SANTIAGO, Chile – Today marked the inauguration at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile of the Sixty-sixth Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the participation of ministers and senior authorities from the region’s national women’s advancement mechanisms, specialists, and representatives of civil society.
Organized by ECLAC, in its capacity as Secretariat of the Conference, in coordination with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the meeting has become a key space for assessing the region’s progress and challenges in relation to gender equality and women’s autonomy.
Participating in the inauguration were Ingrid Gómez Saracíbar, Undersecretary for issues of violence against women in the Secretariat of Women of Mexico, in its capacity as vice chair of the presiding officers and host country of the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean; José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, ECLAC’s executive secretary; and Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, United Nations assistant secretary-general and UN Women deputy executive director for Normative Support, UN System Coordination and Programme Results.
Undersecretary Ingrid Gómez Saracíbar, who is chairing the meeting, indicated that “we have made a lot of progress as a region. What began with the recognition of care work is today a drive to achieve the care society. What was a data vacuum 20 years ago are gender statistics today, converted into maps, observatories and public policy planning tools for development with a gender approach.” She later added: “See you in Mexico, in 2025, because it’s the time for women in Latin America and the Caribbean!”
ECLAC’s executive secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, emphasized that “in recent decades, Latin America and the Caribbean has made important progress on regulatory frameworks for gender equality and on strengthening the gender institutional framework in the various branches of government; however, countries face significant challenges in terms of implementing and financing gender policies. We at ECLAC – along with you, from the region’s governments – have argued that it is time to make strategic investments and public policies to advance towards substantive gender equality, in real terms, and towards the care society. Indeed, this meeting seeks to give a sense of urgency to our collective action. Let’s recall that, for example, in Latin America and the Caribbean, one out of every four women (25.3%) lacks her own income, which is nearly three times more than in the case of men (9.7%).”
Meanwhile, the deputy executive director of UN Women, Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, sustained that “In Latin America and the Caribbean, the achievements towards gender equality range from quota and parity laws in many countries to promoting comprehensive care systems and policies. The vision of Latin America and the Caribbean, as consolidated in the Buenos Aires Commitment, is in line with the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and sets the basis towards a new sustainable development paradigm. This is a moment for reflection and action. It is also a moment to engage with all generations and youth to learn from the past and strategize for the next 30 years.”
At the intergovernmental gathering, Ana Güezmes García, director of ECLAC’s division for gender affairs, presented the document Action for equality, development and peace in Latin America and the Caribbean: Draft regional report on the review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 30 years on, in synergy with the implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda.
According to this report, to achieve substantive equality by 2030, urgent and transformative action is needed to accelerate the effective implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Regional Gender Agenda, strengthening the institutional framework of women’s advancement mechanisms and the architecture for achieving gender equality, while also further mainstreaming the gender perspective within the different levels and branches of the State, so as to ensure an increase in the financial, technical and human resources allocated, the adoption of gender budgeting, monitoring and accountability mechanisms with citizen participation, and development cooperation in its various modalities.
The sexual division of labor and the unfair social organization of care continue to be one of the main barriers to inclusive development with gender equality, shared prosperity and decent work, the publication sustains.
Half of women in Latin America and the Caribbean are outside the labor market, in contrast to the participation rate of men, which is around 75 percent. Poverty also affects women disproportionately: there are 118 women living in poverty and 120 women living in extreme poverty for every 100 men in a similar situation. The feminization of poverty is even greater among indigenous and Afro-descendent populations and rural residents.
Meanwhile, women spend nearly triple the amount of time that men do on unpaid domestic and care work.
The report confirms progress on matters of political representation, parity in education, the mainstreaming of the gender perspective in climate action and on policies to prevent and eliminate violence against women, among other areas, but substantive equality in real terms is still an aspiration for the region, it stresses.
For example, in national legislatures, women account for just 35.8 percent of the seats, and at the start of 2023, women held 27.2 percent of the elected positions in local deliberative bodies in the region, versus 35.5 percent at the global level.
In 2023, at least 11 women were victims of femicide every day in the region, and girls and adolescents are particularly exposed to gender violence with early and forced child marriages and unions. As of 2022, 4 percent of women in the region had been married or sustained a stable union before turning 15 years of age, and 21.2 percent before they turned 18.
At this two-day event, delegations will review the preparatory activities for the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will be held in Mexico in 2025 and which will address “Transformations in the Political, Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Spheres to Promote the Care Society and Gender Equality.”
“The care society is the horizon we must move towards. Overcoming development traps requires deep transformations that can only be achieved through intergenerational solidarity, strategic investments and regional cooperation. Promoting a care society encourages us to take action and build a more inclusive, productive and sustainable future, where the well-being of all people is at the center of our policies. In the lead-up to the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC reaffirms its commitment to working in close collaboration with Member States, regional and international institutions, and civil society organizations,” ECLAC’s Executive Secretary concluded.
The meeting will establish the region’s position ahead of the 69th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW69), through a special regional consultation session, in the framework of a commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the approval of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995). This space will enable the region to speak in unison at the global forum (CSW69) and move forward on national implementation.
Also at the meeting, participants will present reports on the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean (GEO), which is a key tool for monitoring progress on the Regional Gender Agenda, and the Regional Fund in Support of Women’s and Feminist Organizations and Movements.
