Executive Secretary Met with Ambassadors to Share his Proposal for Economic and Social Transformation and to Address Preparations for ECLAC’s Most Important Biennial Gathering

The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, held on Tuesday, August 13, 2024 an informational meeting with representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Chile, where he shared his proposal for economic and social transformation and addressed the preparations for the regional organization’s Fortieth Session, which will be held on October 8-11 in Lima, Peru.

At this international event – in which authorities from ECLAC’s 46 Member States and its 14 associate members will participate, along with representatives of the United Nations system and non-governmental organizations – countries will have the opportunity to debate about the region’s economic, social and environmental development, to review the activities carried out by the Commission during the previous biennium, and to set the priorities for its programme of work over the next two years.

“This is my second session since I took over as Executive Secretary and I’m very pleased that it will be in Lima, a city I know very well since it was my home for several years. I am sure that it will be a successful and substantive session. This is not the first time that the Commission meets in Lima to present its proposals and visions to Member States. ECLAC has held three sessions in Lima before: the first was in April 1969, the second in March 1984, and most recently, the 35th session, in May 2014,” José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs stated.

“So this year, 2024, we will be meeting for a fourth time, and we have already been working with Peruvian authorities for some time to ensure it will be a great event,” he affirmed.

ECLAC’s Executive Secretary recalled that, in accordance with established practice for the sessions, ECLAC is preparing a position document that will be presented as an input for next October’s meeting and will serve to motivate an analysis of the main development challenges facing the region’s countries at this very particular time on a regional and global level.

The document entitled Development Traps in Latin America and the Caribbean: Vital Transformations and How to Manage Them analyzes the region’s current situation in terms of the three development traps in which ECLAC sees the region caught: a low capacity for growth; high inequality, low social mobility and weak social cohesion; and weak institutional and governance capacity.

The report also sets forth a ten-point catalogue of gaps that must be overcome along with 11 indispensable transformations in development models, which correspond to the ten gaps plus the cross-cutting issue of strengthening institutional and governance capacities, the senior United Nations official said.

He added that the document analyzes not just what to do, but how to do it in terms of public policies in four key areas: productive development, inequality and social inclusion, sustainability, and development financing. He stressed that the basic question is how to manage the transformations in these areas.

“We consider that the key to making progress goes beyond merely identifying what to do and its respective goals. It also requires addressing something more challenging: how to develop clear strategies for steering the transformations in the desired directions,” he underscored.

The event will mark the start of Peru’s term as Chair of ECLAC, which will extend until the next session (in 2026), along with the end of the current term being held by Argentina (since it hosted the 39th session, which took place in Buenos Aires in 2022).

“We hope that as Chair we will take on a leadership role in the debates and in the promotion of cooperation and implementation of public policies on the regional development agenda, presiding over ECLAC’s meetings during that period,” stated Silvia Alfaro, Peru’s Ambassador in Chile.

She emphasized that for Peru, “it will be a great honor to receive in Lima Foreign Ministers and delegations from the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, to continue strengthening ties and to define concrete actions for comprehensive development and a sustainable economic recovery.”

Previously, on Friday, August 9, ECLAC’s Secretary of the Commission, Luis Fidel Yáñez, participated in an informational meeting with representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Lima to share details regarding ECLAC’s 40th Session. That meeting was led by Ambassador María Eugenia Echeverría, Director-General for Economic Affairs at Peru’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador Carlos Daniel Chávez-Taffur, the Peruvian state official responsible for carrying out ECLAC’s Fortieth Session.