CSW67 | Connecting Women in Latin America: The Roadmap Ahead

Event Details

09 March 2023

18:30 - 19:45 (EST)

United Nations Headquarters, New York, 10017
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With the theme DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, United Nations, on March 8th, celebrates International Women’s Day.

The BBVA Microfinance Foundation (BBVAMF) takes this chance to keep drawing attention to the importance of digitalization and connectivity for women and girls and to analyze the opportunities and challenges of accessing internet, as well as the skills required and the use of digital technology to bridge the digital gap, consequently reducing the rest of the divide affecting women (economic, social, educational). Entitled Connecting Women in Latin America: The Roadmap Ahead, the conference will take place on March 9th, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, within the framework of the 67th Comission on the Status of Women (CSW67) organized with the OECD and the Ministry of Women and the Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations.

Institutions such as UIT, PNUD, ONU Mujeres, OCDE y SEGIB, will take part in this conference where challenges and solutions will be tackled. According to the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU) statistics, 34% of the world’s population still does not have access to the Internet and 69% of men use it compared to 63% of women.  In developing countries, women are even more excluded; specifically in Latin America, 70 million women do not use the Internet (GSMA).

These inequalities which are evident in access to technology and digitalization, hinder financial inclusion and the progress of micro and small entrepreneurs.

Participating in this conference are high-level private and public sector representatives, as well as a Panamanian women entrepreneur supported by BBVAMF, who will give voice to more than one million and six hundred thousand women served by the Foundation through her testimony about the use of digital technologies to achieve financial inclusion and as a tool for business management.

Register → here.

Streaming → UNWEBTV

Program

Duration: 1.15 hour

Welcome

Javier M. Flores, CEO, BBVAMF

Opening remarks 

Mayra Jiménez, Minister of Women’s Affairs, Dominican Republic 

Introduction to panel 

Anna Escobedo Cabral, Chair of the Board of Trustees, BBVAMF

Panel 

Moderator: Javier M. Flores, CEO, BBVAMF

  • Ursula Wynhoven , ITU representative to the United Nations
  • Michelle Muschett, Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, UNDP 
  • Ana Güezmes, Director of the Gender Affairs Division, ECLAC
  • Marta Encinas-Martin, Education Gender Ambassador, OECD 

Conversation 

  • Introduction María Noel Vaeza, Regional Director for the Americas and the Caribbean, UN Women (video message)
  • Julia Sandoval, Panamanian BBVAMF entrepreneur 
  • Laura Fernández Lord, Head of women and sustainability, BBVAMF

Closing remarks  

Andrés Allamand, Ibero-American Secretary General, SEGIB (video message)