Ecuador

Through its groundbreaking Inform Women, Transform Lives campaign, The Carter Center 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.

The Carter Center has observed various elections and democratic processes in Ecuador over the years, including:

• The Constituent Assembly election in September 2007
• The constitutional approval referendum in September 2008, including the transition process afterward
• The selection process of interim members of the council on Citizen Participation and Social Control, in December 2008 and January 2009
• The facilitation of workshops with the council, in March and April 2009, to help draft the law to regulate the permanent council and to inform media on citizen participation and oversight issues
• The assessment of the country’s electoral reform process in 2019

In 2010, The Carter Center and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance initiated an 18-month dialogue forum among five Andean countries – Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia – and the United States. Members met four times to:

• Explore the possibility of bilateral dialogues between other pairs of countries
• Identify a common agenda
• Address misperceptions and misunderstandings between countries
• Propose innovative solutions to problematic issues

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 Carter Center’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.

The Center had a series of discussions across Latin America in 2013 and 2014 to support a healthy relationship between governments, the media, and journalists, as well as to promote policies and practices to strengthen freedom of expression, democratic governance, and the prevention and escalation of socio-political conflicts. 

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. The Carter Center, 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), were disseminated to communities in the northern part of Esmeraldas province, which comprised the country’s only onchocerciasis-endemic focus.

In 2008, a total of 27,372 ivermectin treatments were administered to just over 16,000 people. In 2010, the treatment was halted after transmission of onchocerciasis in the country was successfully interrupted using the regionally recommended strategy of twice-yearly, communitywide administration of ivermectin and health education programs to all people in the affected areas. 

An evaluation conducted in 2012 at the end of the three-year post-treatment surveillance period showed that morbidity had been eliminated and transmission of the parasite had stopped. The WHO International Verification Team verified elimination of the disease in September 2014.