Colombian President Gustavo Petro will sanction, this Wednesday, January 4, 2023, in the municipality of Istmina, in the department of Chocó, the law that creates the Ministry of Equality and Equity, portfolio that will remain in the hands of the vice president France Marquez.
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Petro, together with Márquez and other members of the cabinet, will travel to Istmina in a demonstration that “In this 2023, the ‘government of change’ begins with all the will and commitment to ensure the fundamental rights of equality and equity, for Colombians“, reported the Vice President.
The place chosen for the presidential sanction is Istmina, a locality of the department of Chocó that historically It has been one of the poorest and most forgotten in the country.
With the creation of this Ministry, it is sought “guarantee the right to equality and equity for all Colombians and give a voice to those who have historically been excluded and marginalized“Márquez’s office stressed in a statement.
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The presidential sanction of this law will be one of Petro’s first actions in 2023, after both chambers of the Colombian Congress approved this project on December 12, one of the main campaign promises of the now president.
“This Ministry is a mechanism to advance in the effective reduction of inequality and inequity gaps in Colombia“, Márquez celebrated on his social networks when the Ministry of Equality, which he will lead, was approved in the Legislature.
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With the Ministry of Equality there will be 19 ministries in the country, although its creation has been strongly criticized by the opposition, but there are also doubts from some members of the government bench, as well as from independent sectors. They point out that behind this new portfolio there is ‘bureaucracy’.
One of the main doubts during the discussion in Congress was about the fiscal cost that the new portfolio will imply for the State.
Approval Ministry of Equality and Equity
Among its functions will be:
– Formulate, adopt, direct, coordinate, execute and articulate policies, plans, programs, strategies, projects and measures for the fulfillment of the object of the Ministry and scope of competences.
– Adopt and execute plans, programs, strategies and projects to define, manage and focus the social offer of the entities of the National Order in the territory, with criteria of efficiency and effectiveness, prioritizing territories and populations historically excluded.
(Learn more about how the new Ministry of Equality will work).
– Coordinate and articulate with national entities, departmental, district and municipal intervention of population groups, within the scope of their powers.
– Promote tools for citizen participation and organization to strengthen the incidence of population groups and subjects of special constitutional protection in public policy agendas, self-government processes and ethnic territorial rights of ethnic peoples, in coordination with other competent entities.
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– Promote social innovation through the identification and implementation of private and local initiatives, among others, to implement equality and equity policies with an intersectional approach in state action and promote conditions of political, economic and social equality for all targeted vulnerable populations.
PORTFOLIO, TIME AND EFE
