Second meeting of the Ad Hoc Committe on Population and Development of the ECLAC session

After adopting the agenda as proposed, the Chairman spoke about how the Ad Hoc Committee had come to be established and reviewed the results of its first meeting, which had been held on 17 and 18 April 1996 in San José, Costa Rica, during the twenty-sixth session of ECLAC. As the outgoing Chairwoman, the representative of Mexico reported on the progress made in implementing the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Plan of Action on Population and Development since its formulation and, in particular, since 1996.

The Director of CELADE reported on the activities carried out by the Centre during the past biennium within the framework of the Regional Plan of Action and spoke about some of the new high-priority activities to be conducted during the forthcoming biennium, which included initiatives relating to the census round for the year 2000, the ageing of the population and social security, and the preparation of a regional report on the progress made in implementing the recommendations of the Programme of Action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development held in Cairo. That appraisal would then be submitted to the General Assembly at the special session to be held in 1999 on the topic, which was often referred to as "five years after Cairo".

The Director of the ECLAC subregional headquarters for the Caribbean reported to the delegations on the activities already carried out and those planned for implementation in the Caribbean subregion within the frameworks of the Regional Plan of Action and the Programme of Action adopted in Cairo.