This intergovernmental gathering will take place at the United Nations regional commission’s main headquarters in Santiago, Chile.

Senior authorities from the ministries and areas involved in population and development-related matters in the region will meet in Santiago, Chile on October 29-30, 2025 to participate in the Sixth Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and chaired by the government of Colombia.

This intergovernmental gathering will be inaugurated on Wednesday, October 29 at 2:30 p.m. local time (GMT -3) by Javier Medina Vásquez, acting Deputy Executive Secretary of ECLAC; Susana Sottoli, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of UNFPA; and Mauricio Jaramillo Jassir, Deputy Minister of Multilateral Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, the country serving as Chair of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The regional meeting will bring together ministers, deputy ministers and other high-level authorities from the region’s countries along with representatives of international organizations, academia and civil society to discuss progress in implementing the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development, Latin America and the Caribbean’s most important intergovernmental agreement on this topic and the regional means for follow-up to the Cairo Programme of Action.

At this meeting, ECLAC will present the document Persons with Disabilities: From Statistical Visibility to the Exercise of Rights, which presents the conceptual framework and institutional context that articulate the rights of people with disabilities with the population and development agenda, based on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and a social and rights-based approach. The publication further addresses the challenges related to producing the statistical information needed for public policy design and implementation, and it analyzes the sociodemographic situation of persons with disabilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Finally, it offers conclusions and policy recommendations aimed at promoting their inclusion and ensuring full exercise of their human rights.

The event will include two panel discussions addressing: 1) the opportunities and challenges for implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development posed by low fertility rates and population ageing; and 2) persons with disabilities and the population and development agenda, with emphasis on public policies and rights.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, October 29 at 11 a.m. local time (GMT -3) – in the run-up to the inauguration of the Sixth Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Population and Development – officials will launch the Demographic Observatory 2025, Low fertility in Latin America and the Caribbean: Emerging trends and dynamics, which is an annual publication by ECLAC that analyzes the region’s population estimates and projections and provides data on key demographic trends. Other side events are also due to be held on various topics related to the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development.

The current Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Population and Development was elected during the Fifth Meeting of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, held in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia in 2024. It is made up of Colombia as Chair, and Antigua and Barbuda, Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Honduras, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela as Vice-Chairs.

All available information on the meeting, including the programme, can be consulted at this special website: https://crpd.cepal.org/6m/en

WHAT: Sixth Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

WHEN: Wednesday, October 29 and Thursday, October 30, 2025.

Inauguration: Wednesday, October 29, at 2:30 p.m. local time in Chile (GMT -3).

WHO: Senior authorities from the ministries and areas involved in population and development-related matters in the region.

WHERE: ECLAC’s headquarters (Av. Dag Hammarskjöld 3477, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile, Raúl Prebisch conference room).

Virtual connection via various platforms: 

•        Special site for transmission: https://live.cepal.org/poblacion

•        ECLAC’s official account on X: https://x.com/cepal_onu  

•        ECLAC’s official account on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cepal.onu