Washington, D.C. PAHO HQ.
March 10, 2008.

Distinguished Guests,
Ambassadors,
Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A very good morning to you all,

I wish to extend a warm welcome to each of you, as we gather here today in PAHO to celebrate the 2008 International Women's Day. It is actually the 100th anniversary of this day of action that was first organized by socialist working women that led to a movement that eventually changed our world.

Today, we join millions of women and men all over the world to celebrate our advances in ensuring women's rights and in bridging the unjust gaps between women and men's opportunities to enjoy healthy and quality lives. In other words in achieving gender equality.

What have we achieved?
Every day there are more women movers and shakers in our region and their ranks keep swelling. Presidents Christina Fernandez in Argentina and Michelle Bachelet in Chile, not to mention former Primer Ministers such as Portia Simpson-Miller in Jamaica and Eugenia Charles in Dominica, who are the most prominent examples. We have many more women vice presidents, ministers, cabinet members and lawmakers, as well as women's ministries, all making a difference in their countries. Let's especially recognize the many leaders of international and nongovernmental women's organizations who first joined forces a hundred years ago to insist on women's rights and equal opportunities. From them, to the women who now direct WHO and PAHO, to the growing number among PAHO's country representatives in the countries, to many other positions, women are turning around the hundreds of years of gender discrimination and inequality, and moving us towards a fairer and better world.

For their and our achievements, for their role models and for all women we celebrate today.

The theme of this conference is Gender Equality, let's get real.

Of course we need to keep our focus on getting real. Despite progress, gender inequalities continue to persevere in our countries.

We need to get real about the persistently high rates of gender based violence that continue to affect 1/3 to ½ of women in our region, abusing their rights, affecting their health and passing on to future generation. This is a real tragedy!

Likewise, we need to get real about the stubbornly high and unjust rates of maternal mortality. (630 in Haiti, 230 in Bolivia, 5.9 in Canada)

We know that of the over 22,000 women who die yearly while giving birth (22,680 WHO, 2006), many are poor, indigenous, afro descendant or live in marginalized or rural areas. We also know that adolescent pregnancy, violence and abortion complications contribute to these unfair deaths. We always stress that most these tragic deaths are preventable.

We need to get real about the increasing casualties from accidents among our men and boys, and those caused by their risk taking behaviors, from smoking, to risky violent and sexual encounters. These now count among the leading causes of death for our men. (In Colombia 66% of male deaths were due to homicides, HSA 2006).

We need to get real about the alarming HIV infections among women and girls, especially in our Caribbean countries. Too many women and girls are still unable to negotiate protected and consensual sex, because they may be in a violent relationship, an adolescent in a forced sexual relationship, be in a stable relationship with an HIV infected partner, or be trafficked or forced to sell sex. Their inferior status being the main risk factor for HIV infection.

We need to get real about the essential and unpaid care that mostly women provide for young children, the sick, disabled and elderly in addition to, or sometimes replacing their economic responsibilities and income. While national health programs count on this essential contribution, it is rarely factored in national health accounts, compensated or even recognized.

We have to get real about women and men's different needs and realities, if we are to deliver more efficient health services and achieve equity in health. Besides their inherent biological differences, we know that life situation and position in society greatly influence women and men's health behaviors, access to health resources and vulnerabilities to disease.

And how can we get real about these health differences between women and men, if we do not collect information by sex, and analyze evidence with a gender perspective to obtain a deeper and constructive understanding of the unfair disadvantages that cause these differences. Not doing so invokes prohibited discrimination (Paul Hunt)

We also need to get real about funding women's empowerment, the theme of this year's International Women's Day 2008: Investing in Women and Girls.

UN Secretary General in his message on International Women's Day reminds us that "the failure of funding undermines not only our endeavors for gender equality and women's empowerment as such; it also holds back our efforts to reach all the Millennium Development Goals. As we know from long and indisputable experience, investing in women and girls has a multiplier effect on productivity and sustained economic growth. No measure is more important in advancing education and health, including the prevention of HIV/AIDS. No other policy is as likely to improve nutrition, or reduce infant or maternal mortality".

