José Luis Machinea, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and Carmen Moreno, Director at UN-INSTRAW
signed an agreement to support the establishment of an Observatory on Gender
Equality in Latin America and the Caribbean.
During the 10th Regional Conference on Women in Quito, Ecuador (2007) Member
States recognized that “equality is one of the driving forces of democracy
and that its aim is to achieve equality in the exercise of power, in
decision-making, in mechanisms of social and political participation and
representation…a goal for the eradication of women’s structural exclusion.”
They requested the creation of an observatory on equality that will
strengthen national gender machineries.
The Observatory will coordinate an annual evaluation of gender inequality,
covering such themes as remunerated and non-remunerated work, the use of
time, poverty, access to decision-making and political representation and
gender-based violence.
UN-INSTRAW’s participation in this initiative is part of the implementation
of the UN-INSTRAW/AECID project “Fortalecimiento de la Gobernabilidad con
enfoque de genero y la participación política de las mujeres en al ámbito
local,” which looks to strengthen the participation and political
leadership of women in the planning and management of local governments in
Latin America.
The Technical Secretary will be responsible of ECLAC through its Women and
Development Division.
Among the participants, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the Pan
American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Development Fund for
Women (UNIFEM) and various donor agencies (Agencia Española de Cooperacion
International para el Desarrollo (AECID), Secretaria General de
Iberoamericana (SEGIB) and the Government of France).
The Observatory will offer member countries a variety of strategic tools and
methodologies to track and monitor the goals established in the Quito
Consensus.
The agreement was signed within the context of the 32nd Session of the United
Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),
which took place in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (9 to 13 June 2008).
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