Through a virtual ceremony, the Working Group on Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination (GTG) of the Latin American and Caribbean Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (OLACEFS) completed the process of a new Memorandum of Understanding with UN Women.

With the creation of the GTG in 2020, the need arose to work together with UN Women, as well as to land more effective mechanisms for dialogue between that agency and OLACEFS. With the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, OLACEFS and UN Women seek to establish a framework of cooperation and facilitate collaboration so that the gender perspective is incorporated as an axis of supreme audit, as well as cooperate in the exchange of knowledge in the field of gender equality.

In the virtual ceremony, held in the afternoon on Wednesday, April 21, the words of welcome were given by Dr. Valentina Zárate, Comptroller General of the Republic of Ecuador, who highlighted the work of OLACEFS around the incorporation of the gender perspective in the work of auditing. The SAI of Ecuador played an important role in this process because, as part of the GTG, they led the renewal of the commitment to UN Women.

The signatories of the Memorandum also participated. Ms. Maria-Noel Vaeza, Regional Director for the Americas and the Caribbean of UN Women, highlighted that this Memorandum is a path that leads us to 50% of our population having more opportunities, and for that, we need a more transparent, fairer, and more prosperous world. This auditable universe of SAIs represents a cultural change, where the gender perspective is integrated as an axis in auditing.”

For his part, Economist Mr. Nelson Shack Yalta, President of OLACEFS, described this milestone as historic, indicating that gender equality requires a cultural change within our SAIs, in particular indicating that the GTG “will have transcendental contributions to change the way we understand gender equity and lead by example.”

In conclusion, Mr. Jorge Bermúdez Soto, Executive Secretary of OLACEFS and President of the OLACEFS Working Group on Gender Equality and Non-Discrimination, concluded by stating that “We hope that this Alliance will bring us interesting fruits and allow us to illuminate the path that we must follow to achieve something that sounds so simple, but that we know is difficult to achieve: Equality and decent treatment for all”.