The Regional Conference was established by virtue of resolution 752(PLEN.36) adopted by the member States of ECLAC at the thirty-sixth session of its Committee of the Whole in December 2021. In that meeting member States approved the renaming of the Committee on South-South Cooperation as the Regional Conference on South-South Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The mandate of the former Committee derived from General Assembly resolution 58/220 on economic and technical cooperation among developing countries, which urges countries to intensify South-South cooperation and led to the creation of the Committee on Cooperation among Developing Countries and Regions. Subsequently, pursuant to ECLAC resolution 611(XXX), that Committee changed its name to the Committee on South-South Cooperation.

Some of the objectives of this subsidiary body of ECLAC are: to strengthen national South-South cooperation mechanisms and possible linkages with North-South and multilateral cooperation; to further South-South and triangular cooperation among regional and extraregional stakeholders, including donor countries and international organizations, to facilitate technology and knowledge transfer and joint activities in the field of cooperation; and to examine the experiences of South-South and triangular cooperation in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and to make progress in evaluating them, in conjunction with the relevant subsidiary bodies that conduct studies in this field.