(3 July 2013) The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will hold the First session of the Regional Conference on Population and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean from 12 to 15 August 2013 in Montevideo, Uruguay.
This is one of the region's largest intergovernmental events to be held in recent years, as it will bring together hundreds of government representatives from all Latin American and Caribbean countries and the rest of the world, as well as civil-society organizations, United Nations agencies, academics and international population experts.
The main aim is to examine 20 years of Latin American and Caribbean progress with the Programme of Action of the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), held in Cairo in 1994, as well as identifying basic measures for strengthening implementation of the Programme of Action Beyond 2014 and tackling emerging issues in the region in relation to population and development.
The four-day meeting is expected to broaden and strengthen the profile of population and development issues at the regional level, as well as carrying out a shared assessment of implementation of the Programme of Action in the region (including challenges pending).
In addition, the Conference will also discuss the basis for a regional population and development agenda beyond 2014 to protect the ICPD's achievements to date, face up to the new challenges of the changing regional and international environment, and strengthen the integration of population and development matters in national and regional sustainable development processes.
Meeting participants will discuss issues such as population growth, internal and international migration, teenage pregnancy, maternal and child mortality, gender, sexual and reproductive rights and health, poverty and inequality, childhood, youth, population ageing and older adults, education, work, human rights, indigenous peoples, Afro-descendents and persons with disabilities.
The Conference is being organized by ECLAC and the Government of Uruguay, with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). It replaces the ECLAC Ad Hoc Committee on Population and Development, whose final meeting was held in Quito, Ecuador, in July 2012.
The media are invited to cover the Conference.
More information is available on the ECLAC website.
Journalists wishing to attend the meeting in Montevideo can accreditate online on
ECLAC Press Centre.
Any queries and interviews requests should be sent to the ECLAC Public Information and Web Services Section. E-mail: prensa@cepal.org; Telephone: (56 2) 2210 2040.
