CAF presented ethnic-racial diversity strategy at Arena Blackrocks

CAF—development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean—was present at the fourth edition of Arena Blackrocks, a festival held in São Paulo, Brazil, on September 23, that brought together technology, innovation, startups, and entrepreneurship with a focus on black empowerment. This year's edition was took place under the theme "Afrofuturism: The journey is as important as the destination" and offered interactive workshops, exhibits, conferences, and mentoring sessions, in addition to networking activities, technology, music, art, and culture, with black culture taking center stage.

During the event, Eddi Marcelín, senior executive of the Gender, Inclusion, and Diversity Department at CAF, and the bank's representative in Brazil, Estefanía Laterza, presented in one of the panels CAF's strategy to promote ethnic-racial diversity in Latin America and the Caribbean, called DiversiCAF. This strategy fosters anti-racism through the identity-based development of racialized ethnic communities through investment, strengthening, and institutional, community, and technology capacity-building. CAF seeks to foster an economic, social, and cultural leap for historically excluded ethnic-racial communities.

"The future of regional development lies in devising policies that consider the new realities of ethnic populations, that understand their potential for sustainability and for the inclusive world we seek," noted Estefanía Laterza. For Eddi Marcelín, events like Arena Blackrocks "are crucial to lay the foundations for these communities to engage assertively in the new digital economy of sharing, collaboration, trade, and data in an inclusive and respectful manner, leveraged by the history, knowledge, and identity values of black people in Brazil. Today, Brazil is making strides in the new debates of the global agenda, and at CAF we want to support these efforts."

Brazil is a pivotal country for CAF's ethnic-racial diversity agenda, as it has potential in various areas of development in line with the Corporate Strategy for 2026. Also, the current government has prioritized this agenda, and thus our efforts in Brazil will focus on issues like: 1. Racial Equality and Combating Racism, 2. Human Rights and Strengthening Citizenship, 3. Sustainable Development, Environmental Protection, and Indigenous Peoples, 4. Economic Development and Creative Economy for AfroTourism, and 5. Sub-national Cultural Development.