Madame President, Ladies and gentlemen, UNV is a shared UN service hosted and administered by UNDP. Every year we enable thousands of global citizens to contribute to peace and development serving as UN Volunteers across the globe. I am taking the floor to share with the Conference two reflections and two acclamations.

In recent decades, most Latin American countries have made increasing commitments to gender equality. However, the commitments alone have not been sufficient to fully address gender gaps and inequality, as they require appropriate budget resources to ensure effective implementation. In response to this need, UN Women promoted Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) as a tool for linking women's and gender-equality public policies with budget allocations, and for strengthening the capacity of governments to implement the relevant policies.