ECLAC forum to discuss sustainable development in Latin America and Caribbean
Delegations from Latin American and Caribbean countries will gather for an annual forum on sustainable economic development in Chile today.
During the four-day conference in Santiago, members of the Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will engage in dialogues on global, regional and national sustainable development. Notably, ECLAC Executive Secretary Jose Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs is expected to present a report benchmarking ECLAC’s progress on achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda. The document identifies several sustainable development goals (SDGs) for global sustainable development, such as ending poverty, combating climate change, and promoting economic growth. Latin American and Caribbean countries, however, are currently on track to meet only a third of the SDG targets. The first readings of the report indicate development traps continue to cause slow and uneven regional progress.
Coming a decade after the agenda’s creation and five years before its deadline, this year’s forum and accompanying report are critical for ECLAC to fulfill the 2030 Agenda. Given slow regional economic growth, any substantial progress from last year’s forum remains unlikely. Nonetheless, ECLAC members have affirmed a commitment to regional cooperation and recently called for multilateral solutions. Although concerns for the global economy are likely to deter commitments to financing, member countries will nonetheless aspire to forge partnerships to expand national capacities. This year’s ECLAC forum comes at a time of uncertainty for the world economy and multilateral system. Meaningful dialogues will be a valuable show of ECLAC’s solidarity for sustainable economic development amid this reconfiguration of regional alliances.
