United Nations Resident Coordinator Antonio Molpeceres. Photo by: UNITED NATIONS — The Spotlight Initiative , a €500 million ($585.2 million) joint United Nations and European Union partnership to combat violence against women, will provide an update on its work over the last year during a high-level event at U.N. headquarters Thursday morning.
Mexico is set to receive funding for a minimum two-year project to research and combat femicide — the targeted killing of women and girls. Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for women and girls, and reported rates of femicide have reportedly risen over the last decade.
The partnership is unique, as U.N. Resident Coordinator Antonio Molpeceres explained that Mexico typically receives little support from outside donors.
“This is the exception, Spotlight. It is money that is coming in from outside, to the U.N., to help solve a problem. I think this is important to say,” he told Devex.
Devex sat down with Molpeceres ahead of the meeting to discuss how femicide needs to be rethought, and how his own role as U.N. resident coordinator might be changing with the onset of U.N. reforms in 2019. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How does Mexico’s status as a high middle-income country impact the nature of the U.N.’s work there?
The challenge is the same in any type of country — to coordinate the U.N. system. That is one of the objectives of this reform that the secretary-general is promoting. How can we better work together and have […]
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