ISSN: 2173-8254

Nº 26 June 2024

"Gender Parity Initiatives in Latin America 2016-2022: A Public-Private Alliance for Accelerating Equality"

Institution: BID

The first Gender Parity Initiatives (GPI) emerged in 2012 when the World Economic Forum (the Forum), with the aim of integrating more women into the economy, launched Gender Parity Working Groups, which later evolved into Gender Parity Accelerators. From 2016 until the end of 2022, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), in collaboration with the Forum and the French Development Agency (AFD), implemented GPIs in nine countries in the region, chronologically: Chile, Panama, Argentina, Costa Rica, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, and Honduras. In 2019, AFD joined the alliance and became part of the implementation of GPIs in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Ecuador. GPIs are public-private partnerships that bring together high-level leaders from the public and private sectors and drive solutions to accelerate the closure of gender economic gaps. In each country, GPIs provide a collaborative platform that assists governments and businesses in developing and implementing Action Plans and designing specific measures to increase women's participation in the workforce; reduce the gender pay gap; and enhance female leadership. This document analyzes the journey taken over these seven years, highlights the achieved results, and proposes measures to strengthen the model.