EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The 2019 GEPOS affirms CDB’s commitment to corporate values that uphold diversity and inclusion. It reflects on regional gender issues highlighting patterns of inequalities, and opportunities for equality across all sectors. It is set against the unfolding global realisation that the benefits of achieving gender equality are tied to human rights and economic growth while the costs of gender inequality pose risks to productivity and threaten investment opportunities and gender justice.

Gender equality refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women, men, girls, and boys, and equal power to shape their own lives and contribute to society. It goes beyond the narrower concept of gender equity, which primarily concerns fairness and justice regarding benefits and needs. Gender equality also refers to the transformational commitment, needed to make equal rights and equal power a reality within the human rights agenda. It requires that the interests, needs and priorities of females and males, and vulnerable populations be taken into consideration, in recognition of the great diversity within these groups.

Gender equality benefits women and men, girls, and boys, and should be of concern to all. In its vision for the GEPOS, the Bank is