ParlAmericas participates in the event “Economic Empowerment of Women as a Tool Against Discrimination and Gender Violence”
On Tuesday, November 23, the Permanent Mission of the Dominican Republic to the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Permanent Observer Mission of Spain to the OAS organized the event “Economic Empowerment of Women as a Tool Against Discrimination and Gender Violence.”
The event, which sought to highlight the importance of empowering women and girls as a way to eradicate gender violence, also highlighted the role of alliances between governments, parliaments, civil society, the private sector, and the general population to achieve the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), from a perspective of inclusion and gender equality, to “leave no one behind.”
The first panel of the hybrid session, called “Public policies to promote the empowerment of women,” included the participation of Senator Verónica Noemí Camino Farjat (Mexico), President of the ParlAmericas Parliamentary Network for Gender Equality; Senator Faride Raful (Dominican Republic); Member of the Chamber of Deputies Carmen Calvo (Spain); Ms. Gina Watson, Head of the Equity, Gender, and Cultural Diversity Office of the Pan American Health Organization; and Ms. Raquel Coello, Head of Economic Empowerment of the UN Women regional office.
During her participation, Senator Raful highlighted that “as a country we have made progress on issues of women’s rights and empowerment, however, we still have imminent challenges to deal with. It is important to build alliances with international organizations, to be able to work together and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and thus improve the living conditions of women and girls in our countries, bridging any obstacles that arise, together.”
During her intervention, Senator Camino pointed out that “the pandemic deeply affected the informal sector, which is made up of women in significant percentages. It is therefore essential that governments offer innovative solutions and tools that allow micro and small entrepreneurs, who are mostly women, to develop their businesses with accessible financing and technologies.” The President of the ParlAmericas Parliamentary Network for Gender Equality also recognized the importance of “promoting regulations that grant informal workers the right tools and processes to move to formalization, consequently also provide governments of sources of relevant and disaggregated data, useful to design and implement legislative actions and initiatives that serve specific sectors.”
