UNDP and CAF join forces to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls
The initiative directly addresses the urgent need to support states and partners in Latin America, which is home to 14 of the 25 countries with the highest femicide rates worldwide
In order to respond to the urgent challenge of reducing the problem of violence against women and girls in the most violent region of the world, CAF-development bank of Latin America- and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) launched an initiative today to support governments and partners in the eradication of violence against women in Peru, Ecuador and Argentina.
The two-year project for building national capacities in Argentina, Ecuador and Peru to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls will help strengthen institutional capacities to implement measures, programs and policies that help prevent, address and make reparations in case of violence.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, an estimated one in every three women has been a victim of physical or sexual violence by their intimate partner. Furthermore, femicide, as the worst expression of violence against women, is an underlying problem in the region; of the 25 countries in the world with the highest femicide rates, 14 are in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“The region still has the highest rates of violence against women. This is unacceptable and we must move quickly toward stronger, more comprehensive, more inclusive responses. It is critical to see the approach to violence against women as a catalytic factor to attain the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda as a whole,” said Richard Barathe, Director of the UNDP Regional Center for Latin America and the Caribbean. “The UNDP is proud to join forces with CAF and reaffirm its commitment in the fight against violence against women and girls.”
The project will produce a framework intervention model for the prevention, care and reparation for a life free of violence against women and girls. At the same time, the initiative will promote the design of comprehensive models that reduce recurrent violence, mapping of regulations and initiatives available in the countries, and an exchange of experiences and models to pave the way for the enactment of second-generation legislation or comprehensive laws that address the multiple expressions of violence against women and girls.
“For CAF, this initiative represents our commitment to supporting and assisting countries in the region in promoting actions to devise responses to the fight against femicide and any other form of violence against the dignity and physical integrity of women and girls. The purpose is to join efforts in attaining the sustainable development goal of achieving gender equality and empowering women,” said Abelardo Daza, acting representative of CAF in Argentina.
The launch of the program was attended by the Executive Director of Argentina’s National Women’s Institute (INAM), Fabiana Tuñez, and the resident representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), René Mauricio Valdés. Other participants included the Director General of the General Directorate against Gender Violence at the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations of Peru, Mery Vargas Cuno, and Anita Mancero from the Vice Ministry of Justice at the Ministry of Justice of Ecuador.
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