First Meeting of the Regional Conference on South-South Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean

Likewise, it sought to examine the experiences of South-South cooperation and triangular cooperation among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, and to advance their assessment in coordination with the work being done in the various subsidiary bodies of the Commission.

South-South Cooperation and the 2030 Agenda

José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, made a presentation entitled  Advances and challenges for South-South cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, underlining that international cooperation for development, in particular South-South and triangular cooperation, are fundamental for sustainable development and for improving the standard of living of the population through the exchange of information, knowledge, technology, experiences and resource mobilization.

The presentation was followed by five roundtable discussions in which member countries and other actors analysed the challenges of international development cooperation in the new global context, the assessment and evaluation of South-South and triangular cooperation, multi-actor cooperation and international cooperation in integrated risk and natural disaster management. Likewise, participants aligned positions and analysed cooperation mechanisms with a view to the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union, to be held in July 2023 in Brussels, Belgium.

In Resolution 1(I) of the Regional Conference on South-South Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean, adopted by the delegates, Governments requested the Presiding Officers and member countries of the Conference, with the support of the secretariat, to explore ways to promote international cooperation for development, including innovative mechanisms that go beyond graduation criteria based on gross domestic product per capita, such as the multidimensional or vulnerability indicators that are discussed in the region, to leave no one behind, and take into account the region's conceptual advances on development gaps and traps. They also called for the strengthening of synergies with other ECLAC subsidiary bodies and partnerships with other actors such as development banks, the private sector and regional and sub-regional integration mechanisms, and multi-stakeholder alliances with civil society, local governments and the academic sector on issues of international cooperation for development.

More information on the First Meeting of the Conference can be found here.

The Presiding Officers of the Conference, elected at the First Meeting of the Conference held at ECLAC headquarters in Santiago on 30-31 May 2023, were Argentina as Chair, and Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico and Uruguay as Vice-Chairs. The meeting was attended by more than 300 participants, including 100 government delegates, 35 experts from the United Nations system and regional and international organisations, and more than 60 representatives of civil society, the private sector and academia.

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