March 15, 2022, New York

By Marta Lucía Ramírez
Vice president and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Government of Republic of Colombia

Thank you to Qatar and Rwanda for convening this meeting. It is encouraging to see the Secretary General and so many high-level representatives participating today.

I welcome the progress shown in the implementation of the UN Gender Parity Strategy. The fact that the percentage of women in Under and Asistant Secretary General positions is above 50 is a clear sing of what we have walked since 2017 and it keeps showing that the Strategy works. In that endeavor, the Secretary General’s commitment has been fundamental.

I hope that this can be soon reflected in more progress in the field offices, which keeps showing the least percentage of women in their staff.

On the other issue that bring us together today, I would like to highlight that Colombia contributed actively to the discussions about Our Common Agenda that finalized last week. We believe that the report is based on the priorities identified by the member states and responds to our calls. Placing women and girls at the center is of paramount importance for my country.

We must operate with a logic of complementarity, channeling the initiatives proposed by the Secretary General with the efforts made around the 2030 Agenda, our common roadmap and the multilateral reference par excellence, to whose success we have devoted the entire institutional framework of the Colombian State. For us SDG 5 on Gender Equality is deeply embedded in those efforts, and we have made sure that it is instituted as a State policy.

I commend that the report includes references to the need to facilitate women’s economic inclusion, including with investments in the care economy and entrepreneurship. Those are 2 areas in which I have worked immensely in Colombia. We will detail more of our initiatives during the voluntary presentation on the review that will take place on Friday. I invite you all to join us at 10:30 a.m.

Thank you very much