São Paulo, 11 April 2025
The Escazú Agreement was highlighted as a cornerstone for advancing responsible business conduct in Latin America and the Caribbean during the 9th United Nations Regional Forum on Business and Human Rights, held from 9 to 11 April 2025 in São Paulo, Brazil. Its relevance was particularly emphasized in discussions concerning environmental protection and the rights of human rights defenders.
Bringing together more than 600 participants from across the region — including government officials, business representatives, Indigenous Peoples, civil society organizations, acade…
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will hold its Fifth Regional Seminar on Social Development in Latin America and the Caribbean on June 24, 25 and 26 in Santiago, Chile, with the participation of government authorities, globally renowned specialists, senior officials from the United Nations system and representatives of civil society.
The event will be inaugurated on Tuesday, June 24 at 9 a.m. local time in Chile, by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, ECLAC’s Executive Secretary; Susanne Fries-Gaier, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany in Chile; Hak…
Senior government authorities from Latin America, the Caribbean and other regions of the world, along with officials and experts from the United Nations System, international and regional organizations, the private sector, academia and civil society will gather at ECLAC’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile on March 31-April 4 at the eighth meeting of the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development to review the progress and challenges related to achieving the 2030 Agenda in the region – five years ahead of the deadline set for its fulfillment.
Mo…
The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, presented today in Spain a recent special edition of the CEPAL Review, the organization’s main academic publication, published on the occasion of the Commission’s 75th anniversary (celebrated in 2023), in which he offers his vision regarding the major transformations needed for the region to move towards a more productive, inclusive and sustainable development model.
The senior United Nations official gave a keynote lecture based on his own article published in the Rev…
“The world leaders gathered here in Dubai in the coming days face a historic opportunity to transform development models into more productive, inclusive and sustainable ones,” José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), stressed today during his first official activity in the framework of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), which is taking place through Tuesday, December 12 in the city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The United Nations regional org…
Treasury, Economy and Finance ministers and high-level officials from 16 of the region’s countries approved the instrument establishing governance of the Regional Tax Cooperation Platform for Latin America and the Caribbean, which is the main outcome of the First Latin American and Caribbean Summit for an Inclusive, Sustainable and Equitable Global Tax Order, taking place in Cartagena, Colombia through tomorrow, July 28.
So indicates the joint declaration (“Cartagena de Indias Declaration”) signed today in the framework of the event, which drew government authorities, political leaders, repres…
The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, proposed cluster-based policies as a powerful instrument to promote growth and productive diversification to help pull the region out of the prolonged, development crisis that has impeded high, sustained and sustainable growth in the last decades, except in cases of price bonanzas in primary products.
The United Nations senior official is in Davos, Switzerland for the 2023 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting (WEF) from January 16-20. The 53rd edition brings together th…
In 2021, at least 4,473 women were victims of femicide (also known as feminicide) in 29 countries and territories of the region, according to the latest official data that countries reported to the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean (GEO) of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). This represents at least 12 women per day who die violent, gender-based deaths in the region, the institution warns.
“For 15 years, Latin American and Caribbean States have recognized the seriousness of femicidal violence and the gender-related killing of wome…
Senior authorities from the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico officially received today the Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) prepared by the United Nations and coordinated by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) at the countries’ request to address the structural causes of irregular migration with a development and integration perspective, welcoming its initiatives and committing themselves to continue working to foster greater regional integration based on dialogue and cooperation.
The Comprehensive Development Plan for El Salvador, …
The Regional Agenda for Inclusive Social Development (RAISD) – approved in 2019 and the axes of which have become a priority during the COVID-19 crisis – can contribute to tackling the current emergency as well as to moving towards a transformative recovery with equality at the center, as Latin American and Caribbean countries exchange experiences and engage in solidarity-based cooperation among themselves, authorities and officials asserted on Wednesday, 13 January, during the Fourth Meeting of the Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Social Development in Latin America and the Ca…
January 12, 2021, New York City, USA – Today is the start of the 12th Ministerial Forum for Development in Latin America and the Caribbean- a three day virtual meeting where global and regional sustainable development experts and top government officials come together to discuss the way forward for development in the region beyond OVID-19 response and recovery.
The 2020 Ministerial Forum, “Beyond Recovery. Towards a new social contract for LAC” will focus on three critical areas for development moving forward: strengthened social protection and fiscal systems; inclusive digital transformation;…
The current crisis should serve as an opportunity to achieve broad social and political consensus to implement ambitious reforms through multilateral and regional cooperation, which would allow for achieving sustainable and egalitarian growth that can meet the heterogeneous needs of countries of all income levels, Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), stated today.
The senior United Nations official spoke at a seminar entitled International financial cooperation amid the Latin American economic crisis, organized by EC…
Latin America and the Caribbean urgently needs to take action on a new social compact, a political instrument based on a broad and participatory dialogue that would arrive at agreements and consensuses to face the present contingency and rethink the reactivation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), stated today.
The senior United Nations official participated in a high-level panel entitled “From an impending issue to an emergency: the imperative need for a new and more inclusive social …
Deepening regional integration must be an essential component of any strategy for emerging from the crisis produced by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in order to move towards more sustainable and resilient trade. This entails strengthening our own production linkages and promoting intraregional trade, Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), stated today.
The senior United Nations official spoke during the LVI Ordinary Meeting of MERCOSUR’s Common Market Council, in which the Foreign Ministers of the four countries that mak…
The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, emphasized the value of the regional dimension of sustainable development as a key bridge for connecting global processes to new realities on a national level in the context of the crisis produced by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), during a high-level meeting held today with United Nations member countries and senior officials.
Bárcena participated this Friday, May 22 in a session entitled “Unleashing the UN development system’s regional assets: the path forward” during the four…
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has exposed the economic model’s structural problems and the failings of social protection systems and welfare schemes. Hence, a “new normality” is not the way forward; we must rethink the development model and consolidate the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, leaving no one behind, Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), sustained today.
The senior United Nations official held a virtual meeting with members of civil society from Latin America and the Cari…
The Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Bárcena, held on Friday a virtual extraordinary meeting with ambassadors and representatives from the permanent missions of 31 countries in the region to the United Nations, to inform them about the actions and proposals the organization has made recently in response to the crisis unleashed by COVID-19. On this occasion, the senior official presented the Gateway for Follow-up on the Sustainable Development Goals (https://agenda2030lac.org/en), which is the result of a joint effort by the Unit…
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the world following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic demands of us more cooperation and regional integration, more multilateralism, new strategic sectors and greater productive integration, along with a universal social protection scheme with a basic income, Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), sustained today.
The senior United Nations official led a virtual extraordinary meeting of the Practice Community of the region’s countries that will be presenting in 2020 their volun…
At this time of pandemic provoked by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the need for international cooperation is more urgent on the fiscal side. For that reason, international financial organizations should grant favorable financing conditions to middle-income countries, with low-cost credit lines and debt relief, sustained Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The senior United Nations official participated today in a virtual seminar entitled How to face the COVID-19 crisis in Latin America, organized by Spanish instituti…
At least 3,529 women were killed for gender-based reasons in 25 Latin American and Caribbean countries in 2018, according to the official data compiled annually by the Gender Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean (GEO) of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Four of the five highest rates of femicide, or feminicide, in Latin America occur in northern Central American countries (El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala) and in the Dominican Republic. Bolivia is the remaining country, with a rate of 2.3 femicides for every 100,000 women in 2018, whic…