We need to get real about gender equality our countries signed the United Nations Conventions (CEDAW: Convention to End all forms of Discrimination against Women, Convention. InterAmerican Convention to Eradicate Violence Against Women, Belem do Para) and international agreements (Beijing Platform of Action, Cairo platform of Action) on women's rights. Our States have legal obligations to ensure these rights and promote women's empowerment. They have committed to achieving the gender equality that provides equal opportunities for women and men to enjoy optimal health, rights and quality of life. These commitments form the basis for achieving the MDG and were reinforced by 189 nations in the Millennium Declaration.

The United Nations organizations are called to support countries in carrying out these mandates. Like WHO and PAHO, they are required to adopt and report on mainstreaming policies to incorporate gender equality in their work, and especially in their technical collaboration to countries.

PAHO and I are committed to Getting Real on Gender Equality.

Gender equality is a priority crosscutting obligation in Health Agenda of the Americas and our 2008 - 12 strategic plan. This includes a system for ensuring its incorporation and monitoring in all of our technical headquarters and country work plans.

In 2005 our Directing Council approved PAHO's Gender Equality Policy, with the goal of "contributing to the achievement of gender equality in health status and health development of women and men, through research, policy and programs of PAHO and its Member States"'.

We aimed at achieving parity among our staff, especially in higher positions. I am proud that we have almost reached parity at the P4 and higher levels. According to a recent review by the UN Division on the Status of Women, PAHO has one of the best track record of 29 agencies reviewed (Status of Women in the UN System at a Glance, as of June 2006, presented during the Feb 2008 UN Gender Interagency Meeting).

We got real on addressing Violence against Women. PAHO has been a leader in addressing gender based violence in the region. In 1993 PAHO was the first UN agency to declare GBV a human rights abuse and a public health problem. A year after we and our partners developed an Integrated Model that is based on women's empowerment, and involves many sectors at the regional, national and community level. This approach has been implemented in 16 countries, has been evaluated and has resulted on polices, improved detection, prevention and care, as well as networks that support one another and women in addressing GBV.

We are getting real about making the link between women's lack of power and their vulnerability to HIV infection. We were among the first to recognize that women and girls make up an increasing proportion of newly HIV infected person, and to bring attention and evidence to the link between violence against women and HIV infection. Women's empowerment and gender equality are now central to our work on HIV.

Likewise, we approach maternal mortality as a human rights abuse and a blatant manifestation of gender inequity in health. We promote gender equality and the empowerment of women as essential for lowering these tenaciously persistent and unacceptable high rates in our countries.

Getting real on providing evidence on gender inequalities and men and women's differential health realities has been a priority of my administration. Disaggregating health data is now our norm, and we are getting better in applying a gender analysis to better target our programming and priorities.

These are just a few examples of how PAHO is getting real on gender equality.

We realize we still have a way to go. Currently we are developing an Action Plan for implementing the Gender Equality Policy within PAHO and our Member Countries that will involve many partners, including women leaders and women's organizations. We will have concrete indicators and benchmarks for holding us accountable.

We are using new ways of getting our colleagues on board. For example this event also provides an opportunity for PAHO staff to learn about the policy and PAHO's commitments, to Gender Equality and will be followed by a short posttest for staff development. We are honored that our panelist Dr. Mehra will expand our knowledge on mainstreaming.

The Best Practices that will also be presented provide a source of inspiration for getting real on gender equality. They represent the winning experiences of a regional contest on Best Practices on Mainstreaming Gender in Health" and attest that gender equality can indeed be mainstreamed in health policies, programs and campaigns and improve their impact. Every year PAHO will award two of our region's stellar experiences and make them available to all our partners.

I take this opportunity to congratulate you, Dr. Del Rio and Ms Silva on your innovative approaches for involving and reaching out to women and men in improving their health and access to services.

Thank you.

Pannel Presentations:
Presentation by Dr. Rekha Mehra, expert on gender and development at the World Bank.
Gender Mainstreaming: Making It Happen
Bolivia. Presentación de la Dra. Erika Silva.
Construyendo puentes entre la comunidad y los servicios de salud con enfoque de género e interculturalidad (Warmi II)
México. Presentación de la Dra. Aurora del Río Zolezzi.
Incorporación de la perspectiva de género en programas prioritarios de salud: el caso del programa de prevención y control de Diabetes Mellitus en México

For more information, please contact Diaz, Eng. Katia (WDC), Director's Office Web Master.