Chile’s Social Development and Family Minister, Javiera Toro, and ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, led a Special Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which was held virtually.

Ministers and senior authorities from Social Development ministries and equivalent entities in Latin America and the Caribbean, meeting virtually, approved today the messages and concrete proposals they will take as a region to the Second World Summit for Social Development, which will be held on November 4-6, 2025 in Doha, Qatar, calling for work on a global compact for inclusive social development that would leave no one behind.

Following “the recent experience of the Pact for the Future, the international community, at the Second World Summit for Social Development, is encouraged to adopt a global pact for inclusive social development to realize the social commitments agreed in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It would be a pact that brings all countries, with a vision for strategic investment, cooperation and mutual benefit; one that takes up the cause of many different rights and prioritizes action with tangible pathways and has the resources to account for the obstacles and gaps that limit their attainment; a pact with comprehensive public policies and a universalist approach that is sensitive to differences, and is financially sustainable and sufficiently resilient to address recurrent crises wheresoever they arise,” the countries stated in the document Latin America and the Caribbean Looking Ahead to the Second World Summit for Social Development: Proposals for Inclusive Social Development.

This regional position was sealed at the Special Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, which featured opening remarks by Javiera Toro, the Social Development and Family Minister of Chile, in her capacity as Chair of the Presiding Officers, and by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The Regional Conference’s Presiding Officers is made up of Chile as Chair and Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Venezuela as Vice-Chairs.

“As the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development, we have promoted the priority of a comprehensive care perspective as a pillar and part of social protection along with the fight against poverty and hunger. The document we are presenting today is a compact that positions the region at the forefront of the proposals for moving towards inclusive and sustainable social development for the world. Ahead of the Second World Summit, we in Latin America and the Caribbean are demonstrating our commitment to tackling global challenges and forging shared perspectives,” Minister Javiera Toro indicated.

Meanwhile, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, emphasized that “the Second World Summit for Social Development 2025 represents a unique milestone for stakeholders to be able to review together the ground covered thus far, analyze the present, and make decisions that would make a future with less inequality and greater social mobility and cohesion viable. Thirty years since Copenhagen, we cannot let this opportunity pass by to put the region’s hopes and experiences at the center of the debate.”

The document approved today reviews the evolution of social development in the world and sets forth a series of ideas and proposals for consideration in the debates and work related to the Second World Summit for Social Development, convened by the United Nations.

The fight against inequality, poverty and hunger is a priority goal, not just for the region but for the entire world, the countries reaffirmed. In that vein, they stressed the importance of articulating social inclusion policies with those focused on social protection as a fundamental pillar for achieving inclusive social development. They particularly emphasized the need to build universal, comprehensive, sustainable and resilient social protection systems, and to strengthen care systems.

The countries outlined a set of strategic and approachable public policy guidelines, setting, for example, a standard for spending and financing commitments for non-contributory social protection in order to move towards eradicating poverty.

Finally, they made specific proposals for attaining a joint compact for inclusive social development that would allow for quickening the pace of efforts to achieve the social targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and future challenges. “Current and future generations need a renewed commitment by all countries to universalizing economic well-being and the exercise of rights. The work of one territory, country or region is not enough, since globalization in its various dimensions requires the work of all,” they affirmed.

In January of this year, the five United Nations regional commissions (of which ECLAC is one) released the publication On the road to the Second World Summit for Social Development: contributions from the regional commissions, which stresses the need to strengthen social policies and tailor them to a risk structure reconfigured by global crises.

“Alongside high levels of poverty, inequality and informal employment, profound transformations in demographics, climate, technology and the labor market are under way,” the regional commissions warned, advocating for complementary actions beyond social policy. “Regional frameworks and agreements have been instrumental in driving social policy change and must continue to be leveraged.”

On April 1, ECLAC will also present the policy document On the Way to the Second World Summit for Social Development 2025: Moving towards a Compact for Inclusive Social Development, at a session of the eighth meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development (Santiago, March 31-April 4, 2025).

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