Ambassador of El Salvador Featured Guest in GFDD’s June Global Roundtable

Carlos Enrique García González, Permanent Representative of El Salvador to the United Nations, has accepted GFDD’s invitation to participate in the seventeenth edition of its online broadcasting program series “Global Roundtable,” to be held in the Foundation’s New York office on July 1, 2013.

Mr. García is a career diplomat that has served his country in the United Nations since July 1, 1996. The Ambassador has
represented El Salvador in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); the Commission for Social Development; the former Commission on Human Rights; the Commission on the Status of Women and the Commission on Population and Development. His Excellency currently serves as Vice-Chairman of the Commission for Social Development 2013-2014 and Vice-Chairman of the Commission on the Status of Women 2012-2013. The Ambassador will alos be endorsed as Vice-Chairman for CSW 2013-1014.  Prior to
joining the Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the United Nations, he worked as Director of Multilateral Affairs and Chief of the Caribbean Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affair of El Salvador.

The upcoming Global Roundtable program will feature a discussion about Ambassador García’s extraordinary diplomatic experience in charge of an array of issues covering;  economic, financial and social matters, peace building and security, humanitarian,
environmental and human rights issues during his post at the United Nations. In the course of the conversation, GFDD’s Executive Director, Natasha Despotovic, will touch on such important questions as the current political and economic situation in El Salvador, governement programs in support of gender equality, world’s achievements in implementing commitments of the Commission on the Status of Women 2012-2013 and provisions of the Program of Actions adopted at the World
Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen.

About El Salvador
El Salvador, which is Spanish for “the saviour” – or Jesus Christ – is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America, bordering the North Pacific Ocean and located between Guatemala and Honduras. The country is known as the Land of Volcanoes and it is extremely susceptible to frequent earthquakes and
hurricanes.

El Salvador achieved independence from Spain in 1821 and from the Central American Federation in 1839. A 12-year civil war, which cost about 75,000 lives, was brought to a close in 1992 when the government and leftist rebels signed a treaty that provided for military and political reforms. El Salvador has returned to democracy after being torn by the civil war in the 1980s; the current President is Carlos Mauricio Funes Cartagena (since 1 June 2009) who
belongs to the FMLN party.

El Salvador has the third largest economy in the region. With the global recession in 2009, real GDP contracted by 3.1%. The economy slowed even further during 2010-12. Fettered by natural disasters, corruption and inequality, the economy heavily depends on the money sent home by Salvadoreans living in the US. In 2006, El Salvador was the first country to ratify the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement, which has bolstered
the export of processed foods, sugar, and ethanol, and supported investment in the apparel sector amid increased Asian competition.

The government’s biggest challenges remain the elimination of violent street gangs – “maras,” poverty, consequences of the civil war and natural disasters.

About the Global Roundtable
In close association with the United Nations, the Mission of
the Dominican Republic to the UN, GFDD organizes regular meetings with UN Ambassadors and other prominent figures in the international community in an effort to spread the news, knowledge and understanding of other countries, global issues and work of different United Nations bodies to its audience in the Dominican Republic, the US and around the world.

The regular series, GFDD Global Roundtable is also a part of GFDD’s program to support the work of the United
Nations and, as a non-governmental institution affiliated to it, contribute to the visibility and understanding of its work.

Related link:
www.gfddglobalroundtable.org