Medina inaugurates U.N. Regional Conference on Women

Santo Domingo.- President Danilo Medina on Tuesday morning headed the opening for the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean’s (ECLAC) 12th Regional Conference on Women at the Hotel Hilton, with gender equality, empowerment of women and communications technology as key topics.

The regional event’s inaugural will also asses the continent’s progress on gender equality and of women.

In her opening speech, ECLAC Secretary Alicia Bárcena affirmed that the Governments have set forth various actions and policies to acknowledge unpaid domestic work, the economy of assistance, budgets for gender programs, the positioning of women’s’ political parity and incorporation into legal reforms.

She stressed the progress of ECLAC’s Observatory on gender, to provide follow up and secure compliance of local and regional agendas so women reach economic, physical and political autonomy.

Six panels to address the topics of women’s work and employment, access policies, challenges and risks, productive enterprises, statistics and indicators and science are slated for today and tomorrow.

First lady Candida Montilla and Vice president Margarita Cedeño accompanied Medina, while the UN Women was represented by its Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

The minister of women Alejandrina German,of Higher Education minister Ligia Amada Melo, Presidency chief of staff Gustavo Montalvo and Santo Domingo mayor Roberto Salcedo represented the Government.