Online Event | Public policies and cooperation for gender equality

Sergio Díaz-Granados has extensive experience in public and private service, both nationally and internationally, with special emphasis on regional development and integration issues. Before assuming the presidency of CAF, he served as Executive Director for Colombia at the Inter-American Development Bank. He previously held the positions of Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism of Colombia, Vice Minister of Business Development and President of the Boards of Directors of Bancóldex and ProColombia. He also has been a congressman and chairman of the Economic Affairs Committee of the Colombia’s House of Representatives.

On September 1, 2018 Michelle Bachelet assumed her functions as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.  The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was established in 1993 and Ms. Bachelet was the seventh Commissioner. Ms. Bachelet was elected President of Chile on two occasions (2006 – 2010 and 2014 – 2018). She was the first female president of Chile. She served as Health Minister (2000-2002) as well as Chile’s and Latin America’s first female Defense Minister (2002 – 2004). During her presidential tenures, she promoted the rights of all but particularly those of the most vulnerable. Among her many achievements, education and tax reforms, as well as the creation of the National Institute for Human Rights and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights stand out, as do the establishment of the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality, the adoption of quotas to increase women’s political participation, and the approval of Civil Union Act legislation, granting rights to same sex couples and thus, advancing LGBT rights. Since the early 1990s, Ms. Bachelet has worked closely with many international organizations. In 2010 she chaired the Social Protection Floor Advisory Group, a joint International Labor Organization (ILO) and World Health Organization (WHO) initiative, which sought to promote social policies to stimulate economic growth and social cohesion. In 2011, she was named the first Director of UN Women, an organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of women and girls internationally.  Economic empowerment and ending violence against women were two of her priorities during her tenure. She has recently pledged to be a Gender Champion, committing to advance gender equality in OHCHR and in international fora. After finishing her second term in March 2018, she was named Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, an alliance of more than 1000 organizations in 192 countries from the sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health communities. As Co-Chair of the High-Level Steering Group for Every Woman Every Child, Ms. Bachelet launched Every Woman Every Child Latin America and the Caribbean, the first platform for tailored, regional implementation of the EWEC Global Strategy. Michelle Bachelet has a Medical Degree in Surgery, with a specialization in Pediatrics and Public Health.  She also studied military strategy at Chile's National Academy of Strategy and Policy and at the Inter-American Defense College in the United States.

Lawyer from the University of Chile and has been a member of the Christian Democratic Party since the time she was 18 years old. She ran for mayor of Peñalolén for the first time in 2012 and, since then, she has won the three elections. She has been part of the Peñalolén municipal team since 2004 when, from the Community and Family Management Department, she coordinated the work of relocating more than 2,300 families from the former takeover of Peñalolén. As mayor, her focus has been on generating new and innovative initiatives to improve the quality of life of the residents of the commune, particularly in matters of safety, the environment, health, education, housing, protection of the elderly, entrepreneurship, and recovery of public spaces with new sports, cultural and municipal service infrastructures.

Michelle Muschett (Panama) is UN Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Michelle Muschett is a social policy and global development specialist with multisectoral experience in a wide variety of leadership positions.  During her tenure as Deputy Minister and Minister of Social Development of Panama, Ms. Muschett led the process of developing the first national Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), the creation of the first Childhood MPI in the Latin America region, and the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the national level through civic participation and strategic partnerships. She also chaired the National Concertation Council for Development, a legally established dialogue space aimed at building consensus amongst different sectors of society on national development priorities. Prior this appointment, Ms. Muschett was serving as Senior Public Policy Advisor and Executive Education Director for Oxford’s Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), advising governments and policymakers from Africa, Asia, and Latin America in their efforts to address multidimensional poverty. She is also Senior Policy and Strategy Advisor for the Fourth Sector Group, providing guidance on how to mobilize collective leadership and action to scale business models that can deliver social and environmental benefits, and to leverage development finance to accelerate the transition towards more inclusive, sustainable and resilient economic systems globally. She has been a visiting professor and lecturer at academic institutions across Asia, Europe, and Latin America, focusing on human and social development, politics of the policy process, political innovation, and leadership for global citizenship.  She is a Fellow of the Central America Leadership Initiative, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and a member the International Women’s Forum, Panama Chapter. As a practicing lawyer, Ms. Muschett focuses on issues related to commercial law and international arbitration. She has also participated in the drafting of national legislation. Ms. Muschett holds a master’s degrees in Public Administration from Cornell University, United States; Commercial Law from Externado University of Colombia; and Management of Heritage and Cultural Projects from the Institute for Art and Restauration Palazzo Spinelli, Italy. She speaks Spanish, English, and Italian.   

Alejandra Claros Borda, has a degree in Law and Political Sciences. From a very young age, she has had different responsibilities in high political spheres of her country, such as Chief of Staff of the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia and National Coordinator of the National Telecommunications Company (ENTEL). Subsequently, in 2015 she joined CAF as Secretariat Coordinator, to later be in charge of the Institution's political analysis. In December 2021 she was appointed as Secretary General, a responsibility that for the first time in the history of the Institution falls on a woman. She has a postgraduate degree in International Relations and Diplomacy from the Plurinational Diplomatic Academy; a master's degree in Multidisciplinary Law from the Universidad Mayor de San Simón (Bolivia) and another in Communication and Political Marketing, the latter obtained at the University of Alcalá (Spain). Likewise, he has specializations in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and another in Technology and Political Subjectivity, both granted by the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO).