Meeting of the Secretary-General of METROPOLIS, Alain Le Saux, with the Mayor of Santiago de Chile, Carolina Tohá

On 24 March last, the Secretary-General of METROPOLIS, Alain Le Saux, met with the Mayor of Santiago de Chile, Carolina Tohá, in Barcelona.

The meeting took place in the Saló de la Ciutatat Barcelona City Council. Over the course of the meeting, the Secretary-General of METROPOLIS outlined the main lines of action currently being carried out by METROPOLIS to the mayor. This includes the organisation of the association’s annual meeting to be held in Buenos Aires from 18 to 21 May 2015. The Secretary-General extended an invitation to the mayor, placing particular emphasis on the “mayors’ round table”, which she is expected to attend.

Among the other issues addressed was the 4th World Forum “Dynamic Cities Need Women”, to be held in late November and organised every two years by the METROPOLIS Women International Network. In this regard, an endeavour is being made to have the forum jointly organised by the Regional Council of Santiago de Chile and the Municipality of Santiago de Chile and to have it coincide, in terms of dates, with the 4th Ibero-American Summit organised by the Ibero-American Union of Municipal Leaders (UIM). The goal is to pool efforts and thereby achieve results of greater significance that allows us to make progress as regards women’s social and political status.

The following day, Mayor Tohá took part in the conference “The Americas Are Female”, organised by Casa América and Barcelona Metropolitan Area. In her speech, Carolina Tohá addressed the issue “The point of view of a female politician”, in which she reflected upon the role of the Latin American woman in the political and cultural landscape. According to Mayor Tohá, “women are far from equality, in politics and in every sphere. And wherever there are female directors or presidents, the whole entourage is male”.

Carolina Tohá returned to Chile with the task of putting together the necessary documentation so that METROPOLIS may draw up, prior to the association’s annual meeting in Buenos Aires, the publication “Voice of the Mayors” dedicated to the Mayor of Santiago de Chile.