• A loan of $4.1 million and non-reimbursable financing of $1 million seek to contribute to the achievement of gender equality, benefiting more than 40,000 women, youth, boys, and girls in the country.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approved a loan of $4.1 million and non-reimbursable financing of $1 million to promote a life free of gender-based violence and the achievement of gender equality in Uruguay. This operation is the IDB's first investment loan focused exclusively on fighting gender-based violence (GBV).

The Program for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (Promujeres, for its name in Spanish) plans to increase the capacity of the attention services of the Response System to Gender-Based Violence (SRVBG) of the National Institute of Women (INMUJERES) for adult women, including migrant women and trafficked women.

In addition, it will promote gender equality and the prevention of gender-based violence in young Uruguayans and migrants, strengthening the work of INMUJERES in the educational field, and will encourage the use of information on gender-based violence of migrants and diverse groups of the population, improving its quality and quantity.

Activities financed include expanding the coverage and improving the quality of SRVBG services aimed at Uruguayan adult women and migrants, including remodeling and expansion works at the Montevideo Service Center. Likewise, it will finance the strengthening and expansion of psychosocial and legal services for women in situations of intimate partner violence in Montevideo and the country's interior, including those derived from the ankle braces program, and the expansion of the coverage of care for women in situations of violence and victims of trafficking for sexual and labor exploitation.

The program will support the strengthening of the coordination of Inmujeres with the National Administration of Public Education and the Ministry of Education and Culture in the development and implementation of annual plans of the Gender and Gender Network. Education and other spaces for articulation include interventions to prevent dating violence and the school environment among young people. The operation will also improve the quality and use of data on GBV by strengthening the GBV Observatory and the design and implementation of the third National Survey of GBV Prevalence.

It is estimated that 17,630 women will be beneficiaries with psychosocial and legal care services, 670 women with trafficking services, approximately 500 women (and 450 children) annually referred by the Entrance Portal to temporary shelter, and another 10,024 women annually with telephone counseling services. In addition, it is estimated that 13,000 young people will be direct beneficiaries of the actions above and 3,600 teachers for training activities on gender equality and prevention of GBV.

This operation is aligned with Vision 2025 - Reinvesting in the Americas: A Decade of Opportunities, a course of action created by the IDB to achieve recovery and inclusive growth in Latin America and the Caribbean. Vision 2025 highlights the importance of ensuring the prevention and elimination of SGBV as part of the Bank's work to promote gender equality and inclusion of diverse populations in all its operations.

The IDB loan of $4.1 million has a repayment term of 25 years, a grace period of 5.5 years, and an interest rate based on LIBOR.