ECLAC Will Provide Support to Countries in the Region to Plan the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ELCAC) will provide support to countries of the region on planning matters with the aim of supporting implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, according to what was agreed by the Regional Council for Planning at its XV Meeting held on November 19 in Yachay (Ecuador). The Council will convene again next 2017 in Peru.

In its resolutions, the Council—an intergovernmental subsidiary body that orients the activities of ECLAC’s Latin American and Caribbean Institute for Economic and Social Planning (ILPES)—requests that this body continue to pursue applied research, technical cooperation, advisory work and training related to the mainstreaming of the 2030 Agenda, approved in September by 193 countries at the United Nations General Assembly.

The Regional Council for Planning also asks that the ILPES continue its efforts to strengthen planning in Latin America and the Caribbean by disseminating knowledge and analysis of development plans and programs, as well as through knowledge-sharing and collaboration regarding experiences and good practices in the use of planning instruments, methodologies and tools.

In addition, the member States request that the Institute include financing schemes for development plans in the white paper on good practices for planning that this body is working on, as well as maintain and update the Planning Repository and develop a proposal to create an observatory on this topic.

During the meeting, which was held at Yachay Tech University and attended by representatives from 18 of the region’s countries, participants also approved the report on the activities carried out by ILPES in the 2014-2015 period. Meanwhile, an advance of the study The state of the art and challenges of planning for development in Latin America and the Caribbean was presented, in order to get feedback from member States and associate members and to prepare a broader version that will be published in 2016.

The Regional Council for Planning meets in the framework of the Conference of Ministers and Heads of Planning of Latin America and the Caribbean, which held its fourteenth session on November 18 in the Innopolis Entrepreneurship Center of Yachay. ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, and Ecuador’s National Secretary for Planning and Development, Sandra Naranjo, inaugurated the event.

The next meetings of the Conference and the Council will be held in Peru during the second half of 2017. Meanwhile, the Presiding Officers of the Council will convene next in Santiago, Chile during the second half of 2016. In the 2014-2017 period, the Presiding Officers is made up of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago, with Ecuador and Guatemala holding the presidency.