"I am proud of the steps that the International Fund took in 2023 to advance its mission. We published our first strategy, expanded the global coalition supporting our work, and increased our total investment in news publishers in our focus countries to over $8 million USD across 31 portfolio organizations. We also created a new multilateral entity that will soon open its headquarters in Paris as an international organization. This was marked by a ceremony at the sixth edition of the Paris Peace Forum at which the Ghanaian, Moldovan, and French governments approved our Statutes and formally appointed our Board. The Republic of Ghana additionally announced that it would provide the International Fund with privileges and immunities and host our Africa regional headquarters in Accra. In 2024, the International Fund will continue to scale up its activities in preparation for the next phase of its development. We plan to deploy more than $20 million USD in direct grant funding, substantially growing our commitments to sustainability and innovation in global media markets. We will also begin analyzing the early learnings from our growing portfolio, assessing the impact of our financing, and iterating our grantmaking approach." (Letter from the CEO, page 3)