Annotated provisional agenda. Sixtieth meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean

Provisional agenda. Sixtieth meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean

Santiago Commitment: A regional instrument to respond to the COVID-19 crisis with gender equality

In the current context of multiple crises caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Santiago Commitment, adopted by the member States of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) at the fourteenth session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2020,2 is particularly relevant as a regional tool to address the structural causes of gender inequality and to foster policies to respond to the pandemic in the short, medium and long term. In the Santiago Commitment, the governments of the region agreed to implement gender-se…

The economic autonomy of women in a sustainable recovery with equality

The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on employment and labor conditions for women in Latin America and the Caribbean, generating a setback of more than a decade in terms of the progress achieved in labor market participation. The rate of job market participation by women was at 46% in 2020, while for men it was 69%. It is further estimated that the unemployment rate for women reached 12% in 2020, a percentage that rises to 22.2% if we factor in women’s participation in the labor force in 2019. In 2020 there was a mass exodus of women from the labor force, who ha…

The Hummingbird Vol. 8 No. 1

CEPAL Review no. 132. Special Issue. COVID-19 and the socioeconomic crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean

Women’s economic autonomy during the COVID-19 pandemic

This article is a contribution to the debate on the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on gender inequalities in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on women’s economic autonomy. Through a review of the contributions of feminist economics and an analysis of the empirical evidence, it identifies a deterioration in the indicators associated with women’s incomes and their participation in the labour market. The sexual division of labour is deepening in the region, endangering the scant progress made regarding women’s economic autonomy in the pre-crisis years. It warns about gender biases in…

Risks of the COVID-19 pandemic for the exercise of women’s sexual and reproductive rights

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and the effects of the measures taken by governments to control its rapid spread have affected most of the world’s population. The United Nations, governments and different civil society organizations, the academic and scientific world and other development actors have warned of the differentiated consequences of the pandemic, which has widened existing gaps between men and women in a number of dimensions. They have accordingly advocated the incorporation of a gender equality perspective into policies, measures and programmes aimed at mitigating and …

The Hummingbird Vol. 7 No. 12

Addressing violence against women and girls during and after the COVID-19 pandemic requires FINANCING, RESPONSES, PREVENTION AND DATA COMPILATION

Since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared on 11 March 2020, in Latin America and the Caribbean, as in other world regions, it has been necessary to address a rise in gender-based violence against women and girls, which has been aggravated by the lockdown measures, physical distancing and mobility restrictions that have left women more isolated from their support networks and created additional barriers in access to essential services. Faced with this global emergency, 146 Member States and observer States have expressed their support for the United Nations Secretary-General’s call in April 2020…

The Hummingbird Vol. 7 No. 10

Report of the twenty-eighth session of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee

Care in Latin America and the Caribbean during the COVID-19: Towards comprehensive systems to strengthen response and recovery

The construction of comprehensive care systems is a fundamental factor in achieving the empowerment of women and gender equality, and it is a key element in socioeconomic recovery in that it creates jobs both directly and indirectly and enables other sectors of the economy to function adequately. For these reasons, UN Women and ECLAC are calling for the governments in the region to put care at the center of their responses to COVID-19, by creating incentive and recovery packages, promoting comprehensive systems that ensure access to care for people who need it, and guaranteeing the rights of t…

Policy Brief: Planning for resilience: an integrated approach to tackle climate change in the Caribbean

The Caribbean subregion is exceptionally vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. Vulnerability is a key multidimensional concept at the heart of resilience building, relating to each country’s multiple spatial and socioeconomic risks and conditions. In fact, due to its geographical location and concentration of population and activities in low-lying coastal areas, the Caribbean is the second most hazard-prone region in the world...Moreover, impacts of extreme weather events on Caribbean small economies are of national proportions. For example, in the hurricane s…

Report of the Fifty-ninth meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Hummingbird Vol.7 No.5

The COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the care crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought to light, in an unprecedented way, the importance of care for the sustainability of life and the low visibility of this sector in the economies of the region, where it is still considered an externality and not a fundamental component of development. The ongoing health crisis highlights the unfair social organization of care work in Latin America and the Caribbean. There is an urgent need to consider responses to care needs from a gender perspective, since, as the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has r…

The Hummingbird Vol.7 No.2

Gender mainstreaming in national sustainable development planning in the Caribbean

This study assesses the status of gender mainstreaming in the policy framework of the 29 Caribbean member states and Associate Members of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which are also members of its subsidiary organ for the subregion: the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC). The study defines and explains gender mainstreaming as a factor in national development planning and outlines the regional experiences and trends in mainstreaming gender. It highlights the frameworks and commitments that guide gender mainstreaming in national develop…

Final assessment report. Evaluation of the Strategy for mainstreaming gender at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), 2013–2017