THE DEVELOPMENT OF GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT DESK

The declaration by the United Nations of 1975 as the International Year of Women, followed by the UN Decade’s for Women (1976-1985) catapulted governments of the Region in establishing Women’s Desk or Bureaux.

The voices of women’s organisations were raised in support of the establishment of a women’s desk in the Region. Eventually, in 1978, a Nutrition/Women’s Desk was established at the Caribbean Community Secretariat with the aid of UNICEF.

Two years later, with funding from UNDP, an independent Women’s Desk was established that sought to promote and implement policies and programmes to promote the status of women within the Caribbean Community through regular meetings of Ministers with responsibility for women/gender affairs. The regional Gender and Development Unit is now located in the Programme on Human Resource Development in the Directorate of Human and Social Development, following a recommendation from the CARICOM Heads of Women’s/Gender Bureaux Meeting in September, 2002.

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