WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT
Maria Carolina España Orlandi Chief Administrative Officer, Corporate Services Department, OPEC Fund
Like fellow multilateral development banks and institutions, the OPEC Fund was set up in the decades after the Second World War. Its mandate is to support the development aspirations of its partner countries and promote equitable economic progress. As progress is neither linear nor irreversible, the OPEC Fund’s activities over the last five decades have been consistently and continuously reinforcing the parity of the individual and equal access to opportunities – particularly in terms of education, health and income. Credit, not charity: The power of microfinance If economic independence is key to liberation, then access to credit becomes essential. In 1976, the economist Muhammad Yunus revolutionized the credit industry by lending tiny sums of money to poor women in a village near Chittagong, Bangladesh. His microcredit model, based on trust and group solidarity rather than collateral, challenged the deeply entrenched paradigm of the banking world. Banks were averse to lending to the poor, to rural populations, to women or to those I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, but my family is of mixed heritage. On my mother’s side, my grandfather was Italian and my grandmother Bolivian; while on my father’s side, my grandfather was Venezuelan and my grandmother Colombian. So in my blood I have a mix of the Andean region and the “Old World.” I was at CAF – Development Bank of Latin America for over 30 years and my last post was Executive Vice President. I really enjoyed my time there because it
was a great opportunity to grow with the institution. Today CAF’s balance sheet has jumped from US$1.5 billion to US$52 billion, and from around 100 loans to well over 800. Meteoric in a way! Here at the OPEC Fund I’m working with the HR team, the IT team and also the General Services team, which is in charge of procurement, maintenance and infrastructure. My goal is to make life easier for employees with very user-friendly tools, so working on agility, efficiency and the broader working environment.
Florensia Bhara Young Professional, Legal Services, OPEC Fund
I was born and raised in the village of Nanga Serawai in the middle of the West Borneo
jungle, which is part of Indonesia. Borneo is the English name for what we call the island of Kalimantan, from the Sanskrit “Kalimanthana” – which means “burning sun” or “fire” in reference to the tropical climate of the region. Professionally, I feel like I’m starting to complete a puzzle. I’ve worked for the European Parliament, the United Nations, including executing agencies like UNIDO and UNDP. I’ve also worked for an implementation partner, the Renewable
Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership. As an OPEC Fund Young Professional, I work across the Compliance Unit, Private Sector Operations, the Strategy Department and the Risk Department. With my background in operations, working across these departments has given me a multifaceted perspective on the institution, from regulatory considerations to private sector engagement, strategic planning and risk management. This broad view is essential because, to become a well-rounded development professional, you need to understand the sector from every angle.
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