Newly appointed executive director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka met with President Danilo Medina at the Presidential Palace yesterday, Monday 14 October. She is in the Dominican Republic to attend the Regional Conference of Women taking place in Santo Domingo 15-18 October. The event is sponsored by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Ministry of Women.
As reported by the Presidency, Medina and Mlambo-Ngcuka spoke of the important role the DR can play in issues of gender and violence against women, which she described as a global pandemic. Mlambo-Ngcuka said they also addressed the problem of the high number of teenage pregnancies in the Dominican Republic.
“Medina promised to work with UN Women to ensure these problems are prevented and to bring about a reduction in teenage pregnancies,” she said, as reported by the Presidency. She stressed that one in every three women is a victim of physical or sexual violence and that UN Women’s work consists of empowering women to confront these situations. Mlambo-Ngcuka said UN Women has gender training centers in the DR and that as part of her visit she would be meeting with civil society leaders to discuss the progress made towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
The twelfth session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean will focus on gender equality, women’s empowerment and information and communications technologies (ICTs).
The position document to be presented at the twelfth session of the Regional Conference will be prepared by the Division for Gender Affairs, together with ECLAC’s Production, Productivity and Management Division.
On this occasion, the meeting is being hosted by the Government of the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo, from 15 to 18 October 2013.
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