The Government of Saint Lucia has received technical assistance from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), to support the development of the national gender policy statement and strategy and the management of gender data in Saint Lucia.

The Montevideo Strategy for Implementation of the Regional Gender Agenda within the Sustainable Development Framework by 2030 and the 25th review of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, request that governments adopt and implement policies, laws and strategies to promote gender equality and the rights of all women and girls, as well as to select, compile, integrate, process, analyze and disseminate gender data and statistics to identify progress made and challenges that remain in addressing gender inequalities.

With the help of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Department of Gender Relations recently held two workshops to help in these processes.

Acting Director of Gender Relations, Janey Joseph, stressed the importance of data analytics in policy formation.

ECLAC’s Associate Social Affairs Officer, Lydia Rosa Geny, said the technical assistance activities will improve the resource capacity of the Department of Gender Relations and specifically contribute to assist the Government of Saint Lucia in mainstreaming gender in national planning, policies and data, and by so doing, help the country to meet its commitments to the Regional Gender Agenda and related frameworks.

Saint Lucia will present, for the first time, its Voluntary National Review (VNR) on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) in July 2019, under the theme “Empowering People and Ensuring Inclusiveness and Equality.”