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We have been partnering for a long [long] time between the European Union and the United Nations but as we address the framework and delivering on Agenda 2030 it has become more important to demonstrate exactly what we mean by that and how we are going to get results. 

We were very pleased last year when we were able to receive generous funding on an issue that is incredibly important to women, incredibly important to our societies, and the achievement of the SDGs and gender-based violence.

The Spotlight Initiative was born, and a year later and we are announcing, and have announced in fact, countries in Latin America; we will be announcing other regions. But what I think is really important is that this has galvanized the framework and our partnership around a number of issues which we think are proper to mention now on gender, on the economy, investments and jobs  because that delivers on what we want for our young people and our women; climate change which you have heard the Secretary-General talk about  the urgency and the fact that is running faster than we are, the humanitarian and development nexus and also  the migration and development nexus. All of these five pieces of work that we would like to stick together at the country level is really the foundation of this framework we are putting forward to reinforce our partnership.

The Spotlight of course has given us the experience of how all this could be done from the policy all the way down to the country level. We look forward very much to cementing that relationship as we go.

Thank you.   

Question: How did you choose the five countries for the Latin America initiative?

DSG: There were various criteria that were really put to those five countries, bearing in mind that in Latin America, on the broad range of where femicide is happening it is the majority of countries in Latin America, so the criteria that went into that defined those five countries to see where more policy work needed to be done where really we have a focus on the gender stereotyping that needs to be addressed, the societal issues that come into play, and of course at the end of the day this is about one’s empowerment, and particularly women and girls.