CAF, new member of the Gender Working Group of Multilateral Development Banks

CAF, Development Bank of Latin America, became the new member of the Gender Working Group of Multilateral Development Banks, a global network of development banks that facilitates the exchange of best practices and approaches based on evidence to advance toward the economic autonomy of women.  

The announcement was made during the sixth Gender World Summit, held at the headquarters of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington D.C., and provides a strong reinforcement to the role of multilateral development organizations to influence and promote public policies that improve the situation of women.  

In addition, this new position is essential to face, with more guarantees, the diverse challenges faced by Latin America to achieve gender equality. 

The event, which included the participation of the IDB, CAF, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the African Development Bank, and the European Investment Bank, highlighted the importance of economic empowerment of women as an essential tool to promote social inclusion in the region, and discussed policies to increase the labor participation of women as well as mechanisms to promote their entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership. 

Currently, gender inequality persists in practically all the spheres of Latin American life. In vulnerable areas, women are particularly affected by underemployment and unemployment, with low paying, poor quality jobs. At the same time, they face challenges related to the workload and lack of time to conduct productive activities, which translates into different forms of exclusion. 

To revert this situation, it is necessary to prioritize access to education, to financial and digital services, to ensure greater legal protection, and reduce the time spent in non-paying jobs, as even though in Latin America the gender gap is decreasing, there are still noticeable gender inequalities.  

CAF works in the development of economic empowerment projects to provide women with effective tools to help them become agents of change of their own development.