Countries of the region committed to “promote intersectoral public policies that include affirmative action measures to promote the participation, permanence, and completion of education for girls, adolescents, and women in the areas of science, engineering, mathematics and technologies”, as well as their full access to the emerging digital economy and its potential opportunities.
This is how the Statement of the ministers and high authorities of the national mechanisms for the advancement of women in Latin America and the Caribbean for the 67th session of the Commission on the Legal and Social Status of Women (CSW), result of the Sixty-fourth Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women that took place on February 8 and 9, 2023 virtually.
The 64th Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women was organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), as Conference Secretariat, in coordination with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). Delegations from the 15 countries that make up the Table participated in it (Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Uruguay and Venezuela). in addition to officials from another 18 Member States and associates of ECLAC, representatives of the United Nations System, intergovernmental organizations and civil society. In total, there were more than 500 participants and a high audience through social networks.
“Regarding the decisions taken, the ministers and high authorities of the national mechanisms for the advancement of women in Latin America and the Caribbean reaffirmed their commitment to accelerate the effective implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda, including the Buenos Aires Commitment” adopted in 2022 at the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbeanhighlighted Ana Güezmes, Director of ECLAC’s Gender Affairs Division, at the closing session.
For the senior official, “as a region we have a clear course to move towards a care society that, among other benefits, frees women from time and unpaid work so that they can fully participate in the workplace, be trained and access on equal terms to education and digital technologies”. “As has been demonstrated in these two days of exchanges, there is a clear and compelling agenda of priorities in the region. There are innovative proposals to address the multiple crises that undermine equality. There are bold solutions to close gender gaps,” she remarked.
In this sense, he mentioned the approved agreements and the documents that were shared during the meeting. “These documents and agreements feed into the Regional Gender Agenda, which also provides guidelines on how to address structural inequalities and advance the access, use, appropriation and technological innovation of women and girls in all their diversity. They make it possible to recover lost talent in the face of the paradox that, although women have a higher rate of completion of education than men, they are relegated in labor participation and more so in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as in innovation and in the production of scientific knowledge”, he said.
Cecilia Alemany, Deputy Regional Director for the Americas and the Caribbean of UN Women and Interim Representative in Argentina, highlighted “the importance of promoting regional and international cooperation in all its forms, responding to the concept promoted by Chile of cooperation ‘all azimuthal’ and coined as ‘circular cooperation’ for an inclusive digital transition linked to the social transition and the strengthening of women’s ministries, and which is proposed in the declaration that the governments of Latin America and the Caribbean agree on today to take to the 67th Commission of the Legal Status of Women in paragraphs 21 and 23”.
In the Declaration, the ministers and high authorities agreed to “promote subregional, regional and multilateral cooperation programs related to technological transformation and the digital ecosystem through North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation modalities, including among national mechanisms for the advancement of women, that promote gender equality and the autonomy of women in all their diversity”.
Ayelén Mazzina, Minister of Women, Gender and Diversity of Argentina and President of the Board of Directors of the Regional Conference, thanked the delegations for their participation, highlighting the results of the special Regional Consultation Session prior to the 67th session of the CSW. In this regard, she called for concentrating efforts on “education free of mandates and stereotypes at all levels” and on greater participation of women in the areas of innovation, science and technology. “I am confident that we will continue to strive to implement the Buenos Aires Commitment with policies, programs and advances towards caring societies, fairer societies, with more equality and more opportunities”, she stressed.
The Declaration agrees to “promote the labor participation of women in all their diversity in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, eliminating labor segregation and all forms of discrimination and violence based on gender against women and guaranteeing the decent work and equal pay, particularly in emerging sectors, including the digital economy, which are key to structural change with equality and the decarbonization of economies”.
Similarly, the delegates pledged to “support women’s digital entrepreneurship, particularly in electronic commerce, among others, in the sphere of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, seek local solutions, develop relevant content and promote the innovation and the creation of decent employment”.
As resolved, the Declaration will be made known to the Foreign Ministries of the governments of the region as a contribution of Latin America and the Caribbean to the negotiation of the agreed conclusions that will be approved at the 67th session of the CSW (6-17 March 2023).
Finally, the ministers and other participants thanked the presentation of the reference document Gender equality and the autonomy of women and girls in the digital age: contributions of education and digital transformation in Latin America and the Caribbeanprepared by ECLAC, UN Women and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
The report provides a diagnosis on the participation of women and girls in the digital ecosystem, and makes recommendations to improve national statistics, close the digital gender gap and achieve the inclusion and digital security of women and girls, among other issues.
