60 women from 18 countries will receive mentoring to promote gender-sensitive mobility

initiatives.

Latin America, October 9, 2020 - With the aim of empowering emerging women leaders to implement sustainable public policies with equity and inclusion, the Urban Women Leaders Programme, of the Women in Movement Programme was launched on October 2. EUROCLIMA+ gave grants to 10 women who are participating in projects in the Urban Mobility sector, as part of its line of action to mainstream the gender perspective in the programme financed by the European Union.

For 10 weeks, the course will bring together virtually 60 women from 18 Latin American countries to provide them with management skills, practical tools, and techniques to promote development, consolidate equity and achieve sustainable and inclusive mobility.

"From Women in Movement we are convinced that through the training of women we will create profound changes in regulations, public policies and decision-making in our cities. We have created a course aimed at women leaders that will serve as an acceleration of projects for cities with a gender perspective in mobility," said Laura Ballesteros, founder of Women in Movement, during the presentation of the programme.

Among the participants in the inauguration were Priscille de Coninck, regional specialist in transport and urban development from the French Development Agency (AFD) and Miriam Monterrubio, technical advisor at the German Cooperation for Sustainable Development in Mexico (GIZ Mexico), who form part of the EUROCLIMA+ team in the Urban Mobility sector.

"The efforts that can be made with this course, and which in the case of EUROCLIMA+ have been very important, is to see and strengthen the women who are working on these kinds of projects, so that it is not an invisible subject in which decisions continue to be taken without a gender perspective, in which women still do not have that voice," said Miriam Monterrubio.

The classes will have a practical focus since they incorporate support and accompaniment of the participating women during the learning process and the development of projects in their interest. They will be developed through networking sessions, classes with experts, review of case studies, and mentoring workshops. "The objective is that the mentoring projects are implemented in the cities, that they do not remain on paper," stressed Ballesteros.

The Urban Leaders' Programme will last 10 weeks and it is made up of four modules: Gender and Transport, Sustainable Leadership and Gender, Project Management, and Transversal Mentoring and Final Project. The teaching staff consists of 22 international experts in transport with a gender perspective, such as Angie Palacios, Paola Tapia, Marina Moscoso, Daniela Chacón, Isabel Serra, and others.

The 60 women selected belong to the public and private sectors, civil society organisations, foundations and academia. This is in order to generate a network of multi-sectoral alliances. The EUROCLIMA+ programme benefited 10 women who actively participate in Urban Mobility projects:

• Ana lucía González, of Montes de Oca, Costa Rica
• Carolina Romero, of Montevideo, Uruguay
• Cíntia Bartz, of Teresina, Brazil
• Gisèle Labarthe, of Santiago, Chile
• Laura Victoria Urrego, of Ibagué, Colombia
• María José López, of Ambato, Ecuador
• Mariela Stephane and Yucra Ramos, of Arequipa, Perú
• Soo Ling Hip, of Antofagasta, Chile
• Ximena Cecilia león, of La Paz, Bolivia
• Rubí Vázquez, from Puebla, México

Cities Post-Pandemic

During the opening event, a discussion was held in which guest speakers reflected on the future of cities after the pandemic and the need to promote a gender perspective in the recovery process.

Priscille de Coninck spoke about the importance of the diagnosis of mobility and gender in health contingency issues and highlighted her admiration for the organisation Women on the Move: "It is a unique opportunity for this region to have a network of this nature, so I wish the best for this course, which is just the beginning of an initiative".

"On the identified problems of gender gap and mobility, I think about the issue of personal security: problems of harassment, of risk perception. This is the most recognised issue in terms of gender and transport. Then there are other aspects such as the problem of employment, mobility patterns, among others. At AFD, as a development bank, we think that the involvement of women is key to achieving sustainable development," she said.

For her part, Miriam Monterrubio, technical advisor at GIZ Mexico for the EUROCLIMA+ and C40 Cities Finance Facility programmes, stressed that one challenge is the invisibility of women's problems in mobility: "She did not want to realize that we do not even see how women live on a daily basis in our travels. I could say that in no city is the gender perspective included in the analysis of mobility. It makes you think that there is no problem because we are not even seeing it".

In the context of the health contingency, the importance of including the gender perspective in the concept of "green recovery" was highlighted. "We could not continue with this word 'sustainable' if we are making half of the population that also exists invisible".

Mujeres en Movimiento (Women on the Move) is a leadership centre established in 2018 with the aim of promoting women leaders in the sustainable agenda of Latin American cities. Here you will find the video of the launch of the Urban Women Leaders Programme:

About EUROCLIMA+

EUROCLIMA+ is a programme financed by the European Union to promote environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient development in 18 Latin American countries, particularly for the benefit of the most vulnerable populations. The Programme is implemented under the synergistic work of seven agencies: the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the French Development Agency (AFD), the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Expertise France (EF), the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAPP), the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH and UN Environment.

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www.euroclimaplus.org