María de Paz and the reduction of inequalities: “If it’s not us, who? And if not now, when? “

María de Paz (Alicante, 1993) is not yet thirty years old, but she has already lived in twelve countries, worked in ten organizations and met thousands of people related to the social sector.

De Paz worked for the World Bank on projects related to financial and private sector development in East Africa, and lived in Kenya. Before, for Oliver Wyman, a strategic consultancy. At the time these lines are written, this young woman, key to the future of our country, is studying a master’s degree in Public Administration at Harvard.

What do you think motivates people to dedicate themselves to this sector?

I think the motivation to change things, to make them a little different from how you have found them. Fortunately, there are people who also achieve fulfillment by doing things for others.

María de Paz (SDG 10): “If it’s not us, who? And if not now, when? ”

Jorge Barreno

Is there also something selfish then?

We all have a bit of that, of wanting to do things to feel good and do something of our own. But if you help yourself and you manage to change things and fight for that, much better.

Currently, what would you say are the most important challenges we face?

Inequalities and climate change are the two main challenges of our era. Furthermore, they are an obstacle to development, peace and the fulfillment of human rights in the world.

Are we meeting those challenges well?

In the last forty years, inequality has increased a lot. The 1% of the population concentrates almost 50% of the wealth. Inequalities are currently greater in Latin America and Africa. And I think the causes of this are capitalism and globalization.

But not everything has been negative …

Above all, two things have happened. On the one hand, a – so to speak – world economic rebalancing, moving the center of power from the United States and Europe to the Asian countries. In the sixties, Europe and the US accumulated 50% of the wealth and today China has about 20% of world GDP. In China alone, 850 million people have risen above the poverty line in the past four decades.

But this has brought with it an increase in inequalities in developed countries. It mainly affects the middle and lower classes. On the other hand, globalization has made all countries come together for the first time in history in the face of inequality, and this is in the SDGs and in the previous goals. It is the first time in 2,000 million years that, thanks to globalization, all countries agree to fight against inequalities, which is the great challenge of our time.

What solutions are being proposed?

I think it is very important to strengthen international economic governance. Let there be fair taxes in all countries. And, in my experience while living in Africa, I think it is very important to strengthen international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, etc., because they play a fundamental role in bringing countries together.

What would you say about your generation?

Young people, my generation, have been educated with the awareness of wanting to fight against inequalities, climate change and leave a country or a better world than we have found. It is essential that we not only have that awareness, but that we act. I say that if it is not us, who? And if it is not now, when?

Any Instagram account that you follow, a movie or book that you find interesting to share?

Instagram accounts, I follow @roygalan, Also to @ lola.vendetta already @devermut. From books, The price of inequality by Joseph Stiglitz, The economics of inequalities by Thomas Piketty and The invisible woman by Caroline Created.

From movies, on Netflix, there is a documentary Amendment 13. Too Slumdog Millionaire and The green Mile or, more recent, A question of gender O A promising young woman.

What are the implications of income inequality at the global level?

Income and wealth inequality lead to unequal access to opportunities. All this affects above all the most vulnerable groups, women, people with disabilities, those with fewer resources.

This gap is widening between the richest and the middle and working classes, which have fewer and fewer. I believe that for a country to be fair, there must be equal access to opportunities.

How do you get it?

This is achieved in two fundamental ways: with predistributive and redistributive policies, before income is produced (minimum wage, for example) or after (progressive and fair taxation that suits the needs of the country). In the long term, it is essential to continue investing in education.

You say that the role of the private sector is fundamental.

Yes, it is key in economic development. First, because for there to be equality there must be quality employment, and it is the private sector that holds the key to that. I believe that the role that ESG (environmental, social and governance criteria) is playing now is fundamental.

It is a necessity for CEOs today to be sustainable, and I think there is a major change happening. It is not only greenwashing, is that ESG adds value because investors, consumers, customers, workers demand sustainable products, and companies have to add value by being sustainable.

Is the role of companies more important then that of NGOs?

It is very important to support and focus on social enterprises. NGOs play a fundamental role, but I think that where development is moving is towards social enterprises, which combine benefit and impact. The public sector must provide the necessary conditions so that the private sector can develop its work in a sustainable way, so that everything will work better.

And how does that relate to job quality?

We will not see a stable world of security and peace without first ensuring that the most vulnerable people, the people with the fewest resources, have a decent life and get quality employment. Making policies for that part of the pyramid is key.

Any anecdote that you highlight?

In Africa, we were doing a project with Thribune for the social reintegration of girls in conflict with the law, between 11 or 17 years old, who have committed minor crimes and who are in prisons. I came to Kenya to work at the World Bank and I was looking for a project where we could change things a bit. You don’t have to have a lot of power or a lot of resources to do something.

One of the fundamental problems they have there is social reintegration, they are girls who 95% come from slums -poor neighborhoods-, and they have nowhere to go once they get out of jail. The program has two legs: to build a social reintegration center for girls, who have nowhere to go or do not want to return, because the rate of recidivism is very high.

The second is a psychosocial training program where we help girls to develop training in some sector. We have partnered with local designers who go to jail and teach girls fashion design.

And what happened that shocked you so much?

In an event that we did with the girls from a prison in Kirigiti, 50 km from Nairobi, we asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up, what their dreams would be, and a moment that stuck with me was when a girl told me “it’s that I don’t I think I will grow up ”.

12-year-old girls, with their whole lives ahead of them, who have had the bad luck of not having been born in Spain, in a family or in a country that gives them the opportunity to study, to have an education, who have grown up in violence or discrimination or abuse. At that moment I said: “I have to do something, I can’t leave here without doing anything.”

And in Colombia, what did you mention?

Another moment is when I helped create an NGO in the Amazon, in Colombia, called Vital Sur for the protection of indigenous peoples and the Amazon. We worked with indigenous communities and it was the first time that I thought about many things.

There was a conflict, I wanted to teach the children only their culture, I wanted to teach them English and use computers, from the point of view of opportunity. We designed this program to not only protect indigenous culture, but to offer them a skillset according to what makes a person competitive today.

A dream?

To train myself well to have a role in the government of my country and to be able to play an active role in the fight against inequalities.

In the cover photo, María holds the poster with SDG number 10 on reducing inequalities. The words that define a short personal biography are: global, energy, desire and opportunities.

Global, he says, because he has lived in twelve countries, has worked in ten organizations, and loves to understand people. Opportunities, she explains, “is a word that I like because I think I try to take advantage of all the ones that come my way. Always a little moved by knowing different things, I have gone to different places and that has reinforced my energy and my desire to work for these things. : the fact of seeing people who have not had the luck that I have had to be able to live in all these countries, this has led me to want to fight for equal opportunities ”.

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