are operating on shoestring budgets, so it's going to be very valuable ... to have that funding available," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"I don't see a downside," she added.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, run by Melinda Gates and her husband Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp., focuses on world health, infectious diseases, child mortality, sustainable growth and other global philanthropic issues. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Facebook's CEO and wife to give 99 pct of shares to charity

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Mark Zuckerberg will put 99 percent of his Facebook Inc shares, currently worth about $45 billion, into a new philanthropy project focusing on human potential and equality, he and his wife said Tuesday in a letter to their newborn daughter.

The plan, which was posted on the Facebook founder and chief executive officer's page, attracted more than 570,000 "likes," including from singer Shakira, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. The Gates and other high-profile billionaires such as Warren Buffett have set up foundations of their own to dedicate their massive fortunes to philanthropic endeavors.

Zuckerberg, 31, who will control the new initiative jointly with his wife, Priscilla Chan, while remaining in charge of the world's largest online social network, said he would sell or give up to $1 billion in shares in each of the next three years.

Zuckerberg will keep a controlling stake in Facebook, valued at $303 billion as of Tuesday's close, for what the company called the "foreseeable future." According to Facebook's most recent proxy statement, Zuckerberg owned 4 million Class A shares and 422.3 million Class B shares, which have 10 times the voting power of A shares. Combined he held 54 percent of the voting power of the company's shares.

Zuckerberg said he plans to remain CEO of Facebook for "many, many years to come."

Zuckerberg's new project, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, is not his first in the world of philanthropy. When he was 26, he signed the Giving Pledge, which invites the world's wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes over their lifetime or in their will.

"Mark and Priscilla are breaking the mold with this breathtaking commitment," Buffett said on Facebook. "A combination of brains, passion and resources on this scale will change the lives of millions. On behalf of future generations, I thank them."

Melinda Gates chimed in, "The first word that comes to mind is: Wow. The example you're setting today is an inspiration to us and the world."

Buffett himself pledged shares of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc company that were then worth $31 billion to Gates' foundation in 2006, and at the time ranked as the largest single gift.

A YOUNG PHILANTHROPIST

Zuckerberg is relatively young to commit so much of his wealth. Microsoft Corp co-founder Gates was 45 in 2000, the year he and his wife founded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett was 76 in 2006 when he committed to give away all of his Berkshire Hathaway stock to philanthropic organizations.

About $350 billion is given away each year in the United States by charities, said Stacy Palmer, editor of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She said Zuckerberg and his wife's announcement was remarkable not just because of the size of the donation, but because of their ages.

"Our lists of the top donors are usually dominated by people in their 70s or 80s," she said. "This is a message to other young people who are deciding what to do with their great wealth."

In welcoming the birth of his first child on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg posted a photo of himself, his wife and their daughter, Maxima, nicknamed Max, along with a post entitled "A letter to our daughter." (http://on.fb.me/1MVnGOj)

In the 2,220-word letter, Zuckerberg and Chan, a pediatrician, touched on issues including health, education, Internet access and learning before announcing the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which aims to "advance human potential and promote equality."

They plan to give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares over their lifetimes to advance the initiative, which was formed as a limited liability company. It will begin by focusing on curing disease, Internet connectivity, community building and personalized learning - the idea that technology can help students learn at different paces.

Maxima Chan Zuckerberg was born early last week - though Facebook did not specify her birth date - and weighed 7 lbs 8 ounces (3.4 kg) at birth. Last month, Zuckerberg announced he would take two months of paternity leave after the birth.

Chan and Zuckerberg have so far committed $1.6 billion to their philanthropy. They have given several donations this year, including to public schools, initiatives to bring better wireless Internet access and to San Francisco General Hospital, where Chan works as a pediatrician.

Zuckerberg and Chan said they will share more details when they return from their maternity and paternity leaves.

Zuckerberg has started his leave, a Facebook representative said, and will be available if "absolutely needed." Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, and Mike Schroepfer, chief technology officer, will run the company in Zuckerberg's absence.

(Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Abhirup Roy in Bengaluru; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Stephen R. Trousdale, Bill Rigby, Lisa Shumaker and Leslie Adler)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Clinton snaps at Merkel heels in 'powerful women' list

NEW YORK - German Chancellor Angela Merkel tops the Forbes list of the world's most powerful women for the fifth straight year but Hillary Clinton is snapping at her heels, the magazine said Tuesday.

Behind them came Melinda Gates, who co-chairs the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with her billionaire philanthropist husband, US federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and General Motors CEO Mary Barra.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde was in sixth place and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff came in seventh.

The top 10 were rounded out by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (No. 8), Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube (No. 9) and US First Lady Michelle Obama.

Newcomers include US pop star Taylor Swift, in at number 64 and the youngest of the bunch at 25.

The annual list of the world's 100 most powerful women includes leaders in eight categories -- technology, politics, business, finance, media, entertainment, philanthropy and billionaires.

Clinton, who in April announced her second run for the White House, was listed at number six last year but as US secretary of state she also ranked number two to Merkel in 2011 and 2012.

"Come next year's US elections, she (Merkel) could lose her title for the first time since 2010 to the one person with a credible and mathematical chance of 'leading' the world," wrote Forbes.

Even if Clinton wins the Democratic nomination for the White House, she has no chance of being elected US president until November 2016 -- after Forbes publishes its 2016 most-powerful women list.

Forbes has put the German chancellor on the list 10 times in the past 12 years, nine of them as most powerful woman. Merkel was first elected in 2005 and won a historic third term in 2013.

Geographically speaking, the United States dominates the list. Fifty-nine on the list are American, including several immigrants.

There are 18 from the Asia-Pacific region, headed by South Korean President Park Geun-Hye at number 11, 12 from Europe, four each from Latin America and the Middle East and three Africans, Forbes said.

Other newcomers include EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, number 36; US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, number 34; and incoming Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner at number 80.

The magazine said the list features eight heads of state and one monarch, who govern nations with a combined GDP of $9.1 trillion and 15 billionaires with a total net worth of more than $73.3 billion.

The top ranking billionaire this year is Oprah Winfrey at number 12 with a personal net worth of $3 billion.

In another measure of influence, the 100 women on the 2014 list have a combined social media footprint that includes 474 million Twitter and YouTube followers, the magazine said.

The list can be viewed at www.forbes.com/power-women

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com