She is behind Tuesday's presentation of the Estratègia d'ocupació de Barcelona, "a framework tool we have been working on in conjunction with economic and social representatives to put employment at the centre of things." She wants to make changes and the first of them involves making inequality a policy priority.
Is the fact that the director of Barcelona Activa is a psychologist symptomatic of the changes that have to be made?
I am a social psychologist and the 'social' part is important, as my professional development in the Administration has always been linked with group change and in seeing how we can affect a change for all those groups with the most difficulties in an organisation. It is true that the emphasis is on people... Mine is not the economics profile that might have been at other times when everything was focused on outright economics. It shows a shift. Yes, it is a reflection.
What will be the main policies of Barcelona Activa from now on, and the economic policy in general?
We have seen that economic inequality has got worse, at work, between neighbourhoods and areas of Barcelona and, therefore, one of our priorities from now on is to fight inequality in the economic sphere. That means carrying out specific action with objectives aimed at those who suffer the most inequality and are the most in-need -people over 45, women, migrants, those with disabilities and young people, who are also suffering significant levels of unemployment. There will be a special emphasis on those groups that have specific needs in relation to work, entrepreneurship and personal growth. The inequalities are very clear in the local area: in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi the unemployment rate is 4% and there is a healthy business environment, while in Nou Barris or Ciutat Vella unemployment is three times as high. What we will do is get closer to the area and work together with the social and economic fabric of each neighbourhood, knowing what its needs are and applying our policies according to those needs. There will be no uniform Barcelona Activa; it will vary according to the needs of each place.
It will not be the citizen who looks for resources from the Administration, but rather the latter that will bring them to the local areas.
Yes, we will approach these people in the places they are, their habitat. Obviously, there will continue to be powerful central services for the whole city, but we are initiating a new line of direct attention to all of the city's areas. We have begun a development plan in Ciutat Vella, at the end of the year we will start another in Nou Barris, at the beginning of next year one in Sants... Our idea is to reach the six local areas with the most needs by the end of the term of office. We want to work with the plural economy. The traditional business, that of commerce, is very strong and we want to boost it, obviously, but we want to give a central role to other economic areas related to the cooperative and social economy.
You are opting for the cooperative, social and caring economy.
Yes, to be green, feminist... I refer to that whole economy related to groups with difficulties, with a social component and not only for profit, even though as an economic development agency we will also focus on that and continue to provide the services we have always had. However, what we specifically want to do is work with companies so that they also take part in this new change, that they sign up to Social Responsibility in a way that they work for the areas in which they are located, that they be aware of what difficulties exist. We would like to end up creating what Europe is already designing, 'socially responsible areas', in other words, an area in which social and economic players and the authorities work together to resolve problems. This is where commercial companies have a large role to play. These are the directions we are going in: locality, social and caring economic cooperation and fighting inequality in the local area.
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| Photo: Haidy Blanch |
With your appointment you also spoke of "recovering leadership, influence and policies of centrality in employment".
Yes, that means that all of our policies, even those relating to business, will have an employment component. In a socially responsible area, the companies located there can also be aware of the job needs of the local population and can work together to find people work in the form of subsidies, and so on. What I mean is that all our programmes will have an employment element, as this is one of the most problematic areas.
How does this involve a company that has just begun, the type set up by two entrepreneurs with a computer?
That is also a type of employment. There are a lot of people that are out of work and their way of getting out of that situation is to create work for themselves, so, they set up a small business that we help to become established so that it turns into a large, powerful and stable company. Last year we helped more than 9,000 people with projects setting up businesses and we have mentored almost 2,800 projects. Helping to boost entrepreneurship continues to be one of our main priorities.
Barcelona Activa will celebrate 30 years next year. Are you planning any special celebration?
Yes, we celebrate 30 years of widespread recognition, prestige and admiration for Barcelona Activa in the city of Barcelona and not only in the city, because in those years Barcelona Activa has been an example for many local authorities and not only in Catalonia, but all over Spain. It has been innovative, it has had a methodology, it has explored pilot projects. In any case, life changes and in the new century it will change to adapt to the new times. We feel proud of our company and we want to recognise the work done by all those people who, much more than I, have led it and all the employees. We will have a party and leisure, cultural and sporting events. It will serve to recognise the past 30 years and highlight where we are going next.
In that future, especially given your profile, will the role of women have a particular importance?
The perspective of gender is one of the fundamental priorities, and a new one, of this new term of office. Because if we are talking of inequality, that affecting women is one of the most fundamental in our society and we find a very serious case of it in the business world. The wage gap between men and women in Barcelona is 25%, it is very serious that there are still women who earn 25% less. It is something we have to take on and we will do so by working to empower women. Ensuring that women reach decision-making positions with higher salaries, achieving higher quality contracts, and avoiding job insecurity that leads to the feminisation of poverty. We foresee enlarging the Escola de Dones Emprenedores so that it becomes a school for professional women, female executives and businesswomen that will help to break the glass ceiling.
This female empowerment is an issue you often cite in your articles. How important is it for entrepreneurship?
At the moment it is fundamental, and the case is it depends on women themselves. There is a whole structure that makes it difficult for women to have equally successful professional careers. Domestic and caring work has to be better distributed, because if not it will be impossible to reach a situation of equality in commerce. The empowerment of women is fundamental for them to believe in their own future, but at the same time we have to work with companies and authorities so that they genuinely provide opportunities. Both things need to be priorities.
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| Photo: Haidy Blanch |
Actually, in a few days you will take part in an event for women calling for a change in business culture. What needs to change?
Recognising the talent that women bring to the organisation. Having women in positions below their training and experience is a loss for the company. The Barcelona Chamber of Commerce showed in a study that the losses caused by not putting women in the positions they should be in were 977 million euros a year of GDP... Companies have to value and recognise the talent of the women they have with mechanisms that allow women to have a professional career, to go on growing, earn promotions and reach decision-making positions. I think that sometimes it is necessary to establish quotas, in fact some of the countries in which companies have quotas are Norway, France and Germany, which are much closer to reaching what we consider parity. If not, it is very hard.
It was you who founded Empowerment Hub. Have you also learnt about the difficulties as a businesswoman?
It was what I needed to explore my life! I had a great time and it was a very intense period. It is now on standby for when I go back to it, but I got experience in beginning to be self-employed, like a lot of people who set up their own business project. In fact next week we will launch a programme to help self-employed people, which is absolutely necessary, because I have lived through it myself and I know the difficulties because there are a great many expenses and sometimes no income. Finding access to funding and the feeling of being in a very difficult world, by yourself trying to develop your project, is very hard.
What legacy would you like to leave?
When I leave Barcelona Activa I would like it to have recovered its leading position, nationally and internationally. For it to be recognised all over for being that company that managed to help its city genuinely reduce inequality and achieve a level of quality employment and entrepreneurship above what we have now. That it not only be a case of overcoming the crisis, but for it to make a leap forward in quality that is recognised around the world, because I believe that in the past few years it has lost international standing and I would like it to have that once again. And on the internal level, I would like the welfare of Barcelona Activa's employees to go up.