ParlAmericas participated in meetings of the Inter-American Task Force on Women’s Empowerment and Leadership at the CIM’s 38th Assembly of Delegates
From May 6 to 8, 2019, ParlAmericas participated in a series of meetings in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on the occasion of the XXXVIII Assembly of Delegates of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM, in Spanish). This Assembly, on the theme of “Equality and Autonomy in the Exercise of Women’s Political Rights,” was attended by Ministers of Women from across the hemisphere, authorities from the OAS, and international experts on gender equality and human rights.
Ahead of the CIM Assembly, the Inter-American Task Force on Women’s Empowerment and Leadership held an internal work-planning meeting which was informed by a series of consultations, as well as by preliminary assessments of the state of women’s leadership and current programming interventions in the region. A critical outcome of this meeting was the identification of three priority areas for collective action through the Task Force: 1) an analysis of availability and quality of data on women’s leadership; 2) a regional communications campaign for advocacy across different sectors; and 3) an expansion of mentorship initiatives.
With the support of the Government of Canada, on the last day of the Assembly, the Task Force held a breakfast meeting with the Ministers of Women – or their designated representative. Participating institutions presented to the Ministers the three priority areas for action the Task Force will be pursuing. In this dialogue, ParlAmericas emphasized the enhanced institutional coordination and impact that has already been achieved by the Task Force since its launch at the VIII Summit of the Americas. This mechanism has better positioned member institutions to evaluate the most strategic ways to scale up effective interventions, whether individually or jointly, and to meet shared goals of ensuring that no one is disadvantaged by their gender or left behind in national development efforts. In the case of ParlAmericas, these efforts will be focused on legislative actions to reduce the barriers to women’s leadership in coordination with its member parliaments.
