CAF’s Gender, Inclusion and Diversity Director, Ana Baiardi, led a meeting with Paraguayan women mayors, aiming to strengthen public management of their municipalities, creating a space for dialogue and reflection, as well as a mutual cooperation network. Together with Southern Regional Manager, Jorge Srur, they delivered the keynote speech.

During the meeting, the participants reflected on women’s political participation locally, their achievements and challenges in public and political management, analyzing legal frameworks and national public policies, while sharing successful experiences and good practices for developing local policies with a gender perspective. With CAF’s support, the meeting seeks to promote the creation of a collaboration network among women mayors to share knowledge, experiences and develop skills in public management.

Nathalie Gerbasi, CAF’s Director of Training, and Joel Branski, CAF’s Director-Representative in Paraguay, then made a presentation on the tools the institution has for identifying articulation and cooperation opportunities, to explore initiatives promoting equal opportunities and women’s empowerment from an inter-sectional perspective.

“At CAF, we want this meeting—hopefully the first of many—to be a space for promoting the exchange of women’s political experiences, and deepening knowledge about public policies on gender equality. We want to create alliances and linkages between women mayors at the national and regional levels, to help them continue strengthening their leadership, become more empowered and advance public policies with a gender perspective,” said Ana Baiardi, gender, inclusion and diversity director at CAF.

CAF continues to develop meetings and strategic agreements with various stakeholders and organizations in order to strengthen the multilateral organization, consolidating it as the natural economic revival partner, the green bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, as a platform for social transformation and to promote development with an inclusive perspective in our region.

Women mayors from the following cities participated in the meeting: