The director of EuropeAid for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jolita Butkeviciene, and the Colombian high presidential councillor for women's equality, Gheidy Gallo, highlight the gender-aware actions carried out by EUROsociAL+ in the country
From left to right: Gheidy Gallo, Jolita Butkevicienne y Patricia Llombart
Gender equality policies are a priority in the cooperation agenda between the European Union and the Government of Colombia. This was made clear in the meeting held in Bogotá with Colombia’s Presidential High Councillor for Women’s Equality Gheidy Gallo EuropeAid’s Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Jolita Butkeviciene, the European Union’s ambassador in Colombia Patricia Llombart, and the EUROsociAL+ teams covering gender equality policies at Expertise France and in the FIIAPP programme office. Also participating in this gender policy dialogue were the National Land Agency, the Office for Rural Women at the Ministry of Agriculture, and the National Rural Women Platform, alongside international experts.
Gheidy Gallo highlighted “presidential support for gender equality policies”, while Patricia Llombart put the emphasis on the “migratory issue, with special attention to girls and women” who are forced to move. For her part, Jolita Butkeviciene mentioned “budgetary support for gender actions in Colombia”.
EUROsociAL+ in Colombia aligns its gender actions with the Colombian national development plan, supporting public investment planning with a gender-aware approach (with the National Planning Department), strengthening the effectiveness of the wage equality law (with the Ministry of Labour), improving access to justice for rural women (with the Ministries of Justice and Agriculture), improving the investigation of violence against women (with the Public Prosecutor’s Office), creating information systems related to gender violence (with the National Administrative Department of Statistics), and mainstreaming the gender approach in the general health system (with the Ministry of Health).
This cooperation in gender equality policies seeks to close historical opportunity gaps for Colombian girls and women, and is framed within EUROsociAL+’s expected result of improving their level of development and social welfare, which is, in turn, aligned with Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 16.
