Countries of the region will assess progress and challenges in the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development

Representatives of the countries of the region will assess the progress and challenges in the implementation of the Montevideo Consensus and its synergies with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, during the fourth meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Population and Development, to be held from 9 to 10 October 2019 at the headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile.

Ministers and authorities from the member countries of the Regional Conference on Population and Development will participate in the meeting, as well as representatives of the United Nations system and civil society.

The meeting will be opened by Gloria Montenegro Figueroa, Minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations of Peru; Raúl García-Buchaca, Deputy Executive Secretary for Management and Programme Analysis of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); and Pablo Salazar, Regional Advisor on Population and Development issues of the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA-LACRO).

The meeting has, among its objectives, considering the report of the Working Group on indicators for the regional follow-up of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development, as well as presenting the prototype of the virtual platform to contribute to the regional follow-up of the Consensus.

During the meeting, governments will present national progress on the implementation of the Consensus and will discuss good practices and pending challenges in such implementation considering synergies with other related agendas in the framework of the 2030 Agenda. In addition, they will define the place and date of the fourth session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development of Latin America and the Caribbean, to be held in 2020.

The Montevideo Consensus, adopted at the first session of the Regional Conference, held in 2013 in Uruguay, includes priority measures on the integration of the population in sustainable development and on the areas of childhood, adolescence and youth, ageing, sexual and reproductive health, gender equality, migration, territorial inequality, indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants.

The meeting will be held one year after the third session of the Regional Conference, which was held in August 2018 in Lima, Peru.

Together with Peru in the Presidency, the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference is also composed of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Suriname, Uruguay and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.