Inter-American Development Bank Annual Meeting
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Mar 9 (EFE).-
A group of Latin American financial and technology sector leaders called Friday for “joint” work by governments, the private sector, and multilaterals to close the gender gap.
In the framework of the Inter-American Development Bank Annual Meeting, experts such as the legal director of the Dominican Republic’s Stock Exchange, Ana María Estrada, and Google’s government affairs manager for Latin America, Eleonora Rabinovich, presented the challenges to gender equality faced in their industries.
“Continuous and joint work is required in different organizations” to promote initiatives that foster equality in the financial sector, Estrada said in a panel on women’s leadership.
At the stock market, the expert added, different parity strategies have been implemented that have achieved that more than 50% of top management is occupied by women.
She emphasized that female managers have achieved “transcendental changes” in important sectors of the national economy.
For Rabinovich, who leads Google’s investment and work with countries such as Chile and El Salvador, it is necessary to inject even more capital so that it is women who lead digitization in Latin America.
“It is very important to generate greater opportunities for women to feel part of the digital transformation,” she said.
Along the same line, the IDB representative for the Dominican Republic, Katharina Falkner-Olmedo, stressed that when parity is sought in professional teams, it is reflected in profits and innovation.
“Today we know that more diverse teams are more innovative, more creative, and generate higher profits than a traditional team,” the expert emphasized.
With this goal in mind, the IDB also announced on Friday the appointment of a special advisor for gender and diversity issues, who will be tasked with “fostering synergies within the IDB Group,” the bank explained in a statement.
Diana Rodriguez Franco, former secretary of Women’s Affairs in Bogota (Colombia), will assume the role from April 1 and will report directly to IDB President Ilan Goldfjan.
During her time in the Colombian capital’s city council, Rodríguez “created and implemented innovative, internationally recognized public policies to address the unpaid care burden (through “Care Blocks,” or Manzanas del Cuidado in Spanish), close gaps in employment opportunities and respond to gender-based violence,” the statement said. EFE
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