ECLAC calls for progress towards “solid” institutionality in Latin America

The executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, and the Minister of Social Development of ChiliJaviera Toro, called this Tuesday to move towards a “consolidated and resilient” social institutionality to promote and guarantee economic, social, cultural and environmental rights at the inauguration of the Fifth Meeting of the Regional Conference on Social Development of Latin America and the Caribbean

“It is about achieving a solid social institutional framework that is at the same time flexible and capable of responding to the changes that have impacted the region and those that will impact in the future”noted Salazar-Xirinachs in an opening event in which the deputy regional director of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for Latin America and the Caribbean, Linda Maguire, and the senator and minister of Health, Welfare, also participated. , Social Transformation and Environment of Antigua and Barbuda, Samantha Marshall.

The conference, which is being held at the ECLAC headquarters in Santiago until this Thursday, brings together high government authorities, specialists from international organizations, academics and representatives of civil society and will have as its main topic social institutions in the region.

Minister Toro, for her part, stressed the need to improve national Social Development policies “hand in hand with international cooperation in the social, regional and bilateral sphere” and warned of the “increasing” challenges of building social policies “that put people at the center.”

“We must accelerate the implementation of the social dimension of the 2030 Agenda and confront possible setbacks with sustainable and effective strategies, reinforcing multilateral action”added the Chilean.

As chair of the previous meeting, Marshall highlighted the importance of “conferences like this” that serve, he said, “platform for constructive dialogue to learn from each other’s successes and failures”; while Linda Maguire pointed out that, for the UNDP, it is “fundamental” design social protection systems “universal, inclusive, fiscally sustainable and growth-friendly.”

“An integrated and collaborative approach will allow us to respond more effectively to the multidimensional challenges that we understand and thus strengthen resilience and social cohesion in the region”he added.

The Regional Conference, organized by ECLAC, the Chilean Government and the UNDP and which also contemplates the holding of the XV Ministerial Forum for Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, will address relevant issues such as the financing of universal social protection systems in several panels. in Latin America; the improvement of capacities in the ministries of Social Development and the challenges of governance and cooperation in times of cascading crises, among others, according to ECLAC.

The Regional Conference on Social Development was created in May 2014 as one of the subsidiary bodies of ECLAC. The previous meetings were held in Lima (2015), Montevideo (2017), Mexico City (2019) and in virtual mode, with Antigua and Barbuda as the host country (2021).

At this Tuesday’s meeting, Chile took over the presidency of the regional body from Antigua and Barbuda until next 2025.