CAF hosts closing workshop on "Study to Improve MiBus User Information System"

CAF—development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean—, through its Panama Country Office, reiterated its pledge to positively impact the mobility of residents and visitors in the region's main cities, through a study called "Study for the Improvement of the MiBus User Information System." The results were presented in an in-person workshop with staff from the MiBus and Panama Metro systems.

The study called for a status report of the MiBus user information system (incorporating the Gender, Diversity, and Inclusion approach) and pilot recommendations to improve the System with a focus on the environment of the fare areas and stops of the MiBus system.

CAF representative in Panama Lucía Meza Jiménez welcomed the associates of the MiBus system, representatives of Metro de Panamá, S.A., and executives of consulting firm Steer Group, and expressed her satisfaction with the workshop at the Country Office and the deployment of the non-reimbursable technical cooperation provided by the bank, which helps expand CAF's support for sustainable mobility in Panama City, with a gender, diversity, and inclusion approach. Meza Jiménez also recounted the bank's history in Panama and how the start of the construction of CAF's North Hub in the Panamanian capital consolidates the leading role of the multilateral entity as a venue for groups and ideas on initiatives aimed at improving the quality of life of Latin Americans and Caribbeans.

The study was presented by Steer Group regional director Germán Lleras and a delegation from his team composed of Juliana Jaramillo, Jeandres Chu, and Luis Fernando Garzón. Lleras explained that the study and the pilot draft were based on references from experiences in other cities of the region, and stressed a non-traditional component requested by CAF: the gender, diversity, and inclusion approach. The study discussed how women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities are informed about, travel, and use stops-stations. The findings of the study confirmed the evidence in the literature on the different preferences and needs of various population groups. These include, for instance, the importance of personal safety (with factors such as lighting and the presence or absence of other users and/or the police). The results of the study and pilot plan will be considered for the deployment of improvements in the current public transportation mobility system of Panama City.

Representing CAF were experts Urban Transport specialist and senior executive Harvey Scorcia, Country Office executive Kathleen Núñez, and Social Inclusion and Gender senior executive Barbara Auricchio.