Mechanisms for the advancement of women in Latin America and the Caribbean: a necessary condition for the advancement of gender equality.

Making substantive, transformative and sustainable achievements in the area of gender equality depends on multiple factors, and consolidating those achievements over time in the form of irreversible changes is the ultimate aspiration of any social change. In this regard, in the majority of countries Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women (MAWs) play an essential role as leading entities to coordinate and facilitate the process of mainstreaming gender equality in public policies, so that the institutional framework can be strengthened and ensures all public policies take into account the needs, demands and proposals of women and girls.
 
This document presents the state-of-the-art of the different Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women (MAWs) in Latin America and the Caribbean, from their creation to the present day, and provides an overview of the normative framework – from the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its General Recommendations to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, as well as the different agreements of the Regional Gender Agenda adopted at the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America in the Caribbean– that highlights the importance of having Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women as a necessary condition for the advancement of gender equality. As UN Women’s Regional Director for the Americas and the Caribbean, it is highly rewarding to see that, in recent years, several States in the region have strengthened their Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women, a clear signal of the States’ commitment to half of their population, women and girls, and the creation of fairer and more equitable societies.