The meeting, organized by ECLAC, will focus on analysing policies to improve the distribution of wealth, power and time between the sexes.

From 10 to 12 June 2004 the Ninth Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean will take place in Mexico City. The meeting will focus on international commitments made in the Regional Programme of Action for Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, approved in 1994 by the Sixth Regional Conference, and reaffirmed in 2000 by the Lima Consensus.

The President of Mexico, His Excellency Vicente Fox, ECLAC Executive Secretary José Luis Machinea, and the president of Mexico's National Women's Institute, Patricia Espinosa will officially open the conference, organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), at 09:00 am, Thursday 10 June in the Alfonso García Robles Auditorium, in the Conference Area of Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Relations (N° 1 Ricardo Flores Magón Avenue, Tlatelolco, Mexico City).

Delegations consisting of high-level government officials, including ministers and secretaries, from many of ECLAC's member countries will attend, along with directors and representatives of United Nations bodies and programmes, organizations specializing in women's issues, autonomous institutions and non-governmental organizations from throughout the continent.

The Conference's work will focus on international commitments to women's advancement adopted at world summits held in the 1990s, the Millennium Development Goals passed by the United Nations' General Assembly in New York in 2000 and the Platform of Action adopted by the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China, in 1995. On this occasion, activities to commemorate next year's 10th anniversary of this meeting (Beijing + 10) will also be approved.

The Regional Conference on Women is a subsidiary body of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which meets regularly to identify women's needs at the regional and subregional levels, present recommendations, regularly evaluate activities to implement regional and international agreements and plans in this area, and provide a forum to debate these issues.

On this occasion, ECLAC will present a report called Caminos hacia la equidad de género en América Latina y el Caribe (Paths to Gender Equity in Latin America and the Caribbean), which will serve as the basis for Conference debates.