Sustainable development: Latin American and Caribbean perspectives

This publication is a result of a Regional Consultative Meeting on Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean held at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile, 19-21 January 2000. The partners in the organization of this meeting were ECLAC, the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the Organization of American States (OAS), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). Fifty-four participants, representing governments from the region at the senior policy-making level, regional and subregional intergovernmental organizations, financial institutions, key United Nations regional entities and selected non-governmental organizations active in the region, attended the meeting. The meeting proved to be an excellent forum for exchange of experiences in the area of national strategies and regional/subregional cooperation in sustainable development. It proposed mechanisms for more effective inter-agency coordination, taking into consideration the complexities of economic globalization. This exchange of experiences has been instrumental in building momentum for the ten-year review of UNCED in 2002. It is the objective of the organizers of the Consultative Meeting as well as the participants, that the cooperative process and valuable exchange of experiences initiated in Santiago continue. Many of the useful and practical recommendations resulting from the meeting will also provide tangible guidelines for relevant regional and subregional organizations in their follow up to the meeting. In this way, we wish to encourage further regional cooperation to support sustainable development initiatives at the national level. We wish to express our appreciation to all who have contributed their time and effort to produce this publication. It would not have been possible without the collaboration between ECLAC and DESA, and even more so without the valuable written contributions of the participants.