The Dominican Republic is fighting proposals to remove a United Nations agency, the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), from its current location in Santo Domingo. INSTRAW, like much of the UN, is undergoing a financial crisis that threaten its continued functioning. One proposal floated within the UN to tackle the problem is to close INSTRAW’s Santo Domingo offices and merge the Institute with the New York-based UN Fund for the Development of Women. The DR, however, is fighting to keep the privilege of hosting a UN agency. Foreign Minister Eduardo Latorre presented the DR’s case to a meeting yesterday in New York of the "Group of 77" developing country voting bloc in the UN. Latorre pointed out that INSTRAW is only one of two UN bodies headquartered in a developing country (the other is the UN Environment Programme, located in Nairobi, Kenya). He questioned whether it would really save much money to relocate its functions to New York, and argued that merging INSTRAW with the Fund would run counter to the wishes of the many UN bodies and conferences that have underlined the importance of an independent INSTRAW.
