Consumer Safety and Health Network

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Good morning. At the outset, we express our condolences and solidarity to the peoples of our region and to their governments, which in recent weeks have borne the direct impact of catastrophic hurricanes and storms. The Dominican Republic is no stranger to their pain or their suffering, and we stand with them at this time of calamity.

Madam Chair, the Dominican Republic is pleased at the inclusion in this Permanent Council of the presentation of the 2020 Activity Report on the 2020-2021 Strategic Plan of the Secretariat for Access to Rights and Equity (SARE), and thanks Secretary Farah Urrutia for her thorough presentation.

At the beginning of this year, 2020, some thought the pandemic would pass quickly. Yet it continues to be a long experience of uncertainties and difficulties, economic and social as well as in health, which have struck the world and, above all, our region, leaving our people more vulnerable.

We must work together and keep moving forward, focusing on what falls to us in order to forge a better post-pandemic future. Accordingly, determined to advance social development, the Dominican Republic has taken very seriously its commitment to hold, in 2021, the Fifth Meeting of Ministers and High Authorities of Social Development (REMDES). There we hope to strengthen the dialogue and the social development agenda of our Hemisphere. As the time draws nearer, we will keep you informed of the work to be done with a view to a REMDES that is a success for all. Our country has likewise played a prominent part in its Presidency of the Consumer Safety and Health Network, since through our responsible agency, the National Institute for the Protection of Consumer Rights (Pro Consumidor), an active multilateral agenda has been pursued despite the pandemic.

Our Mission wishes to take these few minutes to applaud the great work being done by the Secretariat for Access to Rights and Equity: its work on behalf of the most vulnerable groups, social development, migration, consumers and their health, poverty and inequality, among so many other issues. All of them need even greater attention in this time of COVID-19 in order to improve the quality of life of all our people.

We have analyzed in detail the 2020 Activity Report presented to us today. It is a very complete summary and, above all, a plan focused on the four pillars of the Organization and committed to results-based management. From our Permanent Mission we will continue to support this work plan, for which we continue to wish further success in the coming year.