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In the framework of the IX Summit of the Americas, the High-Level Panel “Women’s leadership: advancing gender equality and democracy in the Americas” was hosted by the Government of Canada together with the Summit Secretariat and the Inter-American Commission of Women of the Organization of American States (CIM/OAS) and the Inter-American Task Force on Women’s Leadership.
The dialogue focused on sharing and highlighting the experiences and lessons learned around public policies led by governments to promote and ensure women’s participation in decision-making, as well as reflections on pending challenges to increasing the number of women in leadership positions. The Panel brought together the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Mélanie Joly; the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama, Erika Mouynes; the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power; with Gwen Young, from Women Business Collaborative, as the moderator.
Minister Erika Mouynes pointed out: “We need to create instruments in multilateral platforms to ensure more accountability. We have a lot of women-friendly speeches, but not a lot of actions.”
For her part, Minister Mélanie Joly highlighted: “We need more women at the table to make sure that we attract good talent into politics. (…) When women are part of decision-making it changes culture. And we need to continue changing culture.”
Finally, Samantha Power pointed out: “If we strengthen democracy, we’ll strengthen the place for women and girls. And, if we strengthen the place for women and girls, we strengthen democracy”.
Before the Panel, the Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM/OAS), Alejandra Mora Mora, as Technical Secretariat of the Inter-American Task Force on Women’s Leadership, shared a brief on the initiatives carried out by the alliance and highlighted that the leaders of the Americas decided to create the Inter-American Task Force during the VIII Summit of the Americas (Peru, April 2018), charging the member institutions with promoting greater cooperation and synergies in order to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the Americas and the Caribbean.
Considering that advocacy for women’s leadership is one of the areas of engagement of the Task Force, Dr. Carissa Etienne, Director of the Pan-American Health Organization and on behalf of the Task Force members, presented the publication “A call to action to boost women’s leadership and parity democracy in the Americas”, which highlights the commitments already approved by the States regarding women’s political participation, including a call to action to accelerate efforts to reduce representation gaps and advance parity in decision-making.
Dr. Etienne pointed out: “I want to invite you to take action. Urgent, sustainable, and resilient actions to build an equitable future as were proposed as a goal of this Summit. We must know, we don’t have a moment to lose. We can’t wait 135 more years”.
The event also brought together authorities from many of the partner institutions of the Task Force, including the Regional Director of the United Nations Development Programme in Latin America and the Caribbean, Luis Felipe López Calva; the President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Julissa Mantilla; the Director General of ParlAmericas, Alisha Todd; the Project Manager of Caribbean Women in Leadership (CIWiL), Dylis McDonald, as well as the Executive Secretary of the CIM/OAS and the Director of PAHO, as mentioned.
The articulation among the thirteen-member organizations of the Inter-American Task Force on Women’s Leadership and the dialogue promoted through this alliance reveal the need to continue strengthening multi-stakeholder cooperation, synergies, as well as commitments to promote the effective advance of women’s empowerment and leadership.
The recording of the panel is available HERE
Learn more and download the publication “A call to action to boost women’s leadership and parity democracy in the Americas."