 I'm joined on the panel by my colleague at the World Economic Forum, Marisol Argueta, who is the head of Latin America, and she has been the person principally responsible for organizing this summit here in Medellin this week. In addition, sitting on her left is Eric Parado, the superintendent of banks and financial institutions in Chile, and we expect to be joined in a moment by President Luis Alberto Moreno of the Inter-American Development Bank. What I'd like to do before engaging my colleagues in a discussion is just to provide a couple of comments about the significance of what we're announcing here today. The World Economic Forum has been engaged in an exercise on gender parity. It's an initiative that we've been doing for the last several years, which involves a leading piece of benchmarking analysis that helps to analyze how countries are doing along various parameters of gender parity, comparing them with each other by a series of metrics. But then in addition to that, about four years ago, we launched four pilot action-oriented task forces, gender parity task forces, in four countries around the world, which is Mexico, Turkey, among other countries where we've been active over the years. I will talk about them in a little bit more detail during the course of the panel. But what I'd like to do is just to indicate that we have released here today a report that looks back on this work, which is continuing in one of the four countries, the Republic of Korea, but it has wrapped up in the other three countries, and distilled some lessons from those experiences. Let me just briefly characterize them for purposes of the discussion here today. These are countries where educational attainment is relatively high in terms of a low gap in gender, but the gender gap on economic participation is relatively high so that there is what we think of as an economic efficiency and inclusion gap in these countries because the female workforce is highly educated, but not yet fully integrated into the economic activity of the country. And so these task forces each have assembled a high-level public-private coalition of actors from the government, from the private sector, but also from civil society and sometimes thought leaders in a concerted effort to set some targets to mutually agree upon some action steps that they will collectively be held accountable for and monitor over a period of years, and they have all set a target of reducing that economic participation a gap by 10%. Each of them made significant progress over the last three years or so. Turkey closed the gap by about 11%, Japan by 6%, Mexico by 1.5% and Korea, which has a year left, is at about 9% or so. There are a few lessons which I'll draw out maybe a little bit later in the conversation, but the other element that's significant today is that looking forward, we are announcing a partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank to begin to apply this model, this multi-stakeholder task force model of organizing progress within a country in Latin America. And the first country where the IADB with the support of the forum will be applying this model will be, in fact, Chile. And we're very delighted for that cooperation, and I'm very happy to have the superintendent of banks here to discuss that. So without any further delay, why don't I invite my colleague, Marisol Argueta, to offer her reflections, and then we'll move to you, Superintendent. Thank you, Rick. Thank you very much. Thank you for joining us. This is indeed a very critical topic for Latin America and for the rest of the world. Until 2015, Latin America had closed its gender gap to in 70%. The third after North American Africa and Europe, sorry, in Central Asia, the third region in terms of overall gender gap closing. The one of the two subendic says where Latin America performed better was health care and education. Among the three top performers we find Nicaragua, Bolivia and Barbados. In half of the working women, the women in working age are in the labor force, but all of them still earn less than men. And what shall we do about that other 50% that is at a working age, but not yet accessing labor forces? This is the way where the forum, the IDB, and the government of Chile are planning to work on so that we can enable a better access for women in terms of participation in the labor force, in terms of salary equality, and also in terms of improving the labor standards for women, which is another very critical factor, not only for women to access the labor force, but to enable women to remain in the labor force. The aspect of infermality is another aspect that is of great concern through Latin America and the quality of work that women have access to. There are three areas where the forum has proposed some recommendations to address this inefficiencies or these important challenges, and these are the creation of adequate policies to promote access of women in working place, the improvement of access to childcare, and also to support women entrepreneur. We need to have the creation of an ecosystem that enable and facilitates women to develop their own capacities. So I think we have three important proposals, which will be part of the work that we will be launching with the IDB and the government of Chile, and I will leave my friend Eric Parado and fellow YGL to provide us with some more specific information on what it is expected in Chile. Thanks very much, Marisol. We welcome President Moreno of the Inter-American Development here, but first let us turn to you, Superintendent Parado, for your thoughts. Thank you very much. It's an honor to be here. I want to be part of the solution and not the problem, so I'm representing here the efforts by the Chilean authorities to close the gender gap in some way or another. When I talk about gender gaps, I would like to recall a quote by Michael Kamel, who says, privilege is invisible for those who have it. And I think men, we have the privilege to have certain rights that women don't. So that's why I try to put the concept of conscious bias, because conscious bias, it has to be in favor of women, because regularly we have unconscious bias against women. That's why it's important to be part of the solution, that all we have to make the change together with the government