International Women’s Day

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Hendon, for facilitating the debate and for her excellent speech introducing the topic—as usual, with some merriment in it. International Women’s Day is an important event in our calendar each year, and we have wide and interesting debates on it. Today, I want to talk briefly about women in Latin and Central America and their achievements. As the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Latin America, I meet many women from Latin and Central America. Last year, I was lucky enough to visit Bolivia as part of a parliamentary delegation. La Paz, its capital, is different from any city I have ever visited. The women, in their brightly coloured shawls, with their bowler hats on their heads at a jaunty angle and their babies strapped to their backs, are a joy to behold. I never did discover how the women kept those bowler hats on. They used no elastic or hat-pins; it is quite a miracle. With the Evo Morales Government in Bolivia promoting women and equality as a central part of their policy, the women we met truly believed that their time had come. He was re-elected in January this year as the Bolivian President. At his inauguration, one of the prominent pillars heralded was equal rights for all. He has opted for balance in terms of gender, regional representation and social class. The new Bolivian assembly includes women campesino leaders and former presidential representatives. The new Cabinet is 50 per cent made up of women, and every effort is being made to give more responsibility to women. That includes women being appointed as the new Minister of the Interior and the Minister for Rural Development and Land, the latter being a former campesino leader. Elizabeth Salguero, a feminist deputy for La Paz during the last parliament—she is now the MAS candidate for the mayor of La Paz, with the elections taking place in April—is delighted and says that she never expected to see such commitment to women. That is a great forward step for women in Bolivia that we can applaud today. I wonder whether whatever Government we have in power in the future will prove as positive towards the women in this country. I wish to talk briefly about a different country in Latin America—Mexico—and about a project of Pro Mujer, an organisation which financially assists women to better themselves in a number of Latin American countries. This is the story of Irma Torres, who is described as a social entrepreneur. Five years ago, she received a $150 loan from Pro Mujer to start a business in Mexico. Today she employs 18 people. Irma runs a water purification business out of her home. With her husband as her business partner, she meets her family’s needs while providing potable water to her community. She used to work at a water purification plant, where she was underpaid and mistreated by the manager. Her three children suffered too. The older siblings had to go without shoes or milk. Alfonso, Irma’s nine year-old son, suffered from asthma but there was no money for a doctor or medication. In 2004, Irma left her job and joined Pro Mujer. She started her own water purification business and began to turn her family’s life around. Today, all of Irma’s children wear shoes and get the nutrition they need. Alfonso sees an asthma specialist and has not had an asthma attack in over a year. The community benefits too. Irma gives her neighbours discounted water, employs community members and donates water for every community event—another success story. El Salvador is a smaller but important country in central America. In its recent report to the UN Human Rights Council working group on its universal periodic review, El Salvador outlined the work of the Salvadoran Institute for the Advancement of Women. This institute is responsible for overall policy for promoting the comprehensive development of women in El Salvador and, interestingly, stresses that part of this policy is a life free of violence within the family, the working environment and social, political and economic spheres. To further this, 13 departmental offices have been established throughout El Salvador, co-ordinated by the institute. In the time available, I have been able to give only a brief outline of some activities in the women’s field in Latin America, and, of course, these are three good examples. I could have raised some of the many difficulties that Latin American women face, but on International Women’s Day I wanted to be positive rather than negative. I hope that this brief speech has been of interest to your Lordships.