SANTIAGO, Chile, Fri. Apr. 1, 2022– After almost 14 years of service, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, was replaced this past Friday, April 1, by Argentine economist Mario Cimoli. Cimoli, who was appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, has been working with the UN—and ECLAC—for over 20 years and was previously the commission’s Deputy Executive Secretary.
“This has been the brightest phase of my professional career. For nearly fourteen years, I have contributed to giving weight, influence, and opportunity to the body of transformative, progressive and egalitarian convictions that distinguish ECLAC’s present thinking,” said Bárcena at her outgoing ceremony held at the commission’s headquarters in Chile.
When she was appointed as Executive Secretary back in July 2008, Alicia Bárcena became the first woman to ever hold the title. According to a release issued by ECLAC, during her period of service, she often emphasized the importance of combining economic growth, equality, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability for the continued development of the Latin American and Caribbean regions. At her last public appearance as the commission’s secretary, she participated in ECLAC’s Debt, Genders, and Care Seminar, held in Buenos Aires this week. During the seminar, she remarked that in order to guarantee the economic autonomy of women throughout the region, “we must break statistical silence, raise the visibility of monetary management of care faced by women, reverse debt associated with care at home, and close gender gaps regarding access to and use of the financial system.”
Bárcena also pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a number of women having to leave the labor force, something which was also highlighted during the commission’s report on the region’s economic growth over the past year.
The ECLAC is one of five regional United Nations commissions, created with the purpose of contributing to the economic growth of Latin America and the Caribbean and strengthening economic ties between nations. Previously this year, the former Executive Secretary delivered the presentation of ECLAC’s report on the growth of the region’s economy. It was during that report that a positive outlook was issued for Belize’s economic rebound—with a projected growth rate of 6.2%.