The municipality of Zapopan will host the seventh edition of the Ibero-American Summit on Local Gender Agendas and the fifteenth Ibero-American Congress of Municipalities 2025. This event is a space where various entities such as public administrations, associations, gender mechanisms, universities, cooperation agencies, and individuals come together to share experiences, studies, and research with the aim of incorporating the gender agenda at the local level. The Ibero-American Union of Municipalities (UIM) and UN Women are the organizers of this event, which will take place from May 26 to 30 at various venues.
The Municipal President of Zapopan, Juan José Frangie Saade, emphasized the importance of the municipality becoming a reference in the gender agenda. In this edition, they will focus on working to make Zapopan a city for women, thus reinforcing the administration's commitment to the gender agenda. Programs have been implemented for the benefit of women in areas such as security, economy, mental and physical health, as well as personal development, with initiatives to support widows and caregivers.
Carla Amtmann, mayor of Valdivia (Chile) and president of the Ibero-American Union of Municipalities, highlighted the importance of addressing unmet needs in political, economic, and labor areas to promote and preserve women's rights. Alejandra Mora Mora, executive secretary of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) of the Organization of American States (OAS), underscored the relevance of these meetings being led by local administrations, as these figures are capable of generating significant changes to improve the quality of life for women, especially in rural environments.
The Summit and Congress will feature keynote speeches, plenary sessions, workshops, panels for sharing experiences and communications, political dialogue among Ibero-American women leaders, meetings of the Ibero-American Network of Municipalities for Gender Equality, awards for good local practices with a gender focus, a declaration on the event's theme, and a march of women for peace and non-violence in cities. Activities will focus on various axes, such as municipalism and the new social contract, inclusive financing and equality, the local agenda and the territorialization of care, and gender violence and new technologies.
