Credit: Caroline Trutmann / UNDP

By Richard Barathe
PANAMA CITY, Panama, Dec 6 2018 (IPS)

María is a 35-year old Salvadoran woman with three young children. Growing up, María knew her mother but never met her father. When María was six, she started working at the Central Market of San Salvador and at the age of 12 she was raped and became pregnant for the first time.

Later, María was expelled from her home once her mother got married for a second time, “My stepfather did not want to take care of me, even less with a son”, she told the researcher for “Resilient Youth, The Opportunity for Central America”, a study developed by the Regional Project Infosegura, a UN Development Programme-USAID joint initiative.

María lived in many different places until she met the father of her second daughter- who was killed years later. After his passing, María had a third child with a third partner whom she soon separated from, due to domestic violence. Currently, María’s teenage son lives with her father, uncle, and grandmother since she simply could not take care of him while also working full time.

Richard Barathe

When speaking of violence in the Northern Countries of Central America, it is assumed to be a problem concerning young men, since “only” 11 percent of the victims of violent deaths are women. However, the story of María is more common than is realized.

María is just another example of how women of this region live surrounded by a violence that affects them differently and specifically just because they are women.

This violence is not necessarily lethal, and victims often survive, but these women continue to be subjected to the same cycle of violence throughout their whole lives, impacting families and communities through generations, affecting their economy and sustainability, and distorting their capacities for development.

Data shows that in María’s home country, 93 percent of the victims of sexual crimes are women. Over two in every five the victims are under the age of 18. We also know that domestic violence is present throughout the adulthood of a woman and that a woman between 12 and 50 years old is at high risk of “disappearing”.

Over 3,500 women have been killed between the years 2010-2017, while nearly 2,700 were reported as Enforced Disappearances around the same period (201-2016) with 43 percent of them being minors.

We know this because the Salvadoran State has made progress in the management of information on citizen security with a focus on gender and has oriented public policies to guarantee evidence-based analysis.

Migration is a phenomenon that also characterizes this region, and data indicates that violence against women is an important factor to be considered. Our initiative also analyzed returnees data: migrants detained in transit who were sent back to their place of origin.

We know that 26 percent of these ‘returnees’ are women and 30 percent of all women say they have migrated due to violence, compared to only 18 percent of men who say violence is the main reason for leaving their country.

Every November, national, regional, and global actors campaign to eradicate violence against women. It is crucial to recognize violence against women as an essential element of citizen security: tackling it is a key step to build more cohesive and peaceful societies.

Addressing general societal violence with a special focus on violence against women must be at the foundation of comprehensive public policies on citizen security, that aim to eradicate all types of violence. Understanding everyday violence that women experience in their homes and streets is a security problem for communities and nations.

No nation will be safe unless women can live safely and develop their full potentials.

In this spirit, the 2030 Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals provide a holistic model for a comprehensive approach to ensure that women have a life free from all types of violence. All of society thrives with firm steps towards development when no one is left behind.

At UNDP, we are systematizing good practices and success stories of the work in Central America within the framework of the UNDP-USAID Infosegura Regional Project, which is dedicated to the development of capacities for the formulation of public policies based on evidence and with a gender approach. We are, thus, establishing standards, methodologies and scalable processes.

An essential part of the process has been to build trust and coordinate our work with national institutions producing and analyzing data, leveraging new technologies, national experts and innovation.

This coordination has resulted in regional accomplishments in information management with a gender focus, such as specialized surveys and standardized reports on acts of violence against women.

In El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras, understanding the context of María’s story as accurately as possible will allow us to efficiently eradicate violence against women as well as all other types of violence. If countries are to achieve the 2030 Agenda, boosting gains in the economic, social and environmental realms, this can only be done if we ensure that no “Marías” are left behind.

Excerpt:

MEXICO: Women Electrical Workers at Centre of Struggle for Jobs. Credit: IPS

By Richard Barathe
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 6 2018 (IPS)

Women’s role in the workplace is at the heart the International Women’s Day commemoration. Even though it first celebrated a demonstration by women workers in New York in 1857, it was the killing of nearly 150 young women workers in a sweatshop, engulfed by a massive fire in just 20 minutes, which marked the modern celebration of International Women’s Day, in New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on 25 March 1911.

