Palabras De Inauguración La

Opening remarks by Ms. Marta Maurás, Secretary of the Commission, at the thirty-ninth meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean Mexico City, 11 and 12 May 2006 The Hon. Jerónimo Gutiérrez, Undersecretary for North America of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Mexico The Hon. Patricia Espinosa, President of the National Women’s Institute of Mexico, Representatives of the member countries serving as Presiding Officers, Representatives of other government delegations who are here with us today, Colleagues from other agencies of the United Nations system, Special guests serving on the panel of experts who will analyse national experiences regarding mainstreaming of the gender perspective in public policies and the sustainability of gender mechanisms, Friends, On behalf of ECLAC, as well as its Executive Secretary, José Luis Machinea, and myself, allow me, first of all, to express our gratitude to the Government of Mexico and, in particular, to the National Women’s Institute for the marvellous hospitality to which we have become accustomed in this country and for the efficiency with which they have collaborated in the organization of this regular meeting of the Presiding Officers. I would also like to welcome the many friends who have worked with us in this intergovernmental forum for so long, a forum which, over the past 30 years has become the most important gathering place in the region for the consideration of issues relating to gender equity. I would also, of course, like to greet the newly appointed representatives of Bolivia, Chile and Honduras, who are attending this forum for the first time today, and to congratulate them upon their designation to such senior posts. With your permission, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Chilean delegation for the elections held by their country this past January, in which the citizens of Chile entrusted the highest political responsibility of the State to a woman 2006-371 MM remarks 39th MDM df v1.doc2 11 May 2006 for the first time in South America’s history. Congratulations. Clearly, today is a time when women are coming into their own, in Chile and in the wider region. Dear friends, Two years ago, in Mexico, we held the ninth session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. On that occasion, we evaluated the progress made since the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, identified the challenges to be met by our Governments and the international community in order to achieve the objectives of gender equality, and adopted the Mexico City Consensus, in which we reaffirmed the region’s commitment to the objectives set forth in the agenda for women’s equality. In September 2005, in Mar del Plata, we analysed the steps taken to fulfil that agenda, with special emphasis on social protection. At this meeting, we will be analysing and following up on a matter of strategic importance: the political, technical and financial sustainability of national machineries for the advancement of women. Latin America and the Caribbean have worked through various avenues to fulfil the agreements adopted since 1975 at the first global conference on women, which was also held in Mexico – through various avenues and at differing paces. We must remember that countries such as the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela had a ministry in charge of women’s affairs as early as the 1970s, that Cuba recognized the active policymaking role of the Federation of Cuban Women in the 1960s, and that all the countries have made headway, although they have also suffered setbacks, in the institutional development of machineries for the advancement of women. In addition to their durability, many of these machineries have made innovative contributions to the implementation of public policy in the region and have served as models for various types of social policies, such as those relating to childhood and adolescence, the elderly, and even the environment. This has been made possible by the political and technical measures they have taken to promote a cross-cutting approach 2 2006-371 MM remarks 39th MDM df v1.doc3 11 May 2006 that links decentralized territorial development with sectoral policies and demands for social participation. Latin America’s gender policies and the institutions that promote them are laboratories of innovation whose successes and challenges we intend to examine here today. Another of the most significant contributions that have served as inputs for the main thrust of the public policies now being proposed in the region is the participatory nature of this effort and the move being made to enhance the systems for citizen oversight and accountability now being demanded by people throughout the region. Today and tomorrow we will have an opportunity to stimulate this debate. To that end, we have invited prominent policymakers, including a number of former ministers with experience in building the institutional structure for addressing gender issues in our countries, who recently participated in this forum and who have returned to share their analysis and thinking in order to help us move forward. Thank you very much for coming here today. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the countries that responded to the survey sent out by the Women and Development Unit in order to provide substantive inputs for the debate and for the formulation of recommendations. As is customary, following the panel discussion the delegates will share their experiences and will conduct a necessary and timely debate for which we will allow however much time as may be needed. We also feel that this is an appropriate occasion for presenting the document entitled Shaping the Future of Social Protection: Access, Financing and Solidarity, which was submitted to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean at its thirty-first session this last March in Montevideo, Uruguay. I would like to thank the Presiding Officers for their contributions to that document and for the increasing participation of Ministers for Women’s Affairs as delegates in our sessions. We are also especially grateful for what has now become the traditional presence of the Chair of the Presiding Officers, in this case Ms. Patricia Espinosa, which has brought relevant arguments to the debate that enjoy the political backing of all the countries represented at Mar del Plata. The analysis of pension reforms and their negative impact on gender equity, which was underscored by the Governments during those discussions, 3 2006-371 MM remarks 39th MDM df v1.doc4 11 May 2006 has been included in the document. The document’s focus on a rights-based approach and the significance of the gender perspective in the area of health reform, as well as the need to take a close look at the position of women in social protection programmes, reflects the expectations voiced during our last meeting. This has led ECLAC, in its capacity as secretariat, to make a commitment to conduct a more exhaustive study on the contributions in the form of unpaid work made by women to caregiving activities that are not covered by current public policies and that, with the support of all of you, we hope can soon win visibility and recognition in the design of social protection policies. The participants in this meeting will also learn about the progress made by agencies of the United Nations system in drafting, with the help of coordination by ECLAC, the regional report on violence. This is yet another example of the collaborative framework within which the United Nations system operates in the region. I would like to call upon us all to redouble our efforts to strengthen the work being done by national information systems to increase the availability of regular flows of official data and to broaden the service networks and our efforts to combat the impunity with which violent crimes are committed. Because although these crimes are no longer invisible, a high threshold of social tolerance for them persists, as does the problem of the very low level of resources allocated to combat them. Finally, this meeting will also carry forward the work to be done in preparing for the tenth session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, to be held in 2007, at which we hope to show results that will help to ensure that equality will become a reality in the daily lives of women everywhere. Thank you once again for your presence here today and for your contributions to our collective efforts. 4.

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