01
July 2008
Over the past 20 years national mechanisms for the promotion of women have been
established throughout Latin America. Despite the progress achieved, they
need to be strengthened to ensure their success. Currently, those responsible
for these mechanisms are building networks aimed at strengthening their
political incidence and making gender equality policies a priority for all
Latin American governments.
Those responsible for national gender equality policies,
have stressed the need for greater interconnection to strengthen the
policies. These alliances aim at positioning women’s interests in the
regional agendas of Central America and the Andean Region where networks have
been created to establish a greater dialogue on strategic gender issues and
to give incentive to greater initiatives at the sub-regional level.
In March 2008, the representatives of the National Gender Mechanisms in the
Andean Region (Mecanismos Nacionales de la Mujer en la Región Andina - MNMRA)
met in Bolivia to create the “Intergovernmental Network of National
Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women in the Andean Region”. The Network will
deal with various relevant themes, which include institutional strengthening;
women’s political participation; women’s rights, work, and sexual and
reproductive health.
During an interview with UN-INSTRAW, Ximena Abarca, President ProTempore of
the Andean Network and Executive Director of the National Women’s Council of
Ecuador (CONAMU), emphasized that “the Network will focus on strengthening
mechanisms by positioning them in the Andean Community of Nations (CAN). The
next step will be to integrate gender issues into the CAN programmes and
policies for the Andean region”.
In 2005, a similar initiative was launched in Central America through the
creation of the Council of Central American Ministers for Women’s Affairs
(COMMCA). This Council forms part of the Central American Integration System
(SICA) that sets forth, analyzes and makes recommendations on political,
economic, social, environmental and cultural issues with the objective of
incorporating policies aimed at transforming the situation of women at the
regional level.
According to Ileana Rogel, consultant to the COMMCA Technical Secretariat,
“an effort is being made to highlight the issue of women’s political
participation within the wide range of themes that SICA deals with, and which
became a reality through an agreement signed recently by COMMCA, SICA and
UN-INSTRAW”.
The results of the Diagnosis on Governance, Gender and the Political
Participation of Women in Central America and the Andean Region, carried out
by UN-INSTRAW, revealed that national planning and gender policy management
mechanisms are an important achievement for the advancement of women.
However, after analyzing the situation of mechanisms at the local, national
and regional levels, the studies recommended “to join forces to generate a
greater articulation amongst these mechanisms”.
With the objective of promoting these types of initiatives and following up
on the results of the studies, UN–INSTRAW offered its support to the Andean
Network through the dissemination of information and by providing technical
support to enrich the dialogue between the Andean and the Central American
networks.
Also, the Institute has been working jointly with COMMCA since 2006 through a
series of cooperation agreements that will contribute to ensuring adequate
response to women’s interests in the SICA.
Visit the COMMCA website
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