Ivanka Trump brings 'star power' to global women's empowerment. But is it helping women?

ASUNCION, Paraguay - During a five-day South American trip to promote women's empowerment, Ivanka Trump was greeted like a head of state everywhere she went.

At lavish banquets in her honor, she was toasted by the presidents of Colombia and Paraguay. People tracked her motorcade with their cellphone cameras as she was met with military bands and red carpets. A U.S. Air Force jet was dispatched to transport Trump and a delegation of senior U.S. officials, all of whom - including the deputy secretary of State - were diplomatically outranked by the president's daughter and formal adviser.

American aid efforts to help poor, disenfranchised women around the globe are nothing new, typically involving grassroots work that generates little attention. Rarely have they involved the diplomatic trappings, designer clothes and U.S. Secret Service protection that Ivanka Trump brings to her pet project, which is amassing a total of $1 billion in both taxpayer and private corporation money to train and provide credit for