CAF reaffirms its commitment to gender equality in Latin America

As part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit, which is held in New York, CAF - development bank of Latin America reaffirmed its commitment to gender equality in Latin America.

In addition to the institution's existing operational and financial programs for women, CAF will contribute a non-reimbursable sum of one million dollars toward technical cooperation programs in Latin America to be carried out in coordination with UN Women. This is intended to promote gender equality as a tool of social inclusion and an engine of development, in a region where women are one of the groups most affected by poverty and violence.

CAF's Executive President, Enrique García, said that this initiative is part of CAF's comprehensive development agenda, where general equality plays a central and cross-cutting role, impacting its operations in all areas, such as economic and social infrastructure, productive sectors, citizen safety and microfinance, among others.

"We are facing a paradigm shift that calls for empowerment of women and girls in their homes, schools and, above all, within public institutions and the private sector," said Enrique García, CAF's Executive President.

Garcia also stressed the institution's potential to help strengthen gender equality in the region, joining the call of UN Women to eliminate the gender gap between men and women as part of the new post-2015 development agenda.

The announcement came during a special event chaired by Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN Women; Jack Ma, President of China's Alibaba Group; and Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; with the participation of business leaders, representatives of international organizations, philanthropic foundations and civil society, who in turn made their financial commitments to "Planet 50-50 by 2030."

The Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, highlighted the progress made on the issue worldwide and emphasized the partnerships that her organization has established with regional banks. "CAF - development bank of Latin America, the Asian Bank and the African Bank are our strategic partners for the implementation of transformative projects for the empowerment of women and the post-2015 sustainable development goals," she said.

Hand in hand with its growing relationship with UN Women, CAF has contributed toward boosting gender quality from several fronts, notably including the financing of projects in strategic areas like education, health, microfinance an citizen safety, always aiming to promote the inclusion of women as an engine for development.