The annual meeting promotes dialogue and partnerships among National Statistical Offices (NSOs), National Machineries for the Advancement of Women in the region (NMAWs), international organizations, academia, and civil society organizations, among other stakeholders.

From 5 to 7 November, the Los Pinos Cultural Complex in Mexico City will host the 26th International Meeting on Gender Statistics (EIEG), organized by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), the Secretariat for Women, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

Under the theme A Decade of Action for Substantive Equality and the Care Society: Gender Statistics in the Public Policy Cycle, the meeting, inaugurated today, brings together representatives from the public sector, academia, civil society, and international organizations to exchange experiences on the production and use of gender statistics for policy design and to reflect on the relevance of data for building a more equal future.

The event takes place at a significant moment, marked by the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, in synergy with the Regional Gender Agenda and its most recent agreement, the Tlatelolco Commitment, adopted by States during the sixteenth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Mexico City in August. This agreement calls for a Decade of Action (2025–2035) to achieve substantive equality and advance towards the care society.

For 26 years, the EIEG has been a reference point for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and, from the region, for the world, by strengthening collaboration among National Statistical Offices, National Machineries for the Advancement of Women, international organizations, civil society, and academic experts, and by promoting the production and use of gender statistics through knowledge exchange. Until Friday, 7 November, the 26th EIEG will serve as a space for dialogue, collaboration, and the exchange of good practices, experiences, and challenges to strengthen the use of gender statistics in the design of more effective public policies.

This edition of the meeting addresses the contribution of gender statistics to monitoring commitments on gender equality, the gender perspective in SDG indicators, the production and use of gender statistics for public policies focused on current issues such as care needs, the application of statistics for implementing intersectional public policies to ensure that no one is left behind, the use of tools for monitoring progress and challenges in eliminating gender-based violence against women, and the contributions and challenges of gender observatories, among other topics.

The opening session featured the participation of Citlalli Hernández Mora, Secretary for Women of the Government of Mexico; Graciela Márquez, President of INEGI; Ana Güezmes García, Director of the Division for Gender Affairs of ECLAC; and Bibiana Aído Almagro, Regional Director of UN Women for the Americas and the Caribbean.

In her welcoming remarks, Secretary Hernández Mora highlighted the importance of having disaggregated data, as they help to understand realities related to poverty, inequality, and the violence experienced by women, which ultimately support informed decision-making.

“This meeting is important because it combines the relevance of how we measure and how we make decisions, but from a truly transformative perspective. I insist, data are not neutral, and there must be a very clear perspective,” she emphasized.

Hernández Mora reaffirmed that, from the Secretary for Women, the goal is to ensure a gender perspective in understanding how women use their time, in contrast with the neoliberal model implemented for years.

“First and foremost, those who have been most excluded and live in poverty. We must make decisions based on data that have historically left us out and that, undoubtedly, must help transform the lives of all people, especially women,” she stated.

In her remarks, INEGI President Graciela Márquez stressed that “gender-focused information does not emerge from a vacuum nor from inertia; it requires people willing to use it for policy design, for decision-making within enterprises, associations, and households. For every ounce of technical rigor in gender statistics, there must be another of unequivocal social conviction, as so well demonstrated by the officials, academics, panelists, and guests gathered here.”

Ana Güezmes García, Director of the Division for Gender Affairs of ECLAC, noted that “Latin America and the Caribbean is a region with an institutional architecture that supports the production and use of statistics for gender equality, thanks to the experience and contributions of countries within the framework of the Statistical Conference of the Americas, in synergy with the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. Through the Tlatelolco Commitment, adopted in August this year, the region has established a Decade of Action to achieve substantive gender equality and the care society. As part of the actions needed to move in this direction, countries reaffirmed the need for development measurements that go beyond the Gross Domestic Product, and to strengthen the accounting of the multiplier effects of the care economy, the valuation of unpaid work in national accounts, and the estimation of costs, investment, and return related to care policies and systems, among others.”

Bibiana Aído Almagro, UN Women Regional Director for the Americas and the Caribbean, underscored that “statistics do not merely describe realities; they help transform them. UN Women reaffirms its commitment to continue strengthening joint work with countries and regional partners so that the production and use of gender statistics continue guiding public policies that accelerate progress toward equality.”

Participants will share experiences and chart pathways to strengthen interinstitutional collaboration and the production of statistics that make inequalities visible and support evidence-based decision-making.

This meeting is a call to advance towards intersectional and gender-responsive public policies, particularly in the areas of care, the economy, political participation, and the eradication of violence.

For more than two decades, the EIEG has established itself as one of the most important platforms in Latin America and the Caribbean for promoting cooperation among governments, international organizations, civil society, and academia in the field of gender statistics.

With this twenty-sixth edition, the meeting reaffirms its mission: to turn data into action and numbers into equality, fostering public policies that reflect the diversity, needs, and rights of all women and girls.