Gema Sacristán is IDB Invest's Chief Investment Officer. She joined the Inter-American Development Bank in 2008 as an Investment Officer in the Structured and Corporate Finance Department, where she subsequently became Chief of the Financial Markets Division. Prior to this role, she held various leadership positions in commercial and investment banking in Madrid, London and New York. Among them, she was the director of the Export and Agency Financing Unit for the Americas at BBVA New York and vice president and product manager in the area of Global Trade Finance at Banco Santander Nueva York.
New technology applications have a great potential to help us achieve equity over the next decade. To that end, it is essential to invest in innovations that do not replicate gender biases, are developed by women and promote women’s technology investments.
Girls and boys begin to classify jobs according to gender at the age of six. At the age of 12, about 50% of girls aspire only to stereotypically feminine roles – this is the “dream gap.”
High-speed 5G Internet connections will help more remote work and information access, reducing emissions from cars and planes, and facilitate self-driving vehicles, leading to fewer accidents and shorter commutes, as well as the widespread adoption of smart buildings with less energy use.
Latin America has become the leading region in gender bond issuance, totaling 14 transactions and 12 issuers. Gender bonds are a great financial alternative to empower women from an economic, business and social standpoint.
The first gender bond in the region was issued in 2019 by the Panama unit of a bank based in Colombia, a country that has never stopped leading the sustainable investment market. However, more and better access to financing is still needed to consolidate this progress and grow.
Sustainable Development Goal 13, Climate Action, is a cornerstone for the rest of the goals. It is the single piece that, once set in motion, makes the other dominoes fall.