Working to Promote Diversity

We at LACNIC know that the active participation of women promotes a diversity of ideas and enriches the discussion among our community, both essential for the development of our processes which are open and participatory by nature.

Today on International Women's Day we would like to share the efforts and initiatives we promote to encourage the participation of women in the institutional life of our organization.

During this time, we have worked to encourage women who are experts in technology to participate as speakers at the events organized by LACNIC. As a result, women represented 29% of all our panelists, compared to 12% just two years ago.

Likewise, the FRIDA Program has included gender as a topic in its call for projects and implemented an award for women leading innovation projects and the Ayitic Goes Global project now aims at promoting the participation of Haitian women in the digital market.

The community also shares this interest in bringing women to center stage in Internet decision-making spaces. This has been reflected in the institutional life of LACNIC, where three women have joined the organization in leading roles. Vivian Valverde, a Costa Rican engineer with 16 years of experience in the ICT sector, was voted by the community to serve on the Electoral Commission. Similarly, Paola Pérez, an engineer specializing in Internet governance, was elected co-chair of the Public Policy Forum. Finally, Rosalía Morales, current director of NIC Costa Rica with more than 15 years of professional experience, was elected to the LACNIC Board of Directors.

In line with the community, we at LACNIC have generated actions to open new spaces such as the IT Women mailing list which allows women to network and share their ideas. (http://bit.ly/2oQd6Dl)

We know this type of challenges take time and require open, multidimensional approaches. The culture of inclusion permeates LACNIC, where 53% of the staff are women. In addition, one of the strategic goals approved by the Board for 2017-2020 seeks to address this challenge.

We take up this challenge every day and are committed to continue working to promote diversity and greater female participation in the LACNIC community.