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Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Jennifer Webster, has described as negative the fact thatMinister of Human Services and Social Security, Jennifer Webster.within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) women are still marginally represented in politics when compared to their male counterparts.Webster spoke of this while focusing on a series of challenges faced by Caribbean women at the 59th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) Conference, which is being held at the United Nations Headquarters, New York, United States of America.Speaking on behalf of the 14-Member States yesterday, Webster said that one of the successes in the Caribbean over the past three decades has been the establishment of National Women’s Machineries to operationalise programmes and policies to advance the status of women.A spinoff from the Beijing Platform for Action, she said these national machineries focused on gender mainstreaming and establishing multi-sectoral Gender Focal Points throughout Government Agencies (MDAs) to ensure that gender equality perspectives are reflected in all policies and programmes.“In spite of these significant gains, there are areas which continue to negatively affect the advancement of women and girls. These include poverty, violence against women, and the lack of equal political representation,” the Minister said.The Minister added that Beijing Platform for Action recognized that the political empowerment of women, and the commitment to promoting gender equality in political representation at the national level are critical to national progress.“Achieving balance in this area would accurately reflect the composition of society, strengthen democracy and leverage the integration of the gender dimension in government policy-making to ensure that the interests of women are well represented,” Webster posited.The CARICOM representative informed the gathering that one of the recommendations of the Beijing Platform for Action was for Governments to establish a target reserving 30 percent of seats in parliament for women.This, she said, was seen as the critical minority required for women as a group to exert a meaningful influence in legislative assemblies.The Minister pointed out that Guyana has passed legislation stipulating that at least one-third of the candidates selected by political parties contesting national and regional elections must be women and in the 2014 Global Gender Gap Report, Guyana was ranked thirty-first out of 142 countries with regards to the proportional representation of women in Parliament.The gathering heard, too,Cheap NBA Jerseys China, that during the past three decades, the Caribbean has had four female Heads of Government- Dame Eugenia Charles in the Commonwealth of Dominica, Janet Jagan of Guyana, Portia Simpson Miller of Jamaica and Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago.“There is also more equal representation of women at the local levels of political decision-making,” she said.Webster noted that women’s contribution to the growth and development of our economies is receiving greater attention by Caribbean governments but in spite of this, women still face many barriers to their attainment of economic empowerment.She said the Caribbean has a high proportion of female headed households, and this social reality places women at a significant disadvantage to attain greater economic autonomy.The Minister said that while there has been significant progress in the status of women and gender equality globally, there remain critical areas of concern. She pointed to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which stated that many of the world’s poorest people are women.“In 2013, the WHO (World Health Organisation) reported that over 30 per cent of women globally who have been in a relationship, report that they experienced some form of physical or sexual abuse, and as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner,” she reported.Webster told the gathering that governments in the Caribbean remain committed to the empowerment of women and the promotion of gender equality. “Our region has realized significant gains in the social and economic status of women and girls and this has contributed to the reduction in gender inequalities,” she said.According to the Minister, last August CARICOM’s Council for Human and Social Development approved a Strategy and Plan developed in collaboration with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the CARICOM Secretariat, to reduce the number of adolescent pregnancies in the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean by at least 20 per cent over the five-year period 2014 – 2019.She pointed out too, that significant progress has also been made in the education sector where many Caribbean countries are experiencing increased enrollment at the primary level. All Caribbean countries, she reported, continue to provide universal and equal access to education to both boys and girls at the primary and secondary levels.Many countries have enacted legislation to ensure that women and men have equal access to micro financing and property rights, she said.“There is no doubt that there has been progress in the advancement of women in the Caribbean. Despite two decades of gender mainstreaming many persistent challenges remains including understanding the linkages between gender perspectives and sustainable development.”“In this regard, CARICOM wishes to reiterate that a significant factor which affects the ability of Member States to meet their goals and targets relates to adequate resources. It is therefore necessary for developed countries to fulfill their commitments made with regards to official development assistance with increased priority to gender equality and the empowerment of women,” she said.She reiterated CARICOM’s commitment to all international treaties and conventions to which we are parties and commit to engaging all stakeholders for the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.During the last two decades, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action has been a vehicle for unprecedented global and political mobilisation to end discrimination and inequality against women and girls.