Santiago, Chile, May 7, 2026. The Division for Gender Affairs of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) participated in the XXXVIII Regional Seminar on Fiscal Policy, one of the main spaces for regional dialogue on fiscal policy and economic development, where it stressed that the mainstreaming of the gender perspective in fiscal policy has the potential to contribute to the achievement of gender equality and sustainable development in the countries of the region.

The XXXVIII Regional Seminar on Fiscal Policy was organized by the Executive Secretariat of ECLAC, through ECLAC's Economic Development Division, with the sponsorship of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Nicole Bidegain Ponte, Social Affairs Officer of the Division for Gender Affairs, participated in Session 4, entitled "Public expenditure and investment to bridge structural gaps", moderated by Alberto Arenas, Director of ECLAC's Social Development Division. Also participating in the panel were Fabio Bertranou, Deputy Director of the ILO Office for Latin America and the Caribbean; Héctor Villarreal Páez, Director of the Initiative for Economic and Demographic Transition, Monterrey Institute of Technology, Mexico; and Sonia González Fuentes, Coordinator of the European Union Regional Programme ‘Inclusive Societies in Latin America and the Caribbean’, Foundation for the Internationalisation of Public Administrations (FIAP), Spain.

During her speech, Nicole Bidegain Ponte presented the process promoted by ECLAC for the development of guidelines aimed at mainstreaming the gender perspective in fiscal policy in Latin American and Caribbean countries. She explained that this initiative seeks to provide conceptual and methodological tools that contribute to promoting the incorporation of the gender perspective in the design, implementation and evaluation of fiscal policies. She also noted that the process draws, among other sources, on information provided by 17 governments in the region through a questionnaire answered by the machineries for the advancement of women, often in coordination with the ministries of finance.

In this context, she stressed that fiscal policies are not neutral in the face of gender inequalities, since they operate on unequal economic and social structures. Therefore, they have direct effects on the income distribution, access to public goods and services, and the mobilization of resources to finance policies for gender equality and women's autonomy.

Bidegain Ponte also underlined the transformative potential of investment in care to boost the region's economies, generate employment and move towards a fair social organization of care. According to ECLAC and ILO estimates, the increase in investments in care services required to close coverage gaps could create roughly 31.3 million new jobs across Latin America and the Caribbean by 2035.

The DGA Social Affairs Officer highlighted that, during the XVI Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, ECLAC member states approved the Tlatelolco Commitment, which establishes a decade of action to advance towards the achievement of substantive gender equality and the care society. She mentioned the measures that governments approved in terms of financing and cooperation. In particular, she stressed that governments agreed to promote progressive fiscal policies, gender-responsive budgets and combat evasion and avoidance to guarantee resources for equality and care policies.

Bidegain Ponte indicated that the gender perspective can be incorporated in a cross-cutting manner in the three fundamental roles of fiscal policy: the generation and allocation of resources, the promotion of distributive equity and macroeconomic stabilization. In this context, she highlighted the extensive experience of the countries of the region in the development of gender-responsive budgets and mentioned the importance of continuing to advance in areas such as gendered tax incidence analysis, and the design of automatic stabilization mechanisms sensitive to gender inequalities. She also highlighted the potential of public investment as a countercyclical tool and the need to consider investments in sectors intensive in female employment and in care infrastructure. Finally, she highlighted relevant advances in countries to strengthen tax progressivity and evaluate its impact on reducing gender inequalities, as well as measures adopted to mitigate some regressive impacts of indirect taxes.

The XXXVIII Regional Seminar on Fiscal Policy concluded with a call from authorities and specialists to strengthen fiscal policy as a key instrument to face growing external shocks and promote more productive, inclusive and sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean.