By Manuel Gonzalez

In the universe of public procurement, many countries have begun to measure the impact on vulnerable population groups. This includes supporting the better distribution of government money to improve the distribution of wealth and resources.

The public infrastructure construction sector is dominated by men, and increasingly, there has been a focus on the representation of other genders in the sector. The efforts made by CoST member Dominican Republic stand out in measuring and creating a clear Gender strategy in public procurement through the General Directorate of Public Procurement (DGCP).

CoST is took part in an event held in Panama in the spring called Women Doing Business, which was organized by the Commercial Office of the United States Embassy. We spoke in the Diversity and Inclusion in Purchasing panel with Felipe Cardenas, president of the Diverse Chamber of America Gender specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank Daniella Gomez Bonilla.

It was interesting to see the perspective of the Inter-American Development Bank, who has a clear policy and a training plan for women in the procurement carried out by the IADB. Likewise, from the Diverse Chamber, Felipe Cardenas works to strengthen LGBT+ and LGBT+ friendly companies, advocating new public policies throughout the continent.

At CoST, we have worked on enhancing gender equality in public infrastructure. In Latin America, there are  examples in women’s training in Honduras; Panama and a  social audit that we recently carried out in Jalisco, Mexico.

We denote the importance of establishing indicators on the matter in Latin America. It is a very relevant issue, and there is a genuine interest in the private sector in investing in countries that are more inclusive and democratic, because equity generates stability and growth.

It’s important to measure the access of women and vulnerable groups to public infrastructure contracts and that the public infrastructure responds to the needs of the population, on the basis that the best public infrastructure for people is public infrastructure that responds to the needs.