The Secretary for Women Diana Rodríguez Franco participated in the Reykjavik World Forum - Women Leaders 2020, an annual event that brings together women leaders from all sectors to discuss issues on the international agenda. Iceland was chosen as the setting because it is ranked as the most egalitarian country in the world by the World Economic Forum and the WEF Global Gender Gap Report.
In this session, local leadership and the fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focused on increasing the leadership role of women, were discussed. Secretary Diana Rodríguez shared a space with Nina Hachigan, the Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles; Mariana Cammisa, Compliance Officer for the SDGs in Buenos Aires; and Rachel Reese Mayor of Nelson in New Zealand.
The moderator of this panel was Michelle Morse. The session began with the presentation of the panelists and the role of Secretary Diana Rodríguez as a researcher, teacher and leader on the issue of women's rights was highlighted. The first topic of the talk was the role of local governments in advancing the Beijing + 25 on women's rights and the 2030 agendas. Representing Buenos Aires was Mariana Cammisa, SDG compliance officer, who shared the mobility strategy of this city and highlighted its sustainable mobility plan with a gender perspective and focused on the safety of women. The intervention of Secretary Diana Rodríguez followed.
She highlighted the importance of the election of Claudia López, the first female mayor in Bogotá and how this allowed a true vision of gender within the District Development Plan, “Gender equality and the SDGs are the basis of the New Social and Environmental Contract of Bogotá and therefore central in the city's transversal strategy ”.
For her part, Rachel Reese, Mayor of Nelson, New Zealand, spoke about the recognition of women in this country and how they were pioneers, in the world, in recognizing the right to vote, a fundamental factor to change the reality of women all over the planet.
During her second intervention, Secretary Rodríguez spoke about the special attention that has been given to unpaid care work in the city, “This administration pays a lot of attention to the historical role of care that has fallen unto women, that is why a one of our main priorities has been the creation of the Bogotá District Care System. This system has three objectives: To recognize the importance of care work and caregivers; to reduce the time women spend on unpaid care work; and to redistribute this work with men ”. She spoke about how women spend an average of five hours a day on these tasks, compared to three hours a day for men and about how the COVID-19 crisis has increased this burden with the closure of schools and care centers. “If it was important to address this problem before the pandemic, it has become essential now.
The creation of care services in proximity to those who need it has been sought through the ‘Care Blocks’ strategy, which is focused on the populations that need it most, ”said the Secretary. At the end of the event, the participants talked about what each of them would like to see in 2021 in the terms of gender equality issues. In her turn, Secretary Diana Rodríguez said, “We need to see a cultural change in health, sexual and reproductive rights, as well as in violence against women. We need a change around the machismo that still exists in the cities ”, to which the other attendees agreed.
