The Role of Women in More Inclusive and Sustainable Local Development

Sharing experiences and research in an effort to promote the incorporation of the gender approach in local public agendas and achieve real equality between men and women have been the main objectives of the 6th Ibero-American Summit of Local Gender Agendas held last week in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain, co-organized by CAF.

The Summit was held for the first time in Europe under the motto “New global challenges, new responses from local gender agendas,” and addressed three major issues: work, caregiving and gender-based violence; mobility and gender-sensitive migration; and the role of women in climate change and environmental sustainability.

The inaugural day was kicked off with a powerful open dialogue between Núria Parlon, mayor of the host city, and former president of the Spanish Government José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who stressed: “The worst thing that can happen to a territory is to have half of its population feel afraid, and this has happened historically with women.”

At CAF—development bank of Latin America—, Ana Baiardi, manager of Gender, Inclusion and Diversity, and Barbara Auricchio, chief executive of the same department, participated in forums such as the 3rd Group of Municipal Experiences, entitled “Women, sustainability and climate change: A perspective from municipalism,” which also featured Hortencia Hidalgo, coordinator of Bolivia’s FILAC Indigenous Women’s Program; Jannelle Dadineth González Logreira, mayor of the Pinogana Municipality in Panama; Lourdes Martín Palanco, vice president of the Huelva Province and mayor of Gibraleón in Spain; Nora Anccasi Simbron, social communicator and activist at the Bartolomé de las Casas Center (CBC) in Peru; and Rosa Awananch, vice president of Ecuador’s Autonomous Decentralized Parish Government of Sevilla Don Bosco.

Baiardi stressed that, as part of CAF’s commitment to become the green bank of the region, “we cannot talk about the environment and climate change mitigation without talking about women, we must create networks among women and between international organizations.” The first and second experience group featured the mayor of Fortaleza (Brazil) José Sarto, who presented the “Nina” application as a tool for reporting sexual harassment in public transport and the Secretary of Women, Gender, Diversity and Human Rights, Cinthia Frías, who shared the “Menstruar” caregiving program led by the Municipality of Morón (Argentina), which allows access to basic necessities free of charge in all Healthcare Centers, Youth Houses and the “Living without Violence” Center.

This meeting, led by the Ibero-American Union of Municipalists (UIM) and the City Council of the Spanish town, has been co-organized by UN Women, the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM-OAS), and CAF. During the event, 40 conferences, 14 panels and 4 workshops were held, with representatives of different institutions and entities from 22 Latin American countries.