The event – convened annually under ECLAC’s auspices – will take place on March 31-April 4, 2025 at the United Nations organization’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile.

Senior government authorities from Latin America, the Caribbean and other regions of the world, along with officials and experts from the United Nations System, international and regional organizations, the private sector, academia and civil society will gather at ECLAC’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile on March 31-April 4 at the eighth meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development to review the progress and challenges related to achieving the 2030 Agenda in the region – five years ahead of the deadline set for its fulfillment.

More than 600 people are already confirmed to attend this meeting, which will feature a series of dialogues on global, regional and national action as a special innovation. In addition, 38 side events will be held in the framework of the event, organized by civil society, the United Nations System, ECLAC’s member governments, the private sector and other participating entities.

The eighth meeting of the Forum will be inaugurated on Tuesday, April 1 at 8:30 a.m. local time in Santiago, Chile (GMT-3) by Peru’s Viceminister of Foreign Affairs, Félix Denegri, in his capacity as official representative of the country currently serving as Chair of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); the UN regional organization’s Executive Secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs; the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, Li Junhua; and the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed (via video message). 

Other authorities and prominent figures who will attend the meeting include the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Celinda Sosa Lunda; Paul Chet Greene, Foreign Minister of Antigua and Barbuda; the Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs of Barbados, Kirk Humphrey; the Minister of Social Development and Family of Chile, Javiera Toro; the Minister of Health of Chile, Ximena Aguilera; the Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance of Barbados, Dwight G. Sutherland; and the Minister of Women and Gender Equity of Chile, Antonia Orellana – to mention just a few.

At the forum, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary will present the eighth report on regional progress and challenges in relation to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, entitled Latin America and the Caribbean in the Final Five Years of the 2030 Agenda: Steering Transformations to Accelerate Progress, which was prepared by the Commission. The report describes the adverse challenges, both international and specific to the region, that hinder efforts to fulfill the 2030 Agenda and addresses the expectations for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also looks in-depth at the specific challenges and the alternatives for accelerating the fulfillment of SDG 3 (Health and Well-being), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 14 (Life below Water) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) while posing the relevance and role of all stakeholders for taking joint and coordinated action to adopt new strategies and approaches that seek to manage the structural transformations needed to avoid structural traps and accelerate progress towards fulfilling the 2030 Agenda.

During the dialogues on global action (Tuesday, April 1), participants will exchange views about the global commitments expected to arise from the 4th International Conference on Financing for Development (Seville, Spain, 2025), the Second World Summit for Social Development (Qatar, 2025) and the 30th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Belém do Pará, Brazil, 2025). Furthermore, a session will be held on the 30th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and approval of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), and another session will serve as follow-up on the implementation of the Pact for the Future and its annexes, approved at the Summit of the Future in September 2024.

The dialogues on regional action (April 2-4) will begin with the presentation of the previously mentioned eighth report on regional progress and challenges in relation to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean and will continue with participants sharing experiences on how to accelerate the use of private and disaggregated data as well as on their progress in implementing SDGs 3, 5, 8, 14 and 17, which have been chosen for special attention at this edition of the Forum.

Meanwhile, the dialogues on national action (April 4) will include sessions to exchange successful national experiences in accelerating achievement of the SDGs and share good practices and challenges in preparing the voluntary national reviews (VNRs) that countries present each year to the United Nations High-level Political Forum in New York.

The event will be preceded by a meeting of the mechanism for civil society participation and the Forum of Children, Adolescents and Youth of Latin America and the Caribbean, both of which will be held on Monday, March 31.

The meeting’s full programme is available on the website https://foroalc2030.cepal.org/2025/en/programme.

We invite journalists and other members of the press who want to attend this event in person to register using this form: https://eventos.cepal.org/event/179/. They will receive an automated email confirmation once their registration has been accepted.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Submitting the registration form is a prerequisite for attending the meeting in person, but it does NOT guarantee access to the event. Local organizers can restrict entry, if need be, due to attendance capacity restrictions or for security or other reasons arising at the time. We thank you in advance for your understanding and respect for these conditions.

What: Eighth meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development.

When: Monday, March 31 to Friday, April 4, 2025.

Who: Representatives of government, the United Nations System, international organizations, the private sector, academia and civil society.

Inauguration on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 at 8:30 a.m. local time in Chile (UTC/GMT -3):

• Félix Denegri, Foreign Viceminister of the Republic of Peru, the country serving as ECLAC’s Chair in the 2024-2026 biennium.
• José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary.
• Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations.
• Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (video message). 

Where: ECLAC’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile (Av. Dag Hammarskjöld 3477, Vitacura).

Virtual connection via various platforms:

• Meeting website: https://foroalc2030.cepal.org/2025/en 
• ECLAC’s website: www.cepal.org  
• Website for live transmission: https://live.cepal.org/ 
• Official account on X: https://x.com/cepal_onu 

• Official account on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cepal.onu  

   

For queries related to journalistic coverage of this event, contact ECLAC’s Public Information Unit in Santiago, Chile. Email: prensa@cepal.org; Telephone: (56) 22210 2040.