ST JOHN’S, Antigua, Nov 3, CMC -President of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Daniel Best, has urged Commonwealth governments, investors and development partners to turn gender equality commitments into financing, opportunity and measurable results for women.
Addressing the Commonwealth Women’s Forum session, Advancing Gender Equality – Investment in Prosperous and Resilient Commonwealth, Best said small states offer significant opportunities for women’s economic leadership.
The forum forms part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) and Best, drawing on the Caribbean saying “one-one cocoa full basket,” noted that generations of women have built education, enterprises and communities one contribution at a time, and challenged institutions to match that effort.
“If women are doing their part to build prosperity, are our institutions doing enough to help their efforts grow?” asked President Best.
The CDB president noted that with global conflict, climate hazards and rising living costs converging on women’s businesses, households and communities, equality must not be deferred until conditions improve.
Using the CDB’s Strategic Plan, he set out three priorities: connecting women’s enterprise with capital and markets; investing in the conditions that enable women to seize opportunities, including care, safety, accessibility, skills and technology; and making ownership and leadership the goal of transformation.
Best pointed to results that show what is possible when women’s enterprise is connected to opportunity. Through the SheTrades Caribbean Hub, CDB’s partnership with the International Trade Centre, the Bank has built a community of more than 3,000 women entrepreneurs across its 19 Borrowing Member Countries in just three years.
The SheTrades Caribbean UK Trade Mission, supported by the SheTrades Commonwealth Programme, connected women entrepreneurs with buyers and distributors and generated almost half a million United States dollars in immediate trade, with potential to more than double.
CDB is now using partnerships and innovative finance to expand lending capacity, channel liquidity to small businesses through local institutions, and open procurement and global value chains to women-led firms.
Best told the forum that there is need for action and for the region’s premier financial institution that means financing women’s ambitions, investing in the conditions that support them and backing their leadership in the industries of the future.
“Every investment matters. Every barrier removed matters. Every commitment honoured matters. Let us make them count, until every girl can grow up knowing that she has the freedom to build, the opportunity to own and the authority to lead,” Best added.
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