BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s head of Women’s Empowerment, Laura Fernández Lord, gives an interview on women’s economic empowerment and the challenges faced by the Foundation in the most unequal region on Earth. She also explains how every year, the BBVAMF studies and measures the progress of female entrepreneurs it serves in the five Latin-American countries within its footprint. This helps it to better design products and services tailored to their needs.
“Economically empowering women means they can have the freedom to choose the life they want to live, because they have full economic independence to do so. And this contributes to gender equality and the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.″
Just last week, Fernández Lord attended the ‘DAC Network on Gender Equality‘ (GENDERNET) at the headquarters of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. The meeting gathered representatives from various international development agencies and other bodies, to tackle gender equality policies and initiatives.
Within the framework of GENDERNET (the gender forum for OECD cooperation agencies), she met with all the United Nations agencies working on gender issues, to discuss strategies for social protection, public services and infrastructures to promote female empowerment. These topics will be addressed at the 63rd meeting of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, scheduled for March 2019.