Authorities from Social Development Ministries and equivalent entities in Latin America and the Caribbean will discuss new challenges for the social institutional framework and regional cooperation during the Fifth Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will be held in Cuenca, Ecuador using a hybrid format on Thursday, September 29, 2022.
The meeting will take place in the framework of the XIV Ministerial Forum for Development in Latin America and the Caribbean – entitled “Recalibrating...Getting Back on Track Towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” – and will be organized with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
The Fifth Meeting of the Presiding Officers will be inaugurated at 4 p.m. local time in Ecuador (6 p.m. in Chile) by Raúl García-Buchaca, Deputy Executive Secretary for Management and Programme Analysis of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); Luis Felipe López-Calva, UNDP’s Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean; and Dean Jonas, Minister of Social Transformation, Human Resource Development and The Blue Economy of Antigua and Barbuda, in his capacity as Chair of the Presiding Officers.
In addition to Antigua and Barbuda, government representatives from Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago are expected to attend the meeting in person. Meanwhile, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru will participate virtually, along with other countries from the region.
The meeting aims to facilitate the exchange of experiences and the identification of areas for cooperation and synergy between the Social Development Ministries and equivalent entities for resuming the path towards sustainable development, based on a solid social institutional framework in the region’s countries, which is one of the axes of the Regional Agenda for Inclusive Social Development, approved in 2019 at the Third Regional Conference held in Mexico.
The gathering in Ecuador will help deepen joint work ahead of the Fifth Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, scheduled to be held in the second half of 2023.
Thus far, four sessions of the Regional Conference have taken place. The first in Lima in November 2015, the second in Montevideo in October 2017, the third in Mexico City in October 2019, and the Fourth was held virtually, with Antigua and Barbuda serving as Chair, in October 2021.
What: Fifth Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Who:
When: Thursday, September 29, 2022, 4-6 p.m. local time in Cuenca, Ecuador (GMT-5), 6-8 p.m. local time in Chile (GMT-3).
Where:
Convention Center Mall del Rio in Cuenca, located at: Av. Circunvalación Sur and Felipe Segundo. Centro Comercial Mall del Rio, Cuenca.
