Successful solutions to gender and inequality in the region

Did you know…?

. One out of every three women in Latin America and the Caribbean is a victim of physical or sexual violence by her partner throughout her life.

. Of every ten women who are murdered, three are committed by a partner or family member.

. Only three out of 26 countries in LAC have a woman in charge of the Ministry of Security, and only 13% of the Police Department are women.

Domestic violence and gender inequality remains to be a critical problem in the region. Gender and Diversity was one of the key issues in the IDB Group institutional strategy, seeking to address the exclusion of gender in the education and labor market, in addition to domestic violence and youth pregnancy.

While Latin America and the Caribbean have become the first developing region to succeed in closing the gender gap in education, there is still profound inequality between men and women. In particular, women face substantial obstacles in the search for economic opportunities, often fighting to secure formal employment, improving the differences of salaries between genders, and assuming positions of leadership[1].

In this context, the IDB Group has created alliances with strategic stakeholders in order to address gender and inequality problems in the region, through the use of innovative business models and collaborative initiatives:

. With the support of Unilever, a unique model is being scaled from India to Central America to promote the success and dignity of women. In partnership with the IDB Group’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), Unilever is growing this model in El Salvador and Guatemala, aiming to offer opportunities of better stable incomes to 2000 women through door-to-door selling of consumer brand products.

. UN Women and the IDB Group expanded their cooperation agreement in a range of areas related to women’s economic empowerment, and the citizen security agenda, as well as ending violence against women and increasing their political participation.

There are other successful solutions that the IDB Group is implementing in the region in order to prevent and reduce violence against women, and to promote women’s participation in security management and leadership. Initiatives that are effective and sustainable thanks to the collaborative intervention of the public sector, the private sector, academia, and civil society.

Some examples of this success, that were carried out over the past few years in El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico, include:

. CIUDAD MUJER (women’s city), EL SALVADOR: a network of centers managed by the Secretary of Social Inclusion in El Salvador, which offers integrated and free services specialized in reproductive health, attention to domestic violence survivors, economic empowerment, collective education and childcare, all in one place.

. LÍNEA 123-MUJER (Line 123-Women), COLOMBIA: Emergency line, which was started in 2013 by the National Police Department, and the National Secretary of Women in Medellin. It attends to cases of physical, psychological or economic domestic violence against women.

. AMOR, PERO DEL BUENO (Love, but good love), MEXICO: school coexistence and prevention of gender violence program among adolescents, based on youth training and promotion of awareness-raising actions in the educational community.

The Program of Leadership Support and Representation of Women (known in Spanish as PROLID), led by the Division of Gender and Diversity, is the main initiative at IDB that promotes civic and political participation of women in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This program seeks to foster women’s leadership within political processes at the local and national level. We invite you to learn more about these topics in the following sections and publications:

. Gender and Diversity. Program of Leadership Support and Representation of Women (PROLID)

. How to address violence against women: Generating Evidence

. Partnership Report 2016

. Violence against women: IDB role in the attention and prevention of violence against women in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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[1] IDB Partnership Report 2016