The Caribbean technical meeting on the Beijing +20 review and appraisal of the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action took place at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago Chile, on 14 - 15 November 2014. The meeting focused attention on the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, and provided a forum for reflection on the ongoing gender concerns facing the Caribbean subregion during the past two decades.
Participants from 10 member and two associate member states of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC), including four Ministers, took part in the meeting.
Discussions addressed gender and development issues in the Caribbean over the past two decades, and reviewed the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of women.
The meeting considered a subregional report on the implementation of the Platform for Action in the Caribbean. It indicates that while there has been noticeable progress and achievements in the subregion, such advancement has been uneven and a number of challenges remain in terms of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Discussions also focussed on the opportunities for strengthening gender equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda, through the integration of a gender perspective.
In support of this, and in preparation for the 2015 session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, which will review the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action 20 years following its adoption, the meeting adopted a Caribbean Statement outlining the ongoing challenges facing the subregion with respect to gender and development issues, and proposed actions to address these issues.
The meeting was co-sponsored by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality, the Multi-country Office for the Caribbean and the Subregional Office for the Caribbean of the United Nations Population Fund, and was supported by the Division of Gender Affairs of ECLAC in Santiago, Chile.
