UN Women Executive Director meets with President of Dominican Republic to advance women’s empowerment and gender equality
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During her visit to the Dominican Republic, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka met with President Danilo Medina to discuss national efforts to empower women. They further discussed the presence of UN Women in the country, where the organization maintains a Training Centre.
Among the topics touched upon were the need to prevent and address teenage pregnancies as well as violence against women and girls, a human rights violation of pandemic proportions that affects as many as one in three women and girls worldwide. Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka also raised the importance of supporting the economic empowerment of women and maintaining gender issues as a top priority in the post-2015 development agenda in order to break the vicious cycle of poverty.
President Medina expressed his commitment to women's empowerment as a means to overcome poverty and inequality, and his interest to collaborate with UN Women to achieve gender equality. Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka assured President Medina that UN Women will work through its Training Centre to provide capacity-building and support for development and women’s rights.
The Executive Director will meet again with President Medina and Alicia Barcena, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean, during the opening ceremony of the 12th Regional Conference of Women.
Ms. Mlambo-Ngcuka participated in a dialogue with the UN Women’s Regional Civil Society Advisory Group who informed her about the progress made by the women's movement in the region, as outlined in the Montevideo Consensus adopted last August during the First Session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development. They also talked about the persisting challenges.
The Executive Director commended the vibrant movement for women's rights and empowerment in Latin America and the Caribbean as an example for other regions.