ECLAC’s Member Countries Launch Consultative Process for the Creation of Latin American and Caribbean Forum on Sustainable Development

(April 17, 2015) ECLAC’s member states launched a consultative process for the creation of a Forum on Sustainable Development for Latin American and Caribbean Countries during an extraordinary session of the regional UN organization’s Committee of the Whole, held on Thursday 16 April in Santiago, Chile.

The Committee of the Whole is a subsidiary body of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) that allows the governments of its member countries to meet between official sessions of the Commission. In its thirteenth period of sessions held on March 19-20 in New York, the Committe agreed to call an extraordinary meeting on April 16 in order to discuss the Latin American and Caribbean Forum on Sustainable Development.

The extraordinary session of the Committee of the Whole was led by ECLAC’s Executive Secretary, Alicia Bárcena, and the Peruvian Chargé d’Affaires in Chile, Carlos Chávez-Taffur, in his capacity as Committee Chairman, as Peru currently presides over the Commission for the 2014-2016 period.

The delegates in attendance approved a resolution agreeing to open a consultative process with the governments of the region aimed at creating a Latin American and Caribbean Forum on Sustainable Development. The results of the process will be submitted for the approval of members during ECLAC’s XXXVI session, which will take place in May 2016 in Mexico.

ECLAC’s Executive Secretary highlighted the fact that this year will bring some very important global processes directly related to the activities of this Forum, such as the Financing for Development Summit and the UN General Assembly’s approval of the post-2015 development agenda. She added that ECLAC will form a work team to organize the consultative process, which will be contacting the member governments in the coming months.

“We at ECLAC put all our capabilities at the disposal of our member countries. This is our commitment: advance in the direction you all require to facilitate this consultative process,” stated Bárcena.