In the framework of its 10th anniversary, on 23 November 2021, the EU-LAC Foundation held a first working meeting around the new initiative entitled EU-LAC International Women's Network - a new bi-regional cooperation tool that aims to weave links between women leaders, existing networks, civil society organisations, the private sector, academia, cultural managers and journalists from the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean to jointly advance the gender agenda. Thus, the EU-LAC International Women's Network is understood as a space in which to exchange experiences and good practices in the face of the most urgent challenges of our time, and where the political sphere and the gender agenda converge.
The inaugural meeting of the Network was attended by more than 20 women leaders, including Ms Kamina Johnson Smith, Senator and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jamaica, Ms Pilar Cancela, Secretary of State for International Cooperation of Spain, Ms Almut Möller, State Secretary and representative to the European Union of the City of Hamburg, Ms Anna Herrero Romeu, representing the Directorate General for International Partnerships for Latin America and the Caribbean of the European Commission, Ms Maria Noel Vaeza, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of UN Women, Ms Ana Güezmes, Chief of the Division for Gender Affairs of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Ms Antonella Cavallari, Secretary-General of IILA, Ms Anna Terrón, Director of the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Public Administration and Policy (FIIAPP), Ms María Caridad Araujo, Head of Unit of the Gender Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Ms Olayinka Jacobs-Bonnick, Project Coordinator for the Creative Caribbean of the UNESCO Cluster Office for the Caribbean and Ms Leire Pajín (President of the EU-LAC Foundation).
The meeting also counted with the valuable participation of several women leaders of civil society organisations, who have been working with dedication around the equality agenda over the years, such as Ms Ligia Martín, from the National Women's Institute of Costa Rica, Ms Gea Meijiers, Coordinator of the civil society organisation WIDE+, Ms Graciela Rodríguez, from the Gender and Trade Network of Latin America, Ms Julieta Suarez Cao, member of the Red de Politologas, Ms Merike Blofield, Director of the GIGA Institute for Latin America, Ms Larissa Marques, Head of the Gender Unit of the Ibero-American Network of Municipalities for Gender Equality, Ms Ana Rosa Alcalde, Director of the Alianza por la Solidaridad, and Ms Alejandra Sola, of the Ibero-American League.
At the beginning of the session, the Executive Director of the EU-LAC Foundation, Dr Adrián Bonilla, addressed the participants, underlining the importance that the EU-LAC Foundation recognises in strengthening the gender agenda within the bi-regional agenda and within the work plan of the international organisation itself. Thus, the EU-LAC International Women's Network, in line with the mandate of the EU-LAC Foundation, aims to build common spaces of agency between societies and governments on gender issues, fostering conversations that give shape to concrete initiatives that have a political impact in both regions.
Ms Leire Pajín, as the driving force and leader of the initiative, then stressed that the world is regressing in political and socio-economic progress on gender equality, particularly because of the differential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women. She insisted on the need at present to work urgently on strengthening the exchange and collaboration of women who are at the forefront of the gender struggle.
Thus, the President of the Foundation referred to this network as a multidisciplinary, plural, diverse space for co-creation and complementarity, which connects women linked to the decision-making process, women's networks and civil society organisations in Latin America and the Caribbean and the European Union. The objective of this first meeting was to identify priorities for action-oriented towards the bi-regional agenda and public policies for an inclusive and sustainable recovery in the field of gender. It also opened the debate for the exchange of impressions, contributions, ideas and opportunities for the expansion of the Network by the women convened and gathered at the session.
The participants of the session thanked and congratulated the EU-LAC Foundation and its President Leire Pajín for the creation of the EU-LAC International Women's Network. Various leaders expressed their intention and openness to collaboration within the framework of this space that unites European and Latin American and Caribbean women. They also pointed out proposals for its development and methodology of action. In this sense, the recovery from the crisis - inclusive and sustainable - aspires to be the guiding thread of the work of the Women's Network, which will now establish a work agenda, and within this broad umbrella, access to digitalisation, the elimination of gender-based violence and the role of women in green and ecological recovery are the three main priorities identified by the participants and will be future areas of work.
Ms Leire Pajín thanked the enthusiasm of the women leaders in the field of politics and civil society and collected the work proposals that will shape these initial steps of the EU-LAC Women's Network, already underway.
