UCLG & Global Taskforce

Michelle Bachelet, president of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), declared her commitment to “establish a closer alliance with the global organisation of local governments, United Cities and Local Governments.”

This declaration was made during an encounter with a delegation from UCLG’s Standing Committee on Gender Equality and the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the European section of UCLG.

The joint collaboration between UN Women and UCLG will notably aim at including an overview of the representation of women at the local level in the annual UN reports on the status of women.

CEMR announced at this occasion the imminent launch of its Observatory of the European Charter for Equality of Women and Men in Local Life, which is to coincide with this year’s International Women’s Day on 8 March 2012.  The new Observatory will help signatories of the Charter draw-up, implement and monitor local action plans for gender equality all across Europe.

Present at the encounter (from left to right on the photo) were Emilia Saiz, director of Statutory Issues and Institutional Relations at UCLG, Olga Trostiansky, president of the French Coordination for the European Women’s Lobby (CLEF) and deputy to the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, first deputy to the mayor of Paris and president of the UCLG Standing Committee on Gender Equality, Michelle Bachelet, former president of Chile and executive director of UN Women, Carola Gunnarsson, vice-president of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR), Frédéric Vallier, secretary general of CEMR, and Bibiana Aido-Almagro, former Spanish minister for equality and special adviser to Michelle Bachelet.