As part of the United Nations CSW69, which this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, our Fundación Promoción Social hosted the event “Empowering Girls and Women: 30 Years of Promoting Equality.”
We organized this event at the Permanent Mission of Monaco to the United Nations (New York) on March 11, in collaboration with UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research).
Macarena Cotelo and Gema Talaván—Director and Project Specialist of our Fundation, respectively—attended this meeting, which began with welcoming remarks by H.E. Ms. Daphné Le Son, Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of Monaco.
Our Connection to the Beijing Declaration
Jayathma Wickramanayake, Senior Policy Advisor at UN Women, also participated in this event, where she spoke about the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the work that has been carried out since then to achieve and consolidate the rights of women and girls, highlighting the challenges that still remain.
Along these same lines, Macarena Cotelo had the opportunity to present the work of our Foundation, which was, in fact, present at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.
Real Impact
Our Project Director explained how that milestone has been a cross-cutting theme in our work over the past three decades, with a direct impact on all the projects we have implemented and continue to develop, taking into account the diversity of realities and cultures across various continents and countries.
As a demonstration of our commitment to making gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls a tangible reality around the world, Macarena Cotelo presented four initiatives to the audience through which we work to address poverty and strengthen institutions from a gender perspective. For example, she explained how we work within the framework of our convenio in Ethiopia and the projects we are carrying out in Joya Grande (Guatemala), Jordan, and India. These interventions were made possible thanks to co-financing from the AECID, Generalitat Valenciana, and the Foundation’s own funds.
Following these presentations, moderated by Gema Talaván, attendees had the opportunity to speak with the speakers and raise various questions prompted by each presentation. As for our contribution to the event, it was very rewarding to see the great interest the audience showed in our work and to discover that, through international cooperation, it is truly possible to help women and girls around the world achieve equality and the full realization of their rights.
