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Through its groundbreaking Inform Women, Transform Lives campaign, ¶¥¼¶¹ú²úÊÓƵ partners with city leaders worldwide to raise awareness about women’s right to access information and to help cities reach women with valuable information and essential municipal services. 

Access to this information empowers women with a stronger voice, enabling them to participate in public life, utilize public services, and make more informed decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities. In Ecuador, the project has partnered with the city of Quito.

¶¥¼¶¹ú²úÊÓƵ has observed various elections and democratic processes in Ecuador over the years — in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2019 

¶¥¼¶¹ú²úÊÓƵ and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) initiated a forum among five Andean countries —Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia — and the U.S. in 2010. 

Impacts 

Through frank and open dialogue, participants: 

• Identified a common agenda for the six countries 

• Addressed misperceptions and misunderstandings 

• Proposed innovative solutions to problematic issues 
• Explored the possibility of bilateral dialogues between pairs of countries with tense relations 

In 1998, we launched a project to help the government combat corruption and to develop partnerships between political and social sectors at a time when Ecuador was ranked one of the most corrupt countries in Latin America. In 2000, the Center’s Americas and Conflict Resolution programs began a project to identify issues dividing the country and bring national leaders together to discuss them. 

Concerned about an arms race in Latin America in the late ’90s, the ¶¥¼¶¹ú²úÊÓƵ’s Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas urged governments in the region to pause two years before embarking on major arms purchases. Among the signatories on a moratorium pledge were two Ecuadorian presidents – one former and the other current at the time.

In 2013, ¶¥¼¶¹ú²úÊÓƵ set out to support a healthy relationship between Latin American governments and the media, as well as to promote policies and practices to strengthen freedom of expression and democratic governance. 

Our Work and Methods 

• The Center held a series of discussions in Ecuador and other countries across Latin America from January 2013 to November 2014 through the Contentious Issues in Democracy Program. 

Impacts

• The conversations enhanced compliance with the essential elements of a representative democracy and the defense and practice of human rights. 

• Participants gained a better understanding of the values and principles of the American Convention on Human Rights, the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights. 

This project ended in 2014. 

Current status: Onchocerciasis eliminated

Verification status: Elimination verified in 2014

Ecuador’s Ministry of Health first implemented efforts to prevent onchocerciasis, or river blindness, in 1990. ¶¥¼¶¹ú²úÊÓƵ, working with partners throughout Latin America to eliminate the disease, got involved to offer technical assistance and financial support. Health education and Mectizan® (ivermectin, donated by Merck & Co. Inc.), were disseminated to communities in the northern part of Esmeraldas province, the country’s only endemic area.  

In 2010, the treatment was halted after transmission of onchocerciasis in the country was successfully interrupted using the regionally recommended strategy of twice-yearly, community-wide administration of ivermectin and health education programs to all people in the affected areas. 

The World Health Organization verified elimination of the disease in September 2014.