Thursday, Mar 07, 2024

Happy International Women's Day 2024

Dear friends, colleagues, and TC associates,

International Women’s Day is both a celebration of women’s achievements and a call to action in support of a more equitable and inclusive world.

Mentorship is identified as a key driver of empowering women under this year’s IWD theme, “Inspire Inclusion.” To mark IWD 2024, we asked three inspiring women leaders in central banking – Jessica Chew, Fundi Tshazibana, and Irene Espinosa – to share their insights on mentorship. All view mentorship as a powerful means to help women advance in their careers, and as a valuable learning opportunity for both the mentor and mentee. They eloquently share how mentorship has been a gift in their leadership journeys.

Watch the highlights of their messages.

At Toronto Centre, we have woven gender equality and financial inclusion into the core of our work in support of financial stability. Our Women’s Leadership Program (WLP) is now in its fifth year of delivering training and coaching to women in managerial and executive positions with agencies across Sub-Saharan Africa. This program is not a one-off experience: it has created a growing alumni support network. Based on its success, we are expanding it and offering it to women supervisors from the Indo-Pacific region this year. Last year we built on the WLP’s foundation with a new, advanced-level WLP 2.0, which further develops skills and strategies for leading change.

Our support of women’s careers extends to ensuring gender balance in our programs and making our programs accessible to women through scholarships, such as our International Women’s Day scholarships. I am proud that in 2023 almost 50% of our program participants were women, and 75% of the 60 scholarships we awarded were to women. Today we are pleased to announce the winners of six International Women’s Day scholarships:

Daniela Florencia Heredia, Chief Supervisor, Monitoring and Risk Assessment, Financial Intelligence Unit - Argentina

Lindelwa Mangwe, Financial Analyst, Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Eswatini

Locadia Chaavure-Kwashirai, Chief Bank Examiner, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe

Roshella Faberes, Bank Officer II, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

Chandra Clark Jackson, Deputy Director, Insurance, Central Bank of Liberia

Geraldine Kyomugasho, Market Conduct Officer, Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority

We realize women’s access to finance is a critical driver of their economic empowerment and sustainable development. That’s why, since 2017, Toronto Centre has hosted 36 events, conversations, webinars, and podcasts specifically addressing supervisory perspectives on gender equality and financial inclusion. We produced 11 guidance publications, including TC Notes and a Toolkit amongst them, on different aspects and applications of gender balance and financial inclusion as it pertains to supervisory practices. 

We incorporate gender balance into our organization, from the make-up of our staff and program leaders, to the thought leaders who participate in our panel discussions, and to the Board of Directors that provides oversight and strategic guidance.

I wish to thank the three Deputy Governors for sharing their thoughtful and insightful comments on mentorship. You can view each of their messages in full below.

Jessica Chew's message	Fundi Tshazibana's message	Irene Espinosa's message

I wish you a happy International Women’s Day and encourage you to become a mentor this year.

Babak Abbaszadeh

President and CEO