"Women as Forerunners of Change" Session to Be Held During the Commission on the Status of Social of Women at the UN Headquarters
The BBVA Microfinance Foundation, The Permanent Mission of Colombia to the United Nations, The Permanent Representative of Perú to the United Nations, UN Women and the SEGIB are organizing an event at the United Nations Headquarters, under the auspice of the 63rd Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), to showcase how financial inclusion can advance gender equality. To highlight the reality of many rural entrepreneurial women in Latin America, Sandra Mendoza, a Colombian farmer supported by BBVAMF, and Rut Pelaiza, who works for the Financiera Confianza, the BBVAMF financial entity in Peru, have been invited to share their powerful narratives on their challenges as women living under vulnerable conditions and how gaining access to financial services has been transformational for their social and economic success.
Empowering these women and supporting individual entrepreneurship- so they can overcome barriers to access markets and make their small businesses prosper- are key to improve their lives. Furthermore, technology becomes an essential tool that can also contribute to close gender gaps. Digitalization offers many opportunities and challenges as well, such as adapting these new technologies to present circumstances, and to the needs of the more vulnerable and excluded population segments.
Other speakers include:
- Marta Lucía Ramírez de Rincón, Vice President of the Republic of Colombia
- Rebeca Grynspan, Iberoamerican Secretary-General
- Ambassador Guillermo Fernández de Soto, Representative, Permanent Mission of Colombia to the United Nations
- Ambassador Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, Permanent Representative of Perú to the United Nations
- Luiza Carvalho, Regional Director of UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean
- Javier M. Flores, CEO, BBVA Microfinance Foundation
- Laura Fernández Lord, Head of Women’s Empowerment, BBVA Microfinance Foundation
The event will take place on 13 March 2019, at the Ex-Press Bar at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 4:45 - 6:00 pm
For more information on the event and BBVAMF, please visit the event site or contact teresamaria.burelli@mfbbva.org