Over a century later, in spite of the huge progress made, the tragedy still reminds us of the essential role of women in the workplace and the urgent need to protect women’s rights—which are human rights.

A quick glance at the situation of women in the workplace today in Latin America and the Caribbean– the region I cover as the UN Development Programme (UNDP)’s regional hub director– shows that women perform 75 percent of unpaid domestic work, one in three do not generate any income, and 54 percent work in informal contexts, with unstable incomes and little social protection. We are depriving businesses, as well as society as a whole, of their talent and financial contribution to the family economy and that of their communities and countries.

Since women make up half of the population of our region, it would make sense for them to have a similar representation in the different sectors of society. It is not only a matter of rights, but also a smart move, because equal representation generates increased benefits for both men and women, socially and economically.

With this in view, just last week I joined over 500 women and men, including business leaders, government and trade union representatives, from 38 countries in five continents who committed themselves to promote gender equality in the workplace. They joined the Chile Call to Action to boost women’s roles in business, during the 4th Global Forum on Businesses for Gender Equality, a joint initiative by the Government of Chile and UNDP, in partnership with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and UN Women, which took place 27-28 February in Santiago.

The gathering in Chile highlighted that we have an extraordinary opportunity to promote the role of women in the social, political, and economic spheres. This is essential if we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) —a series of global goals that include eradicating poverty in all its forms, promoting equitable growth, and achieving quality education for all— within the next 12 years. The SDGs are strongly interconnected and gender equality plays a crucial role to achieve them all.

Businesses must step up and take concrete actions to make this happen—and there’s no time to lose. Gender equality in the labor force could add up to US$28 trillion to the global economy by 2025, according to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute. Also, companies that are more diverse tend to be more innovative; and innovative companies tend to be more diverse. Both factors are key drivers of growth, a recent Harvard Business Review study found.

Moreover, recent studies reveal that increased participation of women on company boards leads to better financial results, as well as higher levels of corporate philanthropy. Nonetheless, women hold less than 5 percent of CEO positions in S&P 500 companies and less than 20 percent on company boards.

The numbers are not any better for Latin America, where, according to ILO, women represent only 4.2 percent of CEOs among the 1,269 listed companies. Also, almost half of the executive boards in the region are comprised exclusively of men with women making up only 8.5 percent of membership on average.

In both rich and poor countries, women bear a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work, depriving them of opportunities to earn an income, start their own businesses, and participate in public life; therefore, depriving economies of their talents and contributions.

According to the latest Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum, it is estimated that at the current rate of progress it will take at least another 220 years to close this gender gap and achieve equal participation in the workforce.

We can wait no longer.

To help countries take concrete actions, over the last decade, UNDP has supported partners in 17 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, and Eurasia to certify public and private companies that meet gender equality objectives.

Through the “Gender Equality Seal” initiative, certified companies commit themselves to eliminating the gender pay gap, increasing the number of women in decision-making positions, improving work-life balance, eradicating sexual harassment in the workplace, and increasing the participation of women in traditionally male industries.

Business leaders from several countries, gathered in Chile last week, detailed how they are already reaping benefits from their drive to boost women’s roles in their companies. For example, in Chile, the state owned copper company Codelco has been promoting, through the Gender Seal initiative, mixed groups of men and women in this traditionally male industry, resulting in increased productivity.

Similarly, the National Bank of Costa Rica increased the representation of women in decision-making positions through a leadership program that allowed 70 women to assume managerial positions. Along the same line, Scotiabank of Canada identified potential employees for a “Talent Pool” offering tutorial programs to improve women’s access to high-level positions.

Even though empowering women and girls is key to achieving sustainable development, International Women’s Day still reminds us that gender bias remains a significant obstacle to global progress. Still today, this prejudice is particularly acute in the workplace.

We have an opportunity at hand. And it must be seized. The cost of not allowing women to contribute in the same way as men is too great, not only for companies, but for society as a whole. Companies, both public and private, can be the main drivers of sustainable growth, playing a key role to reduce inequalities and leave no one behind.

Excerpt: