Mayor Claudia López participated in the Generation Equality Forum, the most important summit on the agenda for gender equality and women's rights in the last 25 years. The event comprises over 90 events ranging from forums to panels to conferences. The event is convened by UN Women alongside the governments of Mexico and France. This event will create a space for all walks of life to meet and discuss. Expected to attend are not only local leaders and Presidents, but several international organisations; the private sector; representatives of groups and societies; and youth groups.
In her speech, the Mayor explained the measures being taken in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and highlighted the implementation of the District Care System. This initiative will seek to reduce and redistribute the disproportionate burden of care that falls squarely on women. This system of care will become the instrument with which, the city advances towards gender equality.
“The pandemic has brought with it several challenges, not only in terms of public health, but also in terms of poverty and unemployment. Isolation and social distancing have taken a heavy toll on the economy and has practically doubled poverty in Colombia. Such a drastic shift must disproportionately affect women, elderly, the disabled, and young people. And has also involved a challenge of civic culture," stated Mayor López.
Mayor Claudia López participated in the panel 'Cities in Action: their commitment towards gender equality', alongside her counterparts: Souad Abderrahim, from Tunisia; Vi Lyles, from Charlotte in North Carolina, USA, and United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, Asa Regnér.
"Bogotá has tripled the number of Intensive Care Units (ICU) in less than a year, trained new health personnel and has worked wonders in attention and care, and now in vaccination," explained the Mayor, "the city is close to having nearly half of the population vaccinated with the first dose and 30% with the second."
Mayor Lopez re-iterated that one her administration’s greatest source of pride was launching the first Care System of a capital city, “this mandate is made precisely for women affected by the burden of the care not only for themselves but for those around them. Women such as these find it difficult to rest, to receive qualified education or equal opportunities in a competitive job-market. This severely hampers economic autonomy for these women and keeps them from achieving a better outcome in life.”
"In five of the twenty boroughs of Bogotá these services are well under way. We have set up two mobile units that provide services in the remaining boroughs, our goal is to fully facilitated all of the services provided by the District Care System across all 20 boroughs of our city" explained the Mayor.
UN Women Deputy Executive Director, Asa Regner commented that "Cities are vital in their commitment to investments for Gender Equality. Girls and women have been the most affected, they are group that has sunk the deepest into poverty and the one with the smallest voice and decision-making power."
In this regard, Claudia López confirmed that "this is a new dawn for women and that is why we are working towards the District Care System," which is why it will be institutionalised in the city's fifteen-year Master Plan. Thus, becoming the instrument which guarantees the women of this country a fair Social Security System and the means to overcome inequality and poverty.
Finally, the Mayor made a call for Bogotá and the cities of the world “not to jeopardise the Sustainable Development Goals, inclusion, gender equality, the fight against climate change simply because of the economic turmoil we have been experiencing, but rather, to rise above the hardship and continue addressing challenges in the short, medium and long term,” Mayor López added.
