Panama City, November 13, 2024 – The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean led the launch of the Gender Equality Seal for Public Financial Institutions on November 12. Through this technical cooperation, CAF and UNDP support gender capacity building in public banking in Argentina, Bolivia, and Mexico as a sectoral benchmark for the advancement of women’s financial inclusion. The launch of the Gender Equality Seal Program for Public Financial Institutions (SIG-IF), also carried out jointly with the CAF and UNDP offices in these countries, marks an important milestone towards the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the financial sector, in line with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In Latin America, there is a gender gap of 8 percentage points in access to the financial system, and this disadvantage is reflected in the profound inequality of opportunities in the region. Only 69% of women have an account in a financial institution, compared to 77% of men; this gap widens even more in rural areas and among lower-income women. Without financial access, women face significant barriers to increasing and saving their income, developing businesses, and lifting their families out of poverty. This has allowed women to become largely excluded from the formal economy. Financial inclusion also plays a strategic role in climate change resilience. Women in vulnerable communities can use financial tools to protect themselves from climate risks, such as agricultural insurance or financing for adaptation projects, to enable them to cope with natural disasters or increasingly frequent climate variations.
“The Gender Equality Seal for Public Financial Institutions not only seeks to close gender gaps in access to and use of financial services, but also to transform institutional and cultural practices that perpetuate these inequalities. This Seal will measure key indicators on women’s access to financial and non-financial products, as well as their use and the barriers they face,” said María del Carmen Sacasa. UNDP Deputy Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Our goal is clear, we want to promote an equitable organizational culture within financial institutions that translates into products and services designed with a gender perspective, so that women not only have access, but also real opportunities to take advantage of financial services to their full potential,” she added.
“At CAF we have the mandate to accompany financial institutions so that they can face processes of change in their organizational structures and also generate a transformation in their value offer. Expanding the market to more women will generate more financial returns and promote further improvement in their repayment rates, among many other benefits,” said CAF’s Corporate Vice President of Strategic Programming, Christian Asinelli. He added that, “We are certain that this Seal for Gender Equality is a sign and visibility of something much bigger than ourselves, which is the collective will to leave no one behind.”
The Gender Equality Seal, led at the technical level by Guillermina Martin, UNDP Gender Team Leader for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Ana Baiardi, CAF’s Gender, Inclusion and Diversity Manager, seeks to address these challenges by fostering an equitable organizational culture within financial institutions, which translates into gender-sensitive products and services. This initiative will enable participating financial institutions such as the national teams of Banco de Desarrollo Productivo (BDP) in Bolivia, Nacional Financiera (NAFIN) in Mexico, and Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires in Argentina to promote the development of gender-sensitive financial and non-financial products and services, measure and analyze gender gaps and key gender equality indicators and the impact of their management, as well as identify gender-transformative initiatives for strategic investments.
“Inclusion and respect for women are a cornerstone of our social impact and institutional mission. The Gender Seal is not only an achievement, but a statement of our values and our conviction to build a fair and accessible system for all,” said Caterine Vargas Hernandez, Business Manager and President of the Gender Commission of Banco de Desarrollo Productivo in Bolivia.
“Nacional Financiera, as a development bank with 90 years of history, assumes today more than ever its role as an executing instrument of important socioeconomic transformations in the country. In particular, the transformation that the First President of Mexico is leading today. Since 2022, Nafin under the framework of the Nafin Sustainable Strategy published its institutional gender equality policy to establish guidelines that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, both in its organizational culture and in its operations. It is an honor for Nafin to be part of the Gender Equality Seal for Public Financial Institutions (SIG-IF), as it is an initiative that will drive improvement in strategic planning for change towards closing gender gaps in sustainable and inclusive financial products and services that facilitate women’s access and participation in the Mexican Financial System” highlighted Dr. Ismael Villanueva Zuñiga, Head of the Issuance and International Relations Unit, Nafin.
Elena Cafaldo, Deputy General Manager of Transformation and Organizational Development of Banco Ciudad stated that “the promotion of equal opportunities that we promote as our DNA or central policy within all our actions as a public bank of the City of Buenos Aires, includes gender equality as an unavoidable factor. We were pioneers in the Argentine financial system in taking an exhaustive look to understand the segment and, based on the data, create innovative proposals and assertive products for women entrepreneurs, for women in technology and for women exporters, among other initiatives that always include training and networking spaces with a gender perspective. Our organization created a gender policy committee, with the aim of achieving greater diversity and added value within the business. We encourage women to apply for management positions by creating a program called Motoras, which has allowed us to double the number of women in executive positions. We have also taken an integral approach, balanced and extended leave of absence, aiming at co-responsibility in caregiving. This seal allows us to continue consolidating this path and at the same time share our experience and good practices with our peers at the regional level”.
The collaboration between CAF, UNDP, and public financial institutions opens unprecedented opportunities to transform financial systems into engines of inclusive development. This alliance not only mobilizes resources, but also places gender equality and social justice at the center of the investment agenda. From the commitment of this collaboration, we will move towards a financial system that not only recognizes the importance of gender equality but acts to achieve it.