forum, together with the IDB, together with the government of Chile, and of course the superintendency of banks and financial institutions, we can be part of this effort to close the gender gap. In the case of Chile, the gender gap in wages is about 30%, which is too bad, and in terms of labor participation, the difference is also striking. Labor participation in the case of men is more than 70%, and in the case of women, it's under 50%. So if you don't believe in fairness, if you don't believe in justice, because I hope you believe, but if you don't believe in that, remember that we're losing money if women do not participate in the labor markets. There are some estimations in terms of the cause of losing talent in the case of women, around 50% in the case of the OECD countries. So that's why it's not only a morally imperative, but it's an economic necessity to make that change. So that's why Chile is right now part of this solution. Thank you. Thank you very much. President Moreno. Well, thank you very much, Rick. It's a pleasure to be here. And, you know, beyond what the superintendent Parado was saying, and Marisol and Rick, let me just say that there's like a paradox in Latin America in terms of advances in gender equality. Certainly there's been a lot of progress. One of the most relevant ones, of course, is the participation of women in politics. I often mention what President Bachelet said about women in politics. She says, when a woman participates in politics, it changes the women. When many women participate in politics, it changes the politics. And I think this is really where it all begins, because certainly there are dimensions that are regulatory, what the superintendent Parado was talking, all of the data demonstrates. The similar tendencies that you see around the world in terms of gaps for remuneration to women workers in the same levels of responsibility for the lack of women participation in more businesses. We, for instance, have seen analysis, a recent study that was done that demonstrates out of 350 companies around Latin America, that had women in their boards or in their executive committees had better results than those that didn't, by large numbers. But I think that the largest question I think is a very important issue that I think we all need to put a focus on is what happens to women behind closed doors in Latin America. When I say behind closed doors, I mean the level of violence against women that exist, the many cases that are never reported. We have countries like Bolivia where one out of every two women suffers some form of domestic violence. And I think these are the kinds of things that in a country like Chile with the program that we're doing, we ought to highlight at the same time that we're talking about empowerment of women on the economic front. So yes, we have a lot of progress that we should feel proud of, but we need this fundamental cultural change that will be what is needed I think to bring the big structural changes that are needed in our region. And we certainly know that this is an economic imperative. I mean all of the data demonstrates the ones that have been done by the World Economic Forum, done by institutions like ours and equally by McKinsey, the huge impact, economically speaking, that women's participation in the labor force can have. So with that I'm very happy to celebrate this and happy to be here with Rick and Marisol because this is a labor of responsibility of love and very much in line with the principles of the forum to advance this agenda throughout the world and especially in the Americas and Chile is a great possibility to do that, especially with President Bachelet who was, as we all know, the first director of UN Women and who did a great work in that space. Thank you very much. Just before opening it up for questions let me give people a sense of the learnings from these four task forces that are moving from analysis into action and trying to get a society to mobilize. One was to state very clearly the economic case for the country but also for the companies. Secondly is to share the objectives, the targets, publicly. So it's not just a club doing it, but it's really socialized more widely and there's a sense of responsibility and accountability to society. Third is to make the objectives measurable so the progress can be tracked which what's distinctive about these task forces is that they surveyed midstream how progress was going within some of the firms in the other institutions and then they were accountable at the end of the three or four year period or how well they did against the 10% improvement target. Fourth is that they were structured to withstand the political and business cycle. They had ministers and CEOs cycle. But this is a long-term effort in society if you want to make progress. So in addition to having very high level people each of these task forces had a wider ecosystem of actors from different parts of society involved that would lend a sense of continuity. Fifth is within that ecosystem build a wider base than just the business and the governments. The religious community, journalists, et cetera, academics can be a very important element of the equation. And last, engage in some cross-organizational learning. We found interestingly that some of the most interesting dynamic of the process was when we got competitors in the same industry to talk together and agree on what might be good and productive in their sector. And that can be very, very helpful. Let me pause there and then open it up for any questions. Please just identify yourself and your institution. Hello, my name is... I know... Okay, I think... Hello, my name is from here. And one of the things that I have found is that the challenges for women are very different depending of where you were born. So if you were born in a golden... Well, in a golden bed for saying so, it's very different for having no bed. So are these policies differentiated because for highly skilled women, they are worried about not having children for not advancing in their careers. But in the lowest, in the slums, they have 10, 15 children. So there are different challenges. Are there differentiated these policies that you're proposing as the IDV as the World Economic Forum that you're now working together? The set