The Seventh Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) concluded successfully in Panama City. This meeting took place within the framework of the 18th Ministerial Forum for Development in Latin America and the Caribbean of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The opening ceremony featured the participation of Alberto Arenas de Mesa, Director of the Social Development Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); Rafael Guerreiro Osório, Secretary of Evaluation, Information Management and the Single Registry of the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger of Brazil; and Roberto José Arosemena Cervantes, Vice-Minister of Social Development of Panama, who highlighted the relevance of the meeting and of regional dialogue on social development.

Delegates from the countries of the region participated in the meeting, with particular emphasis on the participation of the representative of Brazil, the country currently holding the Chairmanship of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development, as well as Barbados, Guatemala, Panama, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay, which hold its Vice-Chairmanships.

During the meeting, the methodological proposal for preparing a regional strategy for the implementation and follow-up of the commitments of the Doha Political Declaration of the World Social Summit, under the title 'Second World Summit for Social Development', was presented and approved. Likewise, ECLAC was requested to prepare, in coordination with the Chairmanship of the Presiding Officers, a first progress report on the implementation of said regional strategy, which will be presented at the Seventh Meeting of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, to be held in the second half of 2027 in Paraguay.