ECLAC calls for strategic investments and public policies to advance towards a care society during the Third Ministerial Conference on Feminist Foreign Policies

Within the framework of the III Ministerial Conference on Feminist Foreign Policies “Solutions for a better tomorrow” led by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) of Mexico and co-organized by the National Institute for Women of Mexico (Inmujeres) and UN Women, ECLAC’s Gender Affairs Division participated in the panel “Feminist Foreign Policies and Development Cooperation with a Gender Perspective from Latin America and the Caribbean: The Care Society for a Better World.”

During the panel, Ana Güezmes, Director of the Gender Affairs Division, and Diana Rodríguez, Social Affairs Officer, highlighted the call of the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Buenos Aires Commitment to move towards a new style of development, the care society that prioritizes the sustainability of life and the planet, recognizes the right to care as part of the fundamental human rights for the well-being of the population as a whole, and guarantees the rights of people who need care, as well as the rights of people who provide such care and self-care. In addition, they underlined the importance of international cooperation to face the challenges of sustainable development without leaving anyone behind.

In this regard, Ana Güezmes highlighted that the region has a long tradition of contributions from feminists, feminisms and feminist diplomacy to multilateralism, sustainable development and peace.

“Currently, three countries in our region are integrating the world with these policies. Mexico did so in 2020 and was the first country in the Global South to join this progressive trend. In 2023, Chile and Colombia also decided to follow this path. A recent achievement is that, at the CELAC Summit of Heads of State, these three countries presented a declaration focused on Feminist Foreign Policy, which was signed by Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic,” said the United Nations official.

For her part, Diana Rodríguez, Social Affairs Officer at the DAG, highlighted that international cooperation allows for the generation of transformative ideas and concrete projects, allowing the voices of the South to participate in the drive for innovation and the promotion of development. “The region needs North-South, South-South and triangular cooperation to overcome the limited fiscal space and to overcome development gaps, including the structural issues of gender inequality.”

Rodríguez referred to three initiatives on international cooperation. First, she referred to the Regional Fund to Support Women’s and Feminist Organizations and Movements. Second, she referred to the progress towards a Biregional Pact for Care between Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union, and finally to the recently approved project “Strengthening Feminist Foreign Policy and Feminist International Cooperation through a community of practice between Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Germany and ECLAC”, which stands out for being a convergent, collaborative effort between foreign ministries and international cooperation agencies.

“This will be a great push to learn, share, advance, articulate and bring these advances to the different subsidiary bodies of ECLAC, to the different conferences, because what we want is to go faster, to do things better and achieve a more productive, inclusive and sustainable future with substantive equality, with this proposal that comes from the region, which is the care society,” he explained.

The panel was composed of representatives from Colombia, Chile, Germany and Mexico, who highlighted the need to generate statistics to make women visible; the urgency of increasing budgets and funding to promote the feminist agenda and women’s rights; the importance of conceiving care as a human right; the opportunity represented by South-South, North-South and triangular cooperation; and the imperative of creating a common front against far-right movements that seek to eliminate the gender agenda from public policies.

The moderator of the panel, María-Noel Vaeza, closed the panel by emphasizing the importance of bringing Feminist Foreign Policy to the United Nations Future Summit so that the concept is reflected in the countries’ agreements.

During the day, Diana Rodriguez also participated in Panel 8 “Dialogue of civil society organizations on Feminist Foreign Policies: “Contributions of civil society to the implementation of Feminist Foreign Policies for a better tomorrow”. International Cooperation Segment with a Feminist Perspective Coordinated by AMEXCID with the participation of development cooperation agencies in the region.

On the Ministerial Conference

The Third Ministerial Conference on Feminist Foreign Policies aims to create a space for dialogue that strengthens feminist foreign policies and privileges intergovernmental alliances by placing women and girls at the center of the international agenda, in order to design and implement policies that comply with international commitments and conventions to contribute to achieving substantive equality; the only way to generate the integral development of nations.

Ten years of feminist foreign policy and international cooperation policy for feminist development: an opportunity for Latin America and the Caribbean

This paper analyses the emergence and evolution of feminist foreign policy and international cooperation policy for feminist development in 12 countries, with an emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean and its significant contribution to the Regional Gender Agenda, based on the history of feminist contributions to peace, multilateralism and intergovernmental agreements. It also raises the need to move from formal to substantive equality through a rights-based strategy focused on resources, representation, reality testing, research, resistance and results. The study provides a historical analysis, indicates promising practices and offers a guide for the implementation of policies that place equality and the sustainability of life and the planet at the centre of the foreign policy and international cooperation agenda, offering a hopeful perspective towards a care society and sustainable development with gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Access the publication Ten years of feminist foreign policy and international cooperation policy for feminist development: an opportunity for Latin America and the Caribbean