Increasing the number of women in the labor force, increasing female participation in leadership positions and closing salary gaps are some of the objectives of an alliance between the State, private companies and civil society, to achieve true gender equity.
Currently, more than 40 organizations – public and private – make up the Civil Society Consultative Group (ConSoc), which continues to strengthen and grow in influence and number of members.
“As part of our commitment to gender equality, in Costa Rica we promote this initiative with the purpose of increasing the number of women in the labor force and closing salary gaps. We are really pleased to see the progress of this initiative in the country and we are inviting more organizations to join together to build a more equitable society,” said Francisco Javier Urra, IDB Chief of Operations in Costa Rica.
Reaching their full potential
The idea is that the participating organizations are committed to promoting practices, tools and products aimed at women, with the aim that they reach their full potential.
Banco Nacional is one of those organizations that recently managed to graduate the first generation of the Costa Rica Emerging Women Leaders Program. To this end, an application was made for Women Leaders, with a total of 32 selected and who are being trained this year.
Synergy between women leaders
“It has been a great opportunity and experience to participate in this program to enhance leadership skills, through a process of self-knowledge and learning thanks to the efforts of the IDB and INCAE professors. A valuable space for connection and synergy between women leaders from various sectors and public and private companies, drivers of change and development in Costa Rica, with whom we are already talking about potential collaborations and projects”, commented Michelle Miranda from the BN Segments Department, who participated in the program.
Despite the fact that Costa Rica has improved in the Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum, moving from position 30 in 2006 to 12 in 2022, there are still important challenges that require the commitment of all sectors of society. .
“In a few years we have made significant progress in the Action Plan to achieve the objectives assumed by the Gender Parity initiative in the country. As a public-private alliance, we have accelerated attention to closing gender gaps through the synergy and articulation of the efforts of the members, promoting in 2022 new programs to address the challenges jointly”, assured Pamela Castillo, Technical Secretary of the Gender Parity Initiative in Costa Rica.
