Quito (Ecuador)

A City’s good practice towards the elimination of discrimination

Within the framework of the Coalition’s Ten Point Plan of Action, the City of Quito hosted the First Forum of Municipalities for Racial Equality and Racial Opportunities, from 15 to 16 October 2008.

The representatives of the municipal bodies from Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay and Ecuador attended. Forum promoted the design of policies, programmes and projects to strengthen the social and civic participation of people of African descent and to take their position into account in the development of public policy in the Americas.

The main objective of the Forum was to enable the development of a key programme supported by the Regional Offices of Policy Analysis for Racial Equality. Furthermore, the intention was to visualise the experience of African descendants at the level of municipal bodies. Moreover, they wanted to promote the creation of thematic units in all municipalities to address the position of African descendants in the municipality and to encourage the creation of micro businesses that favour the employment of people of African descent.

City Information
The City of Quito is the capital city of Ecuador. With a population of 2,197,698 according to the last census (2001), and as estimated by the municipality, approximately 2,504,991 in 2005,[2] Quito is the second most populous city in Ecuador, after Guayaquil. In 2008, the city was designated as the headquarters of the Union of South American Nations.

Quito is a member of the Coalition of Latin American and Caribbean Cities against Racism, Discrimination and Xenophobia.

See also: Coalición latinoamericana y Caribeña de Ciudades contra el Racismo, la Discriminación y la Xenofobia [PDF in Spanish]