Join us for an open and interactive moderated dialogue on the challenges and opportunities in financing gender equality and securing women’s rights in the current bi-regional context. This CSW69 side event will explore how international, regional, and national dynamics impact resource availability, the obstacles faced by institutions and civil society in accessing funding, and the transformative potential of women's empowerment in tackling global challenges. Speakers will also present innovative financing mechanisms and explore commitments that Latin America, the Caribbean, and the European Union can make to ensure sustained support for gender equality, including the upcoming Bi-regional Pact for Care.
Register here to join on line:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_n8SX7Sf6TjOT4WEsllwZIQ#/registration
Speakers
Welcome (13:00-13:05 New York time, UTC-4)
- Alberto Brunori, Executive Director, EU-LAC Foundation
Keynotes: Progress and challenges of funding for gender equality, women’s rights and feminist movements from an EU-LAC perspective (13:05-13:20 New York time, UTC-4)
- Leire Pajín, Member of the European Parliament, Founder of the EU-LAC WIN Network (online)
- Michelle Muschett, UN Assistant Secretary-General, Assistant Administrator and Director of the Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
First round of dialogue: Dialogue with governmental representatives (13:20-13:50 New York time, UTC-4)
- Citlalli Hernández, Secretary for Women, Mexico
- Aina Calvo, Secretary of State for Equality and against Gender Violence, Spain
- Antonia Orellana, Minister of Women’s Affairs and Gender Equity, Chile
- Inese Lībiņa-Egnere, Minister of Justice, Latvia
- Támara Ospina, Viceminister for Women, Colombia
Second round of dialogue: Dialogue with representatives of banks and feminist funds (13:50-14:20 New York time, UTC-4)
- Maria Caridad Araujo, Head of Gender and Diversity Division, Interamerican Development Bank (IDB)
- Rafal Rybacki, European Investment Bank (EIB) Representative to the United Nations
- Barbara Auricchio, Gender Specialist at CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean
- Magdalena Pocheć, FemFund, Poland
- Amalia Fischer, ELAS+ Cofounder, Brazil
Third round of dialogue: Dialogue with representatives of international organisations (14:20-14:45 New York time, UTC-4)
- Chiara Adamo, Head of Unit for Gender Equality, Human Rights and Democratic Governance, DG INTPA, European Commission (tbc)
- Maruša Gortnar, Head of Research and Policy Support Unit, European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE)
- Ana Güezmes, Chief of Division for Gender Affairs, ECLAC
- María-Noel Vaeza, Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, UN Women
Comments (14:45-14:55 New York time, UTC-4)
- Tania Sánchez, Executive Director, Coordinadora de la Mujer, Bolivia
- Filomena Ruggiero, SEDRA Federación de Planificación Familiar, Spain
Closing (14:55-15:00 New York time, UTC-4)
- Elizabeth Campbell, Executive Director, ODI Global in Washington DC (online)
- Bruna Martínez, Hivos
Objectives of the CSW 69 side event
The EU-CELAC bi-regional partnership in the field of gender equality, the EU-LAC Foundation, through its EU-LAC International Women's Network, together with ODI Europe / Walking the Talk, La Coordinadora de ONGs de Desarrollo, Hivos and UN WOMEN organises a parallel event to CSW69, with the following objectives:
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Review the state of funding for policies that protect women's rights, promote gender equality, and strengthen civil society organisations fighting for women's and girls' rights;
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Provide a space to present innovative ideas to strengthen existing financial mechanisms or design new instruments and think about specific commitments to ensure the sustainability of funds in challenging contexts;
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Provide a space to share evidence and best practices around opportunities and impact of gender equality policies and gender-transformative approaches in promoting inclusive and prosperous societies;
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Explore opportunities to promote, from a multi-stakeholder and bi-regional logic, a renewed financial architecture that puts gender equality and women's empowerment at the centre of public policies and international cooperation.
With the dialogue, we aim to highlight the potential of a “Bi-regional Pact for Care”, which - if receiving approval at the highest political level – the CELAC-EU Summit of Heads of State and Government in Colombia - could evolve into another innovative vehicle to finance cooperation on the establishment of comprehensive care systems and policies that include the provision of quality, affordable, and accessible early childhood and long-term care services, as well as ensuring decent working conditions and quality employment, training and vocational training for caregivers.
In addition, this dialogue is also promoted with a view of the upcoming Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) , which is expected to critically review the concept and measurement of ‘development’ and pay due attention to the continuing inequality gaps and specific vulnerabilities faced by developing countries. Spain, as host country of the Conference, has also placed on the agenda the urgent need to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to support the reform of the international financial architecture.
The interactive dialogue seeks to answer the following guiding questions:
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How have the international, regional and national circumstances affected the availability of resources for the fulfilment of women's rights? What are the implications of this context for multilateralism and bi-regional cooperation?
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What are the main obstacles faced by public institutions, civil society organisations and women's rights movements in opening fiscal spaces and accessing funding?
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What positive impacts and opportunities do women’s empowerment and gender equality approaches offer in overcoming local and global challenges?
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What innovative financing mechanisms and instruments have been developed by public institutions, banks, philanthropic organisations and the business sector to scale up efforts to secure women's rights and achieve the SDG 5 target?
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What specific commitments could States in both regions – Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union – make to ensure sustained funding for gender equality and the “Bi-regional Pact for Care” which is expected to be agreed upon in the upcoming CELAC-EU Summit?
Format
Open and interactive moderated dialogue with a duration of 2 hours, which seeks to articulate the perspectives and voices of representatives of governments, cooperation agencies, philanthropy, international and regional development banks, the private sector, civil society organisations and international organisations from Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe. During the dialogue, panellists as well as participants will be invited to contribute with brief interventions to share their reflections, good practices and recommendations to this exchange.