The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has provided CARICOM with a US$500,000 grant towards the development and implementation of a gender sensitive results based Caribbean Community management system, according to the body’s website.
This was announced as Secretary-General of CARICOM, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UN Women, to address gender issues, during the 39th Community Council of Ministers meeting recently, at the CARICOM Secretariat Headquarters in Turkeyen, Georgetown.
The MOU between the Caribbean Community and UN Women, noted LaRocque would strengthen initiatives, to reduce gender inequality.
The diplomat who was joined by UN Women representative Toni Ann Brodber called the support from the United Nations women on gender equality, significant, given the challenges the Caribbean community face on this particularly issue.
He added, ‘it is particularly significant for us, given the financial challenges that hamper us in our quest to fill a number of crucial positions on issues about gender.”
While applauding the United Nations for its committed role in advancing the work of the secretariat, LaRocque noted that some of the work will focus on developing model legislation and regional specific tools to discuss behavioral change to tackle the root causes of gender-based violence, and to ensure strong evidence-based advocacy.
The two-year MOU will enhance Caribbean-wide data, statistics, and analysis to implement gender dimensions of Sustainable Development Goals and the SAMOA pathway.
In addition, the UN Women will ensure there is a CARICOM-wide voice in the normative process to shape national levels of sustainable development as it relates to gender, said the release.
According to the reports, about, 30 to 50 percent of all murders in the Caribbean are a result of intimate partner violence.
To this end, Brodber, noted, that the Caribbean states cannot afford the cost of gender inequality.
Brodber brought attention to both gender-based violence, and the need for the community to tap into the potential of young boys and young girls, and congratulated the Caribbean Community for taking the lead to address gender inequality.
“We will support you in every way that we can to make sure this is not just something that is theoretical, but a lived reality that the women and men of CARICOM feel.
The Memorandum of Understanding plans to enhance the work of CARICOM Regional Gender program and Regional Statistics program.
