Hay Festival Cartagena 2025

Being a young woman in Cartagena de Indias can be a double challenge when it comes to finding work. It is estimated that the rate of female unemployment in the Caribbean region is as high as 13 percentage points higher than the rate for men. This, in practice, means that as soon as they enter employment, their conditions are not equal to those of men. To talk about the different causes and consequences of this situation, we welcome the economists Andrea Otero, a Banco de la República researcher; Marcela Meléndez, from the World Bank; and the economist and rector of the Universidad del Norte, Adolfo Meisel.

For cultural projects to create opportunities in different territories, we need financial tools to fund them: from public-private partnerships, to organisations in the industry that can guarantee cultural diversity. This conversation will help us understand the financial ecosystem behind art and culture, with the cultural economist David Throsby (Australia), author of Economics and Culture, a landmark book in this field; and María Consuelo Araújo (Colombia).

Simultaneous interpretation from English to Spanish available

About a quarter of a century ago, Zygmunt Bauman defined our time as one of “liquidity”. Since then, our structures have only continued to change, with a geopolitical spectrum that is more volatile than ever: the rise of autocratic politics, the invasion of Ukraine, the future of Gaza after the ceasefire, the US incursions in Colombian and Venezuelan waters… Talking about all this will be Fernando Arancón, Director of the digital media outlet El orden mundial; Marcela Meléndez, a World Bank economist; and Carlos Alberto Patiño, author of La Guerra Global Invisible. Ucrania, el mundo y el retorno de los imperios, together with journalist María Martín.

All events on Saturday, January 31st will be free for people with ID from the department of Bolívar. Complimentary tickets can be requested —up to capacity— at the box office of the Hay Festival (Centro de Convenciones) showing your identification on the same day the event is taking place.