USA / CANADA – The government of Canada will provide CAD$1 million (US$798,000) in international assistance funding to the Gender and Diversity Lab (GDLab), the Inter-American Development Bank Group initiative dedicated to high-impact research to support a more inclusive and equitable society in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Launched in May of 2021, GDLab promotes, leads and finances high-impact research to advance equality for gender and vulnerable populations.
“We are honored to receive this generous contribution from the government of Canada for our Gender and Diversity Lab,” said IDB president Mauricio Claver-Carone. “This will help us implement evidence-based policies to narrow gender and diversity gaps in our region, moving us closer to enabling every individual to achieve their full potential.”
“We want our GDLab to become a benchmark for gender and diversity studies in Latin America and the Caribbean. As the pandemic has exacerbated disparities, its mission to generate actionable insights has never been more important,” Claver-Carone added.
GDLab plans to launch at least four more calls for proposals between 2022 and 2024. To communicate the results of research in this area, GDLab produces policy briefs to help ensure policies are guided by the latest research and data. Its two previous calls for proposals received almost 400 research submissions.
Vulnerable groups suffer from wide equality gaps. The labor participation gender gap is one of the largest in the world (27 percentage points before the pandemic). Also, women tend to be segregated into low-paying and traditionally female sectors, with almost 30 percent working in sectors associated with care – education, health, and domestic work – whereas only 6 percent of men are employed in these sectors.
A central pillar of the IDB’s Vision 2025 is the promotion of gender equality and the inclusion of diverse groups in our operations across the region. By encouraging knowledge generation, GDLab brings evidence-based public policies that better address the challenges and inequalities faced by women, indigenous peoples, African descendants, persons with disabilities and the LGBTQ+ community throughout the region.