of metrics that are used to track progress have different facets to it. Some of them are workforce related. Some of them have to do with the gender parity and the other institutions like politics. But some of them go very much to what you're talking about, is the health and educational context. And to what extent there's a gap, a gender gap there. So yes, these are very explicit considerations in determining strategies going forward in these exercises. Yes. I would just, if I may, just add one very, very brief comment. But from what I have also perceived in America is that sometimes challenging backgrounds also produce very thriving characters. And I have seen in particular among the shapers many very remarkable young women that have come from very difficult or lower social economic extracts that have had access and have, through a lot of effort, have studied in very, very top universities in the United States and in Europe. And what is very interesting is that the ones that I have met have decided to come back to their countries. So they also have become role models and a great inspiration for other women. Yes, sir. My name is Igor Torrico. I am from the newspaper of Medellin. Is this initiative, what will be the amount of the investment amount of this initiative? Besides Chile, what other nations are thinking to be involved in this initiative? Yeah. In terms of what resources will be invested, what's important to understand is that this is not a traditional development assistance approach, if I could say it. It's not a grant of aid for government programs, per se. Rather, what this is, is a multi-stakeholder series of collective interlocking commitments. And so the resources that are expended tend to be in the form of policies and activities that particularly companies agree to undertake and that they resource as part of their core business strategy, if you will. Now, yes, I imagine there may be some NGO and governmental complementary actions through programs and whatnot. But that comes out of the strategy-setting process in the task force rather than coming from some sort of a line item in a budget, some public part of a public institution or whatnot. Other questions or comments? Yes. Yes, good morning. My name is Yolanda Londoño and I am with the Tuberware Brands Corporation. And we have a robust participation in the space dealing with women's economic empowerment. We have representation from our CEO at the World Economics Forum, Gender Parity Conversation. He is also part of the Private Sector Leaders Advisory Council with UN Women and, of course, members of HeForShe promoting the movement in the 10x10x10, so we are deeply vested. And one of the things that we know, both from a company and a corporate standpoint, which we're trying to follow the guidance that you are putting together in looking at our own company policies and pay equity, et cetera, that's one area that we're working on. So your guidance will be greatly appreciated because we're trying to find out what metrics to really apply to this audit of our own gender equality status as a company. But secondly, we also know that economic empowerment is a transformational tool for those women who are born perhaps without that bed or without that income. When women receive a meaningful way of making and contributing financially, all of a sudden, all of those male-centric traditions and attitudes and the violence recedes. So how can we, in a company like ours that has deep roots, almost 3 million women in about 60 countries, how can we begin to instill in these women the information and the tools that you are creating at this high level so that between the high level where you sit and the grassroots where we have the opportunity to work, we deliver the messages that are important for women to understand and we get the men in their lives involved in that respect and in that partnership. The most successful members of our sales team are couples. And that is a transformational way of shifting that paradigm of violence and sort of cycle of poverty that exists among many women. So I'd just like to let you know that we're ready. We are vested and very happy to be a partner with you whether it's in Chile or anywhere else that you decide. We have members in Korea as well, Japan, and the countries that you have mentioned. So I'd just like for you to think of how can we take that message down in a more meaningful way. Thanks. Well, I think that's a great way to put into action what we're trying to do here because at the end of the day is how you channel these things into the wider population. You have a reach through, you know, the kind of mass marketing that you do and the system of layering of markets that you have that, you know, putting to practice a lot of the efforts that we're going to do here. And Chile is a great example to begin there. You know, I always remind people that, you know, Latin American economies, if you had more gender parity, could add up to about another trillion dollars of economic growth. So this is not just a make, feel good kind of effort that we're trying to do. It has really economic consequences and this is why we spend a lot of time and one of the ways that we can work with you is in what we have been doing as a bank to directly focus on women entrepreneurs, especially at the level that you're suggesting. So for instance, in Brazil, Hema Sacristan who is here with us who runs a good part of our private sector arm of the bank, we provided a guarantee to one of the major banks in Brazil that allowed them to raise another 500 million dollars solely to reach women entrepreneurs because the other factor here, of course, in this space for women empowerment is access to finance. And so these are the kinds of things that we need partnerships to be able to really channel those resources down and we're happy to, I'll put you in contact with Hema who is here and we can, this is Topper where Hema, you see that you just came in. So how we can work together. Very good. Thank you all. Particularly thanks to President Moreno, Superintendent Parado, my colleague Mary Saul. This is an important new stage in the gender parity work internationally I believe and we wish you very well with the task force in Chile. Thanks everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you.