Progress on the 2030 Agenda Will be Decided in Cities Latin America and the Caribbean is the world's most urbanized developing region. The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has said that "cities are where the climate battle will be won or lost". Cities are the engines of economic growth, but they are also the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, and their growth is occurring amid great inequalities in our societies.

Analysis of the evolution of the pandemic clearly shows that the health crisis has not passed and that uncertainty remains. The prolonged crisis has highlighted not only the weaknesses of the region's health and social protection systems, but also the centrality of health for social and economic development.

New population estimates and projections for Latin America and the Caribbean used to estimate the demographic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic show that Latin America and the Caribbean lost 2.9 years of life expectancy at birth, from 75.1 years in 2019 to 72.1 years in 2021. This makes it the region of the world that lost the most years of life expectancy due to the pandemic.