International Women’s Day: CAF conducted a series of activities in Chile

Both meetings are aligned with the agenda of the 177th meeting of CAF’s Board of Directors, which was held on March 6–9 in Chile, following the nation’s re-accession as a full member of the multilateral organization.

The first Regional Meeting of Latin American Women Mayors was attended by 14 top municipal authorities from nine countries, who engaged in a three-day discussion on the political participation, achievements and challenges of women in areas of regional public management. They also shared experiences on successful individual interventions implemented locally.

The mayors debated on central issues of women’s political participation, such as political and partisan activity, power, autonomy, violence, and proposed strategies to overcome these barriers. They also shared ideas, experiences, lessons learned and best practices of local public policies with a gender perspective and a high impact on people’s lives.

“I am convinced that development cannot be human or sustainable if it ignores the demands, wants and needs of half the population. Politics is key in the transformation of our societies, but the political gap is the widest of all gender gaps,” said CAF’s Corporate Vice President of Strategic Programming Christian Asinelli.

He noted: “Our task at CAF is to continue supporting women to ensure that the exception becomes the rule, and that more and more women have access to these hierarchical positions, both in the public and private realms. Thanks to you, a new generation of women will receive, in the future, a paved road with much more just and egalitarian conditions.”

CAF’s strategy in this area includes a set of guidelines focused on achieving women’s economic autonomy, physical autonomy, and decision-making autonomy.

As part of the plan, the agency is working on four priority actions, based on support in the implementation of gender policies and building countries’ capacities, and the mainstreaming of the gender perspective as a cross-cutting issue in external operations and areas of action.

It also includes forging alliances and creating spaces for dialogue to address gender challenges in the region, and the implementation of communicative practices free of sexism and that socialize progress in this area.

Furthermore, CAF’s renewed agenda addresses the promotion of gender equality and the strengthening of sub-national governments through a series of training programs such as workshops and exchanges of practices, and online or hybrid courses and diplomas.

This agenda focuses on addressing the main government challenges of training their technical teams, particularly in the areas of decentralization, climate change, gender, diversity and inclusion, state modernization, smart cities, urban development, SDGs 2030, inclusion and financial literacy and infrastructure, among others.

CAF’s Director of Institutional Development and Training Nathalie Gerbasi noted that “the institutional quality of countries is fundamental for the effectiveness of services provided to citizens, the adequate implementation of public policies, and sustainable development. Thus, CAF has been working on improving the public sector to foster greater management capacity, support countries in improving their governance, increasing the quality and quantity of development projects in their scope of action, and strengthening local governments, both in sectoral and local interventions.”

The gender division of labor is one of the main obstacles to women’s greater presence and participation in society. Thus, the share of women in seats in national parliaments in Latin America and the Caribbean is 33.6 percent, and only 28.5 percent at the head of ministries or secretariats.

Meanwhile, 32.1 percent of Justices at supreme courts are women; their share at managerial positions is 36 percent; and 15.4 of the regional municipalities have a woman at the helm.

In this regard, CAF’s Manager of Gender, Inclusion and Diversity Ana María Baiardi explained that “at the current pace, globally, it will take more than 130 years to achieve inclusive governance (parity in public representation positions).

“We need to make urgent changes in order to reverse this situation. Otherwise, the new generations will not live in conditions of equality and gender parity. Contributing to equal opportunities at all levels, ensuring access to the same jobs, and closing wage gaps and differences in the distribution of tasks is an urgent matter,” she